This book is a must-read for understanding crime and violence in Latin America. It challenges views of Latin American violence that either focus too much on regional particularities or univocally stress the role of the state as the overpowering site of violence and repression. Rather than denying these dimensions, the book recalibrates their significance by placing them in a larger, South-South geopolitical context. It will become a mandatory reference for studies of violence in Latin America and beyond."" - Federico Finchelstein, author of Transatlantic Fascism: Ideology, Violence and the Sacred in Argentina and Italy, 1919 - 1945 Biografía del autor Gema Santamaria is Assistant Professor in the Department of International Studies at the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico in Mexico City. She has served as a visiting fellow at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies and as a consultant for the United Nations Development Program. David Carey Jr. holds the Doehler Chair in History at Loyola University and is author of several books, including I Ask for Justice: Maya Women, Dictators, and Crime in Guatemala and Engendering Mayan History: Kaqchikel Women as Agents and Conduits of the Past.