September 7, 2026
Political Science professor Marco Alcocer and his coauthor Megan Erickson's new publication investigates the assassination of government officials by cartels in Mexico.
The article looks inside Mexico’s changing criminal underworld. It finds that cartel capacity and conflicts help explain when and where political assassinations occur. While powerful cartels initially drove assassinations, cartel fragmentation led smaller splinter groups to also kill politicians—but only when involved in criminal conflicts.
Read the article on the Oxford Academic, Journal of Peace Research Website.
