Recommended movie: Elite Squad and especially the sequel Elite Squad: Enemy Within.
It's about BOPE, the special operations unit of Rio de Janeiro police. The first is about the military anti-gang exploits, the second is a good hard look at what corruption looks like. The drugs aren't going away if you break up a cartel, neither is the money.
OK, we're going down that eoute3. Rhen I recommeend "Bus 174" which takes a look at the story of a bus hijackers life and how he found himself in that desperate situation. I'd say this one is more throwing nd depressing than Tropa Do Elite1/2. I got more understanding of those kids fate before I visited Rio for a month. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bus_174/
For some reason City of God to me was just some stylizing ... on top of some shocking violence that happened to involve a lot of kids. I really missed whatever was supposed to be great about that film...
They are really tough movies to watch, and also pack a grisly and realistic storyline. I dont know if I enjoyed them or not. One thing is for certain, I can't unsee them.
Underscoring their veracity: most of my Brazilian friends won't watch them because they are too realistic. They are incredible films, and tough to watch.
I wrote a little extra about the amazing story behind the film here:
tl;dr: the movie was leaked to the internet before widespread theatrical release to prevent police censorship and still became a financial success. It's a moment in Brazilian internet history that is important to know about.
How much cocaine can you dissolve in gasoline-based/like solvents to smuggle and then reconstitute? How much cash can you smuggle in the middle of a fuel tanker?
How easily/efficiently can oil companies launder money?
Why is no one addressing the seemingly obvious truth that the entire world is nothing but a complex corrupt criminal system of lies? Or am I just far too cynical?
The Russian mob did that with the rail distillery McCormick. They dyed the vodka blue and would ship it as window cleaner in 55 gallon drums. Then remove the dye to avoid taxes.
I always wondering how the US managed to tame the Mafia in the early 20s to late 70s. Is there something the Mexican government can mimic or is there something either political or cultural that prevents this?
It was multifacted involving culture, demographic, immigration, law enforcement and external competition.
1. Banning of italian immigration in 1924 ( Immigration Act of 1924 ).
2. The integration of italians into american life.
3. Poor immigrant italian families transitioning to wealthier italian-american families generation after generation.
4. Decades long government crackdown on organized crime.
5. Competition from non-italian mafia ( russian, ukrainian, asian, cuban and of course the mexicans ).
As immigration stop and as italian american moved out of cities to suburbs and got professional jobs, the mob lost its prestige and demographic base. And as the government cracked down, the structure of the mafia was slowly dismantled along with its reputation. Finally, just like the italian mafia usurped the irish mafia, the italian mafia was being squeezed by other younger and stronger ethnic mafia groups.
Whenever you see a government that doesn't have a significant organized crime problem, it's because either (a) the government is the organized crime (Russia), or (b) the government has resources at its disposal that are an existential threat to the organized crime while overlooking moderate operations (the US).
The US government has significantly overlooked organized crime operations in general (and while some members of government may have pursued them, it was largely a sideshow by the "legal" arm and not by the "operational" arm - and had organized crime retaliated against those senators, you can bet that there would have been an "operational" response). At times, we've worked with organized crime (running cocaine with the CIA, etc, or the CIA working with Lucky Luciano in WW2).
That's the thing with organized crime - it's not all that secret. So there's typically an informal balance stuck between the government and the criminals - don't be too much of a problem to civilians, and especially not members of government, and we'll leave enforcement to local law and not bring in the big guns, and we won't work with your competition against you.
I think the big difference, as others have noted, is that in Mexico there isn't significant corporate corruption in politics. So the money lining politicians' pockets was more likely to be drug related, and cartel specific. So the cartel wars extended into government and there isn't a sufficient corporate interest in stability to have pushed back against it. And well, now it's far past the point of a balance being stuck.
It's worth noting that we've had instances of significant local corruption and infiltration of organized crime into local police/AG/government in the US (including killing of local civilians by the police - you can search for "The Boys on the Tracks" - the argument against Dan Harmon is compelling) - it's just not as widespread and it's not at a national level.
Certainly, that was depicted in the movie Casino for example. Not that I would take a Hollywood movie as any sort of history lesson, but it is demonstrative of that point of view. Taking it as the true explanation for the sake of argument, why does the same thing not happen in Mexico?
> “This guy grabs his phone and dials up the general. For $50,000 and 50 kilos of marijuana, they let him go. He also gave up 10,000 pesos he had on his person. That’s how it works with los militares.”
hey so I noticed you were getting downvoted, but in a way you are right.. I worked at a large bank in mexico and construction business is divided by different firms, some more corrupt than others, the construction isn't really controlled by cartels or mafias, but their own construction corrupt syndicates, kinda.. but definitely it is a pain to deal with them when they decide certain bribes are not enough, they often block entrances to buildings with heavy machines or interfere in other construction firms work.. But is is a seperate problem from drug cartels completely
Readit News
It's about BOPE, the special operations unit of Rio de Janeiro police. The first is about the military anti-gang exploits, the second is a good hard look at what corruption looks like. The drugs aren't going away if you break up a cartel, neither is the money.
Along with Elite Squad, these movies are simply amazing.
Wagner Moura. the main character in Elite Squad, also stars as Pablo Escobar in Netflix's original series Narcos.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0609944/?ref_=tt_cl_t1
I wrote a little extra about the amazing story behind the film here:
http://webiphany.com/2010/12/14/is-brazil-finally-ready-to-f...
tl;dr: the movie was leaked to the internet before widespread theatrical release to prevent police censorship and still became a financial success. It's a moment in Brazilian internet history that is important to know about.
How easily/efficiently can oil companies launder money?
Why is no one addressing the seemingly obvious truth that the entire world is nothing but a complex corrupt criminal system of lies? Or am I just far too cynical?
https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/19/nyregion/a-smuggling-oper...
It isn't.
> Or am I just far too cynical?
Yes.
1. Banning of italian immigration in 1924 ( Immigration Act of 1924 ).
2. The integration of italians into american life.
3. Poor immigrant italian families transitioning to wealthier italian-american families generation after generation.
4. Decades long government crackdown on organized crime.
5. Competition from non-italian mafia ( russian, ukrainian, asian, cuban and of course the mexicans ).
As immigration stop and as italian american moved out of cities to suburbs and got professional jobs, the mob lost its prestige and demographic base. And as the government cracked down, the structure of the mafia was slowly dismantled along with its reputation. Finally, just like the italian mafia usurped the irish mafia, the italian mafia was being squeezed by other younger and stronger ethnic mafia groups.
The US government has significantly overlooked organized crime operations in general (and while some members of government may have pursued them, it was largely a sideshow by the "legal" arm and not by the "operational" arm - and had organized crime retaliated against those senators, you can bet that there would have been an "operational" response). At times, we've worked with organized crime (running cocaine with the CIA, etc, or the CIA working with Lucky Luciano in WW2).
That's the thing with organized crime - it's not all that secret. So there's typically an informal balance stuck between the government and the criminals - don't be too much of a problem to civilians, and especially not members of government, and we'll leave enforcement to local law and not bring in the big guns, and we won't work with your competition against you.
I think the big difference, as others have noted, is that in Mexico there isn't significant corporate corruption in politics. So the money lining politicians' pockets was more likely to be drug related, and cartel specific. So the cartel wars extended into government and there isn't a sufficient corporate interest in stability to have pushed back against it. And well, now it's far past the point of a balance being stuck.
It's worth noting that we've had instances of significant local corruption and infiltration of organized crime into local police/AG/government in the US (including killing of local civilians by the police - you can search for "The Boys on the Tracks" - the argument against Dan Harmon is compelling) - it's just not as widespread and it's not at a national level.
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