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Historia del narcotrafico en México / A History of Drug Trafficking in Mexico
Drug trafficking in Mexico has reached never-before imagined heights thanks to the worrying agreements between Cartel leaders and the authorities, the collusion of members of government, and the established negotiations with military and security forces. The elevated standing of drug dealers within Mexican society is nothing short of impactful and worthy of careful analysis. In these pages Guillermo Vald s elaborates an inventory of its main characters and the mechanisms they employed to reach the summit; among them Caro Quintero, Ernesto Fonseca "Don Neto" and F lix Gallardo, "El Mayo" Zambada, the Beltr n Leyva, Amado Carrillo "El se or de los Cielos," Joaqu n "El Chapo" Guzm n, the Arellano F lix, and H ctor "El G ero" Palma. Historia del narcotr fico en M xico is, without a doubt, the most important investigation on the war on drugs.
488 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 26, 2019
Interesante pero repetitivo y a veces tedioso...
February 18, 2021
Una lectura interesante aunque me sorprende que el 85% del libro sean reproducciones de otros libros, notas periodisticas, estudios de otras personas o instituciones. No hubo una pagina entera q no hiciera alusion a otro texto. como investigacion le doy 7 porque ademas se persive que hay varios "ayudantes" y como redacción 4 para ser una recopilacion de eventos viaja en el tiempo indiscriminadamente hasta el grado de aburrir. El tema es muy bueno.
August 20, 2017
Aunque no estoy de acuerdo con todos los argumentos del autor, recomiendo este libro a los que tienen interés en el problema de la violencia y el Estado de derecho en México.
April 16, 2014
The author was an insider sitting at the planning table for Felipe Calderon's War on the drug cartels that resulted in 85,000 deaths and more than 25,000 missing. It is less a history of the narco-cartels than it is a defence of employing the Mexican army to battle cartels.
Unfortunately, the author is more concerned with presenting confirming evidence than he is with objectively considering all alternatives. This leads him to misinterpret many facts and theories (e.g. his interpretation of Max Weber is shallow and risible) and to simply ignore several realities. His explanation of US behaviour reveals an ignorance or shallowness (…really, Readers Digest as credible academic source). And almost no reference to corruption or human rights violations. In fact, one of the harshest critics of the Calderon policy is Anabel Hernandez whose best selling book (Narcoland, Los Señores del Narco) is not even mentioned by the author.
Surprisingly, even though he was director of Cisen (the intelligence gathering agency), he relies on two British authors (Ioan Grillo, Malcolm Beith) for many details about the history of cartels. And tellingly, he misspells the surname of one all through the book (...he refers to Bieth instead of the correct Beith).
There are significant details about cartel organization and structure (from the point of view of someone with access to classified information. But this is also undermined by his insistence that everyone involved in narco activity does so because of "a normal tendency" to do evil. And I could not shake the feeling that the author needed to build up and portray the skills of some narco leaders in order to convince the world that the management of the drug war was not simply incompetence.
In my view, the strongest parts of this book are the sections describing the narcotraffic presence in Michoacán State. It is obvious that Guillermo Valdés has access to information from CISEN that is not widely available to the public — and which has not been published previously in the public domain. In fact, those strength of those sections of the book are the reason that I have assigned 3 stars instead of 2.
Overall, the book is lost opportunity to share insight into a bloody period in Mexico's recent past.
Unfortunately, the author is more concerned with presenting confirming evidence than he is with objectively considering all alternatives. This leads him to misinterpret many facts and theories (e.g. his interpretation of Max Weber is shallow and risible) and to simply ignore several realities. His explanation of US behaviour reveals an ignorance or shallowness (…really, Readers Digest as credible academic source). And almost no reference to corruption or human rights violations. In fact, one of the harshest critics of the Calderon policy is Anabel Hernandez whose best selling book (Narcoland, Los Señores del Narco) is not even mentioned by the author.
Surprisingly, even though he was director of Cisen (the intelligence gathering agency), he relies on two British authors (Ioan Grillo, Malcolm Beith) for many details about the history of cartels. And tellingly, he misspells the surname of one all through the book (...he refers to Bieth instead of the correct Beith).
There are significant details about cartel organization and structure (from the point of view of someone with access to classified information. But this is also undermined by his insistence that everyone involved in narco activity does so because of "a normal tendency" to do evil. And I could not shake the feeling that the author needed to build up and portray the skills of some narco leaders in order to convince the world that the management of the drug war was not simply incompetence.
In my view, the strongest parts of this book are the sections describing the narcotraffic presence in Michoacán State. It is obvious that Guillermo Valdés has access to information from CISEN that is not widely available to the public — and which has not been published previously in the public domain. In fact, those strength of those sections of the book are the reason that I have assigned 3 stars instead of 2.
Overall, the book is lost opportunity to share insight into a bloody period in Mexico's recent past.
December 29, 2020
Más que un libro, es una investigación realizada por el autor, es una serie de citas de muchas otras fuentes y hay poca interpretación del autor, salvo la parte final que habla del gobierno de Calderón, respecto a la cual mi consejo sería tomar las palabras de quien vienen. Al inicio del libro se menciona que la investigación fue realizada gracias a una beca otorgada por el gobierno de Felipe Calderón y el autor fue parte del gabinete de Seguridad de su gobierno.
Si bien, la historia y sus datos son indiscutibles, el objetivo de la lectura parece ser convencer al lector de que el gobierno de Calderón no es culpable de la ola de violencia que se desató durante su gobierno (+45k muertes), además de presentar una serie de iniciativas que fueron realizadas por el mismo, con su debida justificación de por qué no funcionaron (spoiler alert: no se presenta la ineptitud del gobierno como una de las causas).
Quizás vale la pena hacer lecturas más neutrales respecto al tema de algunas de las fuentes mencionadas en el estudio o de otras, como Anabel Hernández que no se mencionan.
Si bien, la historia y sus datos son indiscutibles, el objetivo de la lectura parece ser convencer al lector de que el gobierno de Calderón no es culpable de la ola de violencia que se desató durante su gobierno (+45k muertes), además de presentar una serie de iniciativas que fueron realizadas por el mismo, con su debida justificación de por qué no funcionaron (spoiler alert: no se presenta la ineptitud del gobierno como una de las causas).
Quizás vale la pena hacer lecturas más neutrales respecto al tema de algunas de las fuentes mencionadas en el estudio o de otras, como Anabel Hernández que no se mencionan.
April 4, 2024
Esta interesante el enfoque que el ex director del cisen da sobre el problema del narcotráfico, muy institucional, realista, objetivo que tiene muchas causas, falta mucho para que México avance en esto.
January 27, 2020
Parecería que leí una historia llena de corrupción y violencia, pero es la realidad que vivimos hoy en México. Recomiendo este libro para aquellos que desean información del tema y a la vez tomar conciencia.
April 16, 2016
Entretenido y con datos valiosos para entender de dónde viene la prohibición. La última parte es una justificación de que la guerra contra el narco de Calderón era la única alternativa.
July 11, 2025
Desafortunadamente después de la Introducción vienen los agradecimientos donde incluye a Calderón 🤦♂️ por darle chamba y a Genaro García Luna 🤦♂️ (entre otros del gabiente) porque aprendió de ellos. Esto me hizo leer con tremendo sesgo negativo. A pesar de que sí es propagandístico y repite el discurso oficial de la administración de Calderón, esto es sólo en el último 20% del libro, lo demás es un amplio trabajo de investigación que me merece releerlo.
July 21, 2022
This is my first book about drug trafficking in Mexico. I must say it provides a good historical background, describes the main cartels, the weaknesses of the Mexican state and draws conclusions on why Felipe Calderón's government was incapable of stopping the violence that besets Mexican society.
January 11, 2023
Excelente recuento de la historia de esta fenómeno en México. Lectura imprescindible para entender nuestra hsitoria reciente
November 12, 2025
demasiado largo y aburrido
July 8, 2015
Las entradas a la oscura cueva del narco se revelan en una gran investigación periodística
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews