The Relationship Between Italian Mafias And Mexican Drug Cartels: A Comparison

By Sergio Corrado

Why Mexico and Italy Have More in Common than Meets the Eye

It is now well-known – thanks to the FBI-DEA “Project Reckoning” operation in September 2008 and to the Italian Arm of Carabineers “Crime 3” operation in July 2011 – that the Mexican criminal organizations Los Zetas and Gulf Cartel are in business with the two most powerful Italian Mafias, the ‘Ndrangheta and Cosa Nostra. Closer business relations between ‘Ndrangheta, the most powerful criminal organization in Europe, and Los Zetas, arguably the fiercest of the Mexican drug cartels, could be a worrisome shift in the scope of the transnational drug trafficking network.

According to Fabio Armao, Professor of International Relations at the University of Turin in Torino, Italy, there are three major similarities between Italy and Mexico: first, a relatively recent history as unified states, and therefore easily corrupted political systems; second, a paradoxically marginalized yet critical role on the world stage, particularly given their relations with the United States; and third, a Spanish legacy in terms of predominance of the Catholic religion [1].

The birth of the first Italian Mafia, Cosa Nostra, dates back to the immediate aftermath of the Allied forces’ invasion of Sicily during World War II. While the first gangs had already appeared in the first half of the 19th century, only in 1943 did these criminal bosses begin to perform administrative tasks within the government, empowered by the American and British intelligence services. This marked a fundamental shift in how these criminal institutions operated prior to the war and afterwards as, through their actions, the victors of the war provided political legitimacy to the Mafia’s power and authority. In fact, many important Mafia members joined the Christian Democracy party, which at that time was Italy’s ruling political force. As Professor Armao points out, “Since then, this link with national politics has never disappeared.” [2]

As for Mexico, drug cartels have thrived in large part thanks to a lack of concentrated governmental power. From its independence from Spain in 1821, to 1876, Mexico was ruled by a number of weak administrations. Clashes between liberals, supporters of a federal form of government, and conservatives, who proposed a centralized form of government, dominated politics at that time. Afterwards, Mexico experienced political continuity under the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz from 1876 to 1911 (with a break from 1880 to 1884), and under the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI) from 1929 to 2000. However, the PRI relied primarily on “clientelismo” and corruption to retain its power. This helps to explain why Mexico traditionally has exhibited weaknesses in terms of the rule of law and respect for governmental institutions. Mexico’s long-standing tradition of police corruption and deviant institutions provided the appropriate foundations for organized crime to spread throughout the country.

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