“Involved in something (involucrado en algo)”: Denial and stigmatization in Mexico’s “war on drugs”

Abstract

This article responds empirically to the question posed by Stan Cohen about “why, when faced by knowledge of others’ suffering and pain—particularly the suffering and pain resulting from what are called ‘human rights violations’—does ‘reaction’ so often take the form of denial, avoidance, passivity, indifference, rationalisation or collusion?”. Our context is Mexico's “war on drugs.” Since 2006 this “war” has claimed the lives of around 240,000 Mexican citizens and disappeared around 60,000 others. Perpetrators include organized criminal gangs and state security services. Violence is pervasive and widely reported. Most people are at risk. Our study is based on qualitative interviews and focus groups involving 68 “ordinary Mexicans” living in five different Mexican cities which have varying levels of violence. It investigates participant proximity to the victims and the psychological defense mechanisms they deploy to cope with proximity to the violence. We found that 62 of our participants knew, directly or indirectly, one or more people who had been affected. We also found one dominant rationalization (defense mechanism) for the violence: that the victims were “involved in something” (drugs or organized crime) and therefore “deserved their fate.” This echoes prevailing state discourses about the violence. We argue that the discourse of “involved” is a discourse of denial that plays three prominent roles in a highly violent society in which almost no‐one is immune: it masks state violence, stigmatizes the victims, and sanctions bystander passivity. As such, we show how official and individual denial converge, live, and reproduce, and play a powerful role in the perpetuation of violence.

Organized violence as a never-ending story? Reflections in light of the Russian aggression against Ukraine

“…To many, organized violence is not just an alien or exceptional event but an inextricable part of everyday life as a victim, witness, or wrongdoer. In countries like El Salvador (Bourgois, 2001), Mali and Niger (Raineri and Strazzari, 2021), Mexico (Moon and Treviño-Rangel, 2020), or Iraq (Shalash et al, 2021), (transnational) violent groups organize relevant parts of They are at the core of illegal activities like smuggling of drugs, weapons, and humans or trafficking persons (Palacios, 2015;Barnes, 2017). The different forms of organized violence should not only be counted as expressed in numbers of death fatalities but in a broader scope of consequences in and for everyday life like limiting democracy, security, accountability, and sustainable development in general.…”

“…To many, organized violence is not just an alien or exceptional event but an inextricable part of everyday life as a victim, witness, or wrongdoer. In countries like El Salvador (Bourgois, 2001 ), Mali and Niger (Raineri and Strazzari, 2021 ), Mexico (Moon and Treviño-Rangel, 2020 ), or Iraq (Shalash et al, 2021 ), (transnational) violent groups organize relevant parts of economic life and cause political struggles at least regionally. 6 They are at the core of illegal activities like smuggling of drugs, weapons, and humans or trafficking persons (Palacios, 2015 ; Barnes, 2017 ).…”

Urgent issues and prospects at the intersection of culture, memory, and witness interviews: Exploring the challenges for research and practice

“…The culture of fear affects what victims or witnesses report in two ways. First, there is a powerful fear of being stigmatized (Moon & Trevino‐Rangel, 2020). The official discourse of the Mexican government has portrayed victims of violence as people who were ‘involved in something’ or ‘they are criminals who kill each other’.…”

Domesticating Danger: Coping Codes and Symbolic Security amid Violent Organized Crime in Mexico

“…. As it blurs the line between victims and perpetrators, it reinforces the boundary between victims and citizens.” Similarly, Moon and Treviño-Rangel (2020) find that a common “defense mechanism” among Mexican citizens is to draw a symbolic boundary and claim victims were “involved in something.” Zizumbo-Colunga (2020) finds class dynamics in these victim-blaming processes given that elites are most likely to stigmatize the poor and assert “they must have done something!”…”