Accounting for the cartel

While research on accounting in cartel contexts has largely focused on money laundering, limited attention has been given to how accounting both shapes and is shaped by broader organisational and symbolic dimensions. Informed by postcolonial theory, this study critically examines the role of accounting in structuring practices and shaping representations of violence within cartel activities. Drawing on interviews with individuals exposed to cartel activity in Mexico, as well as a wide range of news articles, the analysis reveals that accounting is systematically embedded in cartel activities, delineating the boundaries between legitimacy and illegality through framing and routinising. The findings also show that mimicry is used to adopt and subvert dominant organisational forms, while the blending of formal accounting language and local practices gives rise to hybridity, complicating conventional interpretations of violence and economic order. Adopting a postcolonial lens deepens the understanding of accounting in illicit settings, highlighting its central role in shaping contested identities and selectively determining the visibility or invisibility of violence.