Without a doubt, Mexico is witnessing an unprecedented security crisis that defies simple solutions because of its intractable nature, so deeply is it interwoven with impunity, corruption, and weak state institutions. This crisis also poses a challenge to those of us who teach and research related topics. Few scholars have successfully navigated the problems of locating reputable sources to tell these difficult stories or provide useful analytical interventions that grasp the many tentacles that together constitute what is taking place. This book is most assuredly a strong contribution to this much needed literature.

Correa-Cabrera sets herself an ambitious task: to present the reader with a multifaceted analysis of Los Zetas, any of whom on their own could have given enough fodder for a monograph unto itself. She breaks down what she refers to as the Zetas model, with its amorphous command structure and hyper-militaristic features that allow the criminal organization to adapt to a changing world. We have her discussion of the conflict Mexico is witnessing and whether or not it is a civil war. She also dissects the usefulness of employing categories, such as cartels and drug-trafficking organizations, because these enterprises are more akin to corporations. If we see them as part of a family of capitalist agencies, we can better understand how they reproduce and sustain themselves across time and in response to changing variables from both the legal and extralegal worlds they straddle.

The last part of the book is the most valuable. Correa-Cabrera introduces the reader to the negotiations between criminal corporations, government agents, and energy markets. It is at the intersection of these three—driven to collaborate because of the profits involved—that Correa-Cabrera is at her best. Some may argue that the correlation between an uptick in state terrorism associated with organized crime and the discovery of mineral sources of wealth is not new. Nevertheless, she develops a fine-grained analysis of what is taking place in Tamaulipas much more thoroughly than anyone before, and the reader can easily appreciate what goes into making what is happening here a security crisis that goes far beyond the state.

I have two issues with the book. First, it is ambitious in its scope, from discussing the ins and outs of legal and extralegal corporations and theorizing on the nature of conflict models as they apply to Mexico to delving into energy markets and their relationships to criminal underworlds. It is then not surprising that it would be inconsistent in meeting all of its goals. Some of the chapters, in particular Chapter 6 in which Correa-Cabrera discusses whether or not Mexico is witnessing a civil war, feel “dropped in”—geared toward a small subset of political science specialists, and do not contribute to her overarching argument. Other chapters—and here I have to single out the first one, where she discusses the origins of Los Zetas—need more development in relation to sources and a more refined analysis to do this rich topic justice.

My second issue regards what Correa-Cabrera refers to as the Mexican government's “unconventional security strategy” in creating “new” forms of paramilitarism. The government has had a long track record of experimenting with such extralegal forms of law enforcement across the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, and those experiments laid down the pathways employed in today's security strategy. In other words, this paramilitarism is not new. We need only to look at counterinsurgency guerrilla warfare in places such as Guerrero in the 1970s or Chiapas in the 1990s to find precursors to government tactics that make today's security strategy not so unconventional as Correa-Cabrera would have us believe.

Despite these shortcomings, I recommend the book, and I do so largely on the merits of the third section, in which the author discusses the evolution of energy resource extraction, the escalation of political violence, and the emerging presence of criminal enterprises. Chapters 7 through 9 showcase strong analysis, crisp writing style, and thorough research skills on a topic that is challenging to study. Her principal case study is Tamaulipas: the extraction and distribution of petroleum, state-level politics, and attempts by Los Zetas to move into this market. She extends her analysis to show that Tamaulipas is not alone and includes in her discussion other regions, such as Michoacán and Coahuila.

She shows convincingly that there is clear collusion between state and non-state actors, including those in the business and criminal sectors, to use state terrorism to facilitate entry into profitable energy markets. In other words, common economic imperatives dissolve the line between the legal and extralegal—and, for that matter, borders between nations—and cause these assorted actors to collaborate and adapt their needs to market demands for licit and illicit goods. The scenario she draws allows for the real possibility that Los Zetas, far from having their strength undermined, are making concerted moves into the shadow world of hydrocarbon theft and will no longer depend on drug or human trafficking.