Leo

Well-known member
the southern border is so fucked, almost a no-win situation. nearly impossible to build a wall across the entire border, and even if we did they would find ways around it. plus, the majority of people here illegally don't sneak over the border, they come over on guest visits and don't leave. hard to see how anything will ever change as long as Central American countries and Mexico are ruled by corrupt officials and cartels.
 
Last edited:

version

Well-known member
I read something about the cartel currently on top in Mexico and the violence being described was beyond belief. The kind of stuff you know happens, but you can't really picture and get your head around. There was a woman interviewed who said her son disappeared and currently all she has of him is like one of his arms and his torso, which the authorities found in some infamous "torture house"...
Each Wednesday, desperate mothers, wives, sisters and daughters gather outside the city’s forensic institute seeking news of loved ones.

“It’s the sisterhood of pain,” said the group’s 50-year-old leader, Martha Leticia García, as they waited to examine images of body parts unearthed from an ever-growing network of mass graves.

García, whose son César Ulises disappeared in 2017 and has not been found, described the macabre routine of such relatives as they sifted through excavated remains for those they had loved and lost. “You see these things up on the screen and say to yourself: ‘That arm looks sort of familiar, that head.’ It’s just so terrible – the viciousness that we’re seeing in this state,” she said.

Nearby stood Cecilia Flores, 54, whose 28-year-old son, Wilians, was taken in 2019. Four months later officials told her some body parts had been recovered from a notorious torture house called El Mirador. “They found a hand, his torso and forearm. I’m still missing the other hand and his legs,” she said.
 

catalog

Well-known member
There's a really disturbing film about the cartel violence. It's all done dispassionately, rather than bombastic, but there's a scene where a guy is being slowly tortured and killed by some others in a flat, it's all happening in almost real time, mundane and boring things are happening at the same time. It involves electricity and wires.

Was like Henry portrait of a serial killer if you've ever seen that.

Can't remember the name of the film, it was really heavy. Sort of like a film version of the part about the bodies in 2066 but worse.

Edit: it's 'Heli' https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/may/25/heli-review-mexican-drugs-drama-ultraviolent can't really recommend it tbh
 
Last edited:

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
There were stories a couple of years about the reappearance of some gruesome Aztec god's cult, altars made from a pyramid of skulls, that sort of thing. All too believable, and make a you realise Bolaño wasn't exaggerating in the "Part about the murders" bit of 2666.

Edit: predictable cross-post about that book!
 

version

Well-known member
I haven't heard about the Aztec cult, but I posted an article about the police finding some sort of altar littered with body parts.
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Police found more than 40 skulls, dozens of bones and a fetus in a glass jar next to an altar in the den of suspected drug traffickers in Mexico City during a raid this week, authorities said on Sunday... Investigators also discovered knives, 40 jawbones, the fetus and 30 leg or arm bones at the site, the office said. It was not yet clear whether the fetus was human, the spokeswoman said.
The Guardian recently published a piece on a Mexican journalist who specifically covers femicides, but I haven't read it yet.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I haven't heard about the Aztec cult, but I posted an article about the police finding some sort of altar littered with body parts.

The Guardian recently published a piece on a Mexican journalist who specifically covers femicides, but I haven't read it yet.
Maybe my brain ad-libbed the bit about the Aztec god. But the old indigenous religions never really went away, and a lot of the cult activity associated with them was extremely violent.
 

version

Well-known member
man those cartels sound like a real bunch of jerks!
9ce8ed01-5e61-4e97-b5ea-c4d62e9f9098.jpg
 

version

Well-known member
Maybe my brain ad-libbed the bit about the Aztec god. But the old indigenous religions never really went away, and a lot of the cult activity associated with them was extremely violent.
“Do you want Mexico to be saved? Do you want Christ to be our king?”

“No…”
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Yeah this is interesting, wondering where it will go. Already the conservatives have got their knickers in a twist about a power grab (which obviously they would never do) but I think it's equally possible they study it for a year and then decide that no change is necessary.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
Maybe my brain ad-libbed the bit about the Aztec god. But the old indigenous religions never really went away, and a lot of the cult activity associated with them was extremely violent.

A ritual skull midden was found under Mexico city dating back to the pre-conquest era. Anyone ever wonder if Mexico’s situation is deliberately aggravated to turn it into a southern US border firewall?

The graniud reported a bunch of cocaine busts in Antwerp recently running at huge weights seized. Half decent write up on Colombians focusing on Europe more, asset seizure not as aggressively enforced (compared to the US), driving up purity too
 

version

Well-known member
That article patty posted the other day re: the Albanian mafia mentioned that they ended up taking over the London trade after going direct to Colombian suppliers,
It began with a business model that was simple in concept, but sufficiently bold to subvert the existing order. For years cocaine’s international importers worked separately from its wholesalers and the gangs. Pricing structure varied, depending on the drug’s purity; the higher it was, the more it cost.

The Albanians ditched the entire model. They began negotiating directly with the Colombian cartels who control coca production. Huge shipments were arranged direct from South America. Supply chains were kept in-house.

Intelligence obtained by British experts revealed that the Albanians were procuring cocaine from the cartels for about £4,000 to £5,500 a kilo, at a time when rivals thought they were getting a decent deal using Dutch wholesalers selling at £22,500 a kilo. The Albanians lowered the price of cocaine – and increased its purity. More massive consignments were brought into the UK.
 
Top