Causes and Electoral Consequences of Political Assassinations: The Role of Organized Crime in Mexico

TL;DR

This paper investigates how organized crime influences political assassinations in Mexico, revealing that criminal groups target politicians to control local governments, especially during elections and fuel crises, with limited impact on voter turnout.

Contribution

It introduces a new dataset and uses instrumental variables to establish causal links between organized crime activities and political violence in Mexico.

Findings

Candidates near oil pipelines face higher assassination risks.

Retaliatory violence occurs after government crackdowns on organized crime.

Voter turnout remains unaffected or increases when authorities disrupt drug trafficking.

Abstract

Mexico has experienced a notable surge in assassinations of political candidates and mayors. This article argues that these killings are largely driven by organized crime, aiming to influence candidate selection, control local governments for rent-seeking, and retaliate against government crackdowns. Using a new dataset of political assassinations in Mexico from 2000 to 2021 and instrumental variables, we address endogeneity concerns in the location and timing of government crackdowns. Our instruments include historical Chinese immigration patterns linked to opium cultivation in Mexico, local corn prices, and U.S. illicit drug prices. The findings reveal that candidates in municipalities near oil pipelines face an increased risk of assassination due to drug trafficking organizations expanding into oil theft, particularly during elections and fuel price hikes. Government arrests or killings of organized crime members trigger retaliatory violence, further endangering incumbent mayors. This political violence has a negligible impact on voter turnout, as it targets politicians rather than voters. However, voter turnout increases in areas where authorities disrupt drug smuggling, raising the chances of the local party being re-elected. These results offer new insights into how criminal groups attempt to capture local governments and the implications for democracy under criminal governance.