El Sicario: The Autobiography of a Mexican Assassin

This book is the paper version of a dialogue conducted by the Italian documentary film maker,Gianfranco Rossi. My understanding of how Mr. Rossi became engaged in this effort was that border writer, Charles Bowden, who has written before about life on the American-Mexican Border, worked with Professor Molly Melloy, New Mexico State University, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, to debrief "el sicario," on his involvement over 20 years time in the killing of numerous individuals who came up on the wrong side of the Juarez Cartel. Of key interest to me were the roots of corrupt Mexican police law enforcement practices as enveloped by various drug cartel leadership in Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Living roughly 70 miles north of Palomas, Chihuahua, and about 100 miles west of Juarez, I've seen the change in the Mexican Border towns & cities over the last 9.5 years that I've lived in New Mexico. Until 2007, going to Mexico seemed pretty easy, although I had very significant prejudices against such travel because of the "flim flam/shady" nature of Mexican law enforcement. In the first 5 years I lived here, the flim flamming was essentially shaking down Americans on put up charges of some kind designed to shake down the touristas for some kind of bribe or payment to "not get into trouble." I'd been to Mexico, to the surrender site of Geronimo, the Apache warrior, in 2007. At that time, we heard that a major fire fight had occurred farther west in Cananea, Sonora. The reason for that fight was a turf battle between drug cartels. That seemed to exemplify the situation in Mexico in 2007. Since then, however, the slaughter in Chihuahua, Sonora, Tamulapais, Neovo Leon, Cuahilia, and various other Mexican states has escalated into a horror show exemplified by decapitations & dismemberment of bodies. "El Sicario," who defected from the cartels due to a psychic & spiritual breakdown, apparently now resides somewhere in the U.S. Charles Bowden & others who made him available for the "on screen" discussion that is contained in this fine book, were able to persuade the man to discuss what it means to be a killer for cartels. The fact is: young Mexican males who showed promise were recruited to run drugs across the border into El Paso, Texas, and then on to other American cities, beginning roughly around the 1990s. "El Sicario," describes how he moved up the line from casual drug runner to a person of interest in college, with his studies supported by people he knew to be suppliers of drugs.Eventually, he enters the Police Academy in Chihuahua, and becomes a police officer in Juarez. The most significant aspect of that early process is that the cartels paid for & groomed a % of all Mexican local & federal police officials to work exclusively for them .. the cartels .. from Day One. As the Mexican cartels have taken over more & more of the booming drug business in the U.S., the roles of these policemen who work actually for the cartels, has become more significant. Many of the victims of cartels appear to have been policemen who got on the wrong side of their sponsoring cartels, or were killed by opposition cartels moving into another's territory. The man who is "El Sicario," appears to be intelligent but of a criminal attitude from the earliest days. Somehow, as he sank farther into doing business with his cartelista bosses, he found himself performing extermination acts for bosses he rarely ever saw. He makes clear that he was totally subservient to these bosses. In one case, he describes bringing a victim to a motel, & keeping that victim sequestered in Room 164, while the man's family made arrangements to pay a debt that had been reneged upon by this man. In some cases, El Sicario describes how he & an accomplice or two, beat the victim into submission. In others, he describes how he strangles a victim to the point of death, only to revive him @ the call of one of his "bosses," apparently to torment the victim. A "cat & mouse" game ensues, where the victim is sometimes taken to the point of death by strangulation, then revived. In the end, the word comes to kill the victim, once and for all. El Sicario reveals that very few victims of bad debt collection survive. He describes the professional manner in which a true "sicario," or hit man, or thug, kills his victims v. "amateurs." There is an obvious pride in his workmanship, meaning, quick, clean, professional. Some victims are described as being lowered & raised out of 55 gallon drums of boiling water or oil, their flesh being burned off, then debrided until their bodies are scorched & they are boiled to death. Businessmen who play with the Devil of whichever cartel is in charge, often don't realize that second or third homes they own are often transformed into party places, but also, contain numerous cemeteries for the victims. In the end, El Sicario breaks down under the strain of years of alcohol and drug use. He simply hits a wall of numbness that implodes & leaves him in a position where he simply cannot drink or drug any longer. He does not show the apparent signs of an addict going through withdrawal, but is steered by an acquaintance, to some religious revival kind of event. The strain of his killing life & a tiny core of morality break through, & allow him to realize a forgiveness for his crimes. The fact appears to be: Mexico has passed into a place where much of the drug trade plying off norteamericanos is controlled by cartelistas who are heavily engaged with all layers of the Mexican law enforcement system & also, a growing # of Mexican military officials. The slaughter is now in the thousands. Men like El Sicario are actually recruited constantly. The "burn out" rate for these men is enormous. The cartels leadership could care less. They are Gods in a society where graft & corruption set the stage long ago for a breakdown in authority that seems headed towards an actual narcostate on our southern Border. Travel into Mexico is problematic now. My own reasons for traveling to Mexico are based on my own interest in the Apache Indian history of the 1800s. Places of such interest are there, essentially untouched by modernity, but the danger of straying for very narrow paths is obvious. I know I'd never, ever want to meet such a man as "El Sicario." He is someone who does not really show a hatred for Americans. Most of his victims are Mexicans & there is no mercy given those whom he's been told to collect from. The slaughter underway in Mexico is grim & sometimes primitive in it's manifestations of dismemberment, torture, decapitations, murders. The cruelty with which many victims die in Mexico today represents a twisted turn into Evil. "El Sicario," may or may not have escaped that life ... time will tell. But his story is one of nightmarish violence & he has done a service by telling what he's told. The book by Charles Bowden & Molly Melloy provided me with a first line view of the killers who do the killing. It's frightening to read the details of those who do the killing and the sad ends of so many who went sideways of the cartels for whatever reason. Mexico is on a path of some kind of self destruction. One wonders if it can survive. I'd recommend that any American wanting to know more about the killing machine that exists in Mexico today read this book. I further suggest that Americans who casually use a variety of drugs (those who aren't addicted to drugs) read the bookk & ask themselves: is there any way I can ever, from now on, smoke marijuana, or hash, or shoot heroin casually, drop ecstacy, or use methamphetamines ... without accepting they're part of this slaughter. Were it not for the massive drug problem in the U.S., these cartels would be focused more on their own people.While that has happened, the reality is: the cartels are providing a service to millions of Americans who escape "life on life's terms," through drug use. And for that, we are responsible in part for so many Mexicans dying on a daily basis.[...]

It's just business, that's the tone of the "sicario", the cartel enforcer. Extortion, kidnappings, and murder; that was his daily grind. He would do this kind of work for years until his eventual falling out with his employers. This is his story, not an interview in the traditional sense but more of a narration as the sicario takes you through his life. From his youth to his days in the cartel. He tells his story in hope that it could inspire others in the drug gangs to turn away from the "bosses" as he did. To break out of the vicious circle of violence and horror. Whatever you may think of this man, of what he was, or of his sense of redemption through god, his story is still fascinating and important.He starts with his youth, his upbringing seems pretty typical for many Mexicans but his own drive for financial and material gain push him to work for the narco traffickers. Their easy money sold him on their lifestyle. When his family learned about this he was driven off only to do what many aspiring criminals in Mexico do, he became a cop. The sicario's story is shocking but what really sticks out above the violence and depravity, is the revelation of just how deeply entrenched the cartels are in Mexican politics and law enforcement. As a police officer he learned the kind of skills that would be useful in the work of a criminal enforcer. How to use weapons, how to find people, and even had access to the police's resources. With these levels of corruption it's no wonder why the drug war in Mexico has gone the way it has.Eventually the sicario had a falling out with his bosses, which is almost inevitable in his line of work. He points out that putting down burnt-out disillusioned hitmen wasn't all that uncommon. However, somehow he survived. While some may be sickened by what he had done, and some may even be sickened with his belief in redemption through god as a Born-Again Christian, his story is still very significant and well written in this book. This book may not read well for some, especially those who are put off by horrible violence, but it's pivotal look into the Mexican drug cartel from one of it's own.

Such great possibilities existed for this book. However Ms. Molloy and Mr. Bowden took the path of least work to produce little more than a translated transcription of the Sicario's story. No effort whatsoever is spent on editing or researching the context or the story. A truly lazy piece of literature that could have been magnificent had they been willing to do a proper research and editing. It's so poorly done that it is truly that in spite of good content provided by their subject, because of their laziness, it is very hard to recommend the book to others.What this book is: an extremely interesting and honest rambling monologue with pointless and poorly drawn sketches from a hotel room pad with portions often scribbled out. It is repetitious in parts--clearly showing it was captured over several sittings rather than all at once. It is consistent, as if the speaker has thought quite a lot about the story and told it many, many times.What is clearly the best thing is that (this monologue contains the story of a true sicario who has killed and tortured hundreds of people, in trade for for money and without remorse. And though he is repentant now, he is very honest that at the time, torture and murder came easily to him. And though, in retrospect, he sees how circumstances helped play a role (kill or be killed,chronic drug/alcohol use, government corruption), he made choices that led him to become a cold blooded killer instead of an upstanding member of his society.

Great book

very entertaining, the Mexican hit man duped American fundamentalist christian Taliban types now he is cured , praise the lord lol lol still he killed dozens, I equate him to the mexician ICE MAN now kind of repenting, hiding in the states and waiting for his green card

Libro spesso noioso e "raffazzonato". Si vede che è la trasposizione (malriuscita) di un documentario.Anche per lo studio della lingua (io l'ho fatto anche per quello) non consigliato: livello di Spagnolo utilizzato molto basico e ripetitivo.

y mala o nula edición, parecería querían aprovechar el momento y enfoque de la violencia en la frontera, el libro como panfleto

I found he repeated himself a lot, and that the story was very jerkey. I bought the book because I heard Charles Bowden. Interviewed on CBC and it sounded interesting. I'm looking forward to reading "Murder City".