Journalist and author Ioan Grillo speaks on the situation in Mexico including: the relationship between the cartels and the government, how the level of violence skyrocketed in the 2000s, why beheadings became a modus operandi, what it's like t…
Journalist and author Ioan Grillo speaks on the situation in Mexico including: the relationship between the cartels and the government, how the level of violence skyrocketed in the 2000s, why beheadings became a modus operandi, what it's like to live in Mexico, his new book on gun trafficking, solutions which include drug & gun policy reform/rule of law, and the future for AMLO and Mexico as he sees it.
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Websites
http://www.ioangrillo.com
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Show Notes
What Trump Didn’t Say About the Massacre in Mexico https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/06/opinion/mormons-mexico.html
About the Guest
I’m a journalist and writer based in Mexico City. I’ve been covering Latin America since 2001 for news media including Time Magazine, CNN, Reuters, The Houston Chronicle, The Associated Press, GlobalPost, France 24, CBC, The Sunday Telegraph, Letras Libres and many others. My work has also appeared in The New York Times, BBC and Guardian. I am author of the books Gangster Warlords: Drug Dollars, Killing Fields and the New Politics of Latin America (released 2016) and El Narco: Inside Mexico’s Criminal Insurgency (released 2011).
I started covering drug cartels from my early days here. I was always fascinated by the riddle of these ghost like figures who made $30 billion a year, were idolized in popular songs and miraculously escaped the Mexican army and DEA. Over the decade I followed the mystery to endless murder scenes on bullet-ridden streets, mountains where drugs are born as pretty flowers, and scarred criminals from prison cells to luxury condos.
During the same time, Mexico’s drug war morphed into a horrific conflict with brutal beheadings, massacres and mass graves. Journalists here found ourselves reporting on a human tragedy of epic proportions – wit..
