Katarina Szulc

You want to be that pretty girl with a rich guy on your side?

Yeah, well, guess what?

He might kill you afterwards.

And a lot of these young people in Mexico certainly fall for it.

And I don't blame them.

You're being inundated with this music, these TV shows, this culture that's promoting a lifestyle that on the surface seems so luxurious.

Wouldn't you want to have the extra cash too?

You're growing up in a place where both of your parents are working very hard and maybe you can't even afford your schooling.

But Buddy on the radio is telling you that you could pick up your parents in a G-Wagon.

You just have to take part of this lifestyle.

And so the propaganda is deep in the pop culture.

On the other hand, you have blatant forms of propaganda through social media, which now has exploded for them.

I mean, social media is a major tool for the cartels.

And Mexico has also tried to crack down on this.

They're constantly banning TikTok accounts that are promoting cartel propaganda or trying to recruit people.

It's the flashy shit, but it's also the actual operations.

You'll have a good song, and they're showing them loading up kilos into a light aircraft and flying it across Pablo Escobar style.

They kind of switch the aesthetic based on whichever platform they're on and who they're trying to appeal to.

So...

You have those type of TikTok accounts and they're showing the money, they're showing the guns, but they're also showing the actual warfare.