Dr. Smith has been writing about Mexico for over twenty years. Currently, he specializes on twentieth-century politics, the narcotics trade and crime. His most recent book, The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade was published by Ebury/Norton in 2021. As a historian of nineteenth and twentieth-century politics, he started my research in the archives, villages, churches, and markets of the predominantly indigenous state of Oaxaca. Since then he has branched out to write about about indigenous politics, Catholicism, conservatism, newspapers, journalism, censorship and civil society. He has regularly appeared on TV, radio and in the press to talk about issues of Mexican politics, crime, social movements, Catholicism, and narcotics.
Dr. Smith has served as an expert witness in asylum cases in the United States and the United Kingdom. He has written c. 180 export reports, predominantly for Mexican asylum seekers in the United States. Most have concerned persons fleeing criminal or cartel violence. He has also dealt with cases involving religious, political, and gender discrimination.
Addiction/drugs/drug policy, Child soldiers, Coercive population control, Deportees/criminal deportees, Ethnic discrimination or persecution, Ex-combatant reintegration, Forced conscription, Gang-related violence/non-state actors, Gender-based violence/domestic violence, Healthcare access/health systems capacity, Journalist persecution, Land tenure disputes, Mental illness, Military/police service, Political persecution, Prison conditions, Religious discrimination or persecution, Government/state actor persecution, Risk of retaliation, Safe internal relocation, Sexual abuse/assault, Sufficiency of protection, Torture, Trafficking, Tribal discrimination or persecution
Over the past six years I have written c. 180 export reports, predominantly for Mexican asylum seekers in the United States. Most have concerned persons fleeing criminal or cartel violence. However, I have also dealt with cases involving religious, political, and gender discrimination. I have also appeared to give testimony in over 50 of these cases. To my knowledge c. 90% of my clients have either received asylum or relief against the Convention Against Torture.
The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade (London/New York: Ebury/Norton, 2021).
(with Wil Pansters) Histories of Drug Trafficking in Twentieth Century Mexico (UNM Press, 2022).
(With Wil Pansters and Peter Watt), Beyond the Drug War in Mexico: Human rights, the public sphere and justice (London, Routledge, 2017).