What We Get Wrong About Mexico’s Cartels

In this episode of the Mexico Decoded podcast, I speak with Ioan Grillo, one of the world’s leading journalists on Mexico’s drug war, to examine the myth of Mexico as a “narco-state”, how do cartels actually operate, and what is the real nature of their ties to government.

Ioan Grillo brings over two decades of reporting from Mexico to answer these questions. You can read more of his work in his recent New York Times piece, “The Folly of Trump’s Cartel-Bombing Fantasy,” and in his classic book El Narco.

Let’s get into it.