David McWilliams

There are many cartels, and those cartels are fighting with each other.

They're fighting with the cops.

They're fighting with the state.

They're fighting with the Americans, the whole thing.

But they're running states within states.

This is the whole thing, and this is why they're a bit like the mafia, is that their idea is to basically set up a state within the state and buy everybody, terrorize everybody, money launder their money so that they're the richest guys on the block,

And as you say, use extreme violence.

And not only use extreme violence, but publicly make people aware of the extreme violence so that the whole state is living in a permanent state of anxiety.

And you can't get away from these people.

I mean, I don't know if you saw Narcos.

There's a moment where Pablo Escobar, now I know he wasn't Mexican, he was Colombian, is in effect positioning himself as a Robin Hood sort of character.

Yeah.

That he's robbing from the rich and giving to the poor.

And he has so much money that he has to give it out.

He has to give it away.

Mm-hmm.

And again, the cartels in Mexico are doing the same thing.

What they're doing is they're giving welfare to people.

They're giving rations to people.

They're saying, they're basically, you know, doing what all mafiosos do.