Energy Logistics, the State, and Violence: The Infrastructure Scramble in Mexico

Logistics and infrastructure scholarship has for a while put emphasis on the turbulence and conflict frequently implied by large-scale investments in the sector, and on the radical reconfiguration of (state) spaces they initiate. The state, however, becomes less visible as logistics are perceived to be part of private capital circulations. I argue that logistics and infrastructure can serve as a lens to the state; and the everyday and planning practices by state institutions are essential for understanding the contemporary logistics moment. Mexico has seen an intense wave of infrastructure investments since 2018, but making the country a transoceanic logistics platform has been explicitly on the state agenda at least since 2007. These are state-led, and while they include private, tender-based investments (disproving state discourses of nationalization), particularly the military has begun to play a major role in logistics (owning and operating airports, freight and passenger trains, or hotels). The process has indeed frequently been violent and conflictive. Based on data collection (interviews, planning documents, environmental impact assessments, press releases, tender data) in 2023 and online across 2022-2024, the case of Mexico allows me to understand these (state) practices as part of infrastructure processes from planning to construction.