Delinquency thwarts state sovereignty, especially where gangs or criminal organizations usurp state domains - monopolies on violence and security - or, beyond that, even take 'socio-political' action for whatever reasons. Narrative literature has long focused on these criminal subjects constituted around drug trafficking and smuggling, and the relevant research on this genre has grown considerably.
The novel Trabajos del reino (2003, tr: The King's Swan Song, 2011) by Mexican writer Yuri Herrera, through the metaphor of the king applied to a drug lord, brings to the fore the question of the power factors of small-scale sovereignty. Neoliberal regimes in Latin America-as novels such as Herrera's suggest-not only provide the backdrop but also prepare the ground for delinquency by favoring pauperization; however, they also promote economic subject designs that hold out the prospect of social advancement (Santos López 2021). At the same time, it is often recognizable that actors in organized drug crime strive to return to a bourgeois economic society with newly acquired financial power.
Narco-literature has long since reached the audiovisual entertainment industry. Series such as Narcos (2015-17) are proving instructive in terms of drawing small sovereigns:inside. But this is only the best-known example.
