El Centro

The Cartel Gunsmiths by Brian Anderson, Motherboard

It was usually evening when the three men arrived at the shop. They would roll up in a Volkswagen Beetle, and come to a halt at a nondescript, garage-sized warehouse in a strip of shops in a residential neighborhood in Guadalajara, in Southwestern Mexico’s Jalisco state. They would park the Bug, and proceed to drink on the curb. Eventually the men would go inside, entering through a street door. They always locked the door behind them.

This went on for at least two months in 2014, according to a neighbor of the shop, where the men seemed to work odd hours. They never drew much attention to themselves, so there was little reason to believe their shop, located at calle Isla Trapani 2691, was in fact a sophisticated illegal gun manufacturing plant, and that the three of them were using the space to quietly produce homemade, untraceable firearms for one of Mexico’s fastest-growing and violent crime syndicates…

Read on.

Drug Trafficking, Corruption and States: How Illicit Networks Shaped Institutions in Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico

A Small Wars Journal--El Centro and Vortex Foundation Book

L. Garay-Salamanca and E. Salcedo-Albaran

iUniverse, 2015

372 Pages

Drug Trafficking, Corruption and States is cutting edge research. Garay Salamanca and Salcedo-Albarán, along with their contributing authors help document the transition from economic to political imperatives within transnational drug cartels. The break from the Zetas by La Familia Michoacana is one example contained in their empirical survey. Social Network Analysis is their tool for illuminating the varying dynamics of cartel-state inter-penetration and reconfiguration. In doing so they clearly discern between State Capture (StC) and Co-opted State Reconfiguration (CStR). As the drug wars and criminal insurgencies rage in the Americas and beyond, this seminal framework will facilitate efforts by scholars, law enforcement officials, intelligence analysts and policymakers to understand shifts in sovereignty, and to illuminate the mechanisms of transnational illicit networks and their interaction with the state.

http://www.amazon.com/Drug-Trafficking-Corruption-States-Institutions/dp/1491759178/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1432571447&sr=8-1&keywords=Drug+Trafficking,+Corruption+and+States

Professor Grayson was a founding SWJ-El Centro Fellow. Doctor Grayson passed away at the age of 76. He was 1938 Professor of Government Emeritus at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia where he taught for 40 years.  An international recognized specialist in Latin American and Mexican politics, he served in the Virginia House of Delegates for 27 years. He was author of several books on Mexico's political situation including: The Cartels: The Story of Mexico's Most Dangerous Criminal Organizations and Their Impact on U.S. Security (Prager, 2013) and The Executioner’s Men: Inside Los Zetas (co-authored with Sam Logan, Transaction Press, 2012): Consequences of Vigilantism in Mexico for the United States (Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, 2011); Mexico: Narco-Violence and a Failed State? (Transaction, 2010), La Familia Drug Cartel: Implications for U.S.-Mexican Security (Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, 2010); Mexico’s Struggle with Drugs and Thugs (Foreign Policy Association, 2009); and Mexican Messiah: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (Penn State University Press, 2007).  Grayson was a Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington, D.C. and an Associate Scholar of the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. Grayson earned his B.A. at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), his M.A. and Ph.D. at the Johns Hopkins University (Nitze School of Advanced International Studies), and a J.D. at the William and Mary's Marshall-Wythe School of Law.  He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Criminal Insurgents in Mexico and Latin America: A Small Wars Journal-El Centro Anthology

Edited by Robert J. Bunker and John P. Sullivan

432 pages
iUniverse 2015

http://www.amazon.com/Criminal-Insurgents-Mexico-Latin-America/dp/1491759798/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426034906&sr=1-1&keywords=criminal+insurgents+in+mexico+and+latin+america

b. We are also saddened to notify you of the passing of one of our fellows-- George W. Grayson. He was a remarkable scholar, individual, and friend to many of us. For those interested this obituary discusses his many accomplishments:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/vagazette/obituary.aspx?n=george-w-grayson&pid=174327878

Best,

RJB and JPS