Narcas: The Secret Rise of Women in Latin America's Cartels

by Deborah Bonello

Overview

Drug transporters. Money launderers. Killers. Street drug vendors. Weapons traffickers. Kidnappers. Extortionists.

VICE journalist Deborah Bonello reports from the trenches in this first-ever in-depth exploration of the hidden power women wield in Latin American drug cartels

You’ve heard of Pablo Escobar, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, and Rafael Caro Quintero. Their names conjure ghoulish images of bloody streets, white powder, bundles of weed, and a particular flavor of machismo unique to ruthless druglords. But what of the drugladies, las narcas? For the first time, investigative reporter Deborah Bonello takes you behind the curtain to introduce the women at the helm of organized crime south of the US-Mexico border. These women are the powerhouses behind violent cartels; masterminds of extortion rackets; right-hand ladies to El Chapo’s cocaine flow to the US; and matriarchs of major drug trafficking families. In these pages, you will meet women like Doña Digna, the leader of the Valle cartel, and Guadalupe Fernandez Valencia, one of “El Chapo” Guzman’s closest confidants.

Narcas, for the first time, gives voice to the women of notorious drug-trafficking monarchies, meticulously documenting the variety of roles they play. Bonello chronicles the complexity of their actions and their desires, the grey chasm between victims and victimizers, co-option and agency, and right and wrong. She examines why women’s experiences are under-reported, emphasizing the importance of understanding women as fully capable beings who are often as ambitious, innovative, ruthless, and violent as their male counterparts.

With careful detail, comprehensive research, and groundbreaking storytelling, Narcas paints a vivid picture of the women behind some of the most notorious drug cartels. You will not see Sebastiana Cottón or Marixa Lemus in the stereotypical portrayals of beautiful narco wives or girlfriends, or in the faces of trafficking survivors or drug mules. Rather, you’ll encounter—at staggering rates—the female cartel killers, money launderers, logistical heads, and transporters of Latin America’s infamous crime syndicates.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807007044
Publisher:	Beacon Press
Publication date:	07/25/2023
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	627,718
Product dimensions:	6.26(w) x 9.28(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

Deborah Bonello is a journalist, a writer, an editor, and an investigator based in Mexico City. Born in Malta and brought up in the UK, she moved to Latin America to work as a foreign correspondent in 2005. Deborah is senior editor for Latin America at VICE World News and has nearly 2 decades of experience covering organized crime and criminal syndicates, particularly the drug trade, as well as the violence and culture connected to the crime world. She’s contributed to several publications, including The Guardian, the Los Angeles Times, the BBC, and The Telegraph.

Table of Contents

Author’s Note
Introduction

CHAPTER 1
The Matriarch

CHAPTER 2
Narco Women—The Story So Far

CHAPTER 3
Betrayal Within a Female Trafficking Threesome

CHAPTER 4
The Women of the Mara Salvatrucha

CHAPTER 5
The Lemus Sisters and the Battle for Moyuta

CHAPTER 6
Sinaloa, and Emma Coronel’s Beginning, Middle, and End

CHAPTER 7
The Female Chapo

CONCLUSION
The Story Never Ends

Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

05/29/2023

Journalist Bonello posits in her slender debut that there are many more female leaders of Latin American criminal cartels than the mainstream media has acknowledged or covered. One such “narca” is Guadalupe Fernández Valencia, who joined Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s Sinaloa drug cartel and worked her way up in its power structure for 30 years before her capture by U.S. authorities, which netted her a 10-year prison sentence in 2021. Digna Valle led a Honduran cartel associated with El Chapo, while Yaneth Vergara Hernández, Sebastiana Cottón Vásquez, and Marllory Chacón Rossell ran cocaine in Guatemala. Many of these women’s backgrounds were similar: they grew up impoverished, regularly witnessed violence in their communities, and lacked education and legal job opportunities. They took up crime so they could earn large amounts of money and wield power, both of which proved fleeting, since most of them ended up in prison. In the book’s strongest sections, Bonello recounts her investigations, including risks to her own safety, and explains how she tracked down sources that included criminals, members of law enforcement, and court documents. Readers fascinated by organized crime and the inner workings of investigative journalism will want to check it out. (July)

Publishers Weekly

2023-05-02
An evenhanded look at notorious women drug runners in Latin American cartels.

As a feminist journalist, Bonello, Mexico City–based senior editor for Latin America at VICE World News, is acutely aware of gender stereotypes held by both the drug cartels as well as the mostly male journalists who cover the narcos and don’t question those stereotypes. “The patriarchy of the cartels seems very real,” she writes, “but to assume women don’t have a capacity for violence or a thirst for power and status is just another narrow gender stereotype that grossly misunderstands and underestimates women and their role in the social order.” Bonello finds that the women she profiles (mostly now in prison) largely come from poor backgrounds with few job opportunities. Most got involved in drug cartels because of male family members, and they found that they enjoyed the thrill of the work. In brief chapters, the author describes the lives of a variety of fascinating characters, including Honduran Digna Valle, the matriarch in the Valle family cocaine cartel, which moves drugs from Guatemala to the U.S. Arrested in 2018, she evidently informed on her family members and got a relatively light sentence. “Women have been movers and shakers in the narco business since the drug war began,” writes the author, and she looks into new research into María Dolores Estévez Zuleta, aka Lola “La Chata,” an early Mexican cartel leader; women involved in the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gangs; and Emma Coronel, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s wife. “She must have known from the day in 2007,” writes Bonello, “when she first met El Chapo on a dusty ranch dance floor in the tiny town of Canelas, when she was a seventeen-year-old aspiring beauty queen, that she might one day be the most famous woman in Sinaloa.” Throughout this intriguing text, the author busts the myth that these narcas are mere victims.

An eye-opening work of journalism that largely avoids glamorizing its subjects’ criminal activity.

Kirkus Reviews

Readers fascinated by organized crime and the inner workings of investigative journalism will want to check it out.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Bonello presents a complex report on women’s roles in a world of extreme machismo and an eye-opening challenge to the perception of women involved in the complicated and brutal world of cartels.”
—Booklist

“Throughout this intriguing text, the author busts the myth that these narcas are mere victims.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“The investigative reporting in this book is impressive. . . . Ms Bonello’s work enriches the reader’s understanding of drug gangs. This book is a valuable introduction to a subject that deserves more research.”
—The Economist

“Her narrative shines, with fascinating characters and detail from the towns and villages where her reporting has taken her. Reflections on her process add compelling tensions.”
—New Statesman (UK)

“Deborah Bonello bypasses the typical macho narco narrative into something far more complex and fascinating: a look at the powerful patronas of organized crime. Finally, we get the other half of the story in this deeply reported and masterfully written book about women who built and ran their own drug empires, no matter the cost.”
—Melissa del Bosque, author of Bloodlines: The True Story of a Drug Cartel, the FBI, and the Battle for a Horse-Racing Dynasty

“Deborah Bonello, a renowned journalist and author, brilliantly captures the ascension of women into leadership roles within the dark, violent world of powerful drug cartels.”
—Mike Vigil, former DEA chief of international operations

“This incredibly well-researched and well-written book . . . debunks the long-standing view that narcas are simply eye candy or accessories for their men and shows that smart, aggressive women can be leaders in their own right. An excellent piece of investigative journalism!”
—Bonnie S. Klapper, criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor

“From El Chapo’s young wife to the women and girls enduring misogyny in Central America’s gangs, this is a fascinating narrative, a behind-the-scenes look at an aspect of the drug business most people don’t know about.”
—Tracy Wilkinson, senior foreign policy writer and former Latin America bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times

“An important and nuanced corrective to decades of blinkered reporting on the drug trade—and essential reading for anyone who really wants to understand the culture within it.”
—Evan Ratliff, cofounder of the Longform podcast and author of The Mastermind: A True Story of Murder, Empire, and a New Kind of Crime Lord

From the Publisher