EL SICARIO

In this unique, firsthand account, the sicario describes his life and the roles he played in both the drug cartel and corrupt government of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Though he has lost count, the sicario has tortured and killed hundreds of people. He has been paid very well for his work, but he has paid a personal price. Despite his efforts to flee the drug world, he lives in constant fear of the inevitable - he will eventually be killed by another hit man. The price on his head is at least $250,000 and rising. Therefore, he must live an untraceable existence. He moves every two weeks, sometimes more frequently; his phone numbers have a very short life; his internet addresses shift constantly; he never drives the same car. The sicario will not address the worst possibility: that the men after him will go after his family - a wife and two children - instead.

Most participants in the drug world do not talk about it. No one inside of the system could talk about it and live, and the few who leave the system have a much better chance of survival if they maintain silence. A born-again Christian, the sicario has told his story out of a sense of duty that came from his spiritual salvation. He believes God gave him new life and he must use it to tell others in the drug world that salvation is possible.
The violence in Juarez is becoming increasingly dire: in 2009, 2,660 were murdered because of wars between drug cartels. For twenty years, illicit drugs have earned Mexico from $30 to $50 billion dollars a year based on DEA estimates. Today, such income is second only to oil in earning Mexico foreign currency. Globally, the illegal drug industry dwarfs the auto industry. THE SICARIO provides crucial insight into the cartel system and its role in Mexican life and society.

Charles Bowden is a Pulitzer Prize nominee and winner of the Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction and the Sidney Hillman Foundation Award. A contributing editor for GQ, his writing has appeared in many magazines including Harper's, Mother Jones, National Geographic, and Esquire. His article, "The Sicario," first published by Harper's in May 2009, was recently chosen for the Ecco/HarperCollins' Best American Crime Reporting, 2010 (The Otto Penzler series).

Molly Molloy has worked for 17 years on the US/Mexico border as the Latin American specialist at the NMSU Library in Las Cruces, NM. She has published a variety of articles in both literary and academic journals and magazines. Molloy's work to disseminate and archive a documentary record of border violence, especially in Ciudad Juarez, through the Frontera List [http://groups.google.com/group/frontera-list], has been recognized as a vital source for journalists, academics, activists and policymakers.
Prior to her career as a librarian, Molloy pursued graduate work in Latin American studies. From 1984-1986, Molloy lived in Managua, Nicaragua and worked as a translator for several bilingual publications. During the 1990s, Molloy lectured to various academic groups in the US, Mexico, Colombia and Peru on the history and development of the internet in Latin America.