We are safe in our cities, in our homes and at our jobs for the most part. Then a film as this shows how everyday life in a Mexican village, town and city is so terrorized by cartels. No humanity and all over drugs and money. There is no doubt - evil exist and the good honest Mexican people are paying with pure terror of any day, any time, anywhere and anyone will be the cartels next victim. How sad for mankind to be so brutal to it's own kind.

There are many reviews on here that are ridiculous and simply based in idiocrasy! There are actually people docking the documentary because it films a U.S. vigilante/border patrol guy from an observational perspective, who these reviewers disagree with, therefore they dock this documentary for it, whereas otherwise they claim to have enjoyed it. It just so happens that I disagree with the guy as well (or at the very least recognize what the dude is doing accomplishes nothing). This documentary does nothing to persuade the viewer to the vigilante border guy's view, rather it observes the guy telling his story. Then you get to see for yourself what this guy is doing based on his actual actions (no bias propaganda). Actually, every action that we watch the guy carry out is of him stopping some poor scared people trying to get over the border. At no point does it attempt to convince us that these scared people are cartel members or that he should be stopping these people. If anything one is more likely to disagree with the guy after seeing what he is doing for yourself. These people who are disgruntled over the observation of someone they disagree with genuinely have a serious mental disorder. Whether you agree or disagree with the guy, it's interesting to hear what his perspective is and watch exactly what he is doing. Rather than taking his or someone else's word for it. The guy convinces himself that he is doing something against the cartels even though there is nothing we see to support the guys claim... so why can't these nutball reviewers differentiate? It's simple, they have a mental disorder. Anyways, that wasn't the theme of the documentary, it's vigilantism. Two different kinds of vigilantism, but they both correlate in that they are people taking it upon themselves to act in areas where the government refuses too. However the story over the Mexican border is where this documentary excels. You should understand after seeing this, Government/Cartels are in bed together if not one of the same thing. This applies to everywhere in the world. A different word for it is used everywhere, in Mexico they're called cartels. So yes, I think this documentary captured a bunch of amazing stuff and tried to come up with a way to work both stories into the documentary. As a result, should I rate this doc a 6 or a 7 because both stories felt loosely tied to me, even though it captures what was and is going on in Mexico (and everywhere in the world I believe) unlike anything ever has before and both stories are very entertaining. In my opinion, this is the best reference that I have ever seen demonstrated before as to a pattern that continues to go on, over and over and over again throughout history. In Mexico you have the Cartels, In Russia you have the KGB, in the US we've had a bunch of ravenous groups over the years in which the government pretends to be against, but at the end of the day they do absolutely nothing to stop them and come to find out they are in bed together. So, surprise people the government (gov. is just a generic expression, but you could say the state, the CIA or the powers that be which control gov.), are the real manufacturers of these drugs (there are several instances over the years where this has been declassified information (particularly the CIA). Even though we see in this documentary, the newly united government are the ones out making the drugs (so whether the state/gov are the actual manufacturers, they are always at the very least the ghost manufacturers and get paid/kickbacks the same either way) and these horrendous gangs/cartels are the ones selling their product. This documentary demonstrates the Mexican government/military does nothing to stop the cartels and in fact come to the cartels aid. Then they show what happens to the liberation groups that wake up and fight back, they eventually get infiltrated/ convinced/paid off by the government to step aside and/or join forces and then you're right back to square one. Like that Papa Smurf clown. I'm curious if the guy was an infiltrator from the start or if he was bought off. One thing for certain is; he allowed some audience members running some cointelpro tactics to overpower him in a speech. In that instance, I believe they essentially had a handful or more of rehearsed and planned criticisms to bounces off one another in tandem, which can easily and effectively bring an entire audience who would otherwise be in support of the speakers cause, against the speaker and the cause. This stuff is taught in CIA/FBI training and I'm sure in many other gov organizations around the world. Another way is just through media control and what not, they convince the people through propaganda or whatever the "horrible" things that the people/liberation group are doing. In this instance, I feel certain that the crowd criticism was a planned cointelpro tactic 100% without any shadow of a doubt. Anyways, this information has been known by some people for years, but this is probably the first time that I've ever seen someone in the thick of it actually capturing it on film as it was happening… they actually captured the entire process from start to finish… It's amazing! This documentary (the Mexico part) is an essential demonstration of something that people really need to be aware of.

Documentary filmed on location on the US side of the border with Mexico showing the actions/views of self policing locals guarding against traffic across the border and in a separate filming the actions/views of citizens in the Mexican state of Michoacán self policing (calling themselves the Autodefensas) against cartels (mostly Templar Cartel). Very graphic depicting of violence. Also, clear presentation of the corruption/collusion within/between the government, police, Cartels and locals who benefit from all the illegal activity. The physician who organized the citizen action against the abuses of the cartels/police/government was jailed as a threat to their businesses. The cartel-government connection in Mexico parallels that of corporate-government cooperation in the US with gunmen as their emissaries and lobbyists as ours. Ironically both parallel institutions use cheap comfort/convenience opiates to keep their populations sedated/submissive/powerless.

CARTEL LAND is one of those long-overdue overviews of American consumerism- of Drugs, in particular. In this documentary, we have a self-motivated militiaman "protecting the border" with Mexico- a militiaman who's a "former drug user." (I've been told by countless Users that there's "no such thing as a "FORMER" User.") Like most self-righteous Americans, this guy fails to own his own part in the bloody Drug Wars: without the Users... (All too many Users took their cue(s) from Movies and Rock and Rollers, as was pointed out in BLOW.) The neighborhood where I live is, as this is being written, a War Zone: just a couple of weeks ago, a man was shot in a drive-by shooting half a block from my house that, according to the local news, was connected to two OTHER shootings that took place the same day- one of which was a Murder. There have been three subsequent shootings in my neighborhood (two at night- one at 3 A.M.- and one in broad daylight). The daylight shooting- just two doors down- was featured on the local news; the bullet-riddled exterior of the house was on full display for all to see. This seems to be a turf war by local drug gangs. I find SYRINGES in my front yard (tossed over the fence by Users when they're done); I've caught people squatting in my driveway relieving themselves in the middle of the night; we have no heat in the winter nor cool air in the summer because a crack whore literally took a metal bar to our heating and air-conditioning unit one day in an effort apparently to huff the Freon in the system's coils; my car has been broken into twice (the cops just come and take a look and shrug it off); no one I know will even venture into my neighborhood to VISIT any more; and on and on, ad nauseum. Users in THIS country are the very Backbone of the Drug Cartels; until we can address THAT, we're just whistling past the Graveyard...