Texto publicado en Amazon
The product of five years’ investigative reporting, the subject of intense national controversy, and the source of death threats that forced the National Human Rights Commission to assign two full-time bodyguards to its author, Anabel Hernández, Narcoland has been a publishing and political sensation in Mexico.
The definitive history of the drug cartels, Narcoland takes readers to the front lines of the “war on drugs,” which has so far cost more than 60,000 lives in just six years. Hernández explains in riveting detail how Mexico became a base for the mega-cartels of Latin America and one of the most violent places on the planet. At every turn, Hernández names names – not just the narcos, but also the politicians, functionaries, judges and entrepreneurs who have collaborated with them. In doing so, she reveals the mind-boggling depth of corruption in Mexico’s government and business elite.
Hernández became a journalist after her father was kidnapped and killed and the police refused to investigate without a bribe. She gained national prominence in 2001 with her exposure of excess and misconduct at the presidential palace, and previous books have focused on criminality at the summit of power, under presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón.
In awarding Hernández the 2012 Golden Pen of Freedom, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers noted, “Mexico has become one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, with violence and impunity remaining major challenges in terms of press freedom. In making this award, we recognize the strong stance Ms. Hernández has taken, at great personal risk, against drug cartels.”
This updated edition includes a new chapter detailing the arrest of “El Chapo” Guzman, the notorious leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, whose incredible escape from his previous incarceration was exposed as an inside job by this book.
Since December 2010, I have lived with death
threats because I have documented and revealed corruption at the highest levels
in the Mexican government. My family has been attacked, I have to live with
bodyguards and some of my sources have been killed or are in jail.
But my case is just one of many. A
large number of journalists and
human rights activists -- as well as those who denounce corruption in Mexico --
receive similar threats or have been killed. And the biggest danger is not in
fact the drug cartels, but rather the government and business officials that
work for them and fear exposure.
My new book "Narcoland" is the result of five grueling years of
research. Over this time I gradually became immersed in a shadowy world full of
traps, lies, betrayals, and contradictions.
The data I present is backed up by numerous legal
documents, and the testimony of many who witnessed the events first-hand. I met
people involved in the Mexican drug cartels and spoke to police and army
officers, U.S. government officials, professional hit men, and priests --
figures who know the drug trade inside out. From this I found complicity at the
heart of Mexican government, business, police and drug cartels.
The worst, and most violent, face of corruption in
Mexico is drug trafficking -- an industry that is estimated to have left more
than 60,000 people dead, and more than 26,000 missing in the last six years.
And things are getting worse. Between January and July this year it is
estimated that 10,000 people in Mexico have died at the hands of the drug
cartels.
The business of producing, trafficking and selling
illicit drugs has become increasingly attractive to people around the world --
a lucrative market considering that consumption is increasing globally. Mexico
is now the world's second largest cultivator of opium poppy and, according
to the CIA Factbook, in 2007 was
the largest foreign supplier of marijuana and methamphetamine to the U.S.
market.
The story of how Joaquín "El Chapo"
Guzmán Loera -- a man widely considered as the most powerful drug trafficker in
the world -- became a great drug baron, the king of betrayal and bribery, and
the boss of top Federal Police commanders, is intimately linked to a process of
decay in Mexico where two factors are constant: corruption, and an unbridled
ambition for money and power.
I read avidly the thousands of pages of evidence in
the case of El Chapo's "escape" from jail. Through dozens of
statements given by cooks, laundry workers, inmates, detention officers, and
prison police commanders it was confirmed to me that in 2001 El Chapo did not escape
from Puente Grande in that famous laundry cart: instead, high-ranking officials
took him out, disguised as a policeman.
Semi-illiterate peasants like El Príncipe, Don
Neto, El Azul, El Mayo, and El Chapo would not have got far without the
collusion of businessmen, politicians, and policemen, and all those who
exercise everyday power from behind a false halo of legality.
We see their faces all the time, not in the mug
shots of most wanted felons put out by the Attorney General's Office, but in
the front-page stories, business sections, and society columns of the main
papers. All these are the true godfathers of Narcoland, the true lords of the
drug world.
Currently, all the old rules governing relations
between the drug barons and the centers of economic and political power have
broken down. The drug traffickers impose their own law. The businessmen who
launder their money are their partners, while some local and federal officials
are viewed as employees to be paid off in advance, for example by financing
their political campaigns.
The culture of terror
encouraged by the criminal gangs through their grotesque violence produces a
paralyzing fear at all levels of society.
Finishing this book demanded a constant battle
against such fear. They have tried to convince us that the drug barons and
their cronies are immovable and untouchable, but this book offers a modest
demonstration of the contrary.
As citizens or as journalists, we must never allow
the state and the authorities to give up on their duty to provide security, and
simply hand the country over to an outlaw network made up of drug traffickers,
businessmen, and politicians.
Since its publication in Mexico,
"Narcoland" has sold more than 200,000 copies -- astounding in a
country with high levels of poverty and incredibly low levels of literacy
compared to the American-European book-buying market.
It seems to me that the tide of public opinion is
changing in Mexico; people no longer accept the view that the Mexican
government are at war with the drug cartels.
The levels of violence, murder, trafficking, child
pornography and kidnapping in Mexico at the moment is simply catastrophic.
In line with the increase in drug consumption
across the world, the cocaine business has become more powerful than anyone
could have imagined. The money created from this has allowed drug cartel
criminals to buy whatever they want -- whether that is people, governments,
police, land or impunity.
This corruption spreads across the world; Europe
has become on the biggest importers of Mexico's trafficked drugs.
It is important that people in London, Paris or New
York understand that when they buy a gram of cocaine they have blood on their
hands.
The world needs to work with Mexico to combat this
21st-century form of warfare; fight against drug trafficking and organized
crime has to be global.
* In response to CNN's request for comment on
this article, the Embassy of Mexico to the U.K. said the Mexican government was
fully committed to upholding the rule of law.
"President Enrique Peña Nieto prioritizes a
Mexico in peace as the first national goal," the embassy said.
"The National Security Strategy has been
raised to the level of State Policy, and is underpinned by a multidimensional
security focus that puts the wellbeing of citizens and the forefront of its
concerns, by emphasizing prevention and the reduction of crime.
"This new focus is not only designed to
enforce the law and, if need be, for the State to make use of force in order to
guarantee safety, but also to counteract the vulnerabilities created by
consumption and violence through the implementation of social programs."
Leer más:
[1] Narcoland: The Mexican Drugs Lords and their Godfathers by Anabel Hernández – review [The Guardian]
[2] Book review: Narcoland, By Anabel Hernández [The Independent UK]
[3] Narcoland: The Mexican Drug Lords and Their Godfathers – Book Review [Upside Down World]
[4] Anabel Hernandez on Mexico’s Lost Drug War and Her New Book Narcoland [Texas Observer]
[5] Anabel Hernández: noticias desde narcolandia [Texto: Amy Goodman / Juan González (Democracy Now)]
Anabel Hernández. Narcoland: The Mexican Drug Lords and Their Godfathers. USA: Verso, 2014. 416 pp. Language: English. ISBN-10: 1781682968, ISBN-13: 978-1781682968.
No comments:
Post a Comment