The Millionaires of War (Los millonarios de la guerra)

To make millions you don’t need to win the war. 

December of 2006, former Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared the war on drugs, an era of blood and fire that has left hundreds of thousands dead. However, a handful of businessmen, some associated with former Secretary of Public Security Genaro García Luna, used this crisis to become rich, and turned the war into a multi-million-dollar business.

Genaro García Luna was responsible for favoring contracts to businessmen who offered public security services. Today he is being held in a U.S. prison after being involved in a drug trafficking scheme related to the Sinaloa Cartel, in addition to the embezzlement of resources and money laundering.

Politicians, suppliers, brokers, spies, security companies, advisors, police commanders, military chiefs, and merchants. Genaro García Luna is just one of them, one of the only ones who have fallen into disgrace.

The Millionaires of War (Los millonarios de la guerra) brings to light the people who gathered huge fortunes through the purchase and sale of weapons, surveillance equipment, intelligence systems, and infrastructure contracts. It also uncovers those people involved in trade in favors, outright corruption, control of businesses such as prison security and the sale of allegiances to drug cartels.

RELEVANT DATA: After eight years of research in four countries and with more than 17,000 documents on her back, journalist Peniley Ramirez publishes The Millionaires of War (Los millonarios de la guerra), which dissects in detail the drug trafficking in Mexico from the late eighties to the current days and includes unpublished testimonies from sources who had never before spoken out. It analyzes the patriotic discourse of “war” to justify the use of security budgets, which should have been used in a peace process, but ended up being used for the personal enrichment of some.

Peniley Ramírez is one of the most important journalists in Latin America. She specializes in investigative reporting, and themes like corruption, transparency and drug trafficking. She has worked in Mexican media outlets such as Imagen de Veracruz?and?Reporte Índigo,?Sin Embargo,?El Heraldo de México?and El Universal.

For her work,?she has received the National Journalism Award for Investigative Television Reporting and was nominated in 6 different occasions with the News and Documentary Emmy. As a literary author, she has published poems in Venezuelan, Peruvian and Mexican magazines.

What the critics have said:

“Peniley Ramirez has written a harrowing nonfiction thriller. We always believed that the so-called ‘war’ against drugs had left only countless victims and losers. With rigor and depth, Peniley unveils who – like Genaro García Luna himself, its first mastermind – thrived on the war and became its spurious, obscene winners.” Jorge Volpi

“From now on, it won’t be possible to speak or write about the corruption networks of Mexico, the history of drug trafficking, or the reasons for macro-criminality, without resorting, to The Millionaires of War (Los millonarios de la Guerra).” Mileni

“This book is essential reading to understand Mexico today. Peniley Ramirez not only identifies and documents a network of corruption that profited from the tragedy, but also documents the emergence of the industry that was created as a result of Calderon’s War on Crime.” Goodreads.

AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: TV Series, Miniseries, Film, TV Movie.

LANGUAGES AVAILABLE: Spanish.