this criminal organization has risen in
power in recent years hi I’m Rebecca
Brayton and welcome to watchmojo.com and
today we’re speaking with journalist
Jerry Langton about Mexican drug cartels
and his book gangland what are the
characteristics of a Mexican drug cartel
there were always gangs in in in Mexico
and they were never very powerful for
decades they worked for the Colombians
but then they got the idea that they
could make more money selling the drugs
than just ferrying them into North
America and they took over and they have
been unbelievably efficient from
successful and brutally so in a large
part because of the corruption of the
Mexican government not only does that
aid them in their tasks but it also
keeps the public on their side for a
great degree how did they first start to
gain traction they gained traction when
the Colombians sort of went down I mean
everybody remembers the DEA and its
allies pursuing Pablo Escobar finally
killing him as the government says South
America got serious about chasing down
the cartels the focus moved to Mexico
and the Mexicans tended to be more
brutal and better marketers they sold
for lower prices I mean there’s a
recording of Italian mafia leaders
saying that you know time has never been
so good for them now that the Mafia’s
are selling for a price if the
Colombians could never match now you’ve
mentioned drugs quite a bit what kind of
crimes are they most commonly involved
in they fight a lot you know in the last
four years there have been about 45,000
deaths attributed to the Mexican drug
war but ten more thousand people missing
and at least a quarter million displaced
from their homes and they use a lot of
methods that we would consider
terroristic bombs rocket-propelled
grenades targeting civilians even more
sort of psychologically terroristic
concepts people have been hung from
traffic bridges at rush hour
coolers full of heads have been
delivered to police stations that sort
of thing they’re really trying to get
into the hearts and minds of people how
would you say they affect day-to-day
life in Mexico to a huge degree and it
depends on where in Mexico you are in
northern Mexico largely it’s the
violence like I say thousands of people
are being killed
over 3,000 murdered in Juarez last year
alone but in the south it’s even bigger
than that a lot of the people in the
South they feel very alienated from the
central government in Mexico City
they’re poor Dauphin indigenous people
who don’t speak Spanish don’t have
running water or electricity
and when a cartel like la familia
provides them with education with health
care it really makes a difference and it
really can sway their allegiance and
what about in the United States well in
the United States the big difference is
the volume of drugs that are available
there’s very little violence in the u.s.
right now related to the cartels because
the cartels know better than to pick a
fight with the US law enforcement or the
military what violence there has been in
the US has been limited mainly to
illegal immigrants who are involved with
the drug trade either not paying their
bills not doing what they’re told there
has been a spark of violence in Canada
particularly British Columbia the
marijuana they’re grown there is so
potent that has attracted the cartels
and they’re trading stimulant drugs
cocaine and meth for marijuana which is
bringing these kinds of drugs and their
after-effects and the violence they
caused to communities that had never
seen that sort of thing before what kind
of research did you have to undertake to
get this book written a lot it was it
was it was really intense but one of the
things that has happened in Mexico is
that the journalists from Mexico have
been hunted and threatened and kidnapped
and in some cases murdered and a lot of
the events are not reported locally as a
matter of fact the newspaper
leading daily newspaper in Huaraz once
dedicated its entire front page to an
open letter to the cartels saying please
don’t kill our people anymore just tell
us what we’re allowed to write but the
flip side of that is that foreign
journalists particularly from North
America are not targeted people from CNN
and other you know big organizations can
go down there with almost you know a
level of impunity and a large part of
that is because the cartels I believe in
a large part that they are freedom
fighters that they’re trying to
overthrow a
bad regime and that if they get enough
exposure in Western media perhaps they
may get the sympathies of the West thank
you very much thank you
power in recent years hi I’m Rebecca
Brayton and welcome to watchmojo.com and
today we’re speaking with journalist
Jerry Langton about Mexican drug cartels
and his book gangland what are the
characteristics of a Mexican drug cartel
there were always gangs in in in Mexico
and they were never very powerful for
decades they worked for the Colombians
but then they got the idea that they
could make more money selling the drugs
than just ferrying them into North
America and they took over and they have
been unbelievably efficient from
successful and brutally so in a large
part because of the corruption of the
Mexican government not only does that
aid them in their tasks but it also
keeps the public on their side for a
great degree how did they first start to
gain traction they gained traction when
the Colombians sort of went down I mean
everybody remembers the DEA and its
allies pursuing Pablo Escobar finally
killing him as the government says South
America got serious about chasing down
the cartels the focus moved to Mexico
and the Mexicans tended to be more
brutal and better marketers they sold
for lower prices I mean there’s a
recording of Italian mafia leaders
saying that you know time has never been
so good for them now that the Mafia’s
are selling for a price if the
Colombians could never match now you’ve
mentioned drugs quite a bit what kind of
crimes are they most commonly involved
in they fight a lot you know in the last
four years there have been about 45,000
deaths attributed to the Mexican drug
war but ten more thousand people missing
and at least a quarter million displaced
from their homes and they use a lot of
methods that we would consider
terroristic bombs rocket-propelled
grenades targeting civilians even more
sort of psychologically terroristic
concepts people have been hung from
traffic bridges at rush hour
coolers full of heads have been
delivered to police stations that sort
of thing they’re really trying to get
into the hearts and minds of people how
would you say they affect day-to-day
life in Mexico to a huge degree and it
depends on where in Mexico you are in
northern Mexico largely it’s the
violence like I say thousands of people
are being killed
over 3,000 murdered in Juarez last year
alone but in the south it’s even bigger
than that a lot of the people in the
South they feel very alienated from the
central government in Mexico City
they’re poor Dauphin indigenous people
who don’t speak Spanish don’t have
running water or electricity
and when a cartel like la familia
provides them with education with health
care it really makes a difference and it
really can sway their allegiance and
what about in the United States well in
the United States the big difference is
the volume of drugs that are available
there’s very little violence in the u.s.
right now related to the cartels because
the cartels know better than to pick a
fight with the US law enforcement or the
military what violence there has been in
the US has been limited mainly to
illegal immigrants who are involved with
the drug trade either not paying their
bills not doing what they’re told there
has been a spark of violence in Canada
particularly British Columbia the
marijuana they’re grown there is so
potent that has attracted the cartels
and they’re trading stimulant drugs
cocaine and meth for marijuana which is
bringing these kinds of drugs and their
after-effects and the violence they
caused to communities that had never
seen that sort of thing before what kind
of research did you have to undertake to
get this book written a lot it was it
was it was really intense but one of the
things that has happened in Mexico is
that the journalists from Mexico have
been hunted and threatened and kidnapped
and in some cases murdered and a lot of
the events are not reported locally as a
matter of fact the newspaper
leading daily newspaper in Huaraz once
dedicated its entire front page to an
open letter to the cartels saying please
don’t kill our people anymore just tell
us what we’re allowed to write but the
flip side of that is that foreign
journalists particularly from North
America are not targeted people from CNN
and other you know big organizations can
go down there with almost you know a
level of impunity and a large part of
that is because the cartels I believe in
a large part that they are freedom
fighters that they’re trying to
overthrow a
bad regime and that if they get enough
exposure in Western media perhaps they
may get the sympathies of the West thank
you very much thank you
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