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Mexico’s drug cartels are moving into the gasoline industry

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Re: Mexico’s drug cartels are moving into the gasoline industry

#151

Post by duxup »

cambalache wrote: post #135
duxup wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

It is poverty porn for middle class people. I cannot talk about the rest of the world, but one of the main reasons a large portion of Latin-American movies suck it is because of the huge disconnect between the middle-upper class people who do them and the more 'salt of the earth" common folk who are portrayed on them.

Sometimes I wonder if that is the case.

I felt City of God occasionally seemed to have some sympathy for the subjects... but other times treated them like characters and video game NPCs...

Re: Mexico’s drug cartels are moving into the gasoline industry

#152

Post by WalterBright »

pzone wrote: post #141
WalterBright wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Addiction and abuse rates would skyrocket, though. That's quite an assumption. For example, I don't have thoughts like "I wish heroin was legal, because I want to be a junkie!" Somehow, I'm not an alcoholic nor a smoker, despite them being readily available. I do love my coffee, however :-)

Well you're damn lucky then. This is a case of public policy where the typical upper middle class guy who drinks a glass of red wine every night with dinner is not helpful in understanding the problem. I've seen people's lives ruined by alcohol. It's a damn serious drug and we hardly have any discussion about how dangerous it is to a small but significant minority of people. Opiates are FAR more addictive than alcoho…

> Well you're damn lucky then.

Why do you discount the role of my making a choice? I see smokers coughing up their lungs, junkies who care for nothing other than their next fix, and drunks lying in their vomit. It's not hard to choose not to take that path.

Re: Mexico’s drug cartels are moving into the gasoline industry

#153

Post by marcosdumay »

dstick wrote: post #132
marcosdumay wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's another comment of mine on the thread, but basically, I doubt the small gang their interviewed has the big picture correctly (distressed gangs are not famous for correctly assessing the big picture). Specifically, I do think they aren't correctly measuring their risks, so the gangs will fall, one by one, while all of them think they are making a great deal.

The Los Zetas are not a small gang. Have you read the article in full? It’s really interesting with a good build up. They start with the small-timers and build up to the big league.

From the article, they seem to be a paragovernamental organization that gets money from small gangs like the ones at the start.

It would be interesting to see how their revenue progresses with time.

Re: Mexico’s drug cartels are moving into the gasoline industry

#154

Post by someguydave »

mersenne wrote: post #142
someguydave wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

agreed. Mexico has demonstrated that it cannot run itself, some other country must step in and provide governance.

What an ignorant comment.

Ignorant of what, precisely?

Re: Mexico’s drug cartels are moving into the gasoline industry

#155

Post by ASalazarMX »

2_listerine_pls wrote: post #102
pier25 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For illegal gasoline? Yeah totally. Buying illegal gasoline only makes sense for some individuals in transportation because in Mexico there is no fiscalization on a large portion of the economy (street vendors for example). Big transportation companies couldn't do it. They need to justify expenses, get invoices, etc. A couple of years back it was easy to get fake invoices since everything was on paper, but there was…

Actually, most of the stolen gasoline is purchased by gas stations.

By some gas stations. Locals know which of them and who's the owner, usually someone untouchable by local authorities because they're in cahoots.

Organized crime isn't thriving because authorities don't have intelligence, it's thriving because it has greased the surrounding gears.

Re: Mexico’s drug cartels are moving into the gasoline industry

#156

Post by ASalazarMX »

21 wrote: post #25

This story collapses a lot of popular narratives. That peoples in USA buying drugs are the drivers of violence in Mexico. That legalizing drugs would make the cartels and the violence disappear.

Impunity is the great facilitator for organized crime. Legalizing is just one side of the work needed to control it.

Re: Mexico’s drug cartels are moving into the gasoline industry

#157

Post by 2_listerine_pls »

ASalazarMX wrote: post #155
2_listerine_pls wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, most of the stolen gasoline is purchased by gas stations.

By some gas stations. Locals know which of them and who's the owner, usually someone untouchable by local authorities because they're in cahoots. Organized crime isn't thriving because authorities don't have intelligence, it's thriving because it has greased the surrounding gears.

> some gas stations.

In some cities, most gas stations are forced to buy from them.

> Locals know which of them and who's the owner

Why would they know?

Re: Mexico’s drug cartels are moving into the gasoline industry

#158

Post by dang »

lechiffre10 wrote: post #20
adventured wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US military or national guard would be deployed as necessary if the cartels began firing on the contractors and government workers building a theoretical wall. Cartels are certainly threatening in their environment, they're entirely worthless in actual military style engagements. In terms of gear, logistics, training and soldiers, they're less capable than the most mediocre of nation armies. It's not what they're…

You clearly have no idea what you're talking about. How's the US military holding up against fighters in Afghanistan or Iraq? Guerilla style warfare has always been a problem for the United States. Case in point, Vietnam. Now throw the Cartel into the mix with the funding they have and you'd have a much bigger problem at hand. "They fare extremely poorly against the Mexican military." Show proof of this statement? Ev…

Incivility will get you banned here, regardless of whether another comment is wrong. Please don't post like this again.

If you'd review the rules at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and post only civilly and substantively from now on, we'd appreciate it.

Re: Mexico’s drug cartels are moving into the gasoline industry

#159

Post by ASalazarMX »

2_listerine_pls wrote: post #157
ASalazarMX wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By some gas stations. Locals know which of them and who's the owner, usually someone untouchable by local authorities because they're in cahoots. Organized crime isn't thriving because authorities don't have intelligence, it's thriving because it has greased the surrounding gears.

> some gas stations. In some cities, most gas stations are forced to buy from them. > Locals know which of them and who's the owner Why would they know?

You can't really have a gas station and not declare who are you buying your product from, not even in Mexico. The ones that get away with it have links to organized crime, colluded with the authorities.

And the locals know because the cartels use those stations to fill their tanks for free, and they do that in convoy. At least it was like that 10 years ago, maybe the cartels are more discrete now.

Re: Mexico’s drug cartels are moving into the gasoline industry

#160

Post by 2_listerine_pls »

sebastianavina wrote: post #136
2_listerine_pls wrote: post #22

> “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.”

maybe 50 kilos of cocaine. but marijuana? that shit is worthless even in mexico

So that their platoon has something to smoke.
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