Narco Cultura - Who is Dying in the War Against Drugs

        One of the most fascinating documentaries that Hannah and I have watched this year has been Narco Cultura, which explores perception of the illegal drug trade from the point of view of our neighbors to the south as well as hispanic populations in the southern American states. It follows the doings of Edgar Quintero a member of a "Norcocorrido" band and Richi Soto, a crime scene investigator from the Juarez branch of Mexico's DEA.
    This documentary was beautiful, the cinematography especially was significantly better than what I have come to expect from a documentary. Combine that with the fascinating lives of those involved and we have a documentary that should have been nominated for Best Documentary. Take for instance the life of Edgar Quintero, a young hispanic man who lives in Hollywood with his wife and two small children. He is the member of a band called Buknas that specializes in music glorifying the latin american drug trade.

In addition to this he writes drug anthems for various gang leaders graphically boasting about the atrocities that they have committed. In the first scene Quintero is shown discussing with a dealer what caliber gun he carries and asking him what he wants put in his song. He later sings the song for the dealer and receives a significant amount of money (several thousand dollars) in return. He then returns home and tells his wife that the money is savings and she promptly stashes it in drawer. Through the documentary we see him in various music video shoots and concert venues sporting various weaponry as his band sing their drug ballads. To him the drug trade is indirectly his bread and butter. He sees the cartels as Robin Hood and his merry band of thieves that provide for the poor of Mexico as they fight the sheriff and the government. He supports his family and does very well by writing and singing their drug anthems.

     Contrast this with Richi Soto, a combination of a hispanic Serpico and a fatalistic Hank Schrader. He is a Crime Scene Investigator for SEMEFO (Mexico's version of the DEA) in Juarez Mexico. His job is to investigate the many drug related murders that occur in Juarez. To give some perspective on this, in 2010 there were 3111 murders in the city of Juarez, one mile away in El Paso, Texas there were a total of 5 murders that same year. Lest you think that this low number is simply an outlier in 2011 there were only 16.  Juarez is officially the murder capitol of the world by a wide margin. Soto and his coworkers live in a constant state of fear that one, their coworkers are corrupt and are in the pay of the drug cartels, and two that they will be outright killed by the cartels for doing their jobs. These police officers literally have to wear masks when they go out to crime scenes in an attempt to avoid being recognized. As the documentary was being filmed, one of his coworkers was shot and killed outside of his home, making that the fourth killing in Soto's unit. As the film goes on Soto becomes more and more discouraged and the audience learns that only 3% of the murders he investigates ever leads to an arrest and much less than 1% are ever convicted.
     This was an excellent documentary that should be seen by anyone concerned about the effect of narcotics on our society. I cannot recommend this film highly enough.