A review by 2131mallboy
Drug Cartels Do Not Exist: Narcotrafficking in US and Mexican Culture by Oswaldo Zavala

This was good but not what I was expecting. More cultural theory and constructivism than I like to read. I was hoping for more materialist analysis. I didn’t need to be persuaded of any of the key points including that constructing essentialised, romantic imagery of narcoviolence obscures the political and material causes of it.

I wanted to learn more about the underlying imperial and geopolitical methods in Mexico which the book does mention but not in the detail I had hoped.

I liked the argument that the war on drugs has been very successful as an imperialist project though.