Juvenicide and necropolitics in Mexico

Abstract

The murder of people in Mexico, perpretated by drug trafficking organization operating across the country and by national security forces, has generated a profound civilizational and social crisis, resulting in more than 500,000 deaths and 120,000 disappearances over the past nineteen years. Young people constitute a fundamental component in the vital reproduction of both capital and armed groups. In this sense, the murders of young people go hand in hand with material and living conditions; these contradictions are expressed not only in precarity but also in the legitimization of young death, because those murdered do not consume, do not produce, they are in the economic abyss of capital and therefore their lives do not matter and do not deserve national mourning. This work offers a statistical and historical overview of the murders and forced disappearances of young people in Mexico between 2006 and 2024. Through documentary and statistical analysis, it examines three presidential administrations and the corresponding necropolitical and juvenicidal contexts. The study proposes the need to rethink failed security strategies, strenghten the pursuit of justice, and advance toward the construction of peaceful, post-drug trafficking societies.