PODCAST 38: In the grip of extremism, the US is obsessing about crime to legitimise its hegemony
Tag: Drug-trafficking
The cunning of the weak
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Victims of assassination foster a deathly fetish. Corpse Magic: Echoes Active in the Slayer–Slain Nexus, Michael Taussig, 2025, University of Chicago Press
Categories: Colombia, North America, South America, United States
Two books about violence
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PODCAST 29: Two recent titles offer lessons about violence in Latin America
Atrocious backstories
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A journalist chronicles how democratic dreams became bloody nightmares. The Years of Blood: Stories from a Reporting Life in Latin America, Alma Guillermoprieto, 2025, Duke University Press
Categories: Bolivia, Central America, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua, North America, South America, United States, Venezuela
The benefits of mob rule
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In Latin America, crooks reign where states cower. Inside Criminalized Governance: How and Why Gangs Rule the Streets of Rio de Janeiro, Nicholas Barnes, 2025, Cambridge University Press
Categories: Brazil, Central America, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, North America, South America
Emilia (Pérez) in Paris
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A French director has committed a cultural crime against Mexico, writes Georgina Jiménez
Categories: Europe, France, International, Mexico, North America, United States
Country of the disappeared
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Mexico’s cynical state is often the source of crime, not its scourge. Call the Mothers: Searching for Mexico’s Disappeared in the War on Drugs, Shaylih Muehlmann, 2024, University of California Press
Categories: Mexico, North America
Rule of lore
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Mexico’s state has abandoned public security to the myth of a moral crisis. Sovereignty and Extortion: A New State Form in Mexico, Claudio Lomnitz, 2024, Duke University Press
Categories: Mexico, North America, United States
Trigger unhappy
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Is the narrative about cartel bloodshed in Mexico finally changing? Exit Wounds: How America’s Guns Fuel Violence across the Border, Ieva Jusionyte, 2024, University of California Press
Categories: Caribbean, Haiti, Mexico, North America, United States
Paradise found
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An Australian exile’s adventures in Colombia are a perfect cure for the malady of stereotypes. Better Than Cocaine: Learning to grow coffee, and live, in Colombia, Barry Max Wills, 2023, Fuller Vigil
Categories: Colombia, South America