Narcoland

June 17, 2013
First published in Mexico as Los señores del narco in 2010, this dry translation brings Mexican investigative journalist Hernández’s exposé about drug trafficking in Mexico to an English-speaking audience. Five years in the making, it’s an in-depth, unforgiving look at the deep-rooted corruption that has allowed the cartels to flourish; they now influence and control vast swaths of the country. Numerous anecdotes and interviews flesh out a decades-long narrative, touching on everything from CIA and DEA involvement, to how the drug lords run their empires from prison, to the way these powerful men live and die. It’s a scathing, sobering report, as Hernández lays the blame not just on the drug cartels, but on “all those who exercise everyday power from behind a false halo of legality” to make their “law of ‘silver or lead’ ” a reality. While appendices containing glossaries of acronyms and short bios do much to reduce reader confusion, there’s still an immense and exhausting amount of information to absorb. Those willing to slog through the dense bits will find a thought-provoking portrait of the crime and corruption that dominates our southerly neighbor.

July 15, 2013
Rigorous, disturbing narrative of how drug cartels infiltrated Mexican society's highest levels. Investigative journalist Hernandez has clearly put herself at risk to assemble this specific social narrative that begins in the 1980s, when Mexican drug trafficking was regionalized and controlled and thus tolerated by the government (and covertly by the United States, as evidenced by traffickers' involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal). Hernandez sees the 2001 prison escape of the aggressive trafficker "El Chapo" Guzman as a crucial watershed for the sharp increase in violence. Guzman then formed a "Federation" among various midlevel cartels, forcing open warfare between that group and the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels and making overt the federal government's protection of him (beginning with his "escape"). This, in turn, enraged hyperviolent assassin cells in the employ of other drug barons, such as the notorious Zetas, initially composed of compromised Special Forces veterans. The result has been approximately 10,000 murders per year and the thorough discrediting of Mexico's labyrinthine bureaucracy and political system. Hernandez notes that "Felipe Calderon stepped down as president of Mexico in December 2012 [with his term] engraved in collective memory as an era of death and corruption." The author pulls no punches in backing up such assertions; rather, she reviews evidence showing that the cartels' real power lies in relationships with untouchable elites in fields like banking and air transport. She similarly demonstrates that key police agencies, such as the Federal Investigations Agency, have been compromised, one of many examples of how "the Mexican government treats the narco-tycoons as untouchable." Hernandez writes clearly, savoring the details and ironies of her investigation, with a tone of righteous polemical outrage, but her tale's grim implications and intricate narrative connections may prove hard going for casual readers. Essential reading for a serious understanding of how the war on drugs is destroying the social fabric of South American nations.

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August 1, 2013
Most Americans are aware of the carnage wrought upon Mexico by the powerful drug cartels. Still, this account of the rise and continued domination by these cartels is both shocking and unsettling. Hernandez, a widely respected investigative journalist, first published this work in Mexico in 2010, and many of her charges and warnings have been confirmed by subsequent events. According to Hernandez, Mexico is already a narco-state. That is, the cartels have become thoroughly embedded into key sectors of Mexican society, including the military, the police forces, the courts, and both the local and federal legislatures. Utilizing seemingly authentic secret files and credible sources, she exposes high-level corruption with mind-numbing details, and she doesn't shrink from flinging accusations of both incompetence and complicity at former president Calderon, hailed in the U.S. for launching the war against the cartels. Critics within Mexico have accused Hernandez of painting with too broad a brush. Perhaps so, but she still presents a convincing portrait of a society poisoned by its worst elements and presenting a serious challenge for our own country.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)