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[deleted] t1_j33h5vd wrote

I almost wonder why anybody would actually want to head a cartel at this point. They seem to end up dead from gang violence

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Naki-Taa t1_j33ip8m wrote

People who are likely to die from gang violence anyway, but being a leader of cartel you can be filthy rich while dying from gang violence so there's that

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reaverdude t1_j357yx0 wrote

In one part of Mexico, people involved with the drug cartels have their very own cemetery.

Some of the tombs are super lavish and elaborate and cost more than actual living people's homes. Inside they have air conditioning, kitchens, entire dance floors and sometimes even cars.

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pokepat460 t1_j345vcy wrote

You get to be a billionaire and defacto leader of a country for a while before you die, and do lots of drugs along the way. Live fast die young kinda life. Not for everyone, but highly appealing to many.

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DerekB52 t1_j355fxr wrote

Shit. You sold me. I gotta move to mexico. Luckily, entiendo un poco espanol.

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bananafobe t1_j34qmve wrote

I have no insight, but part of me wonders whether our expectations are set by stories that romanticize the tragic downfall of figures who attempt to find meaning/satisfaction in ways that are doomed to fail, because that's the genre in which these stories are always told.

In the same way movies about police tend not to focus on the benefits package that comes with a government job, the day to day aspects of being in charge of a cartel may have practical benefits (aside from the obvious "more money than many small nations" aspect).

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CaptStrangeling t1_j355fm8 wrote

Yeah, not a lot of corridos mention how many young soldiers cry for their moms while they die in their own shit and piss. They don’t sing songs (that I know of) for the mothers whose daughters were raped or disappeared.

They groom children soldiers to kill or be killed and it becomes normalized in some families and internalized and it only ever ends in tears and bloodshed.

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