Reflection Questions Cartelland

There were two specific scenes that triggered me the most because to me family is everything and I feel as if family is one thing no one messes with. Now, the first scene that triggered me was when the Auto Defensas group were patrolling the streets of the town Nueva Italia, and as they were riding around town they were being shot at. As they moved into the location where they presumably thought the cartel members were shooting from they received a call saying they were in a white Volkswagen Jetta and in a white truck. When they received the description of the vehicles, the Auto Defensas saw a similar make and model and approached it and made the people get out at gun point. As they pointed the guns and the people in the vehicle got out it was two females and male and a little girl. The male was the father along with the wife and mom of the father and the little girl. The little girl was hysterically crying saying that she was going to kill herself if anything happened to the father and that she wanted a knife to kill herself. The Auto Defensas men were consistently pulling on the father cursing at him, calling him horrible names and also to the wife and mom of the male.

The second part of this also triggered me because when they had took the man they took     him to the headquarters of the Auto Defensas and there they had a lot of other men torturing, yelling, threatening the men to speak if they had any relationship with the cartels. All the men were yelling of pain, grunting. What was the point of them trying to find information if they were harming, or trying to get information in a violent manner? That is what the cartels do they torture people and kill people. So what’s the difference between the cartel and the Auto Defensas if they do the same?

                  What surprised me the most was how at the beginning and at the end of the film the scene started with a couple of trucks driving and stopping in which looked to be the middle of the desert. When they got out the truck they rolled out huge containers of methanol and they started talking about how they are aware of the dangers and the harm methamphetamine or crystal meth does to people. The men had their faces covered, bullet proof vest with gun and mentioned how they do this because they are poor, they are not like the the people in the United States with great jobs, they are in poverty they are in need of money to support their families. This surprised me because they are not aware of what really is going on in the United States, not everyone in the United States have “great jobs” there are tons of people, veterans who are homeless, who are in need of money, food shelter for themselves and the children, and they do not cook meth to try to get resources. So this sparked a interest into what other things they believe here in the United States we have. At the ending of the film they mentioned how the government is also involved in with the cartels, and how they work together, but obviously they do not speak of it.

                  Some of the questions that remain are did “Papa Smurf” betray or wanted the leadership Mireles had after Mireles was in the hospitalized? another is Did any of Mireles people had anything to do with his airplane accident? What was the point of Foley and his people? was it to stop the cartels? The people trying to cross the United States? That was unclear. Some of the feeling that stayed with me after the film were that towards the end when Mireles had the accident and a little before the accident his men started invading more and more houses, they were using more and more force, and made me think if they were still in it to make the people feel safe or if they were now in it for the power and control the movement now had. This did not pop up in unexpected ways but it did pop up because lots of my family lives where this documentary took place in Michoacán, and they would tell us that at the most random times of the day they would here guns shots, trucks storming left to right and it can be harm having to look out all the time having the fear of being shot or snatched.

                  Some of the problematic concepts I see in this film are corruption within the government because even in the United States there is a lot of corruption and in Mexico the government is known to be corrupt and some say that the cartel has the whole government bought. Another problematic concept is people taking matters into their own hands such as Foley because of felt as if he wanted catch all the bad guys but instead he went after harmless men and woman who want a better live and want to get away from all the violence going on. Human trafficking would be another point because this happens all over the world and in some places its even worse. The final thing would be the war on drugs because it has become a huge epidemic since the 80’s and if its corrupt in Mexico there may be a possibility that here in the United States too or in other places around the world.