{"id":7051,"date":"2020-02-04T14:25:36","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T19:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=7051"},"modified":"2020-02-04T14:26:45","modified_gmt":"2020-02-04T19:26:45","slug":"inside-mexicos-war-on-drugs-conversations-with-el-narco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=7051","title":{"rendered":"Inside Mexico\u2019s War on Drugs: Conversations with \u2018El Narco\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure style=\"width: 6016px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/310622\/original\/file-20200117-118315-z81n0y.jpg\" width=\"6016\" height=\"4016\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">More than 35,000 people were killed in Mexico in 2019, the deadliest year on record. Violence has spiked as a result of the government\u2019s ongoing assault on drug cartels. Leonardo Emiliozzi Ph \/ Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I am from northern Mexico, one of the regions most affected by the global <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/rising-suicides-in-mexico-expose-the-mental-health-toll-of-living-with-extreme-chronic-violence-99131\">war on drugs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>From 2008 to 2012 my hometown \u2013 which I\u2019m not naming here for safety reasons \u2013 went through one of the most violent times in its history. Shootings between cartels and the military became frequent events, which could happen at any time of the day anywhere in the city. I personally witnessed a shooting just across from the university where I used to teach.<\/p>\n<p>My friends and family had similar experiences. Some of them witnessed shootings from their cars, others from their home.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the growing violence, the Zetas cartel started to bribe the local businesses. If owners did not pay, the cartel would either destroy their businesses or kidnap a family member. As a result, many businesses had to close their doors. The cartels fueled paranoia on social media. \u201cDo not come out tonight,\u201d a tweet would warn, \u201cbecause there will be a shooting.\u201d Sometimes, these threats proved to be true.<\/p>\n<p>Similar <a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\/mexican-mennonites-combat-fears-of-violence-with-a-new-christmas-tradition-127982\">terror<\/a> is occurring <a href=\"https:\/\/www.milenio.com\/mileniotv\/policia\/cierran-negocios-por-violencia-en-cordoba-veracruz\">across Mexico<\/a> as a <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/a-record-29-000-mexicans-were-murdered-last-year-can-soldiers-stop-the-bloodshed-90574\">result of the war on cartels launched by former President Felipe Calder\u00f3n<\/a> in 2006. The violence unleashed by the government\u2019s assault on drug-trafficking groups <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/a-record-29-000-mexicans-were-murdered-last-year-can-soldiers-stop-the-bloodshed-90574\">has wracked a nation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Life stories of former drug traffickers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Not wanting to stay in a country where I felt so vulnerable, I decided to continue my postgraduate studies abroad, in England. There, I channeled my frustration with Mexico\u2019s war on cartels into my <a href=\"https:\/\/research-information.bris.ac.uk\/files\/193726176\/Final_Copy_2018_11_06_Garcia_K_G_PhD_Redacted.pdf\">doctoral dissertation<\/a>, which analyzes drug-related violence through the lens of those who committed the crimes.<\/p>\n<p>Between October 2014 and January 2015, I interviewed 33 men who used to work in the drug trade to understand how their experiences relate to their involvement in drug trafficking. From street drug dealers to hitmen and bodyguards, I found, they all share similar life stories.<\/p>\n<p>These firsthand interviews with former drug traffickers, widely known as \u201cnarcos\u201d in Mexico, bring a new perspective to <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/us\/topics\/mexican-drug-wars-37657\">political science research on Mexico\u2019s drug war<\/a>: that of the perpetrators.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"eYZRM\" class=\"tc-infographic-datawrapper\" style=\"border: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/eYZRM\/3\/\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This analysis of the narcos\u2019 narratives sheds light on the possible causes of these men\u2019s involvement in the drug trade and elucidates the logic through which they understand the world.<\/p>\n<p>This view is almost entirely neglected by researchers and politicians. To date, Mexican policies to <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/el-chapo-jailbreak-is-both-a-mexican-and-an-american-story-44679\">curb drug trafficking<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/amnesty-for-drug-traffickers-thats-one-mexican-presidential-candidates-pitch-to-voters-96063\">reduce violence<\/a> have been designed using solely the logic of policymakers.<\/p>\n<p>Is it any surprise they\u2019ve failed?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Neither monsters nor victims<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My research begins with the premise that the narcos are part of Mexican society, just like anyone else. They are exposed to the same messages, values and traditions.<\/p>\n<p>Yet the Mexican government has systematically rejected this notion, preferring to invoke the same binaries present in U.S. policies like the war on drugs and the war on terror. It\u2019s \u201cus\u201d against \u201cthem,\u201d this framing goes: the \u201cgood guys\u201d versus the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1177\/0094582X13509069\">bad people<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the movies, the narcos are portrayed as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/traffic-2001\">bloodthirsty criminals<\/a>. More compassionate views, especially in academia, suggest the drug trade is the \u201conly option\u201d for poor kids in <a href=\"http:\/\/mexicanadesociologia.unam.mx\/docs\/vol74\/num1\/v74n1a1.pdf\">cartel-infested parts of the country<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond being simplistic, such framing conceals nuances that may actually help to explain the root causes of Mexico\u2019s drug violence.<\/p>\n<p>The narcos I spoke with do not see themselves as victims or monsters. They do not justify their involvement in the drug trade as a survival strategy. They acknowledge that they chose this illegal industry \u2013 even when work in the informal economy would have allowed them to support their families \u2013 because, they told me, they wanted \u201cmore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"4hwfg\" class=\"tc-infographic-datawrapper\" style=\"border: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/4hwfg\/2\/\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Despite seeing themselves as free agents who decided to work in the drug trade, the men I interviewed also see themselves as disposable. They shared feelings of social exclusion and a lack of a life purpose, making them feel that their lives are worthless.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew I was alone,\u201d one man, Rigoleto, told me. \u201cIf I wanted something, I had to get it myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My research also reveals that these narcos embrace the government\u2019s binary discourse. They identified as \u201cthey\u201d \u2013 the people excluded from \u201cour\u201d civil society. The former drug traffickers I spoke with also reproduce the individualistic, every-man-for-himself ethos that has permeated Mexican society since the introduction of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/3993429\">neoliberal, U.S.-style economic system<\/a> in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n<p>This ethos is a double-edged sword. Mexico\u2019s narcos may not blame the state or society for their condition of poverty \u2013 each is, after all, his own man \u2013 but they don\u2019t feel remorse for their crimes, either. They had the \u201cbad luck\u201d of being born in poverty, they told me, and their victims had the \u201cbad luck\u201d to be in their way.<\/p>\n<p>The narco\u2019s logic is simple, according to Yuca, one of the men I interviewed: We are, all of us, bound to the \u201claw of the fittest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Cristian said: \u201cIn my neighborhood we all knew the rules: You snooze, you lose. That was the law. You have to be tough, you have to be violent, you have to take care of yourself, because nobody will do it for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Poverty: A fixed and inevitable condition<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is one of several shared values I identified in my interviews, which together form what I refer to in my dissertation as \u201cthe narco discourse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The narco discourse puts poverty in sharp relief. The men I spoke with believe poor people have no future and, therefore, have nothing to lose.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew I would grow up and die in poverty,\u201d said one of my interviewees, Wilson. \u201cI just asked God: Why me?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Poverty is understood as an inevitable condition. \u201cSomebody has to be poor,\u201d said one man, Lamberto.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is nothing you can do to avoid it,\u201d said another, Tabo.<\/p>\n<p>The narco discourse also assumes that poor children will, like them, inevitably become involved with drugs and gangs. It is taken for granted that poor children have no future, that they are disposable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you grow up in a poor neighborhood you know that at some point you will become a drug addict,\u201d said Palomo. \u201cWhen you are a drug addict you see yourself as rubbish. Who would care about the life of a poor drug addict?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In this crowd, I learned, an early death is also seen as inevitable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you see so many of your peers dying in street fights, from an overdose, shot by the police, you think that that is your future as well,\u201d a man I\u2019ll call Tigre told me.<\/p>\n<p>The possibility of being killed or killing, then, isn\u2019t necessarily a drawback of the drug trade. The kids who grow up to be drug traffickers assume that death is their destiny.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI always thought that my destiny was to die from an overdose or by a bullet,\u201d said Pancho.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Consumerism<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of the few ways poor kids with this worldview could imagine enjoying life, they told me, is by buying stuff \u2013 nice stuff, luxury items, things they couldn\u2019t afford.<\/p>\n<p>The only way to achieve that is with the \u201ceasy money\u201d that an \u201ceasy life\u201d in the drug business would give them.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"IXKnS\" class=\"tc-infographic-datawrapper\" style=\"border: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/IXKnS\/1\/\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>They understood the happiness brought on by easy money to be momentary. But still, they said, it was worth it. My interview subjects assume that \u201cin this world you\u2019re a nobody without money,\u201d as Canastas put it.<\/p>\n<p>Crucially, the narcos recognize that the flip side of the \u201ceasy life\u201d is either death or jail.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne day you are in a nice restaurant, surrounded by beautiful women and important people,\u201d Ponciano told me. \u201cThe next day you may wake up in a dungeon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why the easy life has to be so fast, so hedonistic \u2013 to maximize the benefits of that easy money.<\/p>\n<p>As Jaime told me, \u201cMy goal was to live every day as if was the last. I did not pinch pennies when it came to enjoy[ing] myself. [I bought] the best trucks, the best wines [and had] the most beautiful women.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2018A real man\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the narco discourse, physical violence is essential to survive, literally, in poor neighborhoods which participants referred as \u201cthe jungle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Violence, I was informed, is learned. Men are not born violent, but they must become violent. As Jorge explained:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I was a child, older children hit me, they took advantage of me because I was alone. I was not violent, but I had to become even more violent than them. You must do it if you want to survive in the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In \u201cthe jungle,\u201d men also had to keep a certain reputation as a \u201creal man.\u201d As they see it, that means being an aggressive, heterosexual, violent womanizer. A true man is \u201cgood for the party, drugs and alcohol,\u201d said D\u00e1vila.<\/p>\n<p>The real man cannot show his fears \u2013 no emotions, no weaknesses. The best way to hide them, the narcos I interviewed said, is by proving their strength. This can be done in different ways: within your own gangs, fighting rival gangs or at home, with their family.<\/p>\n<p>A recurrent theme in my interviews was the anger that participants felt against their fathers, most of whom were domestic abusers.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-eight out of the 33 men admitted that at some point in their lives their greatest aspiration had been to kill their fathers. All said their biggest frustration had been watching their fathers beat their mothers. They wanted revenge not for themselves, but for their mothers.<\/p>\n<p>The men invoked the trauma of witnessing gender violence not only when we spoke about their childhood but also when we discussed their reasons for illegal acts like drug use, vandalism and drug trafficking.<\/p>\n<p>To some participants, a fantasy of making their fathers suffer was their main motivation to work in the drug trade.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy only thought was to kill my father when I grew up,\u201d Rorro explained. \u201cI wanted to cut him into little pieces.\u201d Being a narco gave him that power.<\/p>\n<p>A man named Ponciano told me that he thought of his father when he was torturing his victims.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I made them suffer even more, like he made us suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Not everyone who had the opportunity to kill their fathers could follow through. Facundo, wishing his father to suffer but unable to kill him, told his dad to leave town.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I see you again, I will kill you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What can we learn in Latin America?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Poverty and toxic masculinity. These are, my research finds, two common themes driving the men who commit <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/murder-and-the-mexican-state-34286\">so much violence not only in Mexico<\/a> but across Latin America, the <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/how-to-fix-latin-americas-homicide-problem-79731\">world\u2019s most violent region<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The everyday life of these narcos are a breeding ground for all sorts of violence, from domestic abuse to gang rivalry. When policymakers focus on \u201cending drug violence,\u201d this is the view so often missing.<\/p>\n<p>Even when poverty is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scielo.org.mx\/pdf\/desacatos\/n40\/n40a2.pdf\">acknowledged<\/a> as the root of other major social problems in Mexico, as some <a href=\"https:\/\/revistas.uam.es\/index.php\/relacionesinternacionales\/article\/viewFile\/5115\/5568\">researchers have done<\/a>, there is insufficient knowledge of what living in poverty actually means for these people. While many experiences of poverty where shared by my interviewees, each person in each region and each neighborhood had their own problems and specific needs.<\/p>\n<p>Understanding how that background leads to violence would mean listening \u2013 really listening \u2013 to men like those I interviewed. And it means asking questions that don\u2019t fit within the \u201cus versus them\u201d mentality of presidents, policymakers and police chiefs. To design more effective policies for ending violence, one must understand the logic, the worldview, of its perpetrators.<\/p>\n<p>Where does all this violence come from? Who justifies its use, and how? How is violence reproduced within Mexican families, and echoed within communities? When the government responds to this violence with more violence \u2013 by <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/a-record-29-000-mexicans-were-murdered-last-year-can-soldiers-stop-the-bloodshed-90574\">sending soldiers out to fight crime<\/a>, as Mexico has done for 12 years \u2013 what message does that send?<\/p>\n<p>As long as governments maintain their discourse about \u201cgood people\u201d versus \u201cbad men,\u201d my research suggests, it will only feed \u201ctheir\u201d indifference to \u201cus.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><em>This article was adapted from the <a href=\"https:\/\/ciperchile.cl\/2020\/01\/03\/por-que-fracasa-la-guerra-contra-el-narcotrafico-entrevista-a-33-ex-narcos-mexicanos-para-quienes-morir-es-un-alivio\/\">original version<\/a>, published on The Conversation Espa\u00f1a as part of a collaboration with the Centro de Investigaci\u00f3n Period\u00edstica (<a href=\"https:\/\/ciperchile.cl\/\">CIPER<\/a>) in Chile.<\/em><!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;\" src=\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/129865\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic\" alt=\"The Conversation\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\"><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: http:\/\/theconversation.com\/republishing-guidelines --><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/karina-g-garcia-reyes-931217\">Karina G.Garcia Reyes<\/a>, Profesora de la Escuela de Sociolog\u00eda, Pol\u00edtica y Relaciones Internacionales y del departamento de Estudios Latinoamericanos, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/university-of-bristol-1211\">University of Bristol<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>This article is republished from <a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\">The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am from northern Mexico, one of the regions most affected by the global war on drugs. From 2008 to 2012 my hometown \u2013 which I\u2019m not naming here for safety reasons \u2013 went through one of the most violent times in its history. Shootings between cartels and the military became frequent events, which could&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":7355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/129865\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic","fifu_image_alt":"Inside Mexico\u2019s War on Drugs: Conversations with \u2018El Narco\u2019","footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security-public-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7051"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7054,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7051\/revisions\/7054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}