When you see the headlines about another shootout in Culiacán or a gruesome discovery in Michoacán, it’s easy to write it off as mindless savagery. It looks like chaos. It looks like people have simply lost their minds. But if you talk to criminologists like Edgardo Buscaglia or journalists who have spent decades on the ground, like Ioan Grillo, you start to realize something much darker. There is a method to the madness.
The question of why are cartels so violent isn't answered by a single reason. It’s a cocktail of bad policy, economics, and a terrifyingly logical "business" strategy.
Let’s be real: violence is expensive. It draws the heat of the military, it kills off your workforce, and it disrupts your supply lines. If a cartel could move five tons of cocaine into the United States without firing a single bullet, they would do it in a heartbeat. The violence is a tool. It is a communication device used when the normal "rules" of the black market break down.
The Market is a War Zone
Think about how a normal business works. If a supplier screws over a retail chain, they go to court. They sue. There’s a legal framework to resolve the dispute. In the underworld, there is no Supreme Court. There are no lawyers to file an injunction. When one group moves into another's "plaza"—the specific geographic territory used for smuggling—the only way to protect that investment is through force.
Violence is the enforcement of a contract where the law doesn't exist.
Back in the 1980s and 90s, the Mexican underworld was actually much quieter. This wasn't because the cartels were "nicer." It was because the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) held a virtual monopoly on power in Mexico. There was a system of "controlled corruption." If you paid the right people in the government, you were allowed to operate within certain boundaries. When that political monopoly collapsed and Mexico became a true multi-party democracy, the old agreements shattered. The police weren't just working for one guy anymore; different factions were buying different cops. This created a power vacuum.
And nature—especially the criminal kind—abhors a vacuum.
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Why are cartels so violent when they are already winning?
It’s about the "branding of terror."
If you're a small-time business owner in Guerrero and a group of guys comes to your door demanding "piso" (extortion money), you might think about calling the police. But if you’ve seen a video on social media of what that specific cartel does to people who refuse to pay, you don't call anyone. You pay. The extreme, cinematic level of violence we see today—the beheadings, the public displays, the social media execution videos—is designed to bypass the need for actual fighting. If you scare the enemy enough, they surrender before the first shot is fired.
It is psychological warfare. It's meant to paralyze the public and demoralize the authorities.
Take the Zetas, for example. They changed everything. Originally a group of elite Mexican special forces who defected to work as the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel, they brought a military mindset to the drug trade. They didn't just want to smuggle drugs; they wanted to control territory like an occupying army. They treated violence as a specialized skill set. When the Zetas started using heavy weaponry and tactical maneuvers, everyone else had to upgrade just to stay alive. It was an arms race.
The Fragmentation Trap
One of the biggest misconceptions is that the violence is caused by a few "Kingpins." For years, the U.S. and Mexican governments followed the "Kingpin Strategy." The idea was simple: cut off the head of the snake and the body dies.
It failed. Spectacularly.
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When you arrest a guy like "El Chapo" Guzmán, the organization doesn't just disappear. It splinters. You take one massive, stable cartel and turn it into six smaller, hungrier, and more aggressive gangs. These smaller groups don't have the international connections to move massive amounts of cocaine. So, they turn to local crimes to make payroll. They kidnap. They extort. They steal oil from pipelines. Because they are smaller and more vulnerable, they are much more likely to use extreme violence to prove they are still relevant.
The "Iron River" of Weapons
We can't talk about why are cartels so violent without talking about where the guns come from. It’s an open secret. Every year, hundreds of thousands of firearms flow south from the United States into Mexico. While Mexico has incredibly strict gun laws—there is literally only one gun store in the entire country, and it’s on a military base—the U.S. border is a sieve.
The cartels are essentially outgunning the local police. In many municipalities, the cops are carrying old revolvers or bolt-action rifles while the cartels have .50-caliber Barrett sniper rifles and gold-plated AK-47s.
It’s a lopsided fight.
The Social Component: A Culture of "Sicarismo"
There is also a tragic human element here. In many parts of Latin America, there is a massive population of young men who are "ni-nis"—ni estudian, ni trabajan (they neither study nor work). For a kid growing up in a slum with no upward mobility, the cartel offers a path. It offers a salary, a sense of belonging, and a weird kind of "prestige."
The violence becomes a rite of passage.
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The "sicario" (hitman) isn't always a psychopath. Often, he’s a product of an environment where life is cheap and the only way to protect your family is to join the strongest side. This normalization of violence makes it much harder to stop. When an entire generation grows up seeing dismembered bodies as a regular part of the landscape, the psychological barrier to committing those acts yourself starts to erode.
Addressing the Realities
It’s tempting to think this is just a "Mexican problem" or a "Colombian problem." It’s not. It’s a market problem. As long as there is a multi-billion dollar demand for illicit substances in the U.S. and Europe, someone will be willing to kill to supply it.
The violence is a symptom of a much deeper rot. It’s what happens when you have weak institutions, massive wealth inequality, and a black market that rewards the most ruthless players.
If you want to understand why are cartels so violent, look at the incentives. The system, as it stands, rewards the guy who is willing to go one step further than his rival. It’s an escalation that has no natural ceiling.
Moving Forward: What Can Actually Be Done?
Stopping the bloodshed isn't about winning a "war." We've seen that the military approach often makes things worse. Real change requires a shift in how we view the problem.
- Financial Intelligence: Follow the money, not just the drugs. Cartels rely on legitimate banking systems to wash their cash. Cracking down on money laundering is often more effective than seizing a shipment.
- Strengthening Local Institutions: People only turn to cartels for "justice" or protection when the local police and courts are corrupt. Building trust in local government is the only long-term defense.
- Targeting the Arms Flow: Serious cooperation between the U.S. and Mexico to stop the southward flow of high-caliber weapons would immediately lower the lethality of these conflicts.
- Social Investment: Providing real alternatives for at-risk youth. If a kid has a job that pays a living wage and a future that looks bright, the "glamour" of the sicario life loses its luster.
The violence won't stop overnight. It’s baked into the current model of the drug trade. Understanding that this violence is a tactical choice—a brutal form of communication—is the first step in dismantling the structures that make it profitable.