Amexica: War Along The Borderline by Ed Vulliamy, Random House, $35.
A tough, gritty — and most disturbingly, true — report from the Mexican-US border, where drug cartels wage war on each other, and anyone gets in their way.
More than 28,000 have been killed since the official war on drugs was declared five years ago — many hideously tortured, and a disproportionate number of women (the “femicide”, they call it) for reasons I understand for the first time because of the brilliance and bravery of Vulliamy’s investigations.
From the drug feuds over territory to the collapse of civil society to the growth of the maquiladoras, the low-wage factories producing cheap goods for export, he covers it all.
This is hard reading, but it gives context to the random news reports and is a important eye-opener for those prepared to see what happens to a country, and a people, when the narco cartels take over.
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