El Narco

Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency

De: Ioan Grillo

Narrado por: Paul Thornley

Bloomsbury presents El Narco by Ioan Grillo, read by Paul Thornley.

"Essential reading."-Steve Coll, NewYorker.com

A gripping, sobering account of how Mexican drug gangs have transformed into a criminal insurgency that threatens the nation's democracy and reaches across to the United States.

The world has watched, stunned, the bloodshed in Mexico. Forty thousand murdered since 2006; police chiefs shot within hours of taking office; mass graves comparable to those of civil wars; car bombs shattering storefronts; headless corpses heaped in town squares. And it is all because a few Americans are getting high. Or is it part of a worldwide shadow economy that threatens Mexico's democracy? The United States throws Black Hawk helicopters, DEA assistance, and lots of money at the problem. But in secret, Washington is at a loss. Who are these mysterious figures who threaten Mexico's democracy? What is El Narco?

El Narco is not a gang; it is a movement and an industry drawing in hundreds of thousands, from bullet-riddled barrios to marijuana-covered mountains. The conflict spawned by El Narco has given rise to paramilitary death squads battling from Guatemala to the Texas border (and sometimes beyond).

In this "propulsive ... high-octane" book (Publishers Weekly), Ioan Grillo draws the first definitive portrait of Mexico's cartels and how they have radically transformed.©2011 Ioan Grillo (P)2025 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Narrator is amazing, British, but not too British if you know what I mean

I liked it all, very honest, the writer/ journalist went places I’d be terrified to go, prob only survived cause of his accent and Caucasianess, almost all the journalists from Mexico unfortunately didn’t survive trying to bring some of this to light.

Good story, terrible narration

If you can get passed the appalling pronouncing of Spanish words, it's a good story and history of cartels. But you'd think they'd have found a narrator who has a nominal understanding of Spanish pronunciation. THEE-udad Juarez, Nicarag-U-ah, Beltran-LEV-ee-ah (it's Leyva)... just a few examples. But it's pervasive and distracting throughout the book.

Great and powerful insight

Without inserting too much of his personal politics, he lays out a comprehensive history and analysis of Cartels in Mexico. He offers further context when needed, and has powerful testimonials throughout. Highly recommend.