Josh Kun, “The Kidnapped Country: Violence, Drugs, and the Crisis of Mexican Culture”

The headlines mount daily. Drug gangs battle next to a kindergarten in Tijuana. Mexican streets are lined with military Humvees. Top-ranking police officers are assassinated or issued death threats. Kidnappings of innocent citizens are on the rise. Mexican President Felipe Calderón calls the violence a sign of success that the government is winning the war. But against who? And at what cost? L.A.-based writer and scholar Josh Kun visits Zócalo to explore the current crisis in Mexico within the broader context of contemporary globalization, drawing on personal, cultural, and political sources—from testimonies of victims to local blog accounts to the drug ballads of popular songs.

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