Configuration and local processes of organized criminal violence: the Guaymas-Empalme case, in northern Mexico

Abstract

This article seeks to deepen the quantitative and qualitative complexity at the level of meanings and relationships between social agents and effects observed of the organized crime violence in the Guaymas-Empalme region, in northern Mexico. A documentary investigation was carried out based on official statistics on homicides and disappeared persons, as well as an analysis of journalistic notes in the period 2016-2020, which is when there is a notable increase in local crime incidence. Using Norbert Elias’ sociological perspective, it was found that the figuration of a regional crisis of public security, entails apprehending it as a set of relationships of interdependences between the State, criminal agents and civil society, which gives meaning to the emerging reality linked to the degradation of the quality of societal life, expressed in: rupture of traditional criminal violence, specific and generalized victimization, growth of the tolerance threshold of “collateral damage”, negative emotional structures, social movements of permanent and sporadic victims, and unilateral dialogues.