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Review
'Previously, to understand the ruthlessness, ambition and impact of today's global criminals, you needed to read Roberto Saviano's Gomorrah and Misha Glenny's McMafia. Now, you also need to read Vulliamy's Amexica' --The Sunday Times
'A gripping investigation...to understand the ruthlessness, ambition and impact of today's global criminals, you need to read this book.'
--The Sunday Times
`Journeying along the troubled frontier between the United States and Mexico, veteran journalist Vulliamy delivers unforgettable snapshots of the nightmarish drugs violence tearing apart families, towns and regions south of the border.'
----Benjamin Evans, Telegraph Seven
'A gripping investigation...to understand the ruthlessness, ambition and impact of today's global criminals, you need to read this book.'
--The Sunday Times
`Journeying along the troubled frontier between the United States and Mexico, veteran journalist Vulliamy delivers unforgettable snapshots of the nightmarish drugs violence tearing apart families, towns and regions south of the border.'
----Benjamin Evans, Telegraph Seven
Book Description
The harrowing story of the extraordinary terror unfolding along the US-Mexico border - this is the secret war of drugs, gangs and guns that is destroying thousands of lives.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
There's more to this book than meets the eye. All too often the only news the outside world hears from Mexico these days relates to the drug-fuelled violence which has killed tens of thousands in the last few years. In many ways this is understandable as the violence has reached an intensely savage level but there's a bigger picture here and Ed Vulliamy has set out in this book to place the violence in a wider context. That doesn't mean you're spared any details though, far from it. Whether it's the guy arrested for dissolving 300 bodies in acid or the beauty queens kidnapped, tortured and killed because of their alleged allegiance to a rival cartel the litany of extreme violence goes on and on.
The source of it all is America's lust for drugs - a trade worth an estimated 300 billion dollars a year with the border seeing the drugs going in one direction and guns bought in the US going in the other. The violence is about control of the 'plazas' or key crossing points with huge profits at stake for those who win control. But in the end all of it comes down to individual human stories and this is where Ed Vulliamy has done such a great job with most of the book told through the eyes of dozens of different people. It's often difficult reading though and not for the faint hearted and you have to wonder how the author manages to cope with what he bears witness to.
Amexica is a borderland of extremes and this book provides a window into a terrifying world.
The source of it all is America's lust for drugs - a trade worth an estimated 300 billion dollars a year with the border seeing the drugs going in one direction and guns bought in the US going in the other. The violence is about control of the 'plazas' or key crossing points with huge profits at stake for those who win control. But in the end all of it comes down to individual human stories and this is where Ed Vulliamy has done such a great job with most of the book told through the eyes of dozens of different people. It's often difficult reading though and not for the faint hearted and you have to wonder how the author manages to cope with what he bears witness to.
Amexica is a borderland of extremes and this book provides a window into a terrifying world.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A wonderful piece of investigative journalism, Ed Vuillamy's `Amexica' creates a complex and nuanced portrait of the US-Mexican border, and deals in depth with both its troubles, and the attempts at community and at improvement which exist in these communities often ravaged by drug addiction, violence and poverty (especially, though not exclusively, on the Mexican side). Vuillamy interviews a number of important figures, from the exhausted, exploited Mexican truck drivers of `Ventesies' (a truck-stop and major meeting point for Mexico's truckers), to those working with the domestically abused, and with both local officials, and ordinary citizens living amongst the terror and anarchy of cities like Ciudad Juarez. Vuillamy also integrates newspaper stories, tales of `narcocorridos' (folk songs about the drug runners and cartels), and histories of both the towns and cities he visits, and how and why the drug trade boomed in those areas; and what legacies that led to. Viewing the war as `post-political', with both the police and the armed forces often involved in partnerships with the Cartels; Vuillamy also puts forward alarming and fascinating arguments as to why the drugs war is borne out of macho posturing, envy of women finding work, the want to own the best cars and clothes, and other such issues; theories backed up by the comments of local workers like Esther Chavez, who elucidates fantastically the reasons for the murders of the maquiladoras (factory girls) across Mexico's borderline.
Vuillamy also explores the American side, though in a little less detail, focusing on the illegal flow of guns from the US, to the Mexican cartels (guns being illegal in Mexico), and the high calibre of weapons, like AK-47s, which the Cartels possess. Combined with this, is Vuillamy's wonderful lyrical style, which evokes the rolling sands of Arizona in which illegal migrants struggle to travel through, the charged, buzzing energy of community and of danger in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, and the old folk myths of Mexico, and it's `Virgin of Guadalupe', permeating the areas of the old Rio Grande, as it flows endlessly between the borderlands. Despite this wealth of skill and information however, the book has a few minor flaws; though nothing so off-putting as to stop the book being hugely enjoyable. Firstly, Vuillamy fails to get any interview with people currently involved in the drugs trade (besides a very brief chat with a few small-level dealers), and whilst it's unreasonable to expect him to be having a cappucino with Zeta leaders; it would have been nice to have some input from those involved in the trade at some level. Secondly, the book loses a little momentum towards the end - and Vuillamy pads out the information on old Mexican traditions of religion and society a little too much, and seems to lose sight of the main issues which underpin his investigative work.
These are just minor qualms though, in comparison to the wealth of quality in Vuillamy's `Amexica'. An academic and informative, but highly readable account of the issues which affect the borderline and threaten to spiral out of control; all in the midst of brave, honest people trying to get on with their lives, and earn a living either in Mexico, or by emigrating North illegally. One of the best investigative books of the last decade, I urge anyone interested in crime and society, or just looking for an invigorating read in general, to read Ed Vuillamy's `Amexica'.
Vuillamy also explores the American side, though in a little less detail, focusing on the illegal flow of guns from the US, to the Mexican cartels (guns being illegal in Mexico), and the high calibre of weapons, like AK-47s, which the Cartels possess. Combined with this, is Vuillamy's wonderful lyrical style, which evokes the rolling sands of Arizona in which illegal migrants struggle to travel through, the charged, buzzing energy of community and of danger in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, and the old folk myths of Mexico, and it's `Virgin of Guadalupe', permeating the areas of the old Rio Grande, as it flows endlessly between the borderlands. Despite this wealth of skill and information however, the book has a few minor flaws; though nothing so off-putting as to stop the book being hugely enjoyable. Firstly, Vuillamy fails to get any interview with people currently involved in the drugs trade (besides a very brief chat with a few small-level dealers), and whilst it's unreasonable to expect him to be having a cappucino with Zeta leaders; it would have been nice to have some input from those involved in the trade at some level. Secondly, the book loses a little momentum towards the end - and Vuillamy pads out the information on old Mexican traditions of religion and society a little too much, and seems to lose sight of the main issues which underpin his investigative work.
These are just minor qualms though, in comparison to the wealth of quality in Vuillamy's `Amexica'. An academic and informative, but highly readable account of the issues which affect the borderline and threaten to spiral out of control; all in the midst of brave, honest people trying to get on with their lives, and earn a living either in Mexico, or by emigrating North illegally. One of the best investigative books of the last decade, I urge anyone interested in crime and society, or just looking for an invigorating read in general, to read Ed Vuillamy's `Amexica'.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A literally shocking non-fiction account of the drugs war raging on the Mexican American border, and the breakdown of society that this is in turn promoting. The book starts in a fairly dry way, but soon becomes a gripping dialogue for the dead as the atrocities and breakdown of society are catalogued through accounts from not only the people trying to address the problems, but also from the bereaved, the addicted, the detritus of this burnt out society that still functions despite itself. Soon enough it reads like the worst excesses of a James Ellroy or Don Winslow crime/horror novel, all the more gripping because you know it's true despite the fact that you have to strain to believe it. Are the drug barons, the police, the army and the judiciary caught up in some sort of demonic campaign to kill women for kicks? The book infers that this is the case. Are the worst of the junkies, alcoholics and mentally ill patients interred in charitable hostels being systematically massacred by death squads in some sort of attempt at social cleansing? Quite possibly, the book states, and takes you to the places that these massacres occurred, the author literally walking through the pools of congealed blood as he traces the killers' undisguised bootprints on their killing trail through one of these erstwhile sanctuaries. It is shocking stuff.
As the book progresses, it becomes more concerned with socio-economic issues such as the exploitation of cheap labour in Mexico by global (American) corporations, which is probably a book in itself. But it's the drug wars that glue both sides of the border together, with the drugs going north and the guns running south. What to do about it though?
Part travelogue, part history, part social study and almost always a bit of a horror story, Amexica is an eye-opener, but don't be surprised if you want to close them just as quickly. Maybe they should just legalise the lot of it and see where it takes us. For white, middle class America, this situation woud be utterly unthinkable and intolerable, as intolerable as the lives of the Mexicans living on the borderline already is.
As the book progresses, it becomes more concerned with socio-economic issues such as the exploitation of cheap labour in Mexico by global (American) corporations, which is probably a book in itself. But it's the drug wars that glue both sides of the border together, with the drugs going north and the guns running south. What to do about it though?
Part travelogue, part history, part social study and almost always a bit of a horror story, Amexica is an eye-opener, but don't be surprised if you want to close them just as quickly. Maybe they should just legalise the lot of it and see where it takes us. For white, middle class America, this situation woud be utterly unthinkable and intolerable, as intolerable as the lives of the Mexicans living on the borderline already is.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
hmm I made it to the end
Basically an ok read but was a bit like a reference book in places so slightly boring, although mostly in my opinion well researched and written. Read more
Published 3 months ago by burt
Realtiy is scarier than fiction
Heavy topic but well written and gripping. This book reveals just how badly the drug trade affects the lives of everyone living near the mexico-america border. Read more
Published 4 months ago by alana milne
Interesting
Interesting book, but can be heavy going. Better to dip in and out of as it can get a bit repetitive. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Simon Bachman
Bloody awful...........
This book covers the awful atrocities commited by all the drugs gangs in Mexico against each other and violence to those who try and interupt the trade. Read more
Published 6 months ago by J. A. B. Moulson
Good book, sadly lacking in paragraphs!
This book is well researcheed and covers a lot of interesting ground, opening up aspects of Mexican life of which I wasn't aware. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Masterkipper
All the Authorities, They Just Stand Around and Boast...
I found this a very difficult book to read, although I am accustomed to reading difficult academic texts. Read more
Published 10 months ago by conjunction
Amexica
Here is a sentence from page 18 of Amexica. 'La Familia 'came out' with a famous incident on 6 September 2006, when twenty masked men burst into a low-rent discotheque, the Sol Y... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Richard J. Marks
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