One of the best places on Earth to stargaze. ibid.
Many animals switch to a night routine to avoid the heat of the day. ibid.
Mexico City: a sprawling megalopolis fuelled by optimism and enterprise. World’s Busiest Cities s1e2: Mexico City, BBC 2017
1,000 tianguis or open-air markets. ibid.
A city that has come to define urban sprawl. ibid.
It’s crowded, it’s congested, there are problems with water and sewage, and this haphazard city sits in a major earthquake zone where parts of it are sinking ten centimeters each year. ibid.
50,000 of these buses. ibid.
Mexico is at war with itself. The country is being torn apart by cartels fighting over the $30 billion drug trade. Acapulco was once a glamorous holiday paradise; now, it’s the fourth most violent city in the world. A place where a thousand people were murdered last year alone. Now the army has been deployed on the streets. Reggie Yates, The Insider: Inside a Mexican Drug War, BBC 2016
One of the traffickers was summoned to Sinaloa in the mountain. As he was being driven up the mountain to meet El Chapo it was 100 degrees out. And there were people chained to the trees all the way up. Some may have been dead, some were going to die, but that was all about intimidation, it was all about, hey, you’re gonna come work for me, I’m gonna pay you, and if you don’t, I’m gonna kill you. Drug Lords s1e1: El Chapo, Jack Riley DEA, Netflix 2018
Chicago 2013: Crime in the city is reaching fever pitch. And it’s down to a drug cartel 1,600 miles away in Mexico and its head, El Chapo. El Chapo and his Sinaloa Cartel are flooding the States with millions of dollars of narcotics from Mexico and beyond every day. And US authorities mark their man Public Enemy Number One. ibid.
Tunnels will become El Chapo’s calling card. ibid.
Mexican police put out Wanted posters offering a $5 million dollar bounty for each man. ibid.
The authorities capture El Chapo after 13 years on the run. ibid.
Guadalajara 1985: Large institutions, some you are supposed to trust, got together and started a war … a drug war. The kind that’s easy to forget is happening until you realise that for the last thirty years in Mexico it’s killed half a million people and counting. Narcos Mexico s1e1: Camelot, Netflix 2018
A bunch of Sinaloan farmers were getting rich shipping their dope up north. ibid.
Drug dealers are like cockroaches … they’ll always come back usually stronger than ever. ibid.
In 1980 there were more women in the NYPD than there were agents in the entire DEA. ibid.
Sinsemilla: You get bigger buds packing more THC making it the gold standard of Mexican dope. Narcos Mexico s1e2: The Plaza System
Before the cartels existed things worked differently in Mexico. The narcotics game was made up of lone wolf traffickers, mostly Sinaloans who purchased permission from the cops to run drugs in a particular city or territory: they called it the Plaza System. ibid.
Felix’s dream was to create a union of Mexican traffickers. ibid.
You want to work for me? OK, Chapo. ibid. Gallardo
So, here’s a few signs your town has become the centre of a major criminal operation: suddenly, money is being spent all over; cars, planes, real estate, everyone’s buying. Want to avoid those long lines at the bank? Buy the fucking place. Narcos Mexico s1e3: El Padrino
Felix created Mexico’s first narco union … and the cash was rolling in. ibid.
In the Mexican narcotics game everyone’s related. ibid.
The eradication programme is bullshit. ibid. DEA dude
They couldn’t get near the big fish so they targeted the small ones. Narcos Mexico s1e4: Rafa, Rafa, Rafa!
The Rockefeller of marijuana. ibid. top Mexican rozzer
The cartel had the biggest gang in Mexico in their pocket – a private army basically doing their bidding. Narcos Mexico s1e5: The Colombia Connection
In only a matter of months Medellin will look tiny compared to you. ibid. Gallardo to Cali cartel
Marijuana is a soft product. It doesn’t hurt anyone. For now it’s illegal but in the long run it will be legalised. ibid.
What do you do when your drug protection decides to sit on the sidelines? Easy. You buy more. And everyone knows the best deals in Mexico are in Tijuana. Narcos Mexico s1e6: La Ultima Frontera
Before shit went south, Guadalajara was the fucking place. Narcos Mexico s1e7: Jefe de Jefes
The future is here. And the future is cocaine. ibid. Gallardo
[I] Imagine there’s never been that much in one place. Narcos Mexico s1e8: Just Say No, DEA dude
The largest [marijuana] seizure in history: street value $2.5 billion. ibid.
If you talk, this all goes away. Narcos Mexico s1e9: Lope de Vega, heavy torturing Kiki
Time is crucial in a kidnapping. Sooner action is taken, the better your chances of working out. And everybody coming home in one piece. ibid.
Our friends in the DEA have provided a list of names and addresses of the men we’ll be chasing. Catching these men is our highest priority. ibid. head Mexican rozzer
If DFS isn’t bulletproof any more, you have to ask yourself, Who do you think is next? Narcos Mexico s1e10: Leyenda, Don Neto to Gallardo
We had a good thing with the weed. ibid.
They’re coming for us now but you’re the one they really want. ibid.
I’m more powerful than any trafficker in Mexican history. ibid. Gallardo
When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems … They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. Donald Trump
I see a Mexico hungry and thirsty for justice. 1994: Power Rebellion & Crime in Mexico I: The Successor, Luis Colosio, Netflix 2019
Today, in the Mexico of 1994 that we’re experiencing, we have an urgent need to restore law and order, to restore a sense of civility and respect for life. ibid. dude
Within PRI there was an old guard who were bothered by Colosio because of his projects of reform and change. ibid.
In fact Salinas probably didn’t win the election. ibid. journalist
Mexico is the perfect dictatorship. It’s a camouflaged dictatorship. But if you dig deed, it does have all elements of dictatorship … permanence. Not of a man but of a party. An undefeatable party that allows enough space for criticism, as long as it’s the useful kind that makes it look democratic. However, it suppresses all criticism that threatens its permanence. ibid. Mario Vagas Llosa, premio nobel de literatura
For the first time in its history, PAN won an election. ibid. dude
A date was set for 31 December 1993 … Nothing pointed to taking up arms as a means for transformation. Since there were so many of us, they noticed our movement. But as indigenous people, they dismissed our abilities and that allowed the EZLN to use our only true weapon: the element of surprise. 1994: Power Rebellion & Crime in Mexico II: Revolution, opening commentary
Images of war in Mexico, reclaiming Zapata’s memory. The Indians have declared war on the current government in a region where tensions have risen in the past months. ibid. Channel 3 news
Stop the Massacre – Stop the Genocide in Chiapas – Don’t Kill Our Brothers. ibid. protest banners
Suddenly a young man lunged towards the bus steps from the outside, screaming, They got Colosio! They got Colosio! 1994: Power Rebellion & Crime in Mexico III: The Snake, woman
I saw him on the ground bleeding profusely as well as someone being detained. ibid. man
Immediately, people started to speculate that the crime had been ordered from the top. 1994: Power Rebellion & Crime in Mexico IV: Eagle Knight
The self-confessed murderer was trialled and convicted to 40 years in jail; he remained alive despite his confession. ibid.
By the time November rolled around, law enforcement in Mexico was wholly discredited. This led Zedillo to make a decision, harshly criticized, but that I consider entirely legitimate. He offered the job of Attorney General to the candidate from PAN he’d just defeated. 1994: Power Rebellion & Crime in Mexico V: Round Earth, Jose Luis Barros, Escritor de Discursos de Zedillo
In the end, we were watching the death of the PRI apparatus. ibid. dude