Randi Kreiss

Hair-raising tale of drug cartel hits home

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”The so-called Mexican drug problem isn’t the Mexican drug problem. It’s the American drug problem. There’s no seller without a buyer. The solution isn’t in Mexico, and never will be.”
—“The Cartel,” by Don Winslow

I cherish a dreamy memory of Mexico. It was 1990, and we were on vacation in Zihuatanejo, then a sleepy fishing village, on the Pacific coast. Some of our friends went fishing that day, and caught a huge dolphin, its silvery skin awash in gold and blue. When they chugged into the dock, they turned the 5-foot-long fish over to some kids with instructions to carry it up to the village where it could be grilled at one of the local restaurants.

We met our fishermen friends at the café. The fish was filleted and grilled. As the sun slid into the sea, lights strung across the dirt road pierced the darkness. We sat at wooden tables and ate fish. Mariachis played. Our Mexican friends drank beer and began to sing — plaintive love songs that could just about break your heart.

I went back to Mexico several times after that, most recently last year, when I traveled to San Miguel de Allende in the mountains north of Mexico City. I love the country and the people, but I will never go back again.

Last week I closed the last chapter of “The Cartel,” by Don Winslow, and at the same time closed the chapter on travel south of the border — until and unless the drug wars there come to an end.

A few facts: Best estimates set the number of dead in the drug wars at more than 60,000 since 2006, with some 27,000 officially missing. Mexican drug lords control some 90 percent of all cocaine that comes into the U.S. Cocaine, heroin and marijuana are grown and processed in Mexico, and also transported through the country from points south. The destination is always the same: the U.S., where the appetite for illicit drugs is, apparently, insatiable. And it’s big business, with estimates ranging from $19 billion to $29 billion a year in profits. That buys a lot of politicians, snitches, federales and foot soldiers. Over 19 years, some 100 writers and journalists have been killed trying to report the story.

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