Although the official name of Mexico is Estados Unidos Mexicanos (the United States of Mexico) and that of America is the United States of America, in the book, as with convention, the phrase “United States” refers to America. For reasons of convenience, North America refers to the United States and Canada, not Mexico, and Central America refers to Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, not Mexico.
The preferred spelling of the consumable product of the cannabis plant is marijuana, but the United States government uses the older spelling “marihuana.” I retain their spelling when quoting official documents. Cocaine refers to powdered cocaine and crack cocaine is simply called crack.
Drug cartels often have multiple names—such as the Tijuana Cartel, which is often known as the Arellano Félix Organization or AFO—I prefer to use geographic names to avoid confusion. The exception is the Beltrán Leyva Cartel (also known as the South Pacific Cartel) because of the importance of the Beltrán Leyva family in its founding and organization and La Familla (instead of Michoacán Cartel), because that's what they are more commonly called and it befits their quasi-religious philosophy.
The river separating Texas and Mexico is called the Rio Grande in the U.S. and Canada and Rio Bravo in Mexico. I use the name Rio Grande.
Although it is controversial, I frequently use the term “illegal immigrant” because of its commonplace usage and because undocumented migrants are indeed breaking immigration laws.
Sources
Because of the nature of the conflict in Mexico and the pressure put upon journalists who risk being kidnapped and murdered for reporting what they see, many of the sources used in this book would be put into grave danger if their names were published. Because of this, most individuals referred to in this book are given assumed or partial names. Sources are named where the source is deceased, imprisoned, well known (such as politicians or pop stars) or already exposed by the media (as in the case of people such as Tiffany Hartley).
Officially, much of my research has come from the U.S. Embassy to Mexico, the U.S. General Accounting Office, the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the police departments of El Paso, Tuscon and other cities. Some information has also come from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Citizenship Canada and various Canadian police forces. Even more came from The Center for Latin American and Border Studies, the Pew Research Center and many other nongovernmental organizations.
More information came from the reporters and editors of International Herald Tribune, El Universal, The Houston Chronicle, Milenio, Alertnet, El Mañana, Reuters, BBC, CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Associated Press, Bloomberg, Yahoo!, The Christian Science Monitor, Nueva Leon Enlinea, El Diario, Fox News, The Times of London, CBC, ABC, MSNBC, The Star-Tribune, Time, The Chicago Sun-Times, The El Paso Times, Newsweek, The Washington Examiner, Crónica, Diario Eyipantla Milenio, Diario Xalapa, El Dictamen, Excélsior, Frontera, El Imparcial, El Informador, La Jornada, La Voz de Michoacán, El Vigia, El Nacional, El Norte, Notimex, Novedades de México, Novedades de Quintana Roo, Novedades de Tabasco, Novedades de Yucatán, El Occidental, Periódico Vanguardia, Publico, La Prensa, Reforma, Siglo 21, El Siglo de Torreón, El Zócalo and many other media outlets. Special thanks to Eric, Joe, Karen and Javier.
Copyright
Gangland: The Rise of the Mexican Drug Cartels from El Paso to Vancouver
Copyright © 2012 by Jerry Langton
Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Originally published by John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd. in both print and EPub editions: 2012
First published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd in print and EPub editions: 2013
First HarperCollins Publishers Ltd EPub Edition JUNE 2013 ISBN: 9781443427302
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