A Narco History

How the United States and Mexico Jointly Created the “Mexican Drug War”

The term Mexican Drug War misleads. It implies that the ongoing bloodbath, which has now killed well over 100,000 people, is an internal Mexican affair. But this diverts attention from the US role in creating and sustaining the carnage. It's not just that Americans buy drugs from and sell weapons to Mexico's murderous cartels. It's that ever since the US prohibited the use and sale of drugs in the early 1900s, it has pressured Mexico into acting as its border enforcer - with increasingly deadly consequences. Mexico was not a helpless victim. Powerful forces within the country profited hugely from supplying Americans with what their government forbade them. But the policies that spawned the drug war have proved disastrous for both countries. Written by two award-winning authors, one American and the other Mexican, A Narco History reviews the interlocking 20th-century histories that produced this 21st-century calamity and proposes how to end it.

©2015 Carmen Boullosa and Mike Wallace (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Blame America

There is a lot of interesting, factual information in this book. There is also a whole lot of opinion scattered heavily throughout. Somehow, Americans' freedom to own AR15's puts RPG's (rocket propelled grenades) on the streets of Mexico?

Very detailed

This is a great, albeit brief, history of the Mexican war on drugs. Detailed through the political climate in Mexico and US influence on Mexico, it tells the story of why and how. But I do recommend that the reader or listener have some background information on the Marco situation in Mexico as a lot of names and dates are thrown around and can be confusing.

Learned A Lot!

The historical view point taken by the author was interesting and lined up the facts in another book I read about the history of the war on drugs. the main characters of in this book lined up with the characters in the other book. the underlining theme of both books support the fact that the war on drugs was created by the same country aiming to stop it. Good listen, will get the hard copy for future research.

Comprehensive and compelling.

This is a very well-researched dialectical analysis of a very busy topic. Helps you get a grasp on all the factors leading up to what we commonly refer to as the "Mexican Drug War". The ending is a bit lack-luster though as it suggests still relying on capitalism (be it a capitalism with a friendly mask) to fix these socio-economic problems where all of his research clearly leads one to believe a revolution is the only solution. But overall I really liked this book.

Excellent overview

This was a great experience. really appreciated that they went in depth with Mexican history I feel that the extra perspective really helped flesh out the focus on the modern aspects of the drug war. I also really appreciated the fact that they mentioned the ridiculousness of calling it the "Mexican drug war" and added the US.