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This mile-a-minute documentary records the mayhem of Mexico's drug war, as bullets fly and law and order collapse. Gun-slinging criminals come face to face with 40,000 soldiers and we're on the ground to see it all. Dead bodies, gangsters with state-of-the-art weapons and out-of-control soldiers populate the scenes in this action packed thriller. "Right now we have 11,000 guns," General Duarte Mugica tells us as he stands between the racks of rifles and machine guns confiscated from the Mafia. "With these you can arm 2-3 battalions of 500." But this is just the tip of the iceberg of the extraordinary arsenal these gangsters have at their disposal. Mexico may not officially be at war, but since 2006, when President Felipe Calderon an all out campaign against the cartels, the most extraordinary civil war has been tearing up the streets.
"This isn't Iraq, what's going on?" Says Gema Lopez professor of sociology, echoing the feeling of the people of Tijuana who now see dead bodies in the street daily. "They found three people decapitated. No arms, cut to pieces." One man in the street tells us, after a running battle between soldiers and Mafia rumbled through his area.
Tijuana has had problems with the drug business for decades, but never violence on this level. A lot of it has to do with the famous Arellano Felix family who dominate organized crime in Tijuana. As Roberto, an ex-hit man for the Arellano tells us, the new generation is different. "Before you didn't see such things. There was no need for so many people to get killed. Now the infamous crystal meth gets in the way, it drives you crazy."
But the government hasn't escaped criticism for taking on the gangs with the army. "The chaos and violence that rule are in the government's interest. They use it to oppress social protest." Gema Lopez contends. Certainly the social problems Mexico faces don't help the criminal problems the country is enduring. "There are three choices in life." Roberto tells us. "The first is to work in a maquiladora and live like a slave. The second is to jump the wall and catch the American dream. The other choice is to become a member of an organization and get inside the drug trade."
Faced with these bleak prospects many of the youths in Tijuana, choose a life of crime, like Roberto did, because as the drug song goes, "A friend got involved with the Mafia, because he didn't want to be poor any more".
Now, as the stalemate continues, civilians continue to get caught in the crossfire. Schools, innocent families, women and children, are all vulnerable to the senseless killing. And nobody seems to know how Mexico can get away from the ruthless and powerful mob families, desperate hit men, body disposers, troops and corrupt policemen.
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| Making the film |
The first image that welcomed Yorgos Avgeropoulos in Tijuana was a corpse. ‘It was the first thing we saw...And then we left quickly because there were three more bodies found on the beach. One was cut to pieces with a chainsaw. His head was a little further away'. The next days he and producer Anastasia Skoubri and cameraman Yiannis Avgeropoulos recorded the insanity: Gunshots exchanged in broad daylight in a central part of town, where the perpetrators tried to escape leaving their ultra-modern weapons behind, their wireless communication and ...a bible. The army operations to arrest mobsters, among them many police officers who were receiving double salary. A ... Bengal baby tiger, pet of Teodoro Garcia Simental, otherwise ‘El Teo' or ‘Three Letters'. And, among other madness, the liberation of a hostage, victim of a kidnapping by members of the cartel that cut off his finger and sent it to his family as the 500,000 dollars they asked for did not appear on time. |
| The Producers |
Yorgos Avgeropoulos was born in Athens in 1971. He has covered news stories of great interest and importance, working as a journalist for most of the major Greek TV channels. As a war correspondent for many years, he has traveled extensively in Bosnia, Croatia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Palestine. The work of Avgeropoulos has been recognized by state organizations and NGOs and he has received much acclaim and many awards.
Exandas has been participating in international festivals for many years and has been awarded the 'Best investigative and documentary Greek TV programs' award seven times as well as the Faro D' Oro (The Golden Lighthouse) Prize at the XII International Prize for Mediterranean Documentary and Reportage, Cagliari - Sardine, Italy, 2007. News stories and documentaries presented by Exandas have also inspired university research and have been discussed in conferences. |
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