[paazin]

On Netflix, there is a show called El Chapo, season 2 has an episode, about how ordinary Mexicans are affected by the drug war.
It has thee stories, first a young woman is kidnapped and her family has to pay an ransom, the bullshit they have to go through is tragic.
Second it involves workers at one of the poppy fields in Sinaloa, it basically a slave plantation, and they decide to escape, good luck with that.
The third story is about a kid, kidnapped from the streets, a forced into be a sicario, the training is based on Pass/Fail, and you don't want to fail if you know what I mean. A very good series.

[nealfiona]

Sad

[Moloko]

Shame. They looked like a nice couple.

[BigSnail34]

I worked with a lovely young woman whose family is from Juarez (though she was born in Anaheim and her parents are both naturalized American citizens). She has a first cousin who is a surgeon down there, thus his family is well-to-do by Mexican standards. Because of this, his family has been targeted on multiple occasions. In 2014 his mom (my co-worker's aunt) and his son were kidnapped and a 2 million peso ($105,000) ransom was demanded. Even as a surgeon, the guy had no hope of coming up with that sort of cash, so he appealed to my coworker's parents, who are middle-class residents of suburban Atlanta. They had to come up with $70,000, which they managed to secure and wire that same day by selling their vehicles for half what they were worth for cash, and selling off jewelry, hunting rifles, etc.

In this particular case, the kidnappers actually released both of them, and they are both now in the US after petitioning for asylum and being approved. However, both of them were brutally raped while held captive, with the boy (who was 7 at the time) so badly injured part of his large intestine had to be removed. The woman, who is in her 60's, had to have a finger amputated because they smashed her hands with a hammer, was blinded in one eye after being severely beaten with a golf club, and had to have a hysterectomy because the kidnappers shoved a steak knife in her vagina. She is doing remarkably well today, though she understandably struggles with PTSD.

And they are considered lucky.

[RestlessGypsy]

[kellyhound]

Trying to visit her mother and ending up dead. It's one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods in that city and in the State. Rival gangs do everything to gain money and spread fear.

[CanYouHandleLife]

Originally Posted by kasapin ↗

$270000 is not a ransom that an above average mexican family can pay. Those 2 were doomed the second they got kidnapped.

i thought the same thing, the average mexican family could sell every possession they had and borrow heavily and still not come up with even a fraction of that amount. The guy worked in the oil field so he probably pissed the criminals off by refusing to help them steal oil.

[Susan]

Power and the money
Money and the power
Minute after minute
Hour after hour