Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
Zetas drug cartel was formed by ex-special forces soldiers. It now has more than 10,000 men under arms. And a deserved reputation for unspeakable violence in its drive to dominate the lucrative drug trade with the US
A wall won't work. US-Mexico border is better understood as a "complex interrelationship of immigration laws, cyberspace money transfers, and international business connections". Tackle this if you want to tackle the problem (PDF)
US-Mexico border is an artificial line across interlocking ecosystems, under pressure from top-heavy consumer lifestyles to the north, congestion of poverty in the south. Result? A twilight world of flight, seclusion, incarceration
The story of Edgar "La Barbie" Valdez Villarreal: Middle-class jock from suburban Texas who rose to the top of one of Mexico's most powerful drug cartels. Only US citizen on state department list of targeted drug barons
Harrowing dispatch from Ciudad Juarez, the heart of Mexico's drug war. Many journalists self-censor or have stopped reporting. One newspaper published an editorial asking what drug lords wanted from them. Very sad story
John Ross, 1938-2011. Unreliable narrator, chronicler of Zapatista guerrillas, protagonist in "sad, hilarious picaresque". He chased revolutions around the world, an insurrectionist looking for rebellion in the wrong historical era
Crazy politics of Mexico's drug wars. "Sceptical of the ability of police and courts to bring those responsible to justice, citizens increasingly see no option except taking the law into their own hands. The results can be horrific"
Shocking (perhaps overlong) account of Arizona people smuggling business. Organisation extends to having own mobile phone masts in the desert, treatment of Mexican migrants truly horrendous
Ten years ago, with the political monopoly of PRI broken, Mexico looked full of promise. Instead, economy and social order have gone downhill, overwhelmed by China's rise, US policy shifts, homegrown corruption
Hit-men pursue rivals into intensive-care units and emergency rooms
