Mexico’s drug cartels are often described as powerful rivals to the state, with their influence measured in weapons, money and murdered officials. But this framing misses a fundamental truth. Organised crime in Mexico is also a system of gendered governance – one that disciplines, controls and sometimes eliminates women to consolidate power.
The term “narco-femicide” captures this brutal dynamic. Narco-femicide refers not simply to the killing of women, but to the strategic use of gendered violence by criminal organisations to enforce social norms, maintain control and assert dominance in the absence – or even with the complicity – of the state.
According to a study by Lantia Intelligence, a Mexico-based data intelligence firm, organised crime was responsible for 60% of femicides in Mexico in 2020. That year, 1,891 women were violently murdered by drug cartels – an increase of nearly 40% compared to 2018.
