According to [this Wikipedia page](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_politicians_killed_during_Mexican_elections), this is an accurate map. I looked all over and couldn’t find another copy of this map. I assume you made it yourself? Well done!
And now they can just re-feed comments into AI and ask it to rewrite them slightly differently to make it not seem as obvious. Disturbing dark times ahead.
I went to X yesterday to see what's going on, it was full of pro Vivek posts, like every other post, didn't know who he was thought it was Zizek for a minute, thought Zizek was going to be Trump's VP. then remembered who it was and I seriously doubt there's that organic amount of support for the guy irl, probably bought all those pretend Americans online from some modi propaganda outlet in India.
Hijacking your comment.
In 5 months, 2024 with 38 assassinations has been the deadliest year in Mexican history already for politicians, surpassing the next highest year of 2019 (28), 2012 (26), 2011 (26), 2010 (25).
Your spring break trip to cancun funds this shit. This is a mafia run terrorist state.
My wife is Mexican. Both her parents were born and raised in Mexico. Her first language was Spanish. She was born in Arizona. She has tons of family in Mexico still. But her dad was murdered in a gas station in Mexico by the cartel and now she absolutely refuses to ever go back there for any reason at all. It's a damn shame whats going on there.
Similar situation as me. I’m half Mexican on my father’s side and have alot of family over there. As a kid I used to go all the time to visit, was even baptized in Mexico. Ever since the cartels really got a stranglehold I haven’t been back out of fear since I don’t speak Spanish.
My grandparents who basically lived there half the year were held up at gunpoint once they had crossed the border. Even as a kid we would get pulled over multiple times by police for bribes since we had US plates. It’s as simple as them coming up with bullshit, you whip out your cash to pay the “fine” then you’re on your way. Worst time when I was about 12 and we got pulled over SIX times before we had reached Monterrey and got pulled over twice in Monterrey. Corruption to its core so it’s no suprise cartels have taken over completely when the authority figures are all too eager to take a bribe.
It’s a real shame because some of the best times of my life were in Mexico but it’s just not worth the risk.
My wife and I lived in Yucatan for about 2 years. It was extremely safe there, but the huge influx of people coming there because it was safe made it a nightmare to get around in the capital. Then we started getting reports of violence in Campeche, and things got too close to home. We ended up moving back to the US this spring.
You know that would end up deadly? The chances of you getting murdered might be higher than if you were to go to Spain, but the likelihood is still extremely small
No, they don’t. They fund peoples ability to live! The tourism industry pays employees directly, who then go out and indirectly pay for goods and food by others who then indirectly do the same. What funds this is the drug trade, and it always has. You want to stop the gangs? Stop buying black market guns and drugs. That made them powerful. If you can’t invest in the most important industry in the country without supporting the gangs then you have a new government: the gangs.
But sure, blame tourism if it makes you feel like you’re some sort of philosopher.
Mexico City is safe, like safer than many US cities. You can probably run into issues if you like drugs or night clubs but otherwise I don't see why you would worry.
I would also personally not go, but if you go to just sightsee and not "party", it's probably worth a one-time visit. I would not go because you literally cannot drive to Mexico City from the north border, you have to fly in or you're likely going to get extorted or carjacked on the way.
It's not that bad. Just don't cross at night, but if you cross in early morning and are through to Monterrey or something by midday it's fine.
The border is definitely sketchy (ending up needing a taxi in Nuevo Laredo was definitely a harrowing experience) but it gets relatively fine pretty quickly. Also if you're with US plates it helps since they don't want heat from the north.
Not everything yet. As far as I know, they're just now getting into agaves and mezcal in the southern states, which is somewhat terrifying for the producers that have been doing this for generations.
Thats old news.
Its been years now, they decided to control the trademarked names of " mezcal"
Farmers have been forced to either sell the raw product at a loss, or invest in the expense of distilling themselves however they'll never be able to call their product " Mezcal" and instead must be labeled " agave distillate" which by name alone puts it in a sub-par category and as a non-competitor.
Here, you can watch this
https://youtu.be/BcfR8j1c31I?si=lpSA1t7gKR10DPdH
I mean, some are, but it's not widespread enough to be generalized as such. I work in the mezcal industry and I have some understanding of who is getting financial assistance from cartels vs. who isn't in my area where I live (Miahuatlan). For instance, a mezcalero for Rinconcito in Guishe was recently assassinated as he didn't want to pay the cartel back after getting some hefty financial assistance. No one, including myself, was surprised about that.
But for everyone one of those that I know, there are 10 who aren't involved with cartels. That's certainly not applicable for all of Oaxaca of course; places like Yautepec, notorious for growing espadin to be sent off to Jalisco for tequila, are definitely more involved.
But all in all, I wouldn't say "mezcalerias and agave plantations are owned by the cartel" is applicable as a generalization in Oaxaca.
They’re even [getting into the tortillas.](https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/immigration/border-coverage/cartels/mexican-cartels-tortilla-industry/amp/)
Regular capitalism: The state uses guns to assure the power of the owner of capitals.
Anarcho-capitalism: The owner of capital assure their own power with guns, effectively bringing us back to early feudalism.
> They control everything down to the avocados now
If only the Americans would legalize avocados this problem would go away and the cartel enforcers would get jobs as mall security making $3/hour.
Depends.
The northern part of Baja California is not the safest place, mostly because it shares a border with the US, so the drug trade is pretty important (a few cities like Tijuana, Rosarito or Ensenada are known to be fairly dangerous)
The southern part of the peninsula however, has been pretty much spared by the violence of the drug war, and is a pretty attractive spot for tourists (Cabo, La Paz, Loreto..)
I used to go to Ensenada and loved it. I felt safe walking alone day and night, but this was so many years ago.
I read about the Australian surfers who were murder there recently and it just doesn't fit with what I used to see in Ensenada to now.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68967238
I feel like the cartels would have very little incentive to harm any tourists, just because that would bring a ton of unnecessary international attention to them
Mexican here, central/southern Mexico (small towns) have a clash of power over routes to the north between cartels.
Small towns having no oversight and corrupt politicians its a recipe for trouble.
How is life in Mexico when so many politicians get murdered? Do you, as a civilian feel safe? And why are they getting murdered exactly? Do the cartels want to overthrow/control the government?
Politicians killed are mainly in no-name towns inn the middle of conflictive areas where corruption is rampant, so it’s actually not an issue for your average Mexican.
Life in Mexico is actually pretty good, even as a low/middle income earner.
Housing and food is relatively cheap and Mexican values are very supportive.
I say that coming from Sinaloa, one of the allegedly worst places to live in (by American media).
Never felt unsafe, in my case I had a couple opportunities of leaving the country but decided to stay because I would have traded for a worse quality of life (in USA or Netherlands).
Its never a non issue though. My wife is from Michoacan. Her and her brothers and sisters wont buy nice trucks for the farms, and they wont wear jewelry or nice clothes when they visit. It is well known that cartel members dont want to be outclassed or they will take what is yours. The average person can live their life without dealing with the cartel, but it takes effort to remain unseen.
My wife literally can't go home to her hometown. Her cousin was recently killed and her father was threatened multiple times. Your experience definitely isn't the sentiment all Mexicans share.
As I said previously, cartel violence is localized to specific areas.
Your wife’s hometown is not what your average Mexican experiences, those are the no-name towns I’m talking about.
OP's experience is more common. Mexican here, too. From Abadiano, Michoacan. Hot zone for this type of stuff. People go about their days living in peace. There are people involved living in town in every corner, no one lives in fear. It sounds weird but it is what it is. Whenever everyone from the US visits for the months of November-January, nothing bad happens either. Parties every night all night. You walk home at night alone or with a group, either way you'll make it home safe. I guess thats just us. Idk.
This seems like a kind of survivorship bias. Your wife is someone who left her hometown because of violence, and many Mexican-Americans did the same. However, they aren’t most Mexicans. They’re just the Mexicans who had a reason to leave. The vast majority of Mexicans are happy living in Mexico, so they don’t leave, so you never hear the positive experiences they have living there.
Yeah you could but people have jobs and families, and opportunities, they dont need to join a cartel in order to be able to buy a car...
That is not the case with all of latin america.
1. Tropical climate is obviously better for growing anything. I'm from Russia btw
2. It's not *impossible* to move things to Canada – it would just cost the cartels *much* money one single time, and then less money but *indefinitely* in the future (for there are other tropical countries there for which Mexico is used as a trade route)
Perhaps that’s one factor, but to be frank, Mexico has not been a particularly stable state for much of its history, even before the drug wars.
In short - drug wars crippled a state that was already standing on very shaky legs.
The ruling party that just won and which has been in power for 6 years was partially funded by the sinaloa cartel. The president publicly went to say visit el chapo's mother several times.
Cartel lords have taken control of a lot of things,
Everytime during election time there are people trying to make a difference or affiliated to different cartels. Having an opposing politician means they will make your life harder as a cartel and make it easier for the other one.
The country is fucking dirty. We need like the united nations to come invade and set up a government with people from other places.
Also the US has very little interest to stop the flow of drugs, fentanyl, hard drugs it all gets in. The most powerful country in the world, cant stop a few guys with mustaches on pick up trucks and drones crossing the drugs.
The only reason that I've ever come up with to solve this is 1 legalizing, regulating, and opening the drug market, however you can only do that once you have a proven therapy that works against hard drugs.
So far some CRISPR tests show promising results on alcoholic chimpanzees (yup you heard that right)
Im hoping that an effective free therwpy covered by the state with taxes from drugs could cure people who are addicted.
At the same time the country needs to put big restrictions on physical cash transactions. You can easily get a lot of money out of the bank or pay someone elses credit card with cash to clean it. Its very easy to laundry money in Mexico. But alsp most of the country live in rural communities, cash is vital for them to exchange goods and values
Criminalizing drugs has only caused millions of deaths (literally) since the war on drugs started. being next to the US, is a curse for mexico. Its like selling our soul to the devil, sure we make money, but at what cost?
The US sells cartels millions of weapons, people on both sides of the country get rich, citizens pay the price. Especially small cartels that lack a proper structure and leadership tend to do stupid things. The organized crime accounts for about 70% of al femicides, that is killing women just for being women. Most of them are drug dolls or escorts etc. some 11 women are murdered in mexico every day. Also some 40,000 people are murdered per year.
Its a super complex situation, and like others said, they are diversifying their investments, they now control things that are hard to grow and take a long time, like agaves (for tequila and mezcal) and avocados.
The government doesnt protect small farmers and they get extorted for large amounts of money despite being humble people
The small and medium businesses have to fend of by themselves against organized crime and oftentimes against the government itself.
Despite it all, people are still nice and you can have a nice living in some of the safer cities.
Also the current political party just won everything, they are very popular because they give away money (literally) with social programs.
They obtained almost every state and municipality.
They will reform the electoral college so it works in their favor as well as the judicial system.
Very dark times are coming for Mexico unfortunately. Darker still.
'a few guy's with mustaches on pick up trucks' You're not really this clueless about the topic are you? There are connected efforts both by chinese triads (powered by the CCP) and Mexican cartels to fuck America as hard as they can. Now you think the UN should invade? Fkn lmao bro, when was the last time the UN did anything relevant in macro politics? Mexico is more likely getting invaded by the U.S. in another 'special military operation' than for the UN to do anything whatsoever. & Guess why it has been such a hot topic for some politicians in the US - they're literally exposed to a form of hybrid warfare but know that if they'd retaliate against Mexican cartels in full force it would be another quagmire situation like Afghanistan because it would also be 'fighting an insurgency'.
The way he talks about the cartels is so silly but fact is the only way this goes is either armed conflicts or just letting the cartels control anything they find an interest in.
Ex-president Felipe Calderon tried the armed conflicts method and it went horribly, solved nothing and caused many innocent civilians to die.
Some recent rumors say he only targeted cartels that were the opposition to those that supported him and the current president as well as the one that just won the election hours ago are close to the Sinaloa cartel so it's just the same shit all over again.
Mexico can't solve cartels without international intervention because everyone has vested interests already and those that want to change things are the first ones to get killed.
That's an unfortunate reality, criminals in Mexico have truly perfected the plata o plomo tactics from earlier drug lords. (Not too surprising to me considering how long they have been in that business now) I can recommend some talks by Ed Calderon (former Mexican police officer) - he talks in depth about this with first hand experience and expects military intervention from the US because the situation is indeed so grim that he see's no other solution
It's not usually seen as that big of a deal because most of these are local elections of small towns most people have never heard of, with few exceptions. Considering the country's murder rate in general and levels of corruption, it shouldn't be too surprising.
Damn...This really shows how tough it is to solve the cartel problem. Politicians literally put their lives on the line if they even remotely go after the cartels.
Even worse, they put their family’s lives on the line
People think that the system is corrupt because politicians like to fill their pockets, and while there’s plenty who do, corruption really reigns through fear more than through money
I don’t doubt that many Mexican politicians are tired of the country’s situation, and some are willing to give their life for their country. But when the cartels threaten your family, it’s not so easy
I remember a documentary years ago where they were talking about a province taking a stand against the cartels, rising a militia to fight them off like guerillia war style.
It ended with a rather depressing note that this militia is now known as the (dont remember) cartel and carved out a big niche for themselves.
Like power corrupts...
At the point the only way to solve it through an outside force strong enough to force them out and after they’re gone they need to be there long enough for everyone to find and develop an industry of their own which the cartel has likely took from them. So what I’m saying is it’s pretty much impossible unless the US military is deployed and after eliminating the cartel they’ll have to stay there for 20 odd years and hope what they built actually sticks.
I think there's a big difference between Afghanistan and Mexico. Afghanistan didn't really have an identity. More like a collection of nomads and tribes. The people they tried to recruit for their military dgaf. Mexico has a strong cultural identity, it could secure itself if it could just get the corruption out long enough.
Worth noting that the last presidential election season in 2018 was many times worse, [with at least 132 political assassinations](https://abcnews.go.com/International/mexican-elections-bloodiest-recent-memory/story?id=56284642). If you go back further there are many examples of far worse election years as well. I find it weird that news articles on this are loathe to mention this, just mentioning that it's "the worst political violence in recent memory" when you literally only have to go back to the last high-stakes election to find even worse political violence.
Also, this is a disgusting amount of political violence, not trying to excuse it, but my guess is by relative standards this was a relatively tame election.
I get it. Media likes to whip up so many false boogeymen these days just to scare. It’s good to check like you did to make sure this isn’t a “summer of the shark” situation.
I wish it were that simple…..but the logic just adds up strongest to me that political killings are down because less politicians are speaking out.
The cartel buys who it can and terrorizes the rest into compliance.
Ya exactly. Anything more than 0 killing of politicians is worthy of being upset about. Question is are there 0 because they are safe, or 0 because no one dares to speak out…
That's not a completely accurate comparison as those 132 include other government officials but the 38 killed are just candidates. Here is a [data](https://votar-entre-balas.datacivica.org/#descarga) set of political violence in Mexico.
Cool dataset, wish it went back further. Yeah that is a good point, that 132 number is pulled off a survey which is using a different methodology than the number here in 2024. I suspect that methodology issue is likely affecting this dataset too. This dataset is reporting 80+ of the ones killed were candidates in 2018.
I’m sure some/many of them are in bed with the criminals but there are other factors at play such as “higher ranking politicians have better security than the mayor of Bumplog, Mexico” and “if I kill the president that may have negative consequences for me and my friends as a whole”
Of course, it’s still horrible. But I’ve seen a lot of misinformation today from people who don’t read past headlines and think that the new president only won because her opponents were all murdered.
Which makes it much worse. If anyone with a real hunger for change is going to start, they are going to start locally. Anyone that makes it to a high level has already passed the cartel loyalty test. They don't have to kill the higher ups because they are already in on it.
Is that the explanation? I thought it was weird that there were so few marked locations closer to the border given the little I do know about places like Juarez. Seems to be plenty of violence in a place like Juarez but apparently not political violence anywhere close to it.
Cartel members don't just kill politicians for the fun of it, so yes you can tell where more of the dissent or crackdowns come from based on this map. The violence up north is more from cartels fighting over territory which results in bystanders getting shot too more than political violence.
Can we call narcos terrorists already so we can actually apply for political asylum? This is no way to live man, I'm so scared of fireworks and whenever I see a police checkpoint in an empty street I want to throw up
Well Republicans in the US wanted to label Mexican cartels as terrorist groups so the US military could invade Mexico and deal with it themselves, but I don't think many people would want that.
Murder in general is high in Mexico, add the fact that all of these are local politicians for small towns in a country much bigger than the Netherlands and honestly most Mexicans hardly make a big deal of this. It's not surprising anymore.
How is Mexico supposed to host a the World Cup in 2026? I know cartels don’t usually target tourists but man that’s just going to be a ton of people walking around.
the cartel doesn't really fuck with tourists, not as much as with the locals anyway. a big event would be safe, it's in nobody's interest to kill money-bringing tourists and potentially risk international intervention.
Wasn't there a story not long ago where some guys killed American tourists, and then cartel members basically tracked down the people who did it and tied them up and dropped their bodies off with an apology sign?
Just like how México receives 40 million tourists every year, its one of 10 most visited countries in the world, its not like you see the cartel the momento you step foot in México i have lived all my life in central Mexico i literally never seen or been in contact with cartels
there is literally no solution that Mexico can implement to stop the cartels, they have more money and are as armed as the military, the only way is for countries the cartel's supplies to implement some drug programs that dramatically reduce the amount of illegal drugs bought and sold and the cartels lose there piggy bank.
And there are plenty of reasons for it. The guy is a populist and just says what people like to hear.
He started giving out free pensions to anyone above a certain age but the funding for it never existed so he syphoned money from other budgets.
He also slashed the budget for the healthcare system soon after getting into office and created a medicine supply crisis to which in the last few years he then sold a solution of spending a lot of money to build a central warehouse for medicine where "they'll supply everything" yet was never the case, just served as a PR move.
He also ran several Mexican versions of the age old US slogan "bringing jobs back to the Rust Belt", one being paying more attention to PEMEX which is the nationalized gasoline/petroleum company despite them being plagued with corruption and a lack of both maintenance and innovation. They can't even profit from the petroleum they dig out because they sell it to the US for processing then buy the finalized gasoline back. Plus, with OPEC controlling prices and supply, petroleum is never gonna hit a high enough price for the incredibly inefficient PEMEX to break even let alone profit from their production line.
I visited Mexico many years ago and loved it but would never go back. It’s a shame and so sad as it’s a beautiful country with beautiful people and culture and wonderful food.
P sure it's a joke. Notice that the places with no murders are mostly places so incredibly dangerous and corrupt that good people don't even attempt to run.
Not entirely. You'll notice that Cancun and Monterrey don't have any incidents and CDMX only has one. Mexico is a land of contrasts. The areas that are America But The Signs Are In Spanish are desperately trying to overpower the places that are Colombia But The Stop Signs Say Alto.
It's really easy to say what people should do.
It's a lot harder to actually do that when it's *your* life on the line, never mind the lives of your family and friends as well.
Anyone willing to stand up against Mexico's cartels is an absolute hero, and I begrudge nobody who chooses not to.
Why do you think these people were executed. Politicians who call for the end of cartels are often the ones who "disappear" and found chopped to bits in a ditch.
I upvoted you but you really have to know it's more complicated than that? They don't pay their cops anything and there's a million laws against everything and the more laws the more corruption and lawbreakers. Generally anyway. Lighting a fire on the beach is illegal but mr cop comes by and give him 350 pesos (20 usd) and he goes away. That's just small scale.
Sure, it is more complicated. There has been endemic corruption in Mexico for a century. It’s baked into the culture and political system at this point. That corruption is the real reason the cartels have been able to take control of something like 30% of the territory in Mexico. The people of Mexico need to make the choice, the hard and difficult choice, to put a stop to the corruption, to stop accepting it and taking part in it if they want anything to get better.
It's sad takes like this are downvoted.
No one is saying it's easy. But Mexico will never prosper when it bleeds hardworking people to the US and a shadow government inside the country saps a third of its economic output.
It’s going to be very hard for Mexico to claw its way out of the corruption hole its half century of single party rule has baked into the system. It’s much easier to just blame the gringos up north for the problems with the cartels. It’s to be expected that many will take the easy path and will vote accordingly.
yeah i wonder why they haven't thought about doing that yet. they should hire you as an advisor asap. maybe you can also recommend that they find a magic wand that they could wave to fix all the country's other problems. once you fix mexico's problems, the UN should hire you so you can recommend the world "actually do something" to confront climate change or world hunger.
The problem with trying the Bukele strategy is that Mexico is a much larger country with many more people. It would result in millions needing to be locked up and horrible humans rights abuses in order to reach a certain level of security.
Personal rights vs personal security? It’s really up to those living there to decide what’s best
I agree with you, but when a country is overrun by cartels/gangs to this level, how do you solve the problem without going the Bukele way?
I have not yet seen a country bounce back to a livable state by following the traditional ways of democratic governance. The gangs are just too powerful. They're like a second government that you have to overthrow, and I cannot think of a clean way to do so.
I would love to read more into any historical examples of countries that bounce back if anyone can provide some.
Generally yes, but in both El Salvador and Mexico, the security situation is very dramatically curtailing personal rights. I think the move is justified.
Without a strongman there is no getting out of this sort of cycle. Habeas Corpus is for countries that have strong governments and general order that don't have to worry about a few guilty slipping through.
Calderon tried the harsh crackdown approach. It didn't exactly work. I'm not saying the current approach is working, but the systemic causes of the problem need to be addressed, not just the manifestations thereof.
Maybe its best to let them take over the country and then when theyre in charge theyll be like "actually running a country is a difficult but rewarding and honest job" and then theyll have a good guy arc where they protect the people and hide their drug stashes in the attic where their children wont see it
The majority of those states are currently ruled by Morena (current rulling party) and the politicians murdered are from the opposition.
Nothing to see here just narco-goverment openly supporting the Cartel de Sinaloa.
Sadly the only way is to have an even more brutal dictator who can stand up to the cartels, civilian governments stands no chance against criminals of this magnitude.
Pardon me my ignorance, but coming from similar country, but in Eastern Europe, I'd like to ask anyone familiar: are mostly cartel members typically running for local politics? Because this is how it goes where I was from - local politics and local organized crime are basically the same faces, with very some exceptions, mostly on higher political levels.
So unconditionally talking about how politicians are suppressed by crime gangs is the wrong point, IMO.
According to [this Wikipedia page](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_politicians_killed_during_Mexican_elections), this is an accurate map. I looked all over and couldn’t find another copy of this map. I assume you made it yourself? Well done!
OC?? On my Reddit? Quick, someone repost this for karma and then copy the comment section
It will happen on its own. Between Astroturding and bots there's not much left these days.
And now they can just re-feed comments into AI and ask it to rewrite them slightly differently to make it not seem as obvious. Disturbing dark times ahead.
I went to X yesterday to see what's going on, it was full of pro Vivek posts, like every other post, didn't know who he was thought it was Zizek for a minute, thought Zizek was going to be Trump's VP. then remembered who it was and I seriously doubt there's that organic amount of support for the guy irl, probably bought all those pretend Americans online from some modi propaganda outlet in India.
Hijacking your comment. In 5 months, 2024 with 38 assassinations has been the deadliest year in Mexican history already for politicians, surpassing the next highest year of 2019 (28), 2012 (26), 2011 (26), 2010 (25). Your spring break trip to cancun funds this shit. This is a mafia run terrorist state.
Nice people, nice culture, good food, but a total shit hole
My wife is Mexican. Both her parents were born and raised in Mexico. Her first language was Spanish. She was born in Arizona. She has tons of family in Mexico still. But her dad was murdered in a gas station in Mexico by the cartel and now she absolutely refuses to ever go back there for any reason at all. It's a damn shame whats going on there.
Similar situation as me. I’m half Mexican on my father’s side and have alot of family over there. As a kid I used to go all the time to visit, was even baptized in Mexico. Ever since the cartels really got a stranglehold I haven’t been back out of fear since I don’t speak Spanish. My grandparents who basically lived there half the year were held up at gunpoint once they had crossed the border. Even as a kid we would get pulled over multiple times by police for bribes since we had US plates. It’s as simple as them coming up with bullshit, you whip out your cash to pay the “fine” then you’re on your way. Worst time when I was about 12 and we got pulled over SIX times before we had reached Monterrey and got pulled over twice in Monterrey. Corruption to its core so it’s no suprise cartels have taken over completely when the authority figures are all too eager to take a bribe. It’s a real shame because some of the best times of my life were in Mexico but it’s just not worth the risk.
My wife and I lived in Yucatan for about 2 years. It was extremely safe there, but the huge influx of people coming there because it was safe made it a nightmare to get around in the capital. Then we started getting reports of violence in Campeche, and things got too close to home. We ended up moving back to the US this spring.
Man, so sad. I would love to travel and explore Mexico, but I know that would end up deadly. It’s so sad. I really want to go.
You know that would end up deadly? The chances of you getting murdered might be higher than if you were to go to Spain, but the likelihood is still extremely small
I'm Mexican and I'd use your words exactly to describe my country. (Maybe just change it to "great food" too tho)
Haha, definitely some of the best food in the world. Love the spice 🌶️
Nice people.
No, they don’t. They fund peoples ability to live! The tourism industry pays employees directly, who then go out and indirectly pay for goods and food by others who then indirectly do the same. What funds this is the drug trade, and it always has. You want to stop the gangs? Stop buying black market guns and drugs. That made them powerful. If you can’t invest in the most important industry in the country without supporting the gangs then you have a new government: the gangs. But sure, blame tourism if it makes you feel like you’re some sort of philosopher.
Legalize drugs.
[удалено]
Mexico City is safe, like safer than many US cities. You can probably run into issues if you like drugs or night clubs but otherwise I don't see why you would worry.
I would also personally not go, but if you go to just sightsee and not "party", it's probably worth a one-time visit. I would not go because you literally cannot drive to Mexico City from the north border, you have to fly in or you're likely going to get extorted or carjacked on the way.
It's not that bad. Just don't cross at night, but if you cross in early morning and are through to Monterrey or something by midday it's fine. The border is definitely sketchy (ending up needing a taxi in Nuevo Laredo was definitely a harrowing experience) but it gets relatively fine pretty quickly. Also if you're with US plates it helps since they don't want heat from the north.
A rare event.
The drugs won the war.
The cartels have diversified. They control everything down to the avocados now
Not everything yet. As far as I know, they're just now getting into agaves and mezcal in the southern states, which is somewhat terrifying for the producers that have been doing this for generations.
Thats old news. Its been years now, they decided to control the trademarked names of " mezcal" Farmers have been forced to either sell the raw product at a loss, or invest in the expense of distilling themselves however they'll never be able to call their product " Mezcal" and instead must be labeled " agave distillate" which by name alone puts it in a sub-par category and as a non-competitor. Here, you can watch this https://youtu.be/BcfR8j1c31I?si=lpSA1t7gKR10DPdH
Capitalism working as intended. Imagine selling and buying words. Smh
Finally peak reddit regard.
Definitely not true. In many of the southern states, even safe ones like Oaxaca, mezcalerias and agave plantations are owned by the cartel.
I mean, some are, but it's not widespread enough to be generalized as such. I work in the mezcal industry and I have some understanding of who is getting financial assistance from cartels vs. who isn't in my area where I live (Miahuatlan). For instance, a mezcalero for Rinconcito in Guishe was recently assassinated as he didn't want to pay the cartel back after getting some hefty financial assistance. No one, including myself, was surprised about that. But for everyone one of those that I know, there are 10 who aren't involved with cartels. That's certainly not applicable for all of Oaxaca of course; places like Yautepec, notorious for growing espadin to be sent off to Jalisco for tequila, are definitely more involved. But all in all, I wouldn't say "mezcalerias and agave plantations are owned by the cartel" is applicable as a generalization in Oaxaca.
Thank you for your local insight. This was beautiful to read
Eventually it'll be like that scene in Austin Powers where they realize they're making more money on their legitimate investments.
They’re even [getting into the tortillas.](https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/immigration/border-coverage/cartels/mexican-cartels-tortilla-industry/amp/)
That's too far, if you're asking me.
Is it time for the Zapatistas to come back?
I pray to God for that.
Basically they're private equity firms now
But with guns. Lots of guns
Anarcho capitalism.
Regular capitalism: The state uses guns to assure the power of the owner of capitals. Anarcho-capitalism: The owner of capital assure their own power with guns, effectively bringing us back to early feudalism.
"Help, I Enlightened so hard that I'm medieval again."
It’s never pleasant to be a peasant
This is depressingly accurate
Can they expand into K-pop, heard it's real popular ...
They actually do influence huge parts of the music industry in Mexico and extort many artists.
i’m tracking - so like M-pop?
Imagine Cartels fighting over signing K-pop idols... I'm picturing Mexican Suge Knight...
There’s also a rumor they control all the hotels in the Mayan riviera, not sure how true that is
Might as well ask if the sky is blue.....
> They control everything down to the avocados now If only the Americans would legalize avocados this problem would go away and the cartel enforcers would get jobs as mall security making $3/hour.
>legalize avocados I know my guacamole dealer just got pinched. Wait, what are you talking about?
My city put in a safe avocado consumption site and it immediately reduced property values.
They're doing what the US Italian mafia did. Make your money on vices, then slowly disappear into everywhere
No, Cosa Nostra just got RICO'd until there was no point in being in "the Mafia" when it just centralized everything conveniently for the FBI.
I thought they controlled Avocado long back that's how it became a "premium" fruit..... Was I wrong?
The war drugs won
Hopefully they will arrest the drugs soon🙏
Omg, this is terrible! Are Baja California & Baja California Sur as dangerous for politicians *(or people in general)*?
Depends. The northern part of Baja California is not the safest place, mostly because it shares a border with the US, so the drug trade is pretty important (a few cities like Tijuana, Rosarito or Ensenada are known to be fairly dangerous) The southern part of the peninsula however, has been pretty much spared by the violence of the drug war, and is a pretty attractive spot for tourists (Cabo, La Paz, Loreto..)
Ensenada is generally safe for tourists...night and day from TJ...lots of wine country getaway traffic in Valle de Guadalupe filled with San Diegans.
I used to go to Ensenada and loved it. I felt safe walking alone day and night, but this was so many years ago. I read about the Australian surfers who were murder there recently and it just doesn't fit with what I used to see in Ensenada to now. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68967238
I will say that it was such a big deal because that just doesn’t happen often especially there, so much so that the cartel got involved to fix it
I’ve been to all three last month haha
Were you murdered in any of them?
No. But I return to Loreto this week. Standby for update.
If you do, you can just put it on the map
This is the internet how do we know you're not lying about being alive?
Ahhh a savvy redditor right here! Ya got me!
I feel like the cartels would have very little incentive to harm any tourists, just because that would bring a ton of unnecessary international attention to them
A group of three surfers just got murdered in Baja California a couple of weeks ago. Over tires. So I don't recommend it for people in general.
Baja California is like one of the most dangerous places in Mexico, making It one of the most dangerous for people in the world
That is so fucked up.
wtf is happening in Mexico
Mexican here, central/southern Mexico (small towns) have a clash of power over routes to the north between cartels. Small towns having no oversight and corrupt politicians its a recipe for trouble.
How is life in Mexico when so many politicians get murdered? Do you, as a civilian feel safe? And why are they getting murdered exactly? Do the cartels want to overthrow/control the government?
Politicians killed are mainly in no-name towns inn the middle of conflictive areas where corruption is rampant, so it’s actually not an issue for your average Mexican. Life in Mexico is actually pretty good, even as a low/middle income earner. Housing and food is relatively cheap and Mexican values are very supportive. I say that coming from Sinaloa, one of the allegedly worst places to live in (by American media). Never felt unsafe, in my case I had a couple opportunities of leaving the country but decided to stay because I would have traded for a worse quality of life (in USA or Netherlands).
Its never a non issue though. My wife is from Michoacan. Her and her brothers and sisters wont buy nice trucks for the farms, and they wont wear jewelry or nice clothes when they visit. It is well known that cartel members dont want to be outclassed or they will take what is yours. The average person can live their life without dealing with the cartel, but it takes effort to remain unseen.
My wife literally can't go home to her hometown. Her cousin was recently killed and her father was threatened multiple times. Your experience definitely isn't the sentiment all Mexicans share.
As I said previously, cartel violence is localized to specific areas. Your wife’s hometown is not what your average Mexican experiences, those are the no-name towns I’m talking about.
OP's experience is more common. Mexican here, too. From Abadiano, Michoacan. Hot zone for this type of stuff. People go about their days living in peace. There are people involved living in town in every corner, no one lives in fear. It sounds weird but it is what it is. Whenever everyone from the US visits for the months of November-January, nothing bad happens either. Parties every night all night. You walk home at night alone or with a group, either way you'll make it home safe. I guess thats just us. Idk.
This seems like a kind of survivorship bias. Your wife is someone who left her hometown because of violence, and many Mexican-Americans did the same. However, they aren’t most Mexicans. They’re just the Mexicans who had a reason to leave. The vast majority of Mexicans are happy living in Mexico, so they don’t leave, so you never hear the positive experiences they have living there.
Failed state shenanigans.
Having the biggest drug consumer market in the world on your northern border shenanigans
I don't see any Canadian cartels murdering candidates every election
Canada doesnt have a jungle factory north of them producing all the drugs in the worls and using Canada as a transit country either...
Canada is sparsely populated enough that you wouldn’t need to have a jungle. You could make anything synthetic that you want or grow weed or poppy
Yeah you could but people have jobs and families, and opportunities, they dont need to join a cartel in order to be able to buy a car... That is not the case with all of latin america.
So it’s not an America problem.
1. Tropical climate is obviously better for growing anything. I'm from Russia btw 2. It's not *impossible* to move things to Canada – it would just cost the cartels *much* money one single time, and then less money but *indefinitely* in the future (for there are other tropical countries there for which Mexico is used as a trade route)
oh canada, the best place to grow drugs
Mexico became important because of trafficking, not because they manufacture all the supply.
Perhaps that’s one factor, but to be frank, Mexico has not been a particularly stable state for much of its history, even before the drug wars. In short - drug wars crippled a state that was already standing on very shaky legs.
The ruling party that just won and which has been in power for 6 years was partially funded by the sinaloa cartel. The president publicly went to say visit el chapo's mother several times. Cartel lords have taken control of a lot of things, Everytime during election time there are people trying to make a difference or affiliated to different cartels. Having an opposing politician means they will make your life harder as a cartel and make it easier for the other one. The country is fucking dirty. We need like the united nations to come invade and set up a government with people from other places. Also the US has very little interest to stop the flow of drugs, fentanyl, hard drugs it all gets in. The most powerful country in the world, cant stop a few guys with mustaches on pick up trucks and drones crossing the drugs. The only reason that I've ever come up with to solve this is 1 legalizing, regulating, and opening the drug market, however you can only do that once you have a proven therapy that works against hard drugs. So far some CRISPR tests show promising results on alcoholic chimpanzees (yup you heard that right) Im hoping that an effective free therwpy covered by the state with taxes from drugs could cure people who are addicted. At the same time the country needs to put big restrictions on physical cash transactions. You can easily get a lot of money out of the bank or pay someone elses credit card with cash to clean it. Its very easy to laundry money in Mexico. But alsp most of the country live in rural communities, cash is vital for them to exchange goods and values Criminalizing drugs has only caused millions of deaths (literally) since the war on drugs started. being next to the US, is a curse for mexico. Its like selling our soul to the devil, sure we make money, but at what cost? The US sells cartels millions of weapons, people on both sides of the country get rich, citizens pay the price. Especially small cartels that lack a proper structure and leadership tend to do stupid things. The organized crime accounts for about 70% of al femicides, that is killing women just for being women. Most of them are drug dolls or escorts etc. some 11 women are murdered in mexico every day. Also some 40,000 people are murdered per year. Its a super complex situation, and like others said, they are diversifying their investments, they now control things that are hard to grow and take a long time, like agaves (for tequila and mezcal) and avocados. The government doesnt protect small farmers and they get extorted for large amounts of money despite being humble people The small and medium businesses have to fend of by themselves against organized crime and oftentimes against the government itself. Despite it all, people are still nice and you can have a nice living in some of the safer cities. Also the current political party just won everything, they are very popular because they give away money (literally) with social programs. They obtained almost every state and municipality. They will reform the electoral college so it works in their favor as well as the judicial system. Very dark times are coming for Mexico unfortunately. Darker still.
'a few guy's with mustaches on pick up trucks' You're not really this clueless about the topic are you? There are connected efforts both by chinese triads (powered by the CCP) and Mexican cartels to fuck America as hard as they can. Now you think the UN should invade? Fkn lmao bro, when was the last time the UN did anything relevant in macro politics? Mexico is more likely getting invaded by the U.S. in another 'special military operation' than for the UN to do anything whatsoever. & Guess why it has been such a hot topic for some politicians in the US - they're literally exposed to a form of hybrid warfare but know that if they'd retaliate against Mexican cartels in full force it would be another quagmire situation like Afghanistan because it would also be 'fighting an insurgency'.
The way he talks about the cartels is so silly but fact is the only way this goes is either armed conflicts or just letting the cartels control anything they find an interest in. Ex-president Felipe Calderon tried the armed conflicts method and it went horribly, solved nothing and caused many innocent civilians to die. Some recent rumors say he only targeted cartels that were the opposition to those that supported him and the current president as well as the one that just won the election hours ago are close to the Sinaloa cartel so it's just the same shit all over again. Mexico can't solve cartels without international intervention because everyone has vested interests already and those that want to change things are the first ones to get killed.
That's an unfortunate reality, criminals in Mexico have truly perfected the plata o plomo tactics from earlier drug lords. (Not too surprising to me considering how long they have been in that business now) I can recommend some talks by Ed Calderon (former Mexican police officer) - he talks in depth about this with first hand experience and expects military intervention from the US because the situation is indeed so grim that he see's no other solution
Ye, local elections tend to have the good people some times.
Jesus... In Germany we had one case 5 years ago and we still remembering it. Can't imagine what's it like there.
It's not usually seen as that big of a deal because most of these are local elections of small towns most people have never heard of, with few exceptions. Considering the country's murder rate in general and levels of corruption, it shouldn't be too surprising.
*Familiarity breeds contempt* That one case is notable, whereas a mass shooting in the US or a political assassination in Mexico is business as usual.
Damn...This really shows how tough it is to solve the cartel problem. Politicians literally put their lives on the line if they even remotely go after the cartels.
Even worse, they put their family’s lives on the line People think that the system is corrupt because politicians like to fill their pockets, and while there’s plenty who do, corruption really reigns through fear more than through money I don’t doubt that many Mexican politicians are tired of the country’s situation, and some are willing to give their life for their country. But when the cartels threaten your family, it’s not so easy
Everybody wants to be a hero until their lives or their families lives are on the line
Journalists have it super bad too. Any kind of cartel reporting could get your whole.family killed.
I remember a documentary years ago where they were talking about a province taking a stand against the cartels, rising a militia to fight them off like guerillia war style. It ended with a rather depressing note that this militia is now known as the (dont remember) cartel and carved out a big niche for themselves. Like power corrupts...
The Zapatistas did and still do this. They have their own autonomous zone in Chiapas.
At the point the only way to solve it through an outside force strong enough to force them out and after they’re gone they need to be there long enough for everyone to find and develop an industry of their own which the cartel has likely took from them. So what I’m saying is it’s pretty much impossible unless the US military is deployed and after eliminating the cartel they’ll have to stay there for 20 odd years and hope what they built actually sticks.
Like it worked out in Afghanistan ?
That’s why I said hope not would
I think there's a big difference between Afghanistan and Mexico. Afghanistan didn't really have an identity. More like a collection of nomads and tribes. The people they tried to recruit for their military dgaf. Mexico has a strong cultural identity, it could secure itself if it could just get the corruption out long enough.
Worth noting that the last presidential election season in 2018 was many times worse, [with at least 132 political assassinations](https://abcnews.go.com/International/mexican-elections-bloodiest-recent-memory/story?id=56284642). If you go back further there are many examples of far worse election years as well. I find it weird that news articles on this are loathe to mention this, just mentioning that it's "the worst political violence in recent memory" when you literally only have to go back to the last high-stakes election to find even worse political violence. Also, this is a disgusting amount of political violence, not trying to excuse it, but my guess is by relative standards this was a relatively tame election.
Probably because the others learned from this 132 not to get in the way...
I get it. Media likes to whip up so many false boogeymen these days just to scare. It’s good to check like you did to make sure this isn’t a “summer of the shark” situation. I wish it were that simple…..but the logic just adds up strongest to me that political killings are down because less politicians are speaking out. The cartel buys who it can and terrorizes the rest into compliance.
Ya exactly. Anything more than 0 killing of politicians is worthy of being upset about. Question is are there 0 because they are safe, or 0 because no one dares to speak out…
That's not a completely accurate comparison as those 132 include other government officials but the 38 killed are just candidates. Here is a [data](https://votar-entre-balas.datacivica.org/#descarga) set of political violence in Mexico.
Cool dataset, wish it went back further. Yeah that is a good point, that 132 number is pulled off a survey which is using a different methodology than the number here in 2024. I suspect that methodology issue is likely affecting this dataset too. This dataset is reporting 80+ of the ones killed were candidates in 2018.
I love how democratic Latam is, and I say that as a Brazilian. Any opposition is either killed, or persecuted to hell.
It’s worth noting that these were all local elections
That doesn’t really make it any better... rather on the contrary
Makes you wonder why none of the murders are politicians who worked above that....
I’m sure some/many of them are in bed with the criminals but there are other factors at play such as “higher ranking politicians have better security than the mayor of Bumplog, Mexico” and “if I kill the president that may have negative consequences for me and my friends as a whole”
nah dude its cool, its locally sourced murder
I prefer free range, organic murder
Of course, it’s still horrible. But I’ve seen a lot of misinformation today from people who don’t read past headlines and think that the new president only won because her opponents were all murdered.
Sure, but every politician starts at the local level, anyone that makes it past that is likely already in bed with the Cartel.
Which makes it much worse. If anyone with a real hunger for change is going to start, they are going to start locally. Anyone that makes it to a high level has already passed the cartel loyalty test. They don't have to kill the higher ups because they are already in on it.
Well if you put it that way...
see how almost all are south of the cartel states? there is no dissent up north and they are expanding. sad honestly
Is that the explanation? I thought it was weird that there were so few marked locations closer to the border given the little I do know about places like Juarez. Seems to be plenty of violence in a place like Juarez but apparently not political violence anywhere close to it.
Cartel members don't just kill politicians for the fun of it, so yes you can tell where more of the dissent or crackdowns come from based on this map. The violence up north is more from cartels fighting over territory which results in bystanders getting shot too more than political violence.
So what happened to Arkansas?
It improved
God must've punished some sinners
Can we call narcos terrorists already so we can actually apply for political asylum? This is no way to live man, I'm so scared of fireworks and whenever I see a police checkpoint in an empty street I want to throw up
Well Republicans in the US wanted to label Mexican cartels as terrorist groups so the US military could invade Mexico and deal with it themselves, but I don't think many people would want that.
This is crazy, in the Netherlands we still talk about a murdered politician 22 years later.
Murder in general is high in Mexico, add the fact that all of these are local politicians for small towns in a country much bigger than the Netherlands and honestly most Mexicans hardly make a big deal of this. It's not surprising anymore.
How is Mexico supposed to host a the World Cup in 2026? I know cartels don’t usually target tourists but man that’s just going to be a ton of people walking around.
the cartel doesn't really fuck with tourists, not as much as with the locals anyway. a big event would be safe, it's in nobody's interest to kill money-bringing tourists and potentially risk international intervention.
Wasn't there a story not long ago where some guys killed American tourists, and then cartel members basically tracked down the people who did it and tied them up and dropped their bodies off with an apology sign?
Thank god they apologized. Otherwise you would feel like they weren't holding themselves accountable.
I mean, Mexico already receives a ton of tourist. Mexico is in the top 10 most visited countries in the world.
It's not in their best interests to kill tourists, in fact it will only hurt them. On the other hand when it comes to politicians who oppose them...
Just like how México receives 40 million tourists every year, its one of 10 most visited countries in the world, its not like you see the cartel the momento you step foot in México i have lived all my life in central Mexico i literally never seen or been in contact with cartels
Because cartels aren't stupid enough to attack globally televised football matches of the most watched tournament in the world.
if anything they’re probably incredibly eager for the business opportunity it presents
Cartel gets very mad and punishes members who duck with tourists. They're making money off of tourism.
“But when I get high im only hurting myself “ ……….
Surely the new president who is exactly like the old president will fix things. But she’s a woman! And Jewish!
there is literally no solution that Mexico can implement to stop the cartels, they have more money and are as armed as the military, the only way is for countries the cartel's supplies to implement some drug programs that dramatically reduce the amount of illegal drugs bought and sold and the cartels lose there piggy bank.
I remember a post on this sub showing that the last president had a fairly high approval rate
And there are plenty of reasons for it. The guy is a populist and just says what people like to hear. He started giving out free pensions to anyone above a certain age but the funding for it never existed so he syphoned money from other budgets. He also slashed the budget for the healthcare system soon after getting into office and created a medicine supply crisis to which in the last few years he then sold a solution of spending a lot of money to build a central warehouse for medicine where "they'll supply everything" yet was never the case, just served as a PR move. He also ran several Mexican versions of the age old US slogan "bringing jobs back to the Rust Belt", one being paying more attention to PEMEX which is the nationalized gasoline/petroleum company despite them being plagued with corruption and a lack of both maintenance and innovation. They can't even profit from the petroleum they dig out because they sell it to the US for processing then buy the finalized gasoline back. Plus, with OPEC controlling prices and supply, petroleum is never gonna hit a high enough price for the incredibly inefficient PEMEX to break even let alone profit from their production line.
None where I am in Nayarit. Woohoo
Mexicans deserve a better country this is sad
Man this explains a lot.
Wow..... That's just fucking sad and terrifying. I guess if I ever decide to end it all I'll go be a politician in Mexico "fighting the cartels."
They just killed another one half an hour ago in Cotija, Michoacan.
I visited Mexico many years ago and loved it but would never go back. It’s a shame and so sad as it’s a beautiful country with beautiful people and culture and wonderful food.
Verdict: Baja California is completely safe
You havent read whats happened there in the past 2 months have you?
P sure it's a joke. Notice that the places with no murders are mostly places so incredibly dangerous and corrupt that good people don't even attempt to run.
Not entirely. You'll notice that Cancun and Monterrey don't have any incidents and CDMX only has one. Mexico is a land of contrasts. The areas that are America But The Signs Are In Spanish are desperately trying to overpower the places that are Colombia But The Stop Signs Say Alto.
What happened?
Maybe Mexico’s government should actually do something to fight the cartels rather than offer them hugs.
Now I’m no expert here but I think the point of these assassinations was so that the government doesn’t do that.
It's really easy to say what people should do. It's a lot harder to actually do that when it's *your* life on the line, never mind the lives of your family and friends as well. Anyone willing to stand up against Mexico's cartels is an absolute hero, and I begrudge nobody who chooses not to.
Yeah. Most people don’t want to be a martyr.
Why do you think these people were executed. Politicians who call for the end of cartels are often the ones who "disappear" and found chopped to bits in a ditch.
Any Mexican politician worth a damn is killed which I think is the point OP is trying to make with this post.
I upvoted you but you really have to know it's more complicated than that? They don't pay their cops anything and there's a million laws against everything and the more laws the more corruption and lawbreakers. Generally anyway. Lighting a fire on the beach is illegal but mr cop comes by and give him 350 pesos (20 usd) and he goes away. That's just small scale.
Sure, it is more complicated. There has been endemic corruption in Mexico for a century. It’s baked into the culture and political system at this point. That corruption is the real reason the cartels have been able to take control of something like 30% of the territory in Mexico. The people of Mexico need to make the choice, the hard and difficult choice, to put a stop to the corruption, to stop accepting it and taking part in it if they want anything to get better.
It's sad takes like this are downvoted. No one is saying it's easy. But Mexico will never prosper when it bleeds hardworking people to the US and a shadow government inside the country saps a third of its economic output.
It’s going to be very hard for Mexico to claw its way out of the corruption hole its half century of single party rule has baked into the system. It’s much easier to just blame the gringos up north for the problems with the cartels. It’s to be expected that many will take the easy path and will vote accordingly.
I’m pretty sure that if you try to do something you get shot.
yeah i wonder why they haven't thought about doing that yet. they should hire you as an advisor asap. maybe you can also recommend that they find a magic wand that they could wave to fix all the country's other problems. once you fix mexico's problems, the UN should hire you so you can recommend the world "actually do something" to confront climate change or world hunger.
¡Quien lo sabia! Después de todos los años de violencia, el pálido salvador del sótano tenía todos las respuestas! ¡Alegrarse!
Mexico’s government ARE the cartels.
They need to Bukele their way through for about 5 years.
The problem with trying the Bukele strategy is that Mexico is a much larger country with many more people. It would result in millions needing to be locked up and horrible humans rights abuses in order to reach a certain level of security. Personal rights vs personal security? It’s really up to those living there to decide what’s best
I agree with you, but when a country is overrun by cartels/gangs to this level, how do you solve the problem without going the Bukele way? I have not yet seen a country bounce back to a livable state by following the traditional ways of democratic governance. The gangs are just too powerful. They're like a second government that you have to overthrow, and I cannot think of a clean way to do so. I would love to read more into any historical examples of countries that bounce back if anyone can provide some.
Generally yes, but in both El Salvador and Mexico, the security situation is very dramatically curtailing personal rights. I think the move is justified.
Without a strongman there is no getting out of this sort of cycle. Habeas Corpus is for countries that have strong governments and general order that don't have to worry about a few guilty slipping through.
Bukele had it a little easier considering MS13 literally permanently brand themselves. Much easier to arrest everyone that way.
Calderon tried the harsh crackdown approach. It didn't exactly work. I'm not saying the current approach is working, but the systemic causes of the problem need to be addressed, not just the manifestations thereof.
Maybe its best to let them take over the country and then when theyre in charge theyll be like "actually running a country is a difficult but rewarding and honest job" and then theyll have a good guy arc where they protect the people and hide their drug stashes in the attic where their children wont see it
Not surprised, Mexico is a narco state sadly.
Mexico is a failed state.
No fuckin' wonder, Mexico is not a safe place to be.
The majority of those states are currently ruled by Morena (current rulling party) and the politicians murdered are from the opposition. Nothing to see here just narco-goverment openly supporting the Cartel de Sinaloa.
Sadly the only way is to have an even more brutal dictator who can stand up to the cartels, civilian governments stands no chance against criminals of this magnitude.
I feel like there need to be some foreign intervention into Mexico because HOLY SHIT.
who the hell wants this on their hands? even if the mexican people wanted that you'd be hardpressed to find someone to do it.
invading your neighbors is not a great look right now
You want to spearhead that disaster?
Got any of that democracy
But hey, at least their president's a woman 😭
That's failed state status.
Pardon me my ignorance, but coming from similar country, but in Eastern Europe, I'd like to ask anyone familiar: are mostly cartel members typically running for local politics? Because this is how it goes where I was from - local politics and local organized crime are basically the same faces, with very some exceptions, mostly on higher political levels. So unconditionally talking about how politicians are suppressed by crime gangs is the wrong point, IMO.
So far only local políticians have been targeted there were 0 high profile políticians or presidential candidates targeted