"This criminal behaviour has become an activity that not only defies the state but seeks to replace the state"Calderon is pushing back on his critics by framing the battle against organized crime as not just a fight against cartels but one against an insurgency or an attempt to overthrow the government.
In some ways he's right. The cartels undermine the state's "monopoly on violence," they sometimes tax the people in their area, they are imposing their ideology and, to a limited extent, they provide social services to the communities in the area they try to control.
However, the organized crime leadership never donned a black mask and announced a revolution the way the EZLN did in 1994.
Does it make it any less of an insurgency if they don't? What if they do it in the future?
