Abstract
Chapter 7 has American crimefighters crossing the border, with films such as Black Rain about exported rogue behavior made worse by culture clashes. The chapter also explores border breaches with Mexico—often treated as another frontier awaiting American intervention. The Netflix series, Narcos, features agents at the start of the War on Drugs and the shift after Reagan became convinced communists were involved. Also included is Sicario and its sequel, which examine the contemporary context of the drug war and attempts to link it to the War on Terror, also inviting CIA participation. Finally, a comparative analysis of Traffic—and a subsequent TV series—both contrasted with the original British series that reveal national differences along with a post-9/11 mindset.
You better help us get Pablo.
DEA Agent Steve Murphy (Narcos)
I want him dead too.
Elisa, communist revolutionary
We’re not a death squad.
Murphy
You clearly don’t know your country’s history in Latin America.
Elisa
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- 1.
Poster included on imdb.com (Accessed February 15, 2006). Black Rain, DVD, directed by Ridley Scott (Paramount Pictures, 1999).
- 2.
Black Rain, DVD.
- 3.
Ibid.
- 4.
Available online at theodorerooseveltcenter.org.
- 5.
Brian Loveman, No Higher Law: American Foreign Policy and the Western Hemisphere since 1776 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012).
- 6.
Fredrick B. Pike, FDR’s Good Neighbor Policy: Sixty Years of Generally Gentle Chaos (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010).
- 7.
The Truman Doctrine in 1947 sent economic and military aid to Mediterranean nations to stop Soviet aggression at the start of the Cold War. See the trumanlibrary.org for related documents.
- 8.
Kristian Gustafson, Hostile Intent: U.S. Covert Operations in Chile, 1964–1974 (Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2007).
- 9.
William M. LeoGrande, Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central America, 1977–1992 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000). Involvement with the rebels was implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal that later plagued the Reagan administration.
- 10.
The State Department summarizes the existing Merida Initiative, passed in 2007, “Merida fosters greater cooperation between U.S. and Mexican law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and judges as they share best practices and expand capacity to track criminals, drugs, arms, and money to disrupt the business model of transnational crime. Because of our collaboration, our shared border is more secure, information sharing more fluid … Our cooperation with Mexico has never been more vital in the fight to combat the deadly threat of illicit fentanyl, heroin, and synthetic drugs.” Available online at https://www.state.gov/j/inl/merida/.
- 11.
The extreme expression of that is President Trump’s declaration of a “national emergency” in February 2019 to find funds to construct his long-promised “wall” (often referred to as a barrier as well) along the official border, after failing to get funding from the US Congress (even when his own Republican Party dominated both houses).
- 12.
Pablo Vila, Crossing Borders, Reinforcing Borders: Social Categories, Metaphors, and Narrative Identities on the U.S.-Mexico Frontier (Inter-America) (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2013), 6.
- 13.
Colin Woodard, American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle between Individual Liberty and the Common Good (New York: Penguin Books, 2016).
- 14.
Vila, Crossing Borders, 9. Also Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands—La Frontera: The New Mestiza (Aunt Lute Books, 1987), i.
- 15.
James Robert Parrish, The Great Cop Pictures (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1990), 608.
- 16.
Touch of Evil, directed by Orson Welles (1958; Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, 2000), DVD.
- 17.
Roger Ebert, Review of Touch of Evil, Chicago Sun-Times, September 13, 1998.
- 18.
The Border, directed Tony Richardson (1982; MCA Home Video, 2004), DVD.
- 19.
Camilla Fojas, “Bordersploitation: Hollywood Border Crossers and Buddy Cops,” symplokē, 15, no. 1, Cinema without Borders (2007), 92.
- 20.
Ibid., 86.
- 21.
Narcos, Season 1, episode 1, “Descenso,” directed by José Padilla, aired on August 8, 2015, Netflix.
- 22.
Halah Touryalai, “Watching Netflix’s Narcos? Here’s Pablo Escobar in Forbes’ First-Ever Billionaire Issue in 1987,” Forbes, September 15, 2015. Available online.
- 23.
Narcos, Season 1, episode 6, “Explosives,” directed by Andi Baiz, aired on August 8, 2015, Netflix.
- 24.
Narcos, Season 1, episode 1.
- 25.
Narcos, Season 1, episode 4, “The Palace in Flames,” directed by Guillermo Navarro, aired on August 8, 2015, Netflix.
- 26.
Ibid.
- 27.
Narcos, Season 1, episode 6.
- 28.
Narcos, Season 2, episode 9, “Nuestra Finca,” directed by Andrés Baiz, aired on September 2, 2016, Netflix.
- 29.
Narcos, Season 1, episode 4.
- 30.
Ibid.
- 31.
Ibid.
- 32.
Ibid.
- 33.
Narcos, Season 3, episode 10, “Going Back to Cali,” directed by Andi Baiz, aired on September 1, 2017, Netflix.
- 34.
Ibid.
- 35.
Narcos: Mexico, Season 1, episode 10, “Leyenda,” directed by Andrés Baiz, aired on November 16, 2018, Netflix.
- 36.
Ibid.
- 37.
End of Watch, directed by David Ayer (2012; Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, 2013), DVD.
- 38.
“Narcos is a Hit for Netflix but Iffy Accents Grate on Colombian Ears,” The Guardian, September 17, 2015.
- 39.
“Spanish-speaking Actors Beaming with Pride,” The Straits Times, September 13, 2017. Available online.
- 40.
Narcos, Season 1, episode 4.
- 41.
Ibid.
- 42.
Narcos, Season 1, episode 7, “You Will Cry Tears of Blood,” directed by Fernando Coimbra, aired on August 8, 2015, Netflix.
- 43.
Narcos, Season 1, episode 3, “The Men of Always,” directed by Guillermo Navarro, aired on August 8, 2015, Netflix.
- 44.
Sicario, directed by Dennis Villeneuve (2013; Warner Home Video, 2014), DVD.
- 45.
Ibid.
- 46.
Ibid.
- 47.
Ibid.
- 48.
Ibid.
- 49.
Ibid.
- 50.
Ibid.
- 51.
Ibid.
- 52.
Ibid.
- 53.
Sicario: Day of the Soldado, directed by Stefano Sollima (2018; Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2018), DVD.
- 54.
Ibid.
- 55.
Ibid.
- 56.
Ibid.
- 57.
Ibid.
- 58.
Ibid.
- 59.
Ibid.
- 60.
Ibid.
- 61.
Ibid.
- 62.
Stephen Soderbergh, Traffic: The Shooting Script (Newmarket Press, 2000), viii.
- 63.
Traffik—Miniseries, directed by Alastair Reid (1989; Acorn Media, 2001), DVD.
- 64.
Neither version of the story suggests how decriminalization may be as plausible an approach as treatment, rehabilitation, or prevention.
- 65.
Traffic, directed by Steven Soderbergh (2000; Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, 2002), DVD.
- 66.
Traffic: The Miniseries, directed by Eric Bross and Stephen Hopkins (2004; MCA Home Video, 2004), DVD.
- 67.
Ibid.
- 68.
Ibid.
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Yaquinto, M. (2019). Globocops, La Frontera, and America’s War on Drugs. In: Policing the World on Screen. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24805-5_7
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