Mexico: cartels as unrecognized

Mexico is called a state with divided sovereignty, where real power belongs to drug cartels. Local journalists call it a "cartel federation."

In 2023, 175,000 people worked in criminal organizations—cartels became the fifth-largest employer in the country. They run their own social policies: funding schools, roads, distributing food and medicine, which creates an image of protectors in the eyes of part of the local population.

In Mexico, revenues from drug trafficking, kidnapping, and extortion amount to tens of billions of dollars. The line between legitimacy and criminality is effectively blurred.