Matthew Heineman's Academy Award-nominated "Cartel Land" is one of the most harrowing documentaries that you'll ever see. It focuses mainly on a community in Michoacán that formed a vigilante group to fight the drug gangs, since the corrupt government was no good at protecting them from the gangs. The other focus is a vigilante group in Arizona that sets out to stop the cartels from entering the US. It took some real guts to get this on screen (to say nothing of the danger that they likely faced in filming it).
It just goes to show that the so-called War on Drugs is a failure at best. Not only is Mexico nearly a failed state, but the mass arrests for drug possession in the United States have devastated entire communities. Meanwhile, Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2000, and drug usage fell there.
The point is that there's no way to win such a war, least of all for the people in rural Mexico. They bear the brunt of the brutality, whether from cartels or from their own government. We must end this war.
In an update since the documentary's release, José Mireles died of COVID last month.
It just goes to show that the so-called War on Drugs is a failure at best. Not only is Mexico nearly a failed state, but the mass arrests for drug possession in the United States have devastated entire communities. Meanwhile, Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2000, and drug usage fell there.
The point is that there's no way to win such a war, least of all for the people in rural Mexico. They bear the brunt of the brutality, whether from cartels or from their own government. We must end this war.
In an update since the documentary's release, José Mireles died of COVID last month.