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Who Runs Mexico?

Links between Mexico’s politicians and drug cartels are in sharp focus since a mayor was charged with kidnapping, homicide and organised crime in the case of 43 missing students.

Mexico is gripped with the story of 43 student protesters who vanished in September. They were allegedly killed on the orders of a mayor who wanted to prevent them from attending a rally where his wife was due to speak. The mayor and his wife have been arrested but no case has been proven against them in court. The story has fuelled nationwide demonstrations about the relationship between government and organised crime. The government says it is taking the problem seriously and points to falling murder rates and the arrest of a number of drug barons in recent years, as evidence that Mexico is winning the war against the cartels. Guests include an investigative journalist who has had run-ins with the cartels, a former Mexican intelligence analyst who says he is obsessed with stopping the violence and a prominent public intellectual with a long view of the patterns of power in Mexico.

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23 minutes

Last on

Tue 25 Nov 2014 20:05GMT

Broadcast

  • Tue 25 Nov 2014 20:05GMT

Podcast