This book is the first major analysis of the vigilantism that accompanies the economic, political, and social disintegration occurring in many Latin American countries. The essays examine the most prominent forms of vigilantism, including mob lynchings, assassinations by self-appointed or privately employed "enforcers, " citizen uprisings against the police, the work of the notorious death squads, and extra-legal violence by on-duty police. The authors show the relationship between vigilantism and authoritarian governments whose inegalitarian practices and economic dependence on foreign powers perpetuate a cycle of poverty, repression, and violence.