The Triangle of Criminality in Tierra Caliente: Apatzingán, Tepalcatepec and Aguililla, Michoacán, 1995–2025

https://doi.org/10.33110/cimexus210205

Abstract

This article examines the socio-territorial transformations and power relations that have shaped the so-called Triangle of Criminality, comprising the municipalities of Apatzingán, Tepalcatepec, and Aguililla in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacán, Mexico, between 1995 and 2025. The study adopts a qualitative and interpretative approach based on the review of scientific literature, journalistic sources, official statistics, and locally generated empirical knowledge. The findings reveal that this territory constitutes a setting of criminal governance in which the interaction among state institutions, organized crime groups, and local communities has fostered institutional fragmentation, territorial control, and the reconfiguration of local power. The study concludes that this territorial triangle extends beyond being a hotspot of violence, emerging instead as a laboratory of sociopolitical recomposition whose understanding requires public policies grounded in territorial, social,
and cultural approaches capable of addressing the structural causes of the conflict.