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xfajardo's review against another edition
1.0
Pésima obra de ficción que se hace pasar por periodismo de investigación.
dithorba's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
This book is dense with names and information. It is not a beginner's introduction.
barry_x's review against another edition
3.0
This is a difficult book for me to review. Purely based on my reading experience I have to give it three stars however for readers more familiar with Mexican politics this will be an instant 5 star book.
The book chronicles the history of the drug cartels in Mexico, how they operate, their working relationships and wars amongst them. More importantly it documents how Mexican society from the politicians to the police and army and business leaders are not only reliant on the drug trade yet are totally complicit in the misery the industry causes. Yes there are high profile leaders of the cartels who are worth hundreds of millions of dollars but what is clear reading this book is that the politicians (even as high as the President) are drug traffickers. Senior military people are drug traffickers. This isn't a case of a few bad apples, it's an entire economy, judiciary and political system totally and utterly corrupt. Mexican readers I suspect will know this already but I think readers will be truly horrified and disgusted about the evil the traffickers represent and how ingrained the corruption is.
The significant players are all documented and their crimes are all researched. No stone is left unturned explaining the horrific violence and torture meted out by the police and traffickers over generations of violence. In six years 80,000 people died as a result of 'a war between cartels' rather than 'a war on drugs'. An entire society kept in a grip of evil. Many may be shocked at how Reagan declared war on drugs in the 80's whilst allowing Mexican drug cartels to flood the US with cocaine as they delivered arms to the Nicaragua contras for him. This really is small fry compared to the collusion in Mexico. Politicians planes are blown up, police work for the drug traffickers (often shooting other police officers either legitimate or working for another cartel), Presidents are paid bribes, senior industry figures launder hundreds of millions of dollars. Cartels kidnap people and murder children and rape women for money.
The book is meticulously researched and referenced with first hand accounts and documentary evidence. Hernandez researches everywhere and obtains sources deeply hidden or whitewashed. Hernandez speaks to the traffickers, journalists and politicians. I don't know much about her but she deserves the highest accolades of journalistic perseverance and integrity. Her life has clearly been in danger writing this book and will be forever more - I can't help but think if just 5% of these allegations happened elsewhere there would be seismic turmoil. The book is perhaps the most 'explosive' I have ever read and deserves a significantly wider readership.
My reasons for knocking a star or two off relate to my experience as a reader. I felt the flow of the book jumped backwards and forwards and I struggled to join up the dots sometimes of who everyone was and what they did and when. My interest in the book stemmed from seeing horrific footage of corpses with messages hanging from bridges and being aware of how dangerous ordinary life became six or seven years ago for Mexicans. I'm sure if I re-read this book it would get 5 stars. There is a full glossary of individuals and their history at the back and explanations of all the various acronyms. I struggled a little with the naming conventions of many of the people. Everyone seemed to have a couple of nicknames and were related to each other. Sometimes the full name was used, other times a nickname and other times part of a name. I also struggled with the geography a little. Perhaps a little is lost in translation. Of course if one is familiar with Mexican recent history, it's geography and naming conventions none of this matters. My criticisms as a reader stem from my knowledge gaps - not Hernandez's ability to fill them. If I re-read this I almost certainly would have a map of Mexico to hand, a bunch of name cards and perhaps draw a relationship map as I read.
Very good book and a must read if you are interested in the subject matter.
The book chronicles the history of the drug cartels in Mexico, how they operate, their working relationships and wars amongst them. More importantly it documents how Mexican society from the politicians to the police and army and business leaders are not only reliant on the drug trade yet are totally complicit in the misery the industry causes. Yes there are high profile leaders of the cartels who are worth hundreds of millions of dollars but what is clear reading this book is that the politicians (even as high as the President) are drug traffickers. Senior military people are drug traffickers. This isn't a case of a few bad apples, it's an entire economy, judiciary and political system totally and utterly corrupt. Mexican readers I suspect will know this already but I think readers will be truly horrified and disgusted about the evil the traffickers represent and how ingrained the corruption is.
The significant players are all documented and their crimes are all researched. No stone is left unturned explaining the horrific violence and torture meted out by the police and traffickers over generations of violence. In six years 80,000 people died as a result of 'a war between cartels' rather than 'a war on drugs'. An entire society kept in a grip of evil. Many may be shocked at how Reagan declared war on drugs in the 80's whilst allowing Mexican drug cartels to flood the US with cocaine as they delivered arms to the Nicaragua contras for him. This really is small fry compared to the collusion in Mexico. Politicians planes are blown up, police work for the drug traffickers (often shooting other police officers either legitimate or working for another cartel), Presidents are paid bribes, senior industry figures launder hundreds of millions of dollars. Cartels kidnap people and murder children and rape women for money.
The book is meticulously researched and referenced with first hand accounts and documentary evidence. Hernandez researches everywhere and obtains sources deeply hidden or whitewashed. Hernandez speaks to the traffickers, journalists and politicians. I don't know much about her but she deserves the highest accolades of journalistic perseverance and integrity. Her life has clearly been in danger writing this book and will be forever more - I can't help but think if just 5% of these allegations happened elsewhere there would be seismic turmoil. The book is perhaps the most 'explosive' I have ever read and deserves a significantly wider readership.
My reasons for knocking a star or two off relate to my experience as a reader. I felt the flow of the book jumped backwards and forwards and I struggled to join up the dots sometimes of who everyone was and what they did and when. My interest in the book stemmed from seeing horrific footage of corpses with messages hanging from bridges and being aware of how dangerous ordinary life became six or seven years ago for Mexicans. I'm sure if I re-read this book it would get 5 stars. There is a full glossary of individuals and their history at the back and explanations of all the various acronyms. I struggled a little with the naming conventions of many of the people. Everyone seemed to have a couple of nicknames and were related to each other. Sometimes the full name was used, other times a nickname and other times part of a name. I also struggled with the geography a little. Perhaps a little is lost in translation. Of course if one is familiar with Mexican recent history, it's geography and naming conventions none of this matters. My criticisms as a reader stem from my knowledge gaps - not Hernandez's ability to fill them. If I re-read this I almost certainly would have a map of Mexico to hand, a bunch of name cards and perhaps draw a relationship map as I read.
Very good book and a must read if you are interested in the subject matter.
_violetslikecastanets's review against another edition
3.0
Anabel Hernández is a really brave journalist and I am grateful that she wrote this book. I read it in spanish and found it hard to follow all of the different actors, but I found it illuminating. I read it while doing humanitarian aid work with no more deaths, and it felt like a must-read for anyone at the time doing border work and navigating state and non-state/narco infrastructure and control of immigration and people's self-determination.
paloma_sanchezh's review
4.0
La lectura de este libro es un must para entender claramente cómo surgió el narcotráfico en México, pues lo presenta como el problema que realmente es: multidimensional. Es un trabajo periodístico interesante, que narra cómo surgieron los principales cárteles mexicanos, El Chapo y Los Zetas. Quizá lo más impresionante es cómo Anabel Hernández expone la red de corrupción que imperó en el sexenio de Fox y Calderón, si bien las redes del narcotráfico llevan más de cuatro décadas infiltrados en el gobierno mexicano. Como lector, uno no puedo más que quedarse helado ante las complicidades, las omisiones y la tácitca aprobación de funcionarios públicos que protegieron a uno u otro bando y que crearon a un monstruo fuera de control. También resulta apabullante lo siniestro de un personaje como Genaro García Luna, cuya colusioón ha sido más que probada y nunca fue castigado. Sin embargo, sobre este personaje cabe destacar que hubo momentos en que parecía que la periodista estuviera emitiendo una crítica más bien subjetiva, personal, contra García Luna -cuestión que no era necesaria, toda vez que la evidencia reunida resultaba más que suficiente. Por otra parte, si bien es un trabajo completo, en lo personal me hubiera gustado que también explorara un poco más la psicología de personajes como El Chapo y El señor de los Cielos. Hay referencias, documentadas por las evaluaciones que hubo de psicológos, pero hubiera sido interesante que también se abordara el contexto de dónde surgieron estos capos. Ya lo sabemos, pero hubiera sido interesante conocer la perspectiva de Hernández al respecto.