No one knew anything about BDN’s author until recently. Much of its photo content is supplied by contributors using cell phones, but despite that fact, it's still certainly good enough to shock and sicken the casual reader. The Spanish-only blog makes for grim viewing, even for those who don’t speak the language. More of a catalog of violence than anything else, the blog posts daily updates reflecting the crime and corruption that characterize the drug war. The copy I received in the mail was wrapped with a yellow tape warning potential readers that the book should not be viewed by minors.īlog del Narco shot to prominence shortly after its creation in 2009. They are accompanied by graphic, often stomach-churning crime scene photos: severed heads, dismembered bodies, bodies burned by fire or acid. Some of those deaths have been tallied in Dying for the Truth: Undercover Inside the Mexican Drug War , a day-by-day collection of Blog del Narco entries offered with minimal analysis.
It’s an almost unimaginably high count, made even more powerful by Mexico’s cultural, economic and physical proximity to the United States. According to others, including the journalist behind Blog del Narco, that number has topped 70,000. According to some sources, 30,000 people have died. The numbers differ, but by any reckoning, Mexico’s drug wars have wreaked a terrifyingly high body count since they began only six years ago.