Narco-Mex: Drugs and the Making of Modern Mexico, 1910-2012

Over past decade, stories on the terrifying effects of intercartel conflicts and the war on drugs have saturated news coverage of Mexico. Barely a week goes by without the gruesome details of another mass grave, citywide shootout, or tragic kidnapping hitting the news. Most observers now estimate the death toll as pushing 80,000; repentant insiders, with their tales of undiscovered desert graves, hint at a far higher number. Despite this contemporary fascination with the cartels' internecine warfare, there are few works on the history, the context, the trajectory, or the multiple direct and indirect effects of either the narcotics trade or the war on drugs.

Our research - the first holistic, stand-alone history of the Mexican drug trade - will establish a profound, clear narrative of the political, socioeconomic, and cultural history of narcotics and their regulation over the past century. Our research relies on completely new or sparsely used sources, including recently declassified US and Mexican security files and "back door" entrances to the closed world of the drug trade (including education, agrarian, and health reports, regional and crime newspapers, and oral history),

Rather than being bounded by discipline or genre, the three scholars will collaborate to offer a distinct interdisciplinary vision of the project. Pansters will bring his expertise in political anthropology, Smith his understanding of social and cultural history, and Watt his interest in political economy and US-Mexican relations. Building on diverse literatures, we shall examine the peasant production of narcotics, drugs as commodities, the cultural and medical construction of prohibition regimes, the shifting and contradictory nature of US policy, and the links between violence, democracy, and state formation. In doing so, we shall produce a complex and locally sensitive, but comprehensible history of the trade.

Unlike other works which often only pay lip service to long term analysis, the book will also contextualize the trade within a broader discussion of narcotics legislation (reaching back to the colonial period), smuggling (reaching back to the nineteenth century), regional politics and national state formation. Finally, the work will also seek to place the Mexican drugs industry within the context of the global narcotics trade. In doing so, we will formulate a theoretical and methodological model for understanding the historical confluence of narcotics, capitalism, organized crime and politics in other developing nations.

This research will not only generate substantial academic output, but also will make substantial impact, feeding into discussion at three workshops and one conference designed to bring together policy professionals, NGOs, politicians, and journalists and forming the basis of a BBC Radio 4 documentary.

We will foster impact through direct participation in media dissemination, and through workshops aimed at a diverse academic, media, and policy-related audience. The linchpins of this effort are one radio documentary, three workshops and at least nine collaborative policy papers.

Sara Jane Hall, a senior producer at BBC Radio 4 will present a proposal for a documentary on the history of press repression in Mexico to commissioning editor in December 2013. Smith has already completed key interviews for the documentary.

Workshop 1: U.S. Drug Policy in Mexico. This two-day workshop, which we will host at and run in partnership with the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington D.C. is designed to bring together scholars of US drug policy in Mexico with policy experts and NGOs from the US, Europe, and Mexico. At present, we have firm commitments from the following: the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the Center for American Progress, the Washington Office on Latin America, and the Center for International Policy. The workshop is designed to discuss contemporary US policy initiatives and place them in their historical context. Although the Woodrow Wilson International Center is the official project partner, all the above groups have offered to use their media contacts to publicize the workshop and to produce joint policy papers. (The other letters are on file at the University of Warwick).

Workshop 2: Violence, Democracy, and the Press. This one-day workshop, which we will host at and run in partnership with the Freedom House, Mexico, will bring together journalists, editors, and publishers working in the UK, US and Mexican media in order to discuss the historical and contemporary state of press freedom, and its relationship to democratization, violence, and organized crime. We have firm commitments from some of the leading journalists in the field (Ed Vuillamy, Alfredo Corchado, Anabel Hernández, Ioan Grillo, Diego Osorno) and some of the leading editors of Mexico's newspapers (Javier Garza from Siglo de Torreón, Cantú Deándar from El Mañana). The presence of so many journalists and editors should ensure ample coverage. But, we shall also produce a policy paper in conjunction with Freedom House, Mexico (see attached letter).

`Worshop 3: Truth and Justice from below in violent Mexico. This workshop will be hosted at the Department of Anthropology, the University of Utrecht. The one-day workshop is designed to examine the various ways in which civil and community groups have sought to cope with escalating levels of narco and state violence. Here, we shall enter into partnership with Encuentro Latino Europeo (ELE), the leading European policy analysis centre on Latin American issues. We shall collaborate in formulating the conference, choosing an influential roster of guests, and putting together a policy paper to sum up workshop conclusions. This policy statement will be released in all media to ELE's extensive network of international contacts. At the same time, we shall also partner with more grassroots organizations including Amnesty International and Stichting Hester. Again, we shall collaborate with these groups in order to organize the conference and put out collaborative policy statements highlighting the problems facing civil society in Mexico today. Finally, we shall also compile a policy paper with Peace Brigades International (PBI). (See attached letters. Again PBl's letter is on file at the UnIversity of Warwick).

We all have experience working with the press and have published and been quoted in a variety of UK, US, European, and Mexican newspapers and magazines including Proceso, Nexos, La Jornada, Huffington Post, and Dissent. At the same time, we have also established strong contacts with the partners listed above. Furthermore Watt and Pansters have ample experience working with governments, NGOs, and think tanks in the US, UK, Europe, and Mexico.