“El Narco, the bloody rise of Mexican drug cartels” – book by Ioan Grillo

 “El Narco, the bloody rise of Mexican drug cartels” – book by Ioan Grillo

In Mexico, drug traffickers are described collectively by the Spanish word El Narco. In this book “El Narco” Ioan Grillo has traced the origin of the Mexican drug trafficking, evolution of cartels and their violent criminal activities in great detail. He has met  and talked to cartel leaders, their foot soldiers, informers, assassins, prisoners, security forces, politicians and US DEA agents. He has taken the risk of visiting cartel strongholds and crime scenes. 

Ioan Grillo, a British journalist, based in Mexico since 2001, has written extensively on drug traffickers and criminal gangs of Latin America for the last two decades. I have read his book “Blood, Gun and Money: How America arms gangs and cartels” . My blog https://latinamericanaffairs.blogspot.com/2021/03/blood-gun-money-how-america-arms-gangs.html

 

According to Grillo, Sinaloa is the cradle of Mexican drug business and the birthplace ( like Sicily) of the nation’s oldest and most powerful network of traffickers, known as the Sinaloa Cartel. This had inspired the formation of the others such as Tijuana cartel, Guadalajara Cartel, Gulf Cartel, Juarez Cartel and Los Zetas. Sinaloa cartel itself has split into factions. Even after the arrest of the top leaders, the cartels continue with new leaders and new cartels are formed.

 

 During the one-party dictatorship of PRI for seventy years till 2000, the Mexican governments let the cartels do business quietly and some politicians took money from them. They did not see any reason to fight seriously against the traffickers, since the American consumers were paying top dollars happily and eagerly. But the Mexican traffickers earned in millions and not billions as the Colombian drug lords such as Pablo Escobar. After the crack down on Colombian cartels and the killing of Pablo Escobar in 1993, the Mexican cartels gained more power and took control and domination of the drug supply to the US. There was another driver for the Mexican supplies. The Colombians had used the sea route to Florida for drug supply. When the US administration tightened the controls in Florida, the Colombians took the help of Mexicans for supply through the land border. 

 

When they saw the direct opportunities for the multibillion dollar business, more Mexican gangs got into the business. The cartels became bigger and there were more turf wars. President Calderon (2006-12) unleashed  the army to attack the cartels but it had only added fuel to the fire. The security forces themselves  became part of the problem. In the first decade until 2010, around a hundred thousand members of the military and police had deserted from their jobs  to join the cartels. After getting the training and insider knowledge, they have made career moves to the other side to make real money. The most-feared Zetas were formed by the former members of the special forces of the army. They have brought into play their toughness, tactics and use of sophisticated weapons in the fight against their former colleagues as well as rival gangs. Some of the municipal and state police forces work for the cartels and undermine the work of the army and federal police. Even the military and federal police officers take sides and make arrests or bust gangs on behalf of the Cartels who pay them. 

 

The cartels have diversified from drug trafficking into robbery of cargo, stealing of petrol from pipelines, kidnappings, extortion, human trafficking and assassinations. They do not even hide their gruesome murders.  They seek publicity openly as a way of showing off their capabilities and to send message to the rivals and frighten the public.

 

There is a whole new narco culture which has evolved around the drug lords, some of whom have become folk heroes in their communities. Narcos are revered as rebels who have the balls to beat the system. On the streets of Sinaloa, people traditionally refer to gangsters as “los Valientes”-  the brave ones. There is a new genre of music, “narcocorridos” (drug ballads).  Composers sing in praise of the drug lords and bands play in public as well as private parties of the gangs. There are even religious sects founded by cartel leaders who have built churches and used their new interpretations of Bible to indoctrinate their foot soldiers as faithful and loyal. There are thousands of Narco movies and serials with drug lords as heroes and Americans as villains.  The drug barons even pay for the production of songs and movies.

 

Some Mexicans see the illegal migration to US as a historical revenge. The US had taken over nine hundred thousand square miles of  Mexican territory after the war in 1846-48.  These include the present-day states of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona and Colorado, and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming. Mexico annually commemorates a squad of young cadets shot dead by American troops (los ninos héroes) during the war. So the Mexicans call their migration to the United States as “la Reconquista”—the reconquest. 

 

Of course, the primary responsibility for the drug issue lies with the American consumers who have created the demand themselves. Drug is a demand driven business originating from the American consumers who wants to get high and pays for it happily. The killing of Escobar or the jailing of Guzman have not caused any dent in the consumption of drugs in the US. As long as this continues, there will always be suppliers both internal and external. The Colombians, Mexicans, Chinese and American opioid manufacturers took turns to supply the  consumers. While the American companies got away with paying fines, the Colombians and the Mexicans were on the receiving end of the “war on drugs” started by the American politicians and the military-industrial complex. Drug war was good politics for Nixon to divert attention away from the Vietnam war. With no communists to hunt after the Cold War, American spooks, soldiers and the arms makers were looking for new opportunities. The American politicians obliged them with the War on Drugs. The American, Colombian and Mexican administrations also used the “war on drugs” as a cover to fight the leftist guerilla groups. DEA, created in 1973 has become another empire like CIA with multibillion dollar budget. DEA’s way of cultivating informers had opened new avenues for corruption on both sides. CIA itself got into the drug business to raise money for financing the Contra war against Nicaragua during the Reagan era. The American manufacturers of helicopters, planes and guns made money from supplies to Latin Americans for the war on drugs. The Mexican and Colombian security forces enjoyed the new American toys such as helicopters, aircrafts and guns as well as the training opportunities in USA. Even the drug cartels are happy by getting their guns from the illegal trafficking from USA. While the Mexican supplied cocaine is consumed by the Americans, the American-trafficked guns into Mexico stay and kill more and more people.

 

Now the American right wing  politicians call for invasion of Mexico to fight the drug traffickers. After the serial wars in Vietnam, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and the proxy war in Ukraine, the next show might be in Mexico.