Amexica: War Along the Borderline

About the AuthorED VULLIAMY was the New York correspondent for The Observer from 1997 to 2003 and spent many years as an international correspondent for The Guardian. The author of Seasons in Hell, Vulliamy lives in London and Arizona.Product DescriptionWith a New AfterwordIn 2009, Ed Vulliamy traveled two thousand miles along the frontier from the Pacific coast to the Gulf of Mexico, and from Tijuana to Matamoros, a journey through a kaleidoscopic landscape of corruption and all-out civil war. He describes in revelatory detail the dreaded narco gangs; the smuggling of people, weapons, and illegal drugs; and the interrelated economies of drugs and the ruthless, systematic murder of young women in Ciudad Juarez. Amexica takes us far beyond today's headlines. It is a street-level portrait, by turns horrific and sublime, of a place and people in a time of war as much as of the war itself, "an impressively rendered, nightmare-inducing account" (Kirkus Reviews, Top 25 Books of 2010).Review“Vulliamy, with a mix of irony and pathos, writes like a latter-day Graham Greene. . . . Like all good travel writing, Amexica is vivid, colorful, and exotic, filled with striking vignettes and larger-than-life characters.” Tamar Jacoby, The New York Times Book Review“Extraordinary.” Vanity Fair“An engrossing travelogue . . . a vivid, disturbing dispatch from a very wild frontier.” Publishers Weekly“Vulliamy paints a terrifying and authoritative portrait of violence.” David Reiff, The Wall Street Journal“An absorbing odyssey . . . Vulliamy's reporting is faultlessly brave. . . . The scenery and characters he meets are brought alive with vividness and intensity.” Alex Spillius, The Telegraph (UK)“The author writes lyrically, with the enticing rhythm of his sentences contrasting jarringly with the degradation of humanity found on nearly every page . . . Most of the narrative feels fresh because it is based so heavily on Vulliamy's own wanderings . . . An impressively rendered, nightmare-inducing account.” Kirkus Reviews“Previously, to understand the ruthlessness, ambition and impact of today's global criminals, you needed to read Roberto Saviano's Gomorrah and Misha Glenny's McMafia. Now, you also need to read Vulliamy's Amexica.” Brian Schofield, The Times (UK)Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.AmexicaWar Along the BorderlineBy Ed Vulliamy PicadorCopyright © 2011 Ed VulliamyAll right reserved.ISBN: 9780312610616Amexica Chapter 1 La PlazaMy friend Jorge Fregoso and I were drinking a beer at a bar in a labyrinth of quiet alleyways away from central Tijuana one Saturday afternoon in September 2008 when the latest shooting started. It targeted an art deco mansion in the upscale Misión del Pedregal suburb. Federal army trucks arrived to its left, state police shock troops to the right. Few shots were fired from inside the building, it seemed, but a deafening fusillade of fire was aimed at the villa. Only the next day was it revealed to have procured, for the authorities, Eduardo Arellano Félix-“the Doctor”-chief of the clan trying to defend the plaza of drug traffic between Tijuana and California for his Arellano brothers’ syndicate from the raiding Sinaloa cartel. Misión de Pedregal is clearly marked, on a sign adjacent to Arellano’s house, as a “Vecinos Vigilando,” neighborhood watch zone. Yet, says a woman cleaning her porch opposite Arellano’s, “I didn’t think there was anyone living in that house.” What followed the announcement were seventy-two hours of carnage, extreme even by Tijuana standards, which took the year’s death toll for the city to 462 and caused even the local El Sol de Tijuana newspaper, accustomed to such things, to run the headline BAÑO DE SAN GRE, bloodbath.Fregoso, a reporter for the local Síntesis TV news channel, and I receive our first alert shortly after 3:00 p.m. on Monday, when we are called to Colonia Libertad, where a corpse lies slumped in the dirt beneath st
Author: Vulliamy, Ed

Publisher: Picador

Binding: Paperback

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0312610610

ISBN-13: 9780312610616