Very in-depth

Excellent insight to another world, some accents were a break from the seriousness of the research but over all a fascinating world put together by the author

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What an eye opener.

Haven't heard anything faster. Great intro for people not aware of this longstanding rot across Latam. Funny how it's not better known the world over. Would be amazing if author took a shot at analysing similar outcrops in other parts of the world.

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Sincere and Thoughtful Exploration of the Horror

This book picks up and expands upon the theme explored in the chapter "Insurgency" from Ioan Grillo's previous book, El Narco. It sits nicely in between this first book, about the rise of Mexican cartels specifically, and his most recent one about the not-so-well-hidden role of American guns in perpetuating the chaos.

Grillo is an authentic and sincere journalist, the real deal. His thesis is that modern drug gangs are a new type of organisation that defy existing categories we typically use to understand them. He draws commonalities from the stories of the Red Commando in Brazil, the Shower Posse in Jamaica, MS-13 in the Northern Triangle and the Knights Templar in Michoacán, Mexico. I found this thesis to be well argued and persuasive.

They are criminal gangs, but on such an unprecedented scale that they have thoroughly corrupted the nation state. Once convicted and imprisoned, their influence grows rather than shrinks. The leaders are warlords, seeking to control the local territory and replacing the functions of government, but only to clear space for their operations. They use terrorist violence, but without any real political ambitions. They are not armies, but they are better armed than most, and it's not a war although the body count and normalisation of extreme violence is the same.

The drug wars have become so normalised now, reduced to a type of ghoulish entertainment to binge on Netflix. I was about halfway through watching Narcos Mexico when I realised it was little more than glamourised narco violence porn and another type of profiteering from the misery of real people who live in the middle of all this depravity.

In looking for more information on the drug wars, I've discovered the reality is far, far more disturbing than we generally see on screen. There has been a vicious circle of desensitisation to violence, leading to ever increasing levels of it to control, terrorise and act as a perverse currency of status. For some of these gangsters, they have fallen back to a medieval indifference to suffering, and the violence they perpetrate is by civilised standards - whatever that might mean - simply batsh*t insane.

What's happening in Latin America is a humanitarian disaster, and a source of global destabilisation. This book explores the pervasive rot across the region, the necessity of a new approach, and what that might be. I believe it to be an important contribution to the debate.

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Great read

Very interesting full of lots of information over 3 different place in South America brilliant

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Good Book but Same Old Same Old

Very comprehensive book but depressing in that there seems to be a lot of books all saying the same thing, but the problem has been going on for decades and nothing changes. I feel like I've read enough about the drug trade in South America. I greatly admire the author for getting so involved & living in Mexico - I wonder why a journalist would risk his life to report on it. Time for legalisation or at least de-criminalisation of drugs otherwise tens of thousands will continue to be killed.

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A worrying picture

A real insight into drugs, gangs, killings, criminals etc
A shame that it is a few years old.

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Mixed feelings

The content was great, highly informative and detailed.
The narrator themselves and very good too. However, occasionally the juxtaposition between the two is insurmountable. I think a better narrator could have been picked for this topic.

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the greatest insight you could have!

phenomenal delivery and more depth into a secret world that would be impenetrable to the normal person

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Shocking facts about the drug wars in LATAM

I have been on several trips to Latin America and crossed the border from Texas to Mexico multiple times to work with my customers there. I had seen things on the street that were unbelievable and safety was always on my mind. I thought I knew the stories. However this book really shook me on the scale and hopelessness of the violence. Its a well researched book and well narrated. Unfortunately there are no heroes in this story

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Intriguing, enlightening and horrifying.

I honesty thought Grillo might have been pulling my leg at some points in this book. Such as when he described the written litanies of prayer members of one Mexican drug cartel say to their founder, or the fervent socialist selling rocks of crack to the people he claims to be fighting for. But a few minutes on google confirms all these to be true, adding surreal colour to the doleful litany of murder and torture that forms the backdrop to all the people and groups he profiles, and is careful not to glamorize.

He also does an excellent job of conveying to someone who comes from a completely different world, why these loathsome bands of thugs and predators often enjoy a surprising degree of support in the communities they blight. Thriving not only through fear, but by offering a ghastly alternative government to impoverished people who feel utterly abandoned and betrayed by the authorities.

This book is well researched (at obvious risk to the author and many of his sources), well told, and opened my eyes to a world I knew little about. It's a depressing commentary on the western media that we hear almost nothing about a whole slew of countries that are in a state of de-facto civil war between gangsters and government.

The one slight criticism I have is that I would have liked a smattering of global context to get a better idea of whether this is a phenomenon more pronounced in Latin America than elsewhere.

Narrator is also very good.

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9 people found this helpful