Illicit Trade

Smuggled Mexican box turtles were wrapped in duct tape, stuffed into socks and hidden in four coffee cans. Credit: USFWS

Something fishy: Wildlife trafficking from Mexico to China

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

FIshing boat near the beach in Celestun. On Thursday, February 03, 2022, in Celestun, Yucatan, Mexico. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto)NO USE FRANCE

Organized crime is taking over Mexican fisheries

Vanda Felbab-Brown

February 21, 2022

A motorist passes by a wall with a graffiti of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) in El Aguaje after the visit of Vatican's ambassador to Mexico Franco Coppola to the area and to the municipality of Aguililla, an area where the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and local drug gangs are fighting to control the territory, in Michoacan state, Mexico April 23, 2021. REUTERS/Alan Ortega

Nonstate armed actors in 2022: Alive and powerful in the new geopolitics

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

A fishing boat is seen from an aircraft of the Ecuadorian navy after a fishing fleet of mostly Chinese-flagged ships was detected in an international corridor that borders the Galapagos Islands' exclusive economic zone, in the Pacific Ocean August 7, 2020. Picture taken August 7, 2020. REUTERS/Santiago Arcos

An Indo-Pacific test case: Tackling illegal fishing with counternarcotics tactics

Jeremy Greenwood

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

FILE PHOTO: Scientists return a vaquita, a tiny stubby-nosed porpoise on the verge of extinction, into the ocean as part of a conservation project, in the Sea of Cortez, Baja California, Mexico October 18, 2017. Semarnat/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY./File Photo

A porpoise to serve: Rescuing the vaquita and the US-Mexico relationship

Kristin Nowell and Vanda Felbab-Brown

Monday, July 26, 2021

Soldiers stand guard at the biggest marijuana plantation found in Mexico, in San Quintin, about 350 km (220 miles) away from Tijuana, July 13, 2011. Mexican soldiers discovered the plantation in a remote desert surrounded by cactuses, a top army officer said on Thursday. Soldiers patrolling the area found 300 acres (120 hectares) of pot plants being tended by dozens of men on Tuesday, said General Alfonso Duarte. Picture taken July 13, 2011. REUTERS/Jorge Duenes (MEXICO - Tags: SOCIETY CRIME LAW MILITARY)

Will cannabis legalization reduce crime in Mexico? Has it in the US?

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Monday, April 26, 2021

A police officer keeps watch at a crime scene, where two men were found in the trunk of a car shot to death, according to local media, in San Pedro Garza Garcia, on the outskirts of Monterrey, Mexico December 8, 2020. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

Crime and anti-crime security policy in Mexico in 2020

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Monday, January 4, 2021

Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks as a screen displays the letter he sent to U.S. President-elect Joe Biden during a news conference at the National Palace, in Mexico City, Mexico December 15, 2020. Mexico's Presidency/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES

A dangerous backtrack on the US-Mexico security relationship

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Monday, December 21, 2020

A healthcare worker wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) looks at specimen collection tube part of the quick test for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Mexico City, Mexico November 20, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

Beware the criminal threat to the fight against COVID-19

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Friday, December 18, 2020

Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador listens to the national anthem as he arrives to address the nation on his second anniversary as President of Mexico, at the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, December 1, 2020. REUTERS/Henry Romero

The upcoming friction in US-Mexico relations

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Friday, December 4, 2020