Santiago - 1-22-2011 at 12:59 PM
Finished Murder City last week and am still in a deep funk. This is a follow-up of sorts to his Down by the River that followed the
rise and fall of Amado Carillo and the drug business as it related to Ciudad Juarez. Murder City focuses on Ciudad Juarez in 2008 and
documents the murders/killings in the city as it related to 3 characters; Miss Sinaloa, a beautiful young women who was gang-raped by the police
department over 3 or 4 days and dumped on the street barely alive, a local reported trying to document what was happening to his city, and an
ex-druggie who opened up a shelter for the insane and people who simply lost touch with reality due to their circumstances.
Mr Bowden and 2 other people decided that they would try to document every killing in the City in 2008. By mid year they were completely burned out
and could not take it any more; this book is the result of their efforts.
Mr Bowden's main point is that these killings are no longer simply gangs fighting over territory but that killing has become an acceptable way of
life.
His long interview over many days with an assassin, a sicario, is truly disturbing.
Mr Bowden completely implicates and documents the military in many, many of these acts.