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    25 Kommentare

    1. Why is Coahuila a vacuum of drug activity when it’s surrounded by so much disputed territory?

    2. Is there a prevailing reason for the areas with “Low Cartel Activity”?

    3. Haunting-Detail2025 on

      What’s so crazy to me, as someone who comes from a country that also dealt with a massive narco state (Colombia, although thankfully in the US now), is how Mexicans just…don’t seem to really care that much at how much the influence and power cartels have.

      Don’t get me wrong, we had our issues too especially in the 80s/90s, from car bombings to assassinations to airplanes literally being blown out of the sky…but it was just always treated as a pretty massive national emergency and Colombia went ham on getting any support it could get from the US and other nations to solve the issue.

      Meanwhile it’s like Mexico has just totally given up and doesn’t really seem to care that cartels just waltz around murdering mayors and judges and literally controlling highway checkpoints and bribing the minister of defense. Regarding the matter, the Mexico’s response to the US arresting its defense minister for narco ties was not “holy shit this is a problem at the highest levels of government”, they literally threatened to stop DEA cooperation and demanded be returned and nobody in Mexico seems to think there’s anything wrong with that. And it just blows my mind.

    4. 2001_Arabian_Nights on

      I guess we just use the word “cartel” to mean “gang” now?

      The first time I heard the word “cartel” in reference to drug-gangs was when all of the various drug-gangs in and around Medellin decided to stop fighting each other and formed the Medellin cartel. Cartels before that were merely unscrupulous business owners colluding to fix prices, like OPEC.

    5. I was talking to a coworker one day, he mentioned he was taking a month vacation and going to Mexico to see family. I asked him if he’s flying or driving, he said he’s flying to Dallas, then a family member is driving him to the border where he’ll cross and take a bus the rest of the way. I was very confused, this guy has more than 5 vehicles so I started asking questions. He’s been stopped before by cartels and extorted, he said they don’t stop the buses “for now”.

      Edit, sorry for the long paragraph.

    6. hefecantswim on

      This comment will be really naive I’m sure but like.. what if? What if all those areas were safe and we could travel down there like they do in Schengen countries and we could just go spend money?

      How could we turn that around and tell society that they stand SO much more to gain without this shit. Tourism, free trade, cultural mixing, etc.. seems like the way to go. I want to go visit so badly but I constantly hesitate because of maps like this. Probably not as bad as the media makes it out to be though. Same as in the states?

    7. Spicy2ShotChai on

      Why would all of Baja be considered disputed? You would think given its relative geographic distance from the rest of Mexico there’d be a group or two in control without a lot of fight

    8. Cute_Marzipan_4116 on

      I’d like to see the change in territory over the last 40 years. I’m curious if much has changed.

    9. hinterstoisser on

      Ben Smith’s book, The Dope was an eye opener on how the farmers became kingpins with state support until about 15 years ago.

    10. SnooHesitations875 on

      An an American having visited Mexico City and queretaro I felt like I was highly protected by the military it seems like in these areas there is real defensive posture but that’s also scary cause the rest of the country seems to be in the cartel hands

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