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Crossroads of Violence is a history of the intertwined development of the drug trade and socialist guerrilla movements in northwestern Mexico during the 1960s and 1970s. The Golden Quadrilateral, an area encompassing the states of Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, and Durango, never fully reaped the benefits of the Mexican Revolution. Both the socialist armed struggle and the drug trade offered hopeful possibilities for the region’s underprivileged classes. Drawing on oral histories and declassified documents, Adela Cedillo traces the rise and fall of these guerrilla movements and criminal organizations, along with the brutal setbacks they faced as the federal government implemented a de facto state of siege. The convergence of the war against guerrilla groups—known as the Dirty War—and the War on Drugs led to the consolidation of a “parallel state”: an informal partnership between elements of the national security apparatus and criminal organizations, whose shared goals were to profit from the drug trade and preserve the ruling party’s hegemony. The legacy of that alliance has shaped Mexico’s political life and the endless War on Drugs well into the twenty-first century.
Adela Cedillo is Assistant Professor of Modern Mexican History at the University of Houston.
“In this highly original book, Adela Cedillo provides a persuasive explanation for violence in Mexico today. Crossroads of Violence showcases her skill, talent, and courage as a historian in stitching together seemingly disparate historical processes—the Dirty War and the Drug War—into a compelling historical narrative.”—Alexander Aviña, Associate Professor of Latin American history, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, Arizona State University
“Adela Cedillo's concepts of a parallel state and a counterinsurgency payoff system promise to help scholars of Mexican history and politics make sense of Mexico’s history of violence and corruption. The research and analysis in this important book are top-notch.”—Renata Keller, author of The Fate of the Americas: The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Hemispheric Cold War
“Crossroads of Violence is a much-needed and pathbreaking contribution to Mexican history. No other work has successfully straddled the divide between the Dirty War and the Drug War.”—Gladys I. McCormick, author of The Last Door: A History of Torture in Mexico's War against Subversives