The plush, green colored, rolling hills surrounding Santa Clara del Cobre provided a mystical backdrop to the small town located in the western state of Michoacán, Mexico. The state, with a stretch of coastline along the sky-blue waters of the Pacific Ocean, derived its name from the ancient Nahuatl language used by the Aztecs, which means “place of the fisherman.” Rich copper mines have provided most of the town’s sustenance for several centuries and even now more than eighty percent of its inhabitants make their living as coppersmiths. As one strolls through the village, the incessant hammering of the orange-colored metal is deafening. The town grudgingly, through time, has clung to its colonial look. Most of the houses and buildings are painted a vibrant white and roofed in ornate red tiles.

Vigilantism or Street Justice? Get ready for a heart-racing thriller that will leave you on the edge of your seat! When Ramona, an innocent bystander finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time, she witnesses a little girl being kidnapped. Promising the sexy man who happens to be the girl's disabled uncle to save her, things take a dark turn when they both end up getting abducted. To survive, she must rely on her training and wits to take on two ruthless killers. She's driven to unleash her brand of vigilante justice. This gripping tale of survival, justice, and potential love will change her forever. This is the first of three books but it can be read as a standalone.

A Mexican drug cartel hit man reflects on 20 years of killing, torture and kidnapping in the most violent city on earth, Ciudad Juarez."

This book is our sixth Small Wars Journal—El Centro anthology, covering writings published between 2016 and 2017. The theme of this anthology pertains to the rise of the narcostate (mafia states) as a result of the collusion between criminal organizations and political elites—essentially authoritarian regime members, corrupted plutocrats, and other powerful societal elements. The cover image of the mass demonstration concerning the disappearance of the forty-three Ayotzinapa Teachers’ College students held at Mexico City’s Zócalo Plaza in November 2014 provides an archetype of this anthology’s theme. This anthology includes the following special essays—Preface: “New Wars” and State Transformation by Robert Muggah, Igarapé Institute; Foreword: Crime and State-Making by Vanda Felbab-Brown, The Brookings Institution; Postscript: Crime, Drugs, Terror, and Money: Time for Hybrids by Alain Bauer, CNAM Paris; and Afterword: The Rise of the Oligarchs by Col. Robert Killebrew, US Army (Ret.). Dave Dilegge (SWJ, Editor-in-Chief)

Listening to Sicarios presents new insights into the lives of paid assassins of Mexico’s drug trafficking syndicates from the perspectives of the assassins themselves. Based on an extraordinary series of ethnographic interviews carried out in the wake of the record levels of narcoviolence experienced in Ciudad Juárez between 2008 and 2012, this study analyzes the ways in which these young men interpret their actions across four key thematic axes: border infrastructures, youth and responsibility, masculinity and sentiment, and ethics: good vs. evil. It argues that sicarios follow a career path within a criminal corporate infrastructure that is especially robust in Mexican border cities. It also explores how sicarios understand youthful innocence in relation to adult accountability in the realm of violence that is frequently meted out by young men on other young men. It then analyzes sicarios’ expressions of feelings of power that may boost their sense of virility, as well as feelings of fear and regret that imply weakness. Finally, it examines how sicarios defend their personal integrity in the face of a public discourse that views their acts as savage.

The true confession of an assassin, a sicario, who rose through the ranks of the Southern California gang world to become a respected leader in an elite, cruelly efficient crew of hit men for Mexico's "most vicious drug cartel," and eventually found a way out and an (almost) normal life. Martin Corona, a US citizen, fell into the outlaw life at twelve and worked for a crew run by the Arellano brothers, founders of the the Tijuana drug cartel that dominated the Southern California drug trade and much bloody gang warfare for decades. Corona's crew would cross into the United States from their luxurious hideout in Mexico, kill whoever needed to be killed north of the border, and return home in the afternoon. That work continued until the arrest of Javier Arellano-Félix in 2006 in a huge coordinated DEA operation. Martin Corona played a key role in the downfall of the cartel when he turned state's evidence. He confessed to multiple murders. Special Agent of the California Department of Justice Steve Duncan, who wrote the foreword, says Martin Corona is the only former cartel hit man he knows who is truly remorseful. Martin's father was a US Marine. The family had many solid middle-class advantages, including the good fortune to be posted in Hawaii for a time during which a teenage Martin thought he might be able to turn away from the outlaw life of theft, drug dealing, gun play, and prostitution. He briefly quit drugs and held down a job, but a die had been cast. He soon returned to a gangbanging life he now deeply regrets. How does someone become evil, a murderer who can kill without hesitation? This story is an insight into how it happened to one human being and how he now lives with himself. He is no longer a killer; he has asked for forgiveness; he has made a kind of peace for himself. He wrote letters to family members of his victims. Some of them not only wrote back but came to support him at his parole hearings. It is a cautionary tale, but also one that shows that evil doesn't have to be forever.

A repentant Mexican contract killer, trained in the United States by the FBI, describes in detail his experience kidnapping, torturing and murdering people for the drug industry and how he left the business and turned to Christ. Original.