A Narco History

How the United States and Mexico Jointly Created the “Mexican Drug War”

By: Carmen Boullosa, Mike Wallace

Narrated by: James Conlan

Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

The term Mexican Drug War misleads. It implies that the ongoing bloodbath, which has now killed well over 100,000 people, is an internal Mexican affair. But this diverts attention from the US role in creating and sustaining the carnage. It's not just that Americans buy drugs from and sell weapons to Mexico's murderous cartels. It's that ever since the US prohibited the use and sale of drugs in the early 1900s, it has pressured Mexico into acting as its border enforcer - with increasingly deadly consequences. Mexico was not a helpless victim. Powerful forces within the country profited hugely from supplying Americans with what their government forbade them. But the policies that spawned the drug war have proved disastrous for both countries. Written by two award-winning authors, one American and the other Mexican, A Narco History reviews the interlocking 20th-century histories that produced this 21st-century calamity and proposes how to end it.

©2015 Carmen Boullosa and Mike Wallace (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Great History

I love how the author maintained a non-bias factual sheet. Well knowledgeable, and great details on the series of events on the Cartel Drugs War.
This book should be listened by Americans and also Mexicans seeking a wider understanding and background of Politics, Corruption, US drug involvement and the origin of Cartels.

Comprehensive view of an important topic

This book covers a lot of history and gives the reader a valuable single source for an overview of the current drug war and all its dire ramifications. While the performance is clear and professional there is the occasional mispronunciation of the Spanish names although I found it easily forgivable. Written some time ago now so the material is starting to show it’s age relative to the current state of affairs but nonetheless this book will get you up to speed on the drug war in an engaging manner.

Carmen Boullosa should have listened

Otherwise excellent book

Carmen Boullosa should have listened before this audiobook was launched. She would have let the reader know of several mistakes in the pronunciation. Help this man to say "sexenio" properly, since it is a much used word in the text. It is pronounced Sex-EN-io, not Sej-EN-io.

His pronunciation of "Sexenio" as Sehenio .

His pronunciation of "Sexenio" as Sehenio is very annoying other than that I learn a lot about my own country

Blame America

There is a lot of interesting, factual information in this book. There is also a whole lot of opinion scattered heavily throughout. Somehow, Americans' freedom to own AR15's puts RPG's (rocket propelled grenades) on the streets of Mexico?

Very detailed

This is a great, albeit brief, history of the Mexican war on drugs. Detailed through the political climate in Mexico and US influence on Mexico, it tells the story of why and how. But I do recommend that the reader or listener have some background information on the Marco situation in Mexico as a lot of names and dates are thrown around and can be confusing.

Learned A Lot!

The historical view point taken by the author was interesting and lined up the facts in another book I read about the history of the war on drugs. the main characters of in this book lined up with the characters in the other book. the underlining theme of both books support the fact that the war on drugs was created by the same country aiming to stop it. Good listen, will get the hard copy for future research.

A history of drug lords in Mexico

This book is a pretty good history of drugs in Mexico and how the modern day drug cartels arose and gained power until the year 2014 (book’s publication).
The title is very misleadingly the U.S. barely factors in the story of this book, with them only being mentioned when they make their own laws and small mentions of how they affect Mexican security such as arms smuggling. The lack of mention of the U.S.‘s role might merit a sequel to this book talking only about America.
But this book does analyze Mexico in such simple and rich detail. Starting from independence all the way to the 43 students, the authors detail how drugs were regulated in Mexico and how ultimately liberalism ended up swaying many poor Mexicans into the vastly profitable and on demand work of narcotics.
The 20th century of drugs in Mexico in this book is more of a history lesson on Mexican history rather than drug policy but it really helps paint how corrupt the country became, which might interest some people but not all as it does seem like the authors went too deep in this part. Modern day drug wars/cartels are covered in accurate detail without sensation or gory images, just the facts.
The narrator is alright expect for when he pronounces Spanish words and names. He should have tired a bit more times on the pronunciation.

US & Mexican Governments are Corrupt

This was not what I expected. Basically boils down to the insatiable US appetite for drugs to smoke, snort and shoot up. Also hints at the guns and weapons being provided by the US to the cartels. Most politicians and governments are corrupt and there’s lots of money to be made by keeping the current system in place. The narrator was good.

Found this title by accident...

I discovered this title, and it completely opened my eyes to Mexico's Narco History.