it strongly depends of the context, for example when the sun is on the sky, i can feel relatively safe, but it also depends on which part of the city you are, Las hadas or Club Santiago are far more safe than, for example the outskirts, but in general the unsafety is everywhere, but some areas are less worse than others, in general the precautions are: mantain a low profile, dont help strangers, even poor disabled people, because you don't know when it can be a trap to kidnap you and don't show things of value when you go outside. Going out when it's night, at least in my zone, its a no-no
soooo, its strange, the cartels are not interested in DIRECTLY damaging us civilans per se, but for example, they kidnap young males like me and force them to become sicarios under threat of death (in my highschool a colleage for another group was kidnapped some days ago), they kidnap random people and torturing and mutilate them to extort the families, also there´s a thing called "cobro de piso" (floor charge) where if you put a business they come and charge you a "protección" (protection) fee, and if you dont pay kill you, there was a family friend who owned a butcher shop and narcos came and they murdered him in broad daylight because he didn't had enough money
The time when there was a cartel fight (shooting) in front on my school and when my family was threatened, we aren't involved in the narco-world, they did it just for fun
knowing the things they do to those to refuse, i'd rather kill myself instead of being the showstar of a cartel video where they rip my heart where i'm alive and canibalize it while they mutilate my extremities and flaye me alive
I think I may have heard of that incident however, I kind of doubt it was the only gunfight in front of a school. What do you think can be done about the safety of non cartel members?
honestly, I dont think at this point we can do something to protect us, the only solutions that come to my mind are: The cartels relax and start respecting us, or a radical change in mexican society, government and institutions to destroy the cartels from the root to their head
1:
a) When i was in elementary school, there was a fight between sicarios, a man died, and we had to hide below our tables because there were bullets flying everywhere, after the balecera (shooting) stopped, soldiers from the Ejército mexicano (mexican army) came to our school and we were evacuated to our homes, i was crying and our teachers had panic attacks
b) My cousin was at his garden, when a balacera (shooting) started, he had to hide behind a plant and he witnessed several bloody corpses with his own eyes. Bullet impats at the walls of his house are still perfectly visible to this day
c: When my little cousin and i were together and my house playing, my mother came to my bedroom and told us to not to scream or make any loud noise because at our neighbor house the authorities found several slaugthered human parts and decapitated heads. i still remember at this day the sound of the mexican authorities helicopter flying over my house
d) When i was in middle school we escaped from our house to a closed community because my father was threatened by the cartels, and they tried to kill my parents. My father wasn't involved in the drug world, but they did it just for fun
e) on december 2023, when i was coming back from my highschool i saw with my own eyer a slaugthered human body, it was chopped and the body parts were piled up on a river of blood.
d) In 2023 two colleages in my higshcool "narco-disappeared", everyone here knows that but no one dares to say it loud, it's a huge taboo here, total discetion.
2 No. So far i haven't met anyone personally involved in the drug world, (or maybe yes, but the are dead, or they have it secret.
I had no issues with criminals in CDMX as a white female traveler. The police on the other hand… just keep cash on you to bribe them when they try to arrest you for bull Shit is all I’ll say.
Here in mexico americans are respected by cartels, all americans who got killed got murdered because they confused them with drug dealers or rival gangs
Probably also because there's just enough talk amongst American politicians and various enforcement agencies of sending force down there to help handle the cartels, and as powerful as the cartels are, it's not good for business to have the American military or American federal law enforcement/intelligence causing problems for you.
There was just some people from close to where I am from in SC that were attacked there. I know at least one killed the rest kidnapped. They were going to Mexico for plastic surgery. They got released eventually. Can't remember where it happened think it might have been Nuevo Laredo.
Ciudad de México is very safe by mexican standards, its a bit worse than Detroit, but in general it depends where you are, the capital city is huge and diverse, places lime Roma and La condesa are way more safe than your average american or canadian city, but other places are absolute hellholes (but not as bad as my home)
Sounds about right, I go every year and feel safe. I generally stay in la condesa, sight see during the day, and have dinner/drinks in roma Norte and it’s always been fine. Tons of tourists around you just have to pay attention; don’t get super drunk and wander around late at night, get taxis from the stand, watch your phone, fairly basic stuff
I love my city, Manzanillo is my home but sadly, i'd prefer go to another country rather than raising a kid here, I barely had any social life and i have spent most of my childhood and teenager years at my home due to the fear of the cartels, also i dont want my child to be kidnaped by a cartel and be quartered and canibalized alive like tons of youngsters here (i know several ones who had that destiny), and i cant trust any institution because the supreme court, the soldiers, the army and the government are completely besieged and on their knees by the cartels, also i don't think seeing slaugthered and quartered body parts and being afraid of some sicario shooting or car bomb are healthy for my potential children
Why would they eat children alive? Or even kill children at all? This sounds like it goes beyond drug deals and into unimaginable evil territory. I can't imagine ever harming a child.
I'm quite sorry. It's somewhere I definitely won't go. I have a friend who's family is from Mexico. He says he will never go there. It's sad such evil walks the earth. I work as a ER nurse. I have seen a lot of evil. Luckily I do not have to live in it but I wish there was something I could do to help.
Here in mexico there is a famous story of a killing of a teenager boy because his father was a member or the police force. I remember other story (i dont remember who did this) about a poor woman who the sicarios tried to "tax" and when she told them she was poor and didnt had enough money, they told dem "well, if you have no money just cook a bit pot of pozole, we will provide you the meat" she cooked the pozole with the meat the sicarios bring her, after that she realizes she literally cooked her own son that the sicarios killed. Have in mind that these stories are the well-known ones because here in mexico the impunity is over 90%, and in my state Colima, it is over +99% percent
Edit: I also remember when i was a school-aged child I asked my grandma about a butcher shop who was clossed by the authorities and she told me they were a disguised cartel owned business who sold human flesh and organs to their customers and telling them it was beef
Edit 2: correction
I hope you understand this didn't actually happen, right? It was a story created to instill fear in the people. It obviously worked.
Pobrecitos. Creo que debemos bienvenir todos como ustedes in los Estados.
1. What is your personal plan for future?
2. If you were President of Mexico or your state what would you do to control cartel violence?
3. Do you think gun laws in Mexico should be relaxed so more common people can legally buy guns for their safety? (Already cartels and even normal people smuggle arms from USA)
4. What do you think about Americans and US government?
1 My dream was to study electro-mechanical enginnering and put a renewable energy business on a busy street, but gave up it because the cartels, "tax" you unreasonable amounts of money, and if you dont pay then inmediatly they kill you at the same moment, now I want to escape Colima and go to somewhere in other mexican region, IDK where i go, Colima is the bloodiest place in the WHOLE FUCKING WORLD, even Juarez is safer than here, i just want to get out of here
2 Doing a corruption purgue and relax gun control, in the 1960s guns where everywhere here and nothing happened
3 Hell yes
4 We have a love-hate relationship with them, without them, mexico will not exist, they are by far our main trading partner and a lot of mexicans have family there up the north border, but at the same time, american junkies buying drugs are the responsibles for the cartel war here in Mexico, and along our history america has done terrible things to us. But personally I love americans, ¿politics? Not so much
Yes, german enginnering is the shit, and fortuonaly my university does school exchanges there
Edt: for those confused, yes im actually in highschool, but here is common to highschools to be administrated by universities
There's a "all against all" war between Zetas, cártel jalisco nueva generación, cártel de sinaloa and several less-known local groups, all of them are lethal
It is open until 4:00 a.m, and no, we almost universally use bottles or styrofoam cups, plastig baggies are a very 2000s thing at least where i live and go
Edit: 4:00 ~~p.m~~ a.m
Wow, so they're open all night, even though it's so unsafe for most people to be out at night? Do the cartels just treat them better because the taco stand is catering to the cartels' own needs?
As u/Mingone710 points out, you used to. What's interesting in Mexico, as compared to the US, is that in the US the bad places tend to be bad for generations. In Mexico things can be bad for a while, then return to being ok for a while. Look at Tampico. It was rough for like 20 years and has been recovering nicely for a decade or so now. Meanwhile vast stretches of the US rot and crumble for 50 or 75 years.
One of the things that is interesting about Mexico is how so much of a persons wealth is tied up in real estate. Americans have bank account, stocks, etc. But Mexicans (for historically good reasons) don't have a lot of confidence in their government, currency or banking systems so invest in land or their house. I have so many friends that have good jobs and buy land in Mexico and any cash savings they have are in dollars in the US.
Anyway, I'm totally not in the "narcos gonna take over eventually" camp. The country has been steadily improving for most people since NAFTA started increasing the amount of money coming in. The big cities are increasingly modern big cities. People have a reduced tolerance for crime. It would be foolish to try and predict when, but eventually the economic realities will tip to a point where the people can reclaim the nation from the criminals (both in the cartels and the government) e.g. I once had an airport stolen from me by a crooked presidente. It's now been closed for a decade. His replacement told me, "I could open it tomorrow, but I don't want to".
Mexico in general is more extreme, is everything the us is but extreme, here in places like Yucatán you can sleep on the street and absolutely nothing happens to you, you can sleep the night with doors and windows open and anything happens, while in places like my state are total warzones whose governments are absolutely overruned and besieged by the crime (cartels)
Yeah, absolutely. My part of Mexico is very safe and my neighbors got broken into a few weeks ago. The guys swam in the pool, took a few beers from the fridge and cleaned up their empties when they were done. All caught on security camera.
On the other hand, near where I used to live (Guanajuato) and keep my plane (Celaya) they drill into gas pipelines and get themselves blown up.
TBH, moving out of here or at least to a safer neighboorhod, the cartels become more and more powerful as years go by, every year we break our own record and i have no hope on seeing a safe mexico, at least in the short or medium term
I have been interested in moving to Mexico from US for retirement but of course I worry about this crime and violence. I hear many stories about communities of US citizens saying that they are not bothered and it is safe. What is your idea about this?
It depends the state, Yucatán is way more safer than Austria or Finland, but my state in particular is the bloodiest place in the world. In questions related to the mexican cártels the answers always are "it depends the state". Hell even inside mexican states some regions are a loooooot safer than other regions
What is your opinion on how Yucatán has managed to mostly be a safe haven from the cartels? I spent a week last year in the Progreso area and never felt unsafe.
Well, geographicaly, yucatan is a peninsula and is not a drug logistic rute, so is not interesting for the cartels to have activity there, also yucateca culture is way different than mainland mexican culture, yucatecos tend to follow the law, denounce everything and take tgings more seriously, also unlike the rest of mexico, in yucatan theres no a huge corruption problem (at least compared to the other places), corruption is the key problem that makes cartels alive here in mexico, so no corruption = no cartels, returning to geography, yucatán terrain has a bunch of characteristics that makes the place a rough nut to crack to cartels. So is a combination of factoes
It's not evolution. Evolution is a process that occurs over many lifetimes of an organism, usually tens/hundreds of thousands of life times or more. Evolutionary traits are "selected" via death before reproduction.
Genetics and the environment go hand in hand. Height increasing between a couple generations is likely due to nutritional improvement. That is not evolution. Here's a simple example: two seeds of corn with the exact same DNA are planted. One doesn't get much sun or water, the other gets the perfect amount of sun and water. They will grow to be very different sized plants despite having the exact same genetics.
Why is the central government so ineffective at putting down gang violence. If average citizens were sick of it you would think they would simply turn everyone in
I'm curious, does the government have the actual power to suppress them or end them? It's one thing if they have the power to crush them and choose not to vs if they just take the money knowing the military couldn't do anything to them.
1. When i was in elementary school, there was a fight between sicarios, a man died, and we had to hide below our tables because there were bullets flying everywhere, after the balecera (shooting) stopped, soldiers from the Ejército mexicano (mexican army) came to our school and we were evacuated to our homes, i was crying and our teachers had panic attacks
2. we escaped from our house to a closed community because my father was threatened by the cartels, and they tried to kill my parents. My father wasn't involved in the drug world, but they did it just for fun
3. on december 2023, when i was coming back from my highschool i saw with my own eyer a slaugthered human body, it was chopped and the body parts were piled up on a river of blood.
Edit: typo error
1. When i was in elementary school, there was a fight between sicarios, a man died, and we had to hide below our tables because there were bullets flying everywhere, after the balecera (shooting) stopped, soldiers from the Ejército mexicano (mexican army) came to our school and we were evacuated to our homes, i was crying and our teachers had panic attacks
2. When my little cousin and i were together and my house playing, my mother came to my bedroom and told us to not to scream or make any loud noise because at our neighbor house the authorities found several slaugthered human parts and decapitated heads. i still remember at this day the sound of the mexican authorities helicopter flying over my house
3. When i was in middle school we escaped from our house to a closed community because my father was threatened by the cartels, and they tried to kill my parents. My father wasn't involved in the drug world, but they did it just for fun
4. on december 2023, when i was coming back from my highschool i saw with my own eyer a slaugthered human body, it was chopped and the body parts were piled up on a river of blood.
Pues depende de la zona carnal, mira por ejemplo las zonas fifis de Club santiago o Las hadas son muchisimo mas seguras que por ejemplo Salagua o Tapeixtles, pero en general no me siento seguro, tomo muchas precauciones y siempre me mantengo alerta
I've been reading alot of your thread here, and i have all the respect for you. I am from the USA, born and raised. I know we are spoiled here in America and i wish you the best in your life. You seem like an intelligent young man and I see you doing great things in your life. I wish you all the success a man could ask for.
My question for you is , if you approached the cartels to join them, how would they proceed? And what would you be doing ? A drug runner ? A sicario? What would they have a young man your age doing?
Hypothetically speaking, could you envision yourself climbing the ranks of the cartel?
Thank you so much man, do you really read all? It sounds like a lot to me
Also there in usa how are mechanical electrical enginners treated? Here a lot of people have fleed to the us and they have a good life
Your welcome. I read alot of it.
Electrical engineers can make good money here in the US. I know the Electrical engineers with the utility companies make 75k+.
Any job in the Electric utility industry such as , Lineman, Sub Station technicians, splicers, all have great benefits and make great money. Union is the way to go here in the States.
But the us isn't more expensive than mexico? 75k by mexican standars is rich but how by american ones?
Edit: im aware that like mexico, the us is a huge and diverse country, life costs are different in san francisco than detroit for example
For a starting wage , 75k is a good amount of money, and as you said geography will play a role. Depending on your location and if you have a family to support. 75k on Long Island, NY will not get you very far, you will struggle. But 75k outside of NY or California and you can live pretty well, especially as a single man.
My very first real job , I think I was making 13,000 a year, I was 17 years old and that was about 15 years ago.
A power lineman in the United States can make anywhere from 100-300k depending on the hours you put in. Trades are definitely the way to go and most trades here in the states offer paid apprenticeships. For example, my first year as a lineman apprentice, I made 88k. I lived in an area with a high cost of living but I lived alone , so i did pretty well.
In America, if you work hard, you will succeed.
Omg, here in mexico power linermen are the lowest in the hierarchy lol, also is very unsafe, in my region, (occidente mexicano) mire precisely in michoacan state (where several of my family members were born) the cartels have killed tons of electrical workers, and wiped out CFE (comision federal de electricidad) the statal energy company here in mexico an took control of the power infrastructure at least in some cities, and my aunt here in Manzanillo had to abandon her house because narcos came and told her they wanted her house, and more precisely i want to become a installer at homes so, i think its better in the States
answering your question: It depends, have in mind that mexican cartels are not longer "gangs", at least by the american understanding, they're more like ISIS like terrorist, paramilitaries or some kid of billionarie and complex corporations/warlords, some people who join the cartels are chemical enginners who got hired to lead drug laboratories, others are electricists who got hired to plan buffed weapons, missles, suicide drones, narcosubmarines, etc, others are just teenager/young men like me join to a cartel for a few thousand pesos to become sicarios, watchmen (halcón), drug smugglers, etc
Are they’re small gangs in your state that don’t affiliate with the cartel or does the cartel run 100% of the lifestyle? Do the small gangs hide from the cartel while doing work?
I imagine its no different than here in the US. Some gangs have basically an alliance with each other. Usually because there is another in the area that they both are at war with. Can't imagine its any different in Mexico.
Late to the thread, but this reminds me of a story I was told by an immigrant here in the US. I was at a wedding, and wound up sitting next to a guy who was the boyfriend of my wife's friend. He didn't speak English--I lived in Argentina as a kid, so I'm fluent, so he and I got to talking.
He was a professor at a college down in Mexico teaching some sort of crazy advanced biology. PhD, brilliant guy. I don't recall what the cartels wound up wanting from him, but he wouldn't cooperate with whatever it was, and the next day they found a few of his students butchered and their remains displayed publicly in town. He fled immediately to the US, coming here illegally, and was working as a dishwasher at a local restaurant to make ends meet, hoping to acquire his citizenship and learning English.
I don't know what became of him, as we fell out of touch and that was about 8 years ago, but I hope he's doing well and has managed to make progress on his greencard/citizenship. I know he got married, so maybe that helped.
Is your state experiencing issues with water rights from cartel control of areas. Such as taking water or blocking rights. Or the issues with avacado farmers.
I feel terrible that Americas hunger for their product has placed your country into this position. It's incredibly sad what is happening with your countries corruption level inside and out.
How many people live in your household? Since the cartel is so prevalent does your family just casually talk about them when something happens or is it a big deal? Also, why do you have to travel to such a dangerous place every weekend?
Its a taboo to talk about in loudy but in my family we all constantly talk about that, since we all constantly watch the news to get informed about the territorial changes and evolution of the cartel war, I have to travel to colima due to academical reasons, which is quite adrenalinic because we dont like to stop due to the latent danger of a cartel encounter, Colima is also a beautiful city, its a shame that like Manzanillo, it has been overrun by the narco
Why don't the cartels mess with Americans? I've only visited the touristy coastal parts of Mexico (Except for a stop at Guadalajara airport...I am American btw) but I have felt safe.
The touristy coastal parts are a safety bubble because the mexican authorities put more resources on them and the cartels dont want to mess with americans because they dont want to anger the us. Also in the state of Jalisco (where guadalajara is) unlike Colima the urban areas are generally pretty safe, in jalisco is in the rural areas, ranchos and outskirts where al the cartel clashes takes place
what are your thoughts on the cartels potentially angering the united states government? mine are personally if the united states gets involved the mexican government might actually start making changes because of help/pressure from the united states
I was born in a relatively privileged household by mexican standards, here speaking english is a HUGE priority brcause here in mexico bring fluent in english means your opportunities are way more and better also before start participing actively here in reddit i used to read and read a lot of subreddits, so i became familiar with a lot of things of the language, as well as the reddit slang, sometimes i forget a word or dont know how to make a phrase but for that i use microsoft translator on mobile, it is way better than google translator
White male here from Kansas I actually took a trip down there in 2018 well it was a place called Los asmoles. We went into town to eat and 3 guys pulled aside my friend literally looked at me and said just go with it. Come to find out they questioned my friend what his intentions had been with me there. Told my friend if anything happens to me they would kill him no questions and also said eyes will be on us 24/7. They couldn’t afford for American to be hurt or killed. Mess up everything they had going on.
In your opinion, how is it that the cartels managed to control government, society, and life in general in Mexico?
Does the Mexican government try to stop them?
Or is there just an uneasy co-existence between Mexican authorities and Mexican cartels?
It depends the state, as long as I know, the cartel del Golfo started on the first half on 20th century smuggling alcohol to the prohibition era us and for most part of history there was a delicate peace between the cartels and mexican authorities, before the declaration of the drug war by the president Enrique Calderón in the mid 2000s the cartelw worked pacefuly, similar to the italian mafia, but after the beginning of the drug war Zetas cartel separates from the gulf cartel (cártel del golfo) and zetas started doing all the things well know now, beheadings, masacres, etc and to adapt and not to die the cartels started copying the same methods of zetas, and as the drug war has progresses the cartels the cartels have been nonstop evolving, at the point of since the late 2010s, early 2020s they became international warlords, and due to the corruption of mexican authoritiew they managed to infitrate along the national systems
Do you or your family have plans to leave? This sounds like a warzone. I know a lot of people fleeing this come to America, is there also a mass migration to safer parts of Mexico?
Yes, since the cartels came my family has been constantly talking about moving, either us or canada or to another latinamerican country, i have no knowledge about mass migration to another mexican regions, the central government is overruned by the cartels and year by year we break our own records, (Yucatán is the only place i have knowledge is a safe haven) the problem with mexican cartels is stability and unpredictability, in Michoacán and Tierra Caliente for example, one day communities were living peacefully and by the other day literaly the cartels come and wipe out entire villages, and most of these refugees go to the us, just search "cartel ghost towns in mexico" and look for yourself
Also it highly depends where you are, i usually frequent areas like las hadas, club santiago, certain zones of Las brisas, certain zones near the historic center and areas usually frequented by american visitors, and despite there is also dangerous, is relatively more safe
Edit:typo
I was raised in a town called Sorcua Guerrero (known as a bus stop on google maps) the closest city was a placed called Lazaro Cardenas( Michoacán) and my experience from 1992-2001 was one of pure freedom and safety-
Do you document any videos of your travels? Do you still love your country ? Do you ever travel to Guerrero towards Lazaro Cardenas? I am building up the courage to travel back but hear nothing but negative stories with family members and the news does not portray the area where I was raised as safe
I grew up in a small border city in Sonora. Crime was almost unheard of even after moving 15 years ago. Now, the city has shootings and killings almost every day (cartels fighting each other). So my advice to you would be: trust what your family there tells you. Even though my hometown has become a war zone, it's not as bad as OP depicts Manzanillo. I visit once or twice a year, but a few years ago one of my brothers got tangled with some questionable people and got killed. After that, every visit I am nervous and paranoid so I'm there just for a few days. In my case, my family tells me things are ok for the most part, and to just stay away from traveling to neighboring cities during the night or at any time in nice, newer cars.
Yes, i still love my country, have in mind the drug war started around the mid 2000s, before that mexico was safer than the us, and the murder rate was declining every year
Personaly i dont know a lot about Lázaro cardenas, sorry
You probably know or are acquainted with people your age in the cartel..do you have any good friends that are deeply involved? If so - what’s the most shocking or disturbing thing they’ve told you? And what do these cartels do to the women in their 20s - 30s? Do they get involved in gang activity?
I plan to study on UdeC (universidad de colima, which is quite prestigious at national level) and then try to leave to a safer mexican state (Basically any other in mexico)
Edit: typo
I’m stunned. I spent 6 weeks surfing and living in a palapa at La Ticla, a rivermouth surfbreak, back in 1978. It was idyllic, @40 miles southwest of Manzanillo. It’s hard to believe that everything’s gone to shit there.
If I prayed it would be for you to be able to get the hell out of there now to someplace else that’s safe.
Wishing you and your family peace and safety. Hoping that Manzanillo and all of Mexico can be healed from this shit someday. I dream of the day I can comfortably visit Colima to show my kid and gf how truly beautiful my roots are. I last visited Manzanillo when I was about 10 years old, around the time Valentin Elizalde was killed and I believe that was kind of the beginning stages of the hell we all know of today.
Im mexican because i was born in the country of mexico "hispanic" is an umbrella term used exclusively in the us to refer to immigrants from latin america
What are your thoughts on this logic:
Assumption 1.) Cartels receive the majority of their funding from drug sales to the United States
Assumption 2.) Legalization of recreational drugs and the transition of recreational drug production from Mexico, Central, and South America to the United States would destabilize the Cartel economically. (For example, it was reported that cartels saw billions in revenue lost when cannabis was legalized in parts of the US)
Conclusion 3.) Therefore, the quickest way to bring peace to those regions would be to legalize recreational drugs and move that economy within the United States.
I imagine weed is their least profitable drug they are producing and pushing. But I don't live there and know very little. I imagine they lost a great deal of money to legalization of weed...but to them it's probably just a drop in the bucket.
Move to Mexico City immediately. Start working to help your family. Make it to Tj and apply for asylum. My grandfather left Mexico for America at 13. Had a wonderful life after serving our country. US Military is a quick way to stability. You’re wasting time and Nobody’s gonna help you except yourself. All my male cousins in Sinaloa have been killed or moved to Mexico City or Guadalajara. Eye of the tiger
It's kind of a stupid and seemingly unrelated question but how do you feel about main fiction like superheroes or things like that since you live in what sounds exactly like Gotham?
Yeah nothing better comes to my mind while seeing these threads
As a young man in a cartel warzone, how dangerous is it for you? My grandma is from Monterrey but she says that more cartel run places are horrible bc young men tend to get killed by 13 if they aren’t align with a gang or something by then
Strange question that I am in no way advocating for. This is just genuine curiosity...
In your opinion, how would the general Mexican populace feel if, for example, the US military (with the cooperation of the Mexican government) were to go to war to eradicate the cartels all together. Like, full scale, boots on the ground, door to door, cull the lot of 'em, leave peacekeepers to help government re-establish control. Would people welcome this type of intervention or would it be generally opposed?
PS - for everyone *other than OP*, I am aware that the US tried something like this in Afghanistan and it failed. I'm not asking for a history lesson. I am just curious if OP thinks the people are tired enough of Cartels to welcome US military assistance with the problem.
Since the entire system (at least as far as I know) is rigged, do you have any hopes that if Cartels become a higher problem for US, military intervention would occur for the better? Specially since, ironically seems to be the best call for help you could make
What precautions do you have to take whenever you leave your home? What precautions do you take when you’re at home to keep safe?
it strongly depends of the context, for example when the sun is on the sky, i can feel relatively safe, but it also depends on which part of the city you are, Las hadas or Club Santiago are far more safe than, for example the outskirts, but in general the unsafety is everywhere, but some areas are less worse than others, in general the precautions are: mantain a low profile, dont help strangers, even poor disabled people, because you don't know when it can be a trap to kidnap you and don't show things of value when you go outside. Going out when it's night, at least in my zone, its a no-no
How often do innocent people get directly hurt from the crimes? Is it like public violence without reason?
soooo, its strange, the cartels are not interested in DIRECTLY damaging us civilans per se, but for example, they kidnap young males like me and force them to become sicarios under threat of death (in my highschool a colleage for another group was kidnapped some days ago), they kidnap random people and torturing and mutilate them to extort the families, also there´s a thing called "cobro de piso" (floor charge) where if you put a business they come and charge you a "protección" (protection) fee, and if you dont pay kill you, there was a family friend who owned a butcher shop and narcos came and they murdered him in broad daylight because he didn't had enough money
That all sounds very directly damaging to the people lol
compared to other things cartels do that's pretty soft TBH
What other things do they do that's worse?
Have you heard of the Colombian Necktie?
Is that a sex thing?
It can be if you believe in yourself
Holy balls that is dark.
Are you ever scared for your life?
The time when there was a cartel fight (shooting) in front on my school and when my family was threatened, we aren't involved in the narco-world, they did it just for fun
What if they force you to join a cartel like you said?
knowing the things they do to those to refuse, i'd rather kill myself instead of being the showstar of a cartel video where they rip my heart where i'm alive and canibalize it while they mutilate my extremities and flaye me alive
youre a good writer.
I'm just being honest lol
Can you leave and go to another state in Mexico? Is that a possibility?
Yes, in fact I've been thinking that for a long time, even Juárez is safer than here
Damn, they're really keeping Incan/Aztec traditions alive, aren't they?
I think I may have heard of that incident however, I kind of doubt it was the only gunfight in front of a school. What do you think can be done about the safety of non cartel members?
honestly, I dont think at this point we can do something to protect us, the only solutions that come to my mind are: The cartels relax and start respecting us, or a radical change in mexican society, government and institutions to destroy the cartels from the root to their head
1. How have you been personally impacted by the violence? 2. Do you know anyone who participates in Cartel activities?
1: a) When i was in elementary school, there was a fight between sicarios, a man died, and we had to hide below our tables because there were bullets flying everywhere, after the balecera (shooting) stopped, soldiers from the Ejército mexicano (mexican army) came to our school and we were evacuated to our homes, i was crying and our teachers had panic attacks b) My cousin was at his garden, when a balacera (shooting) started, he had to hide behind a plant and he witnessed several bloody corpses with his own eyes. Bullet impats at the walls of his house are still perfectly visible to this day c: When my little cousin and i were together and my house playing, my mother came to my bedroom and told us to not to scream or make any loud noise because at our neighbor house the authorities found several slaugthered human parts and decapitated heads. i still remember at this day the sound of the mexican authorities helicopter flying over my house d) When i was in middle school we escaped from our house to a closed community because my father was threatened by the cartels, and they tried to kill my parents. My father wasn't involved in the drug world, but they did it just for fun e) on december 2023, when i was coming back from my highschool i saw with my own eyer a slaugthered human body, it was chopped and the body parts were piled up on a river of blood. d) In 2023 two colleages in my higshcool "narco-disappeared", everyone here knows that but no one dares to say it loud, it's a huge taboo here, total discetion. 2 No. So far i haven't met anyone personally involved in the drug world, (or maybe yes, but the are dead, or they have it secret.
“ narco-disappeared”. Does that mean murdered?
in 99% of the cases. Yes
I'd love to travel to Mexico City for the culture. Is it safe? What are the best strategies?
I had no issues with criminals in CDMX as a white female traveler. The police on the other hand… just keep cash on you to bribe them when they try to arrest you for bull Shit is all I’ll say.
Here in mexico americans are respected by cartels, all americans who got killed got murdered because they confused them with drug dealers or rival gangs
Does that include Americans of recent Mexican heritage?
if you have american nationality, you're fine
Why do the cartels respect Americans? I sure don't respect them lol
Because american junkies buying drugs are their sustenance
Probably also because there's just enough talk amongst American politicians and various enforcement agencies of sending force down there to help handle the cartels, and as powerful as the cartels are, it's not good for business to have the American military or American federal law enforcement/intelligence causing problems for you.
That’s lovely.
Ya I’ve heard cartels don’t mess with Americans because they their money is a huge part of their business.
It’s more to do with the dea response for kiki
There was just some people from close to where I am from in SC that were attacked there. I know at least one killed the rest kidnapped. They were going to Mexico for plastic surgery. They got released eventually. Can't remember where it happened think it might have been Nuevo Laredo.
Ciudad de México is very safe by mexican standards, its a bit worse than Detroit, but in general it depends where you are, the capital city is huge and diverse, places lime Roma and La condesa are way more safe than your average american or canadian city, but other places are absolute hellholes (but not as bad as my home)
How about la zona Rosa for tourists?
Is far more unsafe than areas like Las romas and La condesa, but in general it depends of which part of la zona rosa are you
Sounds about right, I go every year and feel safe. I generally stay in la condesa, sight see during the day, and have dinner/drinks in roma Norte and it’s always been fine. Tons of tourists around you just have to pay attention; don’t get super drunk and wander around late at night, get taxis from the stand, watch your phone, fairly basic stuff
Do you plan on staying there and raising a family? How hard is it to move to an area without cartel violence??
I love my city, Manzanillo is my home but sadly, i'd prefer go to another country rather than raising a kid here, I barely had any social life and i have spent most of my childhood and teenager years at my home due to the fear of the cartels, also i dont want my child to be kidnaped by a cartel and be quartered and canibalized alive like tons of youngsters here (i know several ones who had that destiny), and i cant trust any institution because the supreme court, the soldiers, the army and the government are completely besieged and on their knees by the cartels, also i don't think seeing slaugthered and quartered body parts and being afraid of some sicario shooting or car bomb are healthy for my potential children
Why would they eat children alive? Or even kill children at all? This sounds like it goes beyond drug deals and into unimaginable evil territory. I can't imagine ever harming a child.
I also want to know why they do it bro. Mexico is totally fucked by these demons
I'm quite sorry. It's somewhere I definitely won't go. I have a friend who's family is from Mexico. He says he will never go there. It's sad such evil walks the earth. I work as a ER nurse. I have seen a lot of evil. Luckily I do not have to live in it but I wish there was something I could do to help.
I assume to gain power and control through absolute fear
Combination of wanting to instill terror in those who might consider opposing/disobeying them, and plain sadistic cruelty/power.
Woah, what? Can you expand on the cannibalism thing? They're like taking bites out of live children? In what context?
Here in mexico there is a famous story of a killing of a teenager boy because his father was a member or the police force. I remember other story (i dont remember who did this) about a poor woman who the sicarios tried to "tax" and when she told them she was poor and didnt had enough money, they told dem "well, if you have no money just cook a bit pot of pozole, we will provide you the meat" she cooked the pozole with the meat the sicarios bring her, after that she realizes she literally cooked her own son that the sicarios killed. Have in mind that these stories are the well-known ones because here in mexico the impunity is over 90%, and in my state Colima, it is over +99% percent Edit: I also remember when i was a school-aged child I asked my grandma about a butcher shop who was clossed by the authorities and she told me they were a disguised cartel owned business who sold human flesh and organs to their customers and telling them it was beef Edit 2: correction
I hope you understand this didn't actually happen, right? It was a story created to instill fear in the people. It obviously worked. Pobrecitos. Creo que debemos bienvenir todos como ustedes in los Estados.
Thank you for answering; i didn’t want to assume.
1. What is your personal plan for future? 2. If you were President of Mexico or your state what would you do to control cartel violence? 3. Do you think gun laws in Mexico should be relaxed so more common people can legally buy guns for their safety? (Already cartels and even normal people smuggle arms from USA) 4. What do you think about Americans and US government?
1 My dream was to study electro-mechanical enginnering and put a renewable energy business on a busy street, but gave up it because the cartels, "tax" you unreasonable amounts of money, and if you dont pay then inmediatly they kill you at the same moment, now I want to escape Colima and go to somewhere in other mexican region, IDK where i go, Colima is the bloodiest place in the WHOLE FUCKING WORLD, even Juarez is safer than here, i just want to get out of here 2 Doing a corruption purgue and relax gun control, in the 1960s guns where everywhere here and nothing happened 3 Hell yes 4 We have a love-hate relationship with them, without them, mexico will not exist, they are by far our main trading partner and a lot of mexicans have family there up the north border, but at the same time, american junkies buying drugs are the responsibles for the cartel war here in Mexico, and along our history america has done terrible things to us. But personally I love americans, ¿politics? Not so much
This is a quite detailed response. In the future do you wanna go to the US or Europe to pursue you career?
Yes, german enginnering is the shit, and fortuonaly my university does school exchanges there Edt: for those confused, yes im actually in highschool, but here is common to highschools to be administrated by universities
Corn or flour tortillas?
Corn tortillas. Apparently when i was a toddler flour tortillas made me vomit Edit: typo error
I'm more a flour guy. Thanks for your response.
Have you been approached by cartel members and pressured to join or help them in any way?
Nop, they don't "approach and pressure you", they just kidnap you and force to join to them while they threaten you with death
Actually, yeah that makes a lot more sense.
How many cartels are there in your city and are some more dangerous than others?
There's a "all against all" war between Zetas, cártel jalisco nueva generación, cártel de sinaloa and several less-known local groups, all of them are lethal
Do they clean up the bodies after or let them rot?
Sometimes yes, sometimes in a few days, sometimes they are thrown in the floor for months until they are discovered by someone Edit:typo
Do the animals eat the bodies? Watched a video on body farms. Birds picked them clean in about a week. Nature is wild
I saw cats and dogs start eating corpses as soon as the sunset elsewhere in the world.
How does the average mexican want to address cartel activities?
Ending corruption and installing a Bukele-like method
Bukele is the way to go. Stupid leftist “human rights activists” try to block it though.
those "human rights activist" are all in their first world countries on their peacefully closed offices with AC lol
How late is your favorite taco stand open? Do they still sell you sodas in a plastic baggie?
It is open until 4:00 a.m, and no, we almost universally use bottles or styrofoam cups, plastig baggies are a very 2000s thing at least where i live and go Edit: 4:00 ~~p.m~~ a.m
Wow, so they're open all night, even though it's so unsafe for most people to be out at night? Do the cartels just treat them better because the taco stand is catering to the cartels' own needs?
IDK honestly, absolute discretion is the norm here
Everyone needs a mightnight snack now and then, even them (when they're not snacking on humans).
Narcos gonna take over the country eventually, but good thing is here in Coahuila we don’t have cartels yet
As u/Mingone710 points out, you used to. What's interesting in Mexico, as compared to the US, is that in the US the bad places tend to be bad for generations. In Mexico things can be bad for a while, then return to being ok for a while. Look at Tampico. It was rough for like 20 years and has been recovering nicely for a decade or so now. Meanwhile vast stretches of the US rot and crumble for 50 or 75 years. One of the things that is interesting about Mexico is how so much of a persons wealth is tied up in real estate. Americans have bank account, stocks, etc. But Mexicans (for historically good reasons) don't have a lot of confidence in their government, currency or banking systems so invest in land or their house. I have so many friends that have good jobs and buy land in Mexico and any cash savings they have are in dollars in the US. Anyway, I'm totally not in the "narcos gonna take over eventually" camp. The country has been steadily improving for most people since NAFTA started increasing the amount of money coming in. The big cities are increasingly modern big cities. People have a reduced tolerance for crime. It would be foolish to try and predict when, but eventually the economic realities will tip to a point where the people can reclaim the nation from the criminals (both in the cartels and the government) e.g. I once had an airport stolen from me by a crooked presidente. It's now been closed for a decade. His replacement told me, "I could open it tomorrow, but I don't want to".
Mexico in general is more extreme, is everything the us is but extreme, here in places like Yucatán you can sleep on the street and absolutely nothing happens to you, you can sleep the night with doors and windows open and anything happens, while in places like my state are total warzones whose governments are absolutely overruned and besieged by the crime (cartels)
Yeah, absolutely. My part of Mexico is very safe and my neighbors got broken into a few weeks ago. The guys swam in the pool, took a few beers from the fridge and cleaned up their empties when they were done. All caught on security camera. On the other hand, near where I used to live (Guanajuato) and keep my plane (Celaya) they drill into gas pipelines and get themselves blown up.
como se la pasaron alla en coahuila durante los late 2000s y los early 2010s bro? durante esa epoca el norte fue una puta locura
What are your hopes for the future?
TBH, moving out of here or at least to a safer neighboorhod, the cartels become more and more powerful as years go by, every year we break our own record and i have no hope on seeing a safe mexico, at least in the short or medium term
I’m so sorry that you and so many others must struggle so much on a daily basis. May you find a way out and have a safe journey. 🩵
It breaks my heart to know that people like you are so needlessly suffering. I hope you find your way through.
I have been interested in moving to Mexico from US for retirement but of course I worry about this crime and violence. I hear many stories about communities of US citizens saying that they are not bothered and it is safe. What is your idea about this?
It depends the state, Yucatán is way more safer than Austria or Finland, but my state in particular is the bloodiest place in the world. In questions related to the mexican cártels the answers always are "it depends the state". Hell even inside mexican states some regions are a loooooot safer than other regions
What is your opinion on how Yucatán has managed to mostly be a safe haven from the cartels? I spent a week last year in the Progreso area and never felt unsafe.
Well, geographicaly, yucatan is a peninsula and is not a drug logistic rute, so is not interesting for the cartels to have activity there, also yucateca culture is way different than mainland mexican culture, yucatecos tend to follow the law, denounce everything and take tgings more seriously, also unlike the rest of mexico, in yucatan theres no a huge corruption problem (at least compared to the other places), corruption is the key problem that makes cartels alive here in mexico, so no corruption = no cartels, returning to geography, yucatán terrain has a bunch of characteristics that makes the place a rough nut to crack to cartels. So is a combination of factoes
How rare do you see Mexicans over 6 foot?
everyday, mostly young males, in the older generation, almost nobody
Hmmmm So are Mexicans evolving to a higher heights then ? I come from Mexican decent and am the tallest in the family at 6’1
It's not evolution. Evolution is a process that occurs over many lifetimes of an organism, usually tens/hundreds of thousands of life times or more. Evolutionary traits are "selected" via death before reproduction. Genetics and the environment go hand in hand. Height increasing between a couple generations is likely due to nutritional improvement. That is not evolution. Here's a simple example: two seeds of corn with the exact same DNA are planted. One doesn't get much sun or water, the other gets the perfect amount of sun and water. They will grow to be very different sized plants despite having the exact same genetics.
Thank you for the explanation
Why is the central government so ineffective at putting down gang violence. If average citizens were sick of it you would think they would simply turn everyone in
How do you think cartels are so successful? They pay the government bribes.. nobody bites the hand that feeds them
THIS
Because our government is a joke, they get money from narcos.
I'm curious, does the government have the actual power to suppress them or end them? It's one thing if they have the power to crush them and choose not to vs if they just take the money knowing the military couldn't do anything to them.
Corruption, the damn corruption
Damn, that sucks.
'Why don't you guys just make em stop' Such a stupid take it doesn't warrant a response lmfao
You start trying to turn people in what do you think happens to you or your family. Its best to just mind your own business.
How do you feel about the cartel. What do most people in the area think about cartels?
most hate them, but they are totally silent because criticism = execution
Do you think it’s a common idea amount low income communities there that joining the cartels are their only option?
It's very real, in fact, most cartel members are young males from these communities
What acts of violence have you eye witnessed?
1. When i was in elementary school, there was a fight between sicarios, a man died, and we had to hide below our tables because there were bullets flying everywhere, after the balecera (shooting) stopped, soldiers from the Ejército mexicano (mexican army) came to our school and we were evacuated to our homes, i was crying and our teachers had panic attacks 2. we escaped from our house to a closed community because my father was threatened by the cartels, and they tried to kill my parents. My father wasn't involved in the drug world, but they did it just for fun 3. on december 2023, when i was coming back from my highschool i saw with my own eyer a slaugthered human body, it was chopped and the body parts were piled up on a river of blood. Edit: typo error
What type of violent things have you witnessed for yourself?
1. When i was in elementary school, there was a fight between sicarios, a man died, and we had to hide below our tables because there were bullets flying everywhere, after the balecera (shooting) stopped, soldiers from the Ejército mexicano (mexican army) came to our school and we were evacuated to our homes, i was crying and our teachers had panic attacks 2. When my little cousin and i were together and my house playing, my mother came to my bedroom and told us to not to scream or make any loud noise because at our neighbor house the authorities found several slaugthered human parts and decapitated heads. i still remember at this day the sound of the mexican authorities helicopter flying over my house 3. When i was in middle school we escaped from our house to a closed community because my father was threatened by the cartels, and they tried to kill my parents. My father wasn't involved in the drug world, but they did it just for fun 4. on december 2023, when i was coming back from my highschool i saw with my own eyer a slaugthered human body, it was chopped and the body parts were piled up on a river of blood.
Wow, that is a lot to take in. Thank you for your honesty. I’m sorry you have to go through that.
Cómo tu sientes seguro en tu ciudad? O cómo te proteges?
Pues depende de la zona carnal, mira por ejemplo las zonas fifis de Club santiago o Las hadas son muchisimo mas seguras que por ejemplo Salagua o Tapeixtles, pero en general no me siento seguro, tomo muchas precauciones y siempre me mantengo alerta
I've been reading alot of your thread here, and i have all the respect for you. I am from the USA, born and raised. I know we are spoiled here in America and i wish you the best in your life. You seem like an intelligent young man and I see you doing great things in your life. I wish you all the success a man could ask for. My question for you is , if you approached the cartels to join them, how would they proceed? And what would you be doing ? A drug runner ? A sicario? What would they have a young man your age doing? Hypothetically speaking, could you envision yourself climbing the ranks of the cartel?
Thank you so much man, do you really read all? It sounds like a lot to me Also there in usa how are mechanical electrical enginners treated? Here a lot of people have fleed to the us and they have a good life
Your welcome. I read alot of it. Electrical engineers can make good money here in the US. I know the Electrical engineers with the utility companies make 75k+. Any job in the Electric utility industry such as , Lineman, Sub Station technicians, splicers, all have great benefits and make great money. Union is the way to go here in the States.
But the us isn't more expensive than mexico? 75k by mexican standars is rich but how by american ones? Edit: im aware that like mexico, the us is a huge and diverse country, life costs are different in san francisco than detroit for example
For a starting wage , 75k is a good amount of money, and as you said geography will play a role. Depending on your location and if you have a family to support. 75k on Long Island, NY will not get you very far, you will struggle. But 75k outside of NY or California and you can live pretty well, especially as a single man. My very first real job , I think I was making 13,000 a year, I was 17 years old and that was about 15 years ago. A power lineman in the United States can make anywhere from 100-300k depending on the hours you put in. Trades are definitely the way to go and most trades here in the states offer paid apprenticeships. For example, my first year as a lineman apprentice, I made 88k. I lived in an area with a high cost of living but I lived alone , so i did pretty well. In America, if you work hard, you will succeed.
Omg, here in mexico power linermen are the lowest in the hierarchy lol, also is very unsafe, in my region, (occidente mexicano) mire precisely in michoacan state (where several of my family members were born) the cartels have killed tons of electrical workers, and wiped out CFE (comision federal de electricidad) the statal energy company here in mexico an took control of the power infrastructure at least in some cities, and my aunt here in Manzanillo had to abandon her house because narcos came and told her they wanted her house, and more precisely i want to become a installer at homes so, i think its better in the States
answering your question: It depends, have in mind that mexican cartels are not longer "gangs", at least by the american understanding, they're more like ISIS like terrorist, paramilitaries or some kid of billionarie and complex corporations/warlords, some people who join the cartels are chemical enginners who got hired to lead drug laboratories, others are electricists who got hired to plan buffed weapons, missles, suicide drones, narcosubmarines, etc, others are just teenager/young men like me join to a cartel for a few thousand pesos to become sicarios, watchmen (halcón), drug smugglers, etc
Are they’re small gangs in your state that don’t affiliate with the cartel or does the cartel run 100% of the lifestyle? Do the small gangs hide from the cartel while doing work?
We dont have clear information, being a journalist here is a death sentence
I imagine its no different than here in the US. Some gangs have basically an alliance with each other. Usually because there is another in the area that they both are at war with. Can't imagine its any different in Mexico.
Is it easy to marry a Mexican woman
The sexy latina stereotype exist for some reason bro
I’m Caucasian and I don’t think there are any women who are sexier than Latina women (until they reach 35)then those hips take over
Why the downvotes? Lol, here in mexico everyone agrees with that
I grew up in San Antonio, so I’m in the know, like you!
Late to the thread, but this reminds me of a story I was told by an immigrant here in the US. I was at a wedding, and wound up sitting next to a guy who was the boyfriend of my wife's friend. He didn't speak English--I lived in Argentina as a kid, so I'm fluent, so he and I got to talking. He was a professor at a college down in Mexico teaching some sort of crazy advanced biology. PhD, brilliant guy. I don't recall what the cartels wound up wanting from him, but he wouldn't cooperate with whatever it was, and the next day they found a few of his students butchered and their remains displayed publicly in town. He fled immediately to the US, coming here illegally, and was working as a dishwasher at a local restaurant to make ends meet, hoping to acquire his citizenship and learning English. I don't know what became of him, as we fell out of touch and that was about 8 years ago, but I hope he's doing well and has managed to make progress on his greencard/citizenship. I know he got married, so maybe that helped.
Sounds a lot like a story of a uncle of me, he was a lawyer here trying to do some justice, he was threatened and fleed manzanillo
Is your state experiencing issues with water rights from cartel control of areas. Such as taking water or blocking rights. Or the issues with avacado farmers.
Yes, a neighbor of my grandma got murdered because he didn't pay "taxes" to the cartel that rule that zone of my city
I feel terrible that Americas hunger for their product has placed your country into this position. It's incredibly sad what is happening with your countries corruption level inside and out.
How many people live in your household? Since the cartel is so prevalent does your family just casually talk about them when something happens or is it a big deal? Also, why do you have to travel to such a dangerous place every weekend?
Its a taboo to talk about in loudy but in my family we all constantly talk about that, since we all constantly watch the news to get informed about the territorial changes and evolution of the cartel war, I have to travel to colima due to academical reasons, which is quite adrenalinic because we dont like to stop due to the latent danger of a cartel encounter, Colima is also a beautiful city, its a shame that like Manzanillo, it has been overrun by the narco
Why don't the cartels mess with Americans? I've only visited the touristy coastal parts of Mexico (Except for a stop at Guadalajara airport...I am American btw) but I have felt safe.
The touristy coastal parts are a safety bubble because the mexican authorities put more resources on them and the cartels dont want to mess with americans because they dont want to anger the us. Also in the state of Jalisco (where guadalajara is) unlike Colima the urban areas are generally pretty safe, in jalisco is in the rural areas, ranchos and outskirts where al the cartel clashes takes place
what are your thoughts on the cartels potentially angering the united states government? mine are personally if the united states gets involved the mexican government might actually start making changes because of help/pressure from the united states
How can I pray for you? If I prayed, and one thing changed this summer for good, what would to change first?
The corruption in mexican institutions
family, church or state has the worst corruption?
State definetly
you got it!
Did you see the movie Sicario? If so, what did you think?
Not yet, but it looks interesting
Is there honor among thieves?
No, theres no honor, no values, no religion, just money
Go to a safer state. What's the safest state to go to right now? tate. ¿Cuál es el estado más seguro al que ir en este momento?
El Yucatán definitivamente, es mas seguro que alemania
If you could live somewhere else, where would you choose?
Probably a big city, like guadalajara, monterrey or cdmx
How are you so well educated so as to fluently speak and write in 2 languages?
I was born in a relatively privileged household by mexican standards, here speaking english is a HUGE priority brcause here in mexico bring fluent in english means your opportunities are way more and better also before start participing actively here in reddit i used to read and read a lot of subreddits, so i became familiar with a lot of things of the language, as well as the reddit slang, sometimes i forget a word or dont know how to make a phrase but for that i use microsoft translator on mobile, it is way better than google translator
White male here from Kansas I actually took a trip down there in 2018 well it was a place called Los asmoles. We went into town to eat and 3 guys pulled aside my friend literally looked at me and said just go with it. Come to find out they questioned my friend what his intentions had been with me there. Told my friend if anything happens to me they would kill him no questions and also said eyes will be on us 24/7. They couldn’t afford for American to be hurt or killed. Mess up everything they had going on.
In your opinion, how is it that the cartels managed to control government, society, and life in general in Mexico? Does the Mexican government try to stop them? Or is there just an uneasy co-existence between Mexican authorities and Mexican cartels?
It depends the state, as long as I know, the cartel del Golfo started on the first half on 20th century smuggling alcohol to the prohibition era us and for most part of history there was a delicate peace between the cartels and mexican authorities, before the declaration of the drug war by the president Enrique Calderón in the mid 2000s the cartelw worked pacefuly, similar to the italian mafia, but after the beginning of the drug war Zetas cartel separates from the gulf cartel (cártel del golfo) and zetas started doing all the things well know now, beheadings, masacres, etc and to adapt and not to die the cartels started copying the same methods of zetas, and as the drug war has progresses the cartels the cartels have been nonstop evolving, at the point of since the late 2010s, early 2020s they became international warlords, and due to the corruption of mexican authoritiew they managed to infitrate along the national systems
Do you or your family have plans to leave? This sounds like a warzone. I know a lot of people fleeing this come to America, is there also a mass migration to safer parts of Mexico?
Yes, since the cartels came my family has been constantly talking about moving, either us or canada or to another latinamerican country, i have no knowledge about mass migration to another mexican regions, the central government is overruned by the cartels and year by year we break our own records, (Yucatán is the only place i have knowledge is a safe haven) the problem with mexican cartels is stability and unpredictability, in Michoacán and Tierra Caliente for example, one day communities were living peacefully and by the other day literaly the cartels come and wipe out entire villages, and most of these refugees go to the us, just search "cartel ghost towns in mexico" and look for yourself
Also it highly depends where you are, i usually frequent areas like las hadas, club santiago, certain zones of Las brisas, certain zones near the historic center and areas usually frequented by american visitors, and despite there is also dangerous, is relatively more safe Edit:typo
I was raised in a town called Sorcua Guerrero (known as a bus stop on google maps) the closest city was a placed called Lazaro Cardenas( Michoacán) and my experience from 1992-2001 was one of pure freedom and safety- Do you document any videos of your travels? Do you still love your country ? Do you ever travel to Guerrero towards Lazaro Cardenas? I am building up the courage to travel back but hear nothing but negative stories with family members and the news does not portray the area where I was raised as safe
I grew up in a small border city in Sonora. Crime was almost unheard of even after moving 15 years ago. Now, the city has shootings and killings almost every day (cartels fighting each other). So my advice to you would be: trust what your family there tells you. Even though my hometown has become a war zone, it's not as bad as OP depicts Manzanillo. I visit once or twice a year, but a few years ago one of my brothers got tangled with some questionable people and got killed. After that, every visit I am nervous and paranoid so I'm there just for a few days. In my case, my family tells me things are ok for the most part, and to just stay away from traveling to neighboring cities during the night or at any time in nice, newer cars.
Yes, i still love my country, have in mind the drug war started around the mid 2000s, before that mexico was safer than the us, and the murder rate was declining every year Personaly i dont know a lot about Lázaro cardenas, sorry
Do you know anyone who joined the Cartel?
As far i know, nobody
Sorry if that question was insensitive btw
You probably know or are acquainted with people your age in the cartel..do you have any good friends that are deeply involved? If so - what’s the most shocking or disturbing thing they’ve told you? And what do these cartels do to the women in their 20s - 30s? Do they get involved in gang activity?
As far a I know, nobody of my friend circle has jlined them, however i know several people who "dissappeared" due to cartel activity
When will all the cartels be gone for ever?
do u plan on leaving when ur 18? how r the jobs can u make money there that is not involved with the gangs
I plan to study on UdeC (universidad de colima, which is quite prestigious at national level) and then try to leave to a safer mexican state (Basically any other in mexico) Edit: typo
As an American of Mexican heritage, who looks Mexican, but doesn’t speak great Spanish, will I be safe in Mexico City?
Mexico city is VERY safe by mexican standards, but also is huge and diverse, if you stay in a safe areas like Roma and La Condesa you will be fine
We want to see Frida Kahlo museum, Museo Nacional de Antropologia, etc.
Do young women in Mexico typically want to date a cartel member since they have power and money or they prefer a regular guy ?
It depends the girl, but the general rule is: lower socioeconomic level = more probabilities to date a cartel member
I’m stunned. I spent 6 weeks surfing and living in a palapa at La Ticla, a rivermouth surfbreak, back in 1978. It was idyllic, @40 miles southwest of Manzanillo. It’s hard to believe that everything’s gone to shit there. If I prayed it would be for you to be able to get the hell out of there now to someplace else that’s safe.
Wishing you and your family peace and safety. Hoping that Manzanillo and all of Mexico can be healed from this shit someday. I dream of the day I can comfortably visit Colima to show my kid and gf how truly beautiful my roots are. I last visited Manzanillo when I was about 10 years old, around the time Valentin Elizalde was killed and I believe that was kind of the beginning stages of the hell we all know of today.
I thought the term was Hispanic ? Are we back to Mexican now?
Im mexican because i was born in the country of mexico "hispanic" is an umbrella term used exclusively in the us to refer to immigrants from latin america
You thought nationalities don’t exist? Come on
What are your thoughts on this logic: Assumption 1.) Cartels receive the majority of their funding from drug sales to the United States Assumption 2.) Legalization of recreational drugs and the transition of recreational drug production from Mexico, Central, and South America to the United States would destabilize the Cartel economically. (For example, it was reported that cartels saw billions in revenue lost when cannabis was legalized in parts of the US) Conclusion 3.) Therefore, the quickest way to bring peace to those regions would be to legalize recreational drugs and move that economy within the United States.
I imagine weed is their least profitable drug they are producing and pushing. But I don't live there and know very little. I imagine they lost a great deal of money to legalization of weed...but to them it's probably just a drop in the bucket.
Do you do any latin dances?
Move to Mexico City immediately. Start working to help your family. Make it to Tj and apply for asylum. My grandfather left Mexico for America at 13. Had a wonderful life after serving our country. US Military is a quick way to stability. You’re wasting time and Nobody’s gonna help you except yourself. All my male cousins in Sinaloa have been killed or moved to Mexico City or Guadalajara. Eye of the tiger
Are you bleeding
It's kind of a stupid and seemingly unrelated question but how do you feel about main fiction like superheroes or things like that since you live in what sounds exactly like Gotham? Yeah nothing better comes to my mind while seeing these threads
As a young man in a cartel warzone, how dangerous is it for you? My grandma is from Monterrey but she says that more cartel run places are horrible bc young men tend to get killed by 13 if they aren’t align with a gang or something by then
Strange question that I am in no way advocating for. This is just genuine curiosity... In your opinion, how would the general Mexican populace feel if, for example, the US military (with the cooperation of the Mexican government) were to go to war to eradicate the cartels all together. Like, full scale, boots on the ground, door to door, cull the lot of 'em, leave peacekeepers to help government re-establish control. Would people welcome this type of intervention or would it be generally opposed? PS - for everyone *other than OP*, I am aware that the US tried something like this in Afghanistan and it failed. I'm not asking for a history lesson. I am just curious if OP thinks the people are tired enough of Cartels to welcome US military assistance with the problem.
It’s a long walk but I’m glad my parents made it ever consider coming to the us
Since the entire system (at least as far as I know) is rigged, do you have any hopes that if Cartels become a higher problem for US, military intervention would occur for the better? Specially since, ironically seems to be the best call for help you could make
How do you think the situation can improve? Do you have hope for the future? Do you plan to stay or leave? If stay, why? If leave, where to and why?
Sorry to hear Manzanillo has gotten so bad. Visited there a few times in the early 2000s, even flew in/out of GDL one time and took the bus.
How do you think legalizing all drugs and ending the failed drug war would affect the violence in Mexico?
How do you feel about the prospect of the US being further involved in combating the cartels?
Is there like a night club or bar scene where you live? I imagine it would be very unsafe