Goodbye to the Caciques? Caciquismo in 21st‐Century Southern Mexico

ABSTRACT

This article reflects on the persistence and transformation of caciquismo in twenty‐first‐century southern Mexico. Based on a systematic review of the scholarly literature, and an ethnographic case study in the municipality of Ayutla de los Libres, in the southern state of Guerrero, it questions narratives that portray caciquismo as an extinct political phenomenon. By combining critical theoretical insights with empirical fieldwork data, the article demonstrates that caciquismo has not only been reproduced but has also adapted to recent political and social changes. This adaptation has taken place through processes of municipalization, which have consolidated municipal governments as strategic arenas of cacique domination, and through processes of criminalization, as caciques have capitalized on the dynamics of violence generated by the war on drugs.