A Death Squad That Kept a Mexican State Safe—Until It Didn't

What a Mexican state’s “success” against crime reveals about the dangerous bargains behind public peace.

In December 2023, the streets of tropical Villahermosa, the capital of the Mexican state of Tabasco, erupted into chaos. Gun battles broke out in broad daylight. Armed men took over entire neighborhoods. A city that had, until recently, been praised for its falling crime rates suddenly looked like a war zone.

Locals named the first clash “El Villahermosazo”—the ”Villahermosa blast—a grim echo of narco-conflicts in places like Culiacán or Reynosa.

What collapsed in Tabasco wasn’t just a security strategy. It was a fragile arrangement of political protection, criminal discipline, and shared interest, the kind of informal pact that emerges in places where the state is strong enough to negotiate with crime, but not strong enough to displace it.