MALVERDE

in my canon, rio doesn’t really go around telling young people to join his “gang”. what he has isn’t a birthright kind of thing (he isn’t the King(tm) by succession) , it’s not a ‘this is my plaza, my territory, and if you’re not with me, you’re against me’. he does protect his territory (and what he has, what he owns, he does because he climbed that ladder with utmost excellence. he worked the angles he was supposed to, and manipulated no more than the precise people), and most around him, respect him (respect that he gained not by being your friendly church-going mexican neighbor, mind you) . those who work for him, the ones in what would be called “the field” are people who have exhausted all opportunities and had no other choice. though, it’s unfair to say it ‘cause the people who work for him didn’t have many opportunities to begin with. still, he treats them well. and does try his best to keep them safe, or as safe as he can since they do need to cross path with criminal who are far worse than rio himself is. 

“You don’t know? No, Americans never do. It’s not just the drugs you buy that are soaked in blood. It’s your oil, your coffee, your security. The only difference between you and me is that I acknowledge what I do.”

As crazy as the Yanquis are about drugs coming across their border, the Mexicans are even more fanatic about guns. As much as Washington complains about narcotics coming across from Mexico, Los Pinos answers with complaints about guns coming in from the United States. It’s a constant irritant in the relations between the two countries that the Mexicans seem to feel that firearms are more dangerous than dope. They don’t understand why it is that, in America, you will get a longer jail sentence for dealing a little marijuana than you will for selling a lot of guns. No, the Mexican government is sensitive about guns, as befits a country beset with a history of revolutions.

This is what Mexican cops appreciate that American cops don’t.We are partners, mi hermano Arturo, in the same enterprise.Comrades in the War on Drugs. We could not exist without each other.