In Mexico, the wave of violence that has constantly increased over the past four years has caused twenty-six thousand victims in the war among drug cartels. President Felipe Calderon’s war to drug trafficking led to a political havoc and unsteadiness and, as a consequence, to an increase in murders for the control of the territory and drug trafficking too. All over the country they report massacres, kidnappings, tortures; dozens of people are killed on a daily basis with AK-47, drug cartels’ weapon of choice. Some cities are more affected by violence, as they are drug markets whose control is disputed by the various drug cartels. Culiacán, in the Sinaloa state, Tijuana in Baja California, Ciudad Juárez in Chihuahua, Reynosa in Tamaulipas, Monterrey in Nuevo Leon: those are the symbol-towns of the rise in violence, and they record civil war figures. The journey throughout the drug cartels’ cities offers a worrisome outline, which sketches out the power relations of a country in the hands of some of the world’s most powerful, rich and violent organized crimes. According to UN, the families of Mexican drug cartels control, either directly or indirectly, more than 60% of institutions and in some specific areas they do represent undisputed authority. The reportage carried out in the drug cartels’ cities tells about the daily life in a scenario where violence, murders, beheadings, intimidations have become the rule and means of communications are either gagged or self-censored.
