By Dave Shiflett (Bloomberg) – Santa better watch his back in Juarez, and Phoenix, too. That’s the news from “Explorer: Narco State,” a blood-soaked National Geographic special airing Dec. 13 at 8 p.m. New York time. If you’re already tired of holiday cheer this show may be the cure. It’s brimming with corpses and other indications we’re a long way from winning the drug war. Host Lisa Ling opens the show in Phoenix, which has the second highest kidnapping/home invasion rate in the world (behind Mexico City) with roughly one person swiped every day. Much of the crime is related to the drug industry. A young man has gone missing and a suspect is in hand, though officials from the local Home Invasion and Kidnapping Enforcement Task Force (HIKE team) have no idea where the victim may have been stashed. One answer seems to present itself as the alleged perp, a massive, shirtless man with a billowing belly, is walked to the police car: Maybe he ate his victim. The perpetually lithe Ling follows the investigation throughout the hour-long show while also breaking away to Juarez, where over 1800 people were killed last year, earning it the moniker “Baghdad on the border.” “Iraq and Afghanistan certainly generate more news coverage,” says Ling, “but make no mistake about it … we are fighting a war right here at home, on our own border” that, she says in her ever-cool monotone, has “no end in sight.” This war, she adds, isn’t about “beliefs” such as virgins in heaven and converting the infidels. It’s about drugs, guns and money. The drugs flow north into the insatiable U.S. drug market and the money and guns flow south. You could definitely mistake Juarez for a war zone. The Mexican army roams the streets in armored personnel carriers though it is sometimes out-gunned by the narco-troops, who deploy military-grade weapons including M-60 machine guns and aren’t above using hand-grenades against enemies of their enterprise. The killing has spun off a few growth industries, including a booming business for folk songs celebrating the killings, which are broadcast while the blood is still flowing. Business is also brisk for local photojournalist Jose Luis Gonzales, who might shoot as many as ten corpses a day. We see plenty of examples of his work, which often features people blasted in cars, with gaping mouths and significant holes in their heads. Those who lie on sidewalks and in gutters remind us that humans carry lots of blood that can ooze long distances. In perhaps the most captivating segment Ling interviews some of the whack talent – a “sicario” (hit man) named “Manuel” who comes off as something of a sensitive soul. He tells of starting out small in Los Angeles and eventually receiving quasi-military training, then recalls his first hit, a throat-slicing operation. “I felt like it wasn’t me doing it,” he says, as if slightly traumatized. He also admits losing count of the number of people he has killed while insisting he doesn’t “mean to sound cruel.” Maybe he should find himself a support group. The only semi-chirpy news comes from Arturo Sarukhan, Mexican ambassador to the U.S., who says that despite all the bodies the military truly is stabilizing the border and helping rebuild a civilian police force that had experienced “penetration” by the druggies. What’s beyond dispute is that bodies will continue to stack up. Journalist Charles Bowden, the embodiment of a world-weary scribe, says that in response to Juárez’s 1800 murders last year “maybe there were 20 or 30 arrests. Not convictions, arrests. You kill and walk. Nothing happens. You can kill with absolute impunity.” There are some survivors. At show’s end the alleged kidnap victim is reported to have surfaced, alive, on a Mexican farm, which is far preferable to surfacing in Juarez.
