Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

From December 2006 through to the end of 2015, over 150,000 people were intentionally killed in Mexico. Accordingly, from 2006 to the present day, the number of murders and enforced disappearances related to organised crime in Mexico has skyrocketed. The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime has indicated that from 2007 to 2010, Mexico was the country with the highest rate of increase in intentional homicides. The so-called “war” against organized crime has created a context of increasing insecurity and escalating violence, impunity and corruption across the entire country. Against the backdrop of the security crisis, members of Mexican society have organised national and transnational movements to denounce the government.

For instance, some observers have hypothesised that the case of the 43 missing students of Ayotzinapa in September 2014 raised awareness amongst the Mexican population and bolstered their political engagement in both national territory and abroad. Mexicans living in the United States, Spain, France, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand and other places around the world have engaged politically to demonstrate their support for the victims and denounce the incapacity of the current State to govern.

This paper looks at the political transnational movements organised by Mexican migrants living specifically in Brussels and Paris to answer the following question: Is political transnationalism a tool for peacebuilding for the Mexican on going security crisis? This paper evaluates how has transnational political activism changed the dynamics of the on-going conflict.