El
Narco, The Bloody Rise of the Mexican Drug Cartels (ISBN 978-1-4088-2243-2,
Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013) caught my eye in Bookazine (The Avenue) and was
selected as this week’s book for review.
Perhaps my interest in the drug scene comes from the fact that I missed it
first time round. Whilst the undergraduate years did see some drug taking in
the university cloisters, my group was too impecunious to buy any, let alone
enough funds to become addicts.
Author Ioan Grillo delves into the history of the drug trade with the
Mexican farmers suddenly finding that their crop was worth far more than
they had expected, as the demand for the product grew in America.
Various crackdowns were arranged with the Mexican authorities in conjunction
with the United States DEA. These were short term gains and long term
disasters, as the Mexican side of the trade began to consolidate their
efforts. It always reflected supply and demand.
With the author’s research he shows quite categorically that the American
CIA was complicit in the cocaine trade, using the profits to support the
contras! So the DEA and the CIA were really on opposite sides. With the DEA
needing to show progress, they resorted to kidnapping a top drug lord, Matta
Balasteros, as official channels would take too long in a country which had
no extradition treaty.
Ioan Grillo discusses the Mexican media and is convinced that the majority
are hard working honest journalists, reporting the truth, but with so much
drug money floating around, there are the black sheep now driving new jeeps
and living in fancy houses.
The Mexicans work hand in hand with the Colombian cartels, with this cozy
arrangement allowing the Colombians to ship their narcotics through Mexico,
leaving the Mexicans to work out how to get their shipments into North
America.
Corruption has been the catalyst for the drug trade, and not many Mexicans
in seats of power have done much to prevent it. In actual fact, to get into
a seat of power required large financial inducements, and the source of the
cash is the drug trade. A happy self-perpetuating circle.
With the Mexicans being the transporters, the Americans are the recipients
and author Grillo does not shrink from pointing accusatory fingers at the
American side, even to where the Mexicans were taught torture techniques
from instruction manuals, written in Spanish, as official US government
publications.
The escalation in violence is demonstrated, with one new chief of police
lasting six hours before being gunned down. Long service leave of an
unexpected style. Police officers have been known to block off complete
suburbs so that the mafia can carry out a kidnapping!
Mexican presidents have tried to stop the escalation, but with corruption
all around, the end results were nothing like they should have been.
B. 435 with several color plates makes this a cheap insight to the big
business cartels operating in Mexico, and into the North American drug
requirements. It will also show the reader just where Mexico is heading, and
the future is not really all that rosy. A well researched book that I
enjoyed.
