Hacker Cinema
Cartel Land
2015 · Film · documentary · 101 min
Directed by Matthew Heineman
In the Mexican state of Michoacán, Dr. Jose Mireles, a small-town physician known as "El Doctor," shepherds a citizen uprising against the Knights Templar, the violent drug cartel that has wreaked havoc on the region for years. Meanwhile, in Arizona's Altar Valley—a narrow, 52-mile-long desert corridor known as Cocaine Alley—Tim "Nailer" Foley, an American veteran, heads a small paramilitary group called Arizona Border Recon, whose goal is to halt Mexico’s drug wars from seeping across our border.
6 positive2 neutralfrom 8 commenters
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Highly recommend the 2015 documentary 'Cartel Land'
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"Cartel land" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4126304/?ref_=rt_li_tt
This reminds me of "Cartel Land" movie¹, which depicted similar events (in the same Mexican state of Michoacán, BTW) a few years before, mostly around José Manuel Mireles Valverde².
¹ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4126304/
² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Manuel_Mireles_Valverde
Cartel Land. Spoiler: Includes serendipitously captured footage of a local thug's takedown by vigilantes.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4126304/reviews
Shows how Mexican drug lords aren't so much entrepreneurs, as rather players within a bigger system. This came as a much-belated epiphany to me.
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There's an excellent documentary about one of the first break away parapolice forces called Cartel Land.
Well, for one thing the cartels have forced parts of the civilian population -- especially in Michoacan-- to work for them (farming poppy; processing raw opium; spies and lookouts). These people are then affected by narco inter-gang violence, since they are viewed as part of the organisation thay are forced to work for. This also explains the large number of "gang-members" killed, when the mexican state publishes numbers on the death toll of the drug war.
Another thing is a system of "taxation", narco gangs put on these people. They have to pay the taxman from the state, as well as protection money to the rackets.
For a great documentary on this topic (this and how the people are trying to defend themselvs) I can point you to "Cartel Land" -- available on Netflix.
Reminds me of the autodefensas, as depicted in the excellent documentary Cartel Land
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartel_Land