the persian gulf war came next, "an army at dawn: the war in north africa," of soldiers: a chronicle of combat," "the day of battle: the war in sicily and italy" and "the guns at last night: the war in western europe, 1944-1945," liberation trilogy is the web site. .. this talk was held at the meadows museum at southern

methodist university. it's about an hour. [applause] >> thank you very much for that opening and welcome to all of you. we are looking forward to spending the next hour with you here. i thought i would start by expanding just a little bit on the introductions of our two distinguished panelists here. and then we will move the conversation through some areas of specific topics and then we will open it up to questions. i think you are given little blue cards as you came into the room. as you think of questions please write them down pass them to abandon the end and some folks will come by and pick them up and bring them up here and we will reserve the last portion of the meeting for some questions. so, let me start by telling just a little bit more about alfredo corchado. there aresome things you are do you know about him that he was born in mexico where his umbilical cord is still buried. he is the oldest of nine and

moved as a young child to the united states with his family, first to california and then to texas. something else you probably already know about him is that he is a graduate of el paso community college and a 2008/2009 nieman fellow at harvard university. one other thing you probably know about him is that his work at the dallas morning news for some 20 years. his reports are often published in spanish language newspapers and due to his bravery, courage and enterprise he has been honored with the maria morris award from columbia journalism school and the kolbe college of elijah parish award. let me tell you a few things you may not know about alfredo corchado. he has spoken on mexico's national security issues on four different continents. he has addressed organizations i believe in west africa, great

britain, canada sweden south america mexico as well as the united states. something else you might not know about him is he does relish the opportunity to write lighter pieces in addition to the heavier essays that often come out of mexico. one of my favorites i think was in 2007 about the validator and supports his family on the tipsy makes from his baritone voice echoing off the canyons. and another thing you probably don't know about alfredo are three of his favorite things not necessarily in this order would be columbia musician -- detective -- detective novels by cuban author leonardo for dura and his favorite brand of tequila is -- [laughter] >> right. i knew that. >> now that we have that out of the way let me introduce the

ambassador. a few things you know about him. [inaudible] he was chairman of the texas commission. he earned his law degree here at this institution and as we know he sits on the board of trustees. something else you probably already know about him is he serves as counsel in mexico city office of the why it and pace which is one of the largest global law firms in the world with 38 offices and 20 in 26 different countries and he is chairman of the noble ventures which is a management consultant firm that specialized in cross-border business development. now let me tell you something you do not know about the ambassador. he grew up in grand spill and he is the son of a world war ii veteran and filling station owner. the ambassador went on from his childhood, the son of a filling station owner to chair a commission that regulated and

80 billion-dollar energy ministry. one of his favorite states i believe is chiapas. the region that is the furthest south which is also one of my favorite regions so i always remember that and he loves single malt whiskey, at least according to alfredo. [laughter] so we thought we would start this evening by asking alfredo to read a short passage from the start of his book to set the tone for the evening and began our discussion so with that, alfredo. >> first of all i want to thank you for being here. it's the official book launch and i'm incredibly honored that this is happening here at dallas at smu, dr. holyfield and i also want to thank my other family the "dallas morning news", tim connolly my editor and lauren who is my past master in new mexico for this book and especially i want to thank my

family who got up really early this morning at 6:00 a.m. and are here. my mother and my father thank you for helping me believe in the art of -- my two sisters and angela corchado who is my significant other, my girlfriend and accomplished award-winning journalist here. i look around and i see a lot of friends so i will stop with the thank yous. i thought i would set the mood by reading a couple of paragraphs. i started writing this book three years ago and had a really hard time with the beginning of the book. at one point i thought maybe there was a mistake and asking me to write this. i was visiting, think i was

doing a fellowship at the wilson center and i was back in el paso and saw an old friend of mine who was also an accomplished author. i told ben, i think this was a mistake here and i can't get through this book. he asked me one simple question and that is really how the whole book started. he said what do you think about when when i say the word mexico? and i kept thinking about it and thinking about it. i didn't have a notepad so i started scribbling on napkins in this restaurant in el paso. this is how i responded. it kind of stayed throughout the book. the edits basically the same. this is part one. when rates fall in mexico all is forgiven. the raindrops glean some of the metropolitan cities sweeping away the smog attracts

20 million people in its suffocating embrace bringing everything into sharp focus over the southern edge of the city. two volcanoes stand guard. according to an ancient legend they are smoky mountains and woman and white washing away the smog. the rain reveals locations the same way it swept the sky decades ago. the ancient rite healing the scars misunderstood land always on the cusp of greatness. a country trying to free itself from the curse of history and geography for better or for worse in the indifferent shadow of my adopted homeland the united states. the moment of forgiveness, the hole in heaven closes. >> so how do you get alfredo from that lovely passage to a book titled "midnight in mexico"

a reporter's journey through a country's descent into darkness? >> a great question. i will just tell you my story which is really in the beginning of the book but i will walk you through it. this was july 2007 and i had just won the medea have this award and i had been doing interviews on radio in mexico city. friends of mine and others were flying in to celebrate the award. that evening right before we went out to dinner and a longtime u.s. friend called me and said there's a threat. three names came up and i think it's you. and they were supposed to act within 24 hours. obviously if you cover organized crime you can -- but for a trusted columnist i

will tell you i was frozen in shock and didn't know what to do. angela was there and another friend. i called my friends and i said i think we should cancel the dinner. this is too risky. he insisted, this is from "the houston chronicle," he insisted we keep the dinner and show solidarity. instantly he thought this is an important moment. we have to stand firm. one of the guests he invited was jim who was the spokesperson for the u.s. embassy, the minister of communications. he showed up and we are all talking about what do we do next, how do we secure ourselves? how do we maintain safety? at the end of the evening we had drank too much tequila. [laughter] jim said why don't i tell the

ambassador that this is going on and we wl issua statement. and we all said yeah, sure. maybe the president will find out and we will go from there. that evening i got home and i wasn't really sure what to do, whether we stay in mexico or leave right away. i had family in mexico so the decision wasn't that easy. if they were serious they go after your family. after i went to this -- i looked around. this was a turning point because again this was the fourth threat and this was one that i really took seriously. the next morning as we are leaving to the airport i decided to stay in mexico and go to baja, a great way to escape. we were doing a program on americans living in mexico.

on the way to the airport on the radio the announcer says the u.s. embassy has just issued a statement saying they will not tolerate any threats against americans especially american journalist. at the moment i felt like oh wow everyone knows now and i wasn't sure what to think. what was clear to me as a mexican native than someone born in mexico was that this was the first time that i really felt the privilege to be an american citizen, to have someone back you up. it was both refreshing and also i think i felt a sense of the trail that a lot of my colleagues don't have the same thing. the reason i am still say this my u.s. passport. but i don't think -- from out moment on we had a professional relationship as a journalist and a diplomat. from that moment on it became a

very special moment. when the book idea came up as the only title i could always think about was "midnight in mexico." >> tell us about that from your point of view. what prompted you to take the action that you did? squawk is through that time. >> you was actually pretty easy call. jim had come to me the following morning and explain the nature of the threat and one of the things we all appreciate when we are posting abroad and it's drilled into us and i know mark knows this is our primary responsibility for safety and protection of u.s. citizens abroad. and so from that perspective it was clear that we had to put on notice anyone who might threaten a citizen abroad. secondarily we are talking about freedom of the press. we are talking about trying to some way chilled the rise of

journalist to get out the truth, to get the news on the screen in one of the things you had to appreciate about mexico is in that first year that i was there, the first couple of years and leading up to it one of the things that the press had fought for was essentially the rights to print stories about the government. they have gone from an environment where they felt freedom had been suppressed by government to one where are we going to let the cartel suppress that freedom? in a sense you have two very important interest from my perspective. you have the protection of the u.s. citizen abroad and you had to put a very clear stakeout on what the rights of journalists abroad should be. it really wasn't that difficult a call. >> you were you faced with that ever before this particular incident or did you say something similar subsequent to

that? >> with respect to journalist's? mexico had become a very tough environment for journalists. i think alfredo will we'll tell you many of his mexican colleagues felt far more vulnerable and exposed in many respects. in a sense there was an additional layer of security. >> you but i mean issuing a statement. >> i don't know if that predated her postdated laredo but there were different times where we had to make very clear that we felt their interests were threatened and we were going to take it seriously. we weren't going to sit back and not say anything. >> alfredo tell us a little bit more about what it was like or how you went about covering the country that you obviously feel very deeply about. you describe having a love affair with mexico and really this book i think the reader

will find its part memoir, very personal and those that makes is so beautiful. it's a very captivating and engaging read about a very serious subject. the emotion that you feel for both the united states and mexico comes through very clearly. how do you balance that in a country that has so much opportunity and has been plagued with so much drama? >> first of all i should say that this feels kind of like we are in the neighborhood. this is our favorite hangout. the only thing missing here is the tequila. [laughter] i mean, i knew as a young person that i wanted to be a journalist. my love affair with mexico really began when my parents took me from mexico. i was six years old in my dream

was to always somehow come back and reconnect with my culture and my language. when the opportunity came to be, journalist, i felt that i wished that my reporting would lead to better understanding between the united states and mexico. i guess the way i balance that, you feel like i have come from a different perspective. i mean i feel like i've lived in mexico and lived in the united states and i have lived in d.c. and i think all those perspectives i hope enrich the reader. that is how i see it. one thing i promised my parents was that i would never -- we lived on the border in el paso in it was something that you just knew not to touch and not to mess around with. the monster could come back and bite you. but by the early 2000, after the

george w. bush relationship after 9/11 the u.s.-mexico immigration wasn't going anywhere so i decided the best thing for me was to try to get back to mexico. we were going through changes, the economic crisis had affected us. and basically i had no other choice. it had become the big story. it is i think like many mexicans i had tried to look away or not really, not really look at the monster in the face. after that i started covering topics and i saw how deep the penetration was. from that point on i didn't look back. it is a personal story. it's up personal memoir and a personal journey but i hope it only enriches the reader. >> ambassador, how do you feel about how mexico has dealt with

are looked at itself in the mirror? >> actually we have had this conversation as you mentioned many times and i have often said i don't have the same necessarily love affair with mexico. one of the things that he said and we have been sitting in this restaurant you set said as a mexican in mexico, i would have said as a texan in mexico. i compared his perspective closer to that of my dad to have a much more personal relationship with the country and in my experience in growing up along the border there were people from mexico. there were mexican-americans and latinos and there was anglo community. one of the things i think that has enriched my perspective and given me some sense of living and going back and forth between

two cultures is along the border you learn to shift gears in the sense of the communities that you are dealing with an interfacing with. this is a conversation we have once every couple of weeks, just what it means to be either latino, texan in this moment where you have this convergence going on between our two countries and how do you have both a sense of self and how do you relate to your country? it's an interesting thing and i think really how to mexicans see themselves as? i think increasingly mexicans see themselves as each day more integrated into the global marketplace. each day this country is taking a step towards the more modern, more competitive wanting to sort of play it the way that they

shld both economically and politically. i think that is what you see going on. you had an interesting 10 or 15 years both in terms of economic growth, transition to democracy, more integration into the trade community, and openness and the growth of the middle class. i think they see themselves now as each day more prepared and that's a good thing. not without the challenges and living each day in terms of security and violence that they see themselves as ready. >> do you feel as confident with the return of the old regime coming back? >> you feel as confident? >> always a journalist. [laughter] >> i was just curious. >> he did the same thing to me on a plane ride back.

my last couple of weeks as ambassador i said it can you can be on that plane that we are off the record. keep your notebook in the -- the next thing you know he is leaning over to the governor and saying to you feel your state is corrupt and under influence? my friend, put your notebook away. >> there is a great story where he recounts that. >> look, there is a sense that the pri is back after 70 years but the countries they can. >> is the pri different? >> i don't think they have any choice because mexico is different and so even if they try to be that old party, the country i think is going to say no, we want your focus and commitment to an agenda of reform. we want economic growth but we don't want that old-style

government. >> i'm surprised at how quickly they are trying to go back. i think civil society, they are kind of taken aback. for example this centralizing the information in mexico. we are five months, five or six months into the new administration and i am still waiting for the mexican people to fight back. i don't know how you say that. [laughter] >> i didn't write the book. look, i will try to answer that and then we will get back to it. i think what the country wants is that they want the efficiency of the pr guy. they want the reforms whether it be labor, they would like to see

energy reform because there is a sense you if you have these reforms you have four-point i've, 5% growth. here's what i think is kind of the paradox if you will. if they get everything they want and the middle class grows and you have an expanding middle class, the freedom of the press is not a genie that goes back in the bottle. it will be the same middle classes as to any party do you know what we are good on on the economic front but will he want is more transparency. we want accountability. so it's one of these things where even if they got everything they want ultimately the fact that mexico's middle class is expanding in the role of the media and the fact that they are part of any number of multilateral agreements and those sorts of external pressures towards openness, i think even if they wanted to go back to the old style of government they couldn't.

but what the people do want is that they want a government that works. i think that more than anything else was the sense that the pri was let's restore some semblance of order. they did some very good things during the administration and -- feel vulnerable. you had security imbalance issues and then he had an economy that wasn't growing so you had the personal vulnerability and the economic vulnerability. just give us a mortar, give us some reform and give us some growth but i don't think they are saying give us 70 more years. >> i want to return to the theme a little bit about covering a country and the hope and the heartbreak associated with it and that push poll in motion. i remember the book there's a scene you're describing where the lawyer and actually he is a late lawyer for one of the drug cartels, told you that the more

you americans exist on democracy the morsi which you will find. i thought that was such a compelling quote and i wanted to ask you to talk a little bit about that. do you think americans should quit insisting on democracy? there is so much sewage that mexico is a lost cause. talk both of you a little bit about that. >> i think he was right in the sense that he was trying to say i think americans want instant democracy and it's not going to happen. the more that i as a reporter have done more realize. a lawyer for the underworld was later assassinated, but i learned a lot through his eyes and i also realized that he had survived the changes the ambassador said was happening. juarez is an example of that.

juarez went through his worst moments but as a journalist i'm always encouraged him to go back to juarez because they see the i see the best of mexico, then i see a civil society that is rolling in people trying to hold the government accountable. probably the saddest story i covered was a birthday party in 2010 where 15 mostly young adults were killed. i remember the day after the killings, we covered the story and we went there and people have just given up on mexico. it was like deflated. two days later the funeral happens then several people thought i was part of the official delegation, the u.s. delegation. they kept giving me their cards. i kept saying i'm just a reporter. but interesting the next day

after the funeral several people called me and said we are at the bridge. can you please come pick us up like these are people who had given up. i didn't know what to do. i said i can give you a lawyer but i can't do anything for you. the same people are now, they formed the community and they are fighting back. and so i often think of dante. had dante been alive what would be think about this? >> kind of a different direction. how much more he experienced. from my vantage point, you care about these things. you see the intelligence reports and the process them, but what alfredo was experiencing, just

the humanity of it, actually being there. one of the things i was struck with when i read the book is i was reading these things and processing them in a way an analyst might. alfredo was processing them and trying to report about them and actually feeling the warmth of the skin or seeing the mother. that really brought home for me in the book, i was there during the same period. i understood what was going on in the abstract but this made it even more real than that period i was down there. >> in some ways that is a given, right? you are ambassador and you may be more attached than someone who is amongst the people. is that the way it should be? is there any way to bridge the

two are are blended to? >> will you try to. he tried to get a sense of the field. in terms of the violence my more informal sort of sources if you will, people that i had grown up with along the border all the way to tijuana commenting about the nature of the violence and how would change in a how was no longer in easy accommodation from the good guys to the bad guys and head-to-head region altogether different level. in that sense it was more real because these were people i'd grown i grown up and i have known for many years. day in and day out though -- i could imagine what it felt like but i don't think there's anything quite like being there and being in the middle of it. that comes through i think in the book. >> let me just add something.

one thing that i found interesting when we started covering organized crime was that this was in the northern states in chihuahua nogales and again and again i would say who argue talking to thinking maybe there's somebody mexico city that they are conferring with and they would constantly say we are talking to ambassador garza and these were governors and mayors. i always found that interesting but with respect to your country should the u.s. continue? it's interesting now that the new government is back, i asked mexicans what do you want the united states to do. constantly they will come back and say just don't leave us alone. don't ignore us because there is a sense of the new government is trying to change the narrative of mexico and get away from the drug story. i know many readers are sick of the drug story.

i know i am. i'd love to cover economic stories and so on and so forth but again we have been covering this for nine or or 10 years. how do you look at it and say the conviction rate is still 95%. i mean the impunity rate, more than 95% of people get away with murder in mexico. how do you do you say that and then say that things have changed, the narrative has changed. getting back to your question. i think mexicans want some kind of u.s. involvement or u.s. role, someone who learns from the u.s. mistake. i don't know if you get the same feeling. >> they do and they don't. it's a curious relationship with the united states and i i they know when your book there is also referred a jacobsen who is the secretary of state sitting down with mexican leadership and saying are you sure you know

what you are asking for? mexico unlike columbia basically said do with us what needs to be done but columbia's relationship is very different with the whole southwest. we get a sense of what happened in the united states and mexico and the history history is not even the past or whatever. it's not in mexico. iowa sounded interesting when northern officials would come to me and say you need to speak out. i would say ambassador what do you want me to do? it was coming out of my mouth. there is going to be a pretty hard push back but it did make clear the sense of responsibility. [inaudible] ultimately a growing middle-class is responsible. democracy becomes more or just

the tory and that is who is going to be able to build a government. this is our expectation from our government. it will take a while but i think that is the notion of democracy. that is ultimately how to expand the middle class. it was interesting, the officials in the northeast would say we can't say this but you will and we can even support you when you say but we are right behind you. >> the analogy you make of columbia because one of our visits down, one one of the mess you urged us to consider was to not like an in meta-initiative to the partnership with columbia because that sort of damned it with that weight. so it is a very precarious relationship and a delicate one. what advice would you give to the current ambassador and how they navigate that? >> i think they are doing a good

job. look, it's a relationship that has its own sort of history but it's also evolving very rapidly. when i started to hear the word and i use it now convergence is it just kind of a flow, eighth movement of people in the movement of goods and the convergence of economies. i think if you talk to -- in washington it is a divisive issue but if you look at the polling on main st., 60 odd, 70% of the country wants some sort of conference of immigration reform. conversely if you listen to the mexican or the traditional nationalist if you want to think the relationship is still a very tense one but if you take the polling on main st. there's a much better relationship with the united states so my counsel

with a and i think end i think they are doing these things focus on trade because people tend to follow -- what is it? there is no more critical argument in the pocketbook. focus on trade, join relationships and the political leadership will follow. i think that is what we have to do, focus on the political leadership will follow. i enlarge both countries we do want a better relationship. >> of course recently all the news that americans get out of mexico seems dominated by violence and the drug cartels and all the ugliness that goes with that. one of the passages in your book that stuck in my mind is where you describe the conversation and i can't remember who was between now when president calderon took the warning that he was at the top of the list so seriously that he actually had taped a message and left that

for his children in the event something would happen, to let them know that the same thing happen to him that was in pursuit of what he felt was important. how has the level of violence gone since then? i guess i'm curious and i know you have no way of knowing but the current president has taken a message like that? >> not that i know of. the current level of violence hasn't really changed from year ago. a year ago. the government comes out and says i think there is a difference from last year, but i have looked at the numbers and said look maybe it's different in categorizing but what is changing i think is the spot. it used used to be the more the northeast in chihuahua and some of those dates and now you see it much more in the state of mexico and mexico city, delacruz

and other states. again impunity, corruption, poverty. >> we are going to start taking questions from the audience. if you want to pass your questions forward we will be happy to consider them. you are talking in the book about three different death threats and the fourth one in which he took particularly seriously. what has made you feel safe to return? >> a u.s. passport. it really comes down to that. having u.s. passport and i think having good contacts within both governments. people would tell me but i have never really felt unsafe and

mexico. as the ambassador says much more vulnerable. now i feel it is a responsibility not to make foolish decisions and not to take chances but to try to cover the story. there are a lot of regions in mexico where people are being forced to self censor themselves if you don't cover the story you are only adding to the silence in mexico and i think that is one of the things that keeps driving it back. >> aside from knowing how to start your book which he said was very difficult and you describe how you navigated through that what else was the hardest thing about writing the book. for us a long story along story is 1000 words. >> 900. i think the hardest thing was as

a reporter you are used to being protected by the silence and as a reporter you don't put your emotions in any don't put yourself in that one thing that i credit my editor in new york and here in mexico city, laura and, with taking a look at the copy of saying you are a reporter. what is the real you? and it took a lot of -- the one of the things that guided me through the book was music and just listening to songs and oftentimes i would listen to the same song, the 25, 30, 40 times to really just force myself inside the book. but my new york editor was very clever. she would invite me to new york and say let's have dinner and have some drinks. she would ask me questions about this abandoned later when she would edit me she would say that is not what what you told me or if that is not how you told it. come back again.

and so it took a lot of -- and i think that was really the hardest thing was feeling yourself as a human being and exposing yourself, being naked if you will. >> you spend a lot of time's on both sides of the border. if there were something that you wish those of us on the u.s. side had a greater appreciation for a soft mexico what would that be? what point of interest to you find you find most frustrating? >> i think the beauty. the beauty of mexico and the humanity of mexico. the resiliency that they have. if there is something that has always drawn me back it is their sense of courage. they are really hard-working people and they just don't give up. i see that a lot in the people interview especially people who

have a will to cross the border had to do something with their lives. maybe i learned that from my parents but that has always drawn me. >> ambassador how would you answer that question because you spend a considerable time too. >> probably very similar. there is a lot of mexico i would like people to see and a lot in the state i would love people to see that i was fortunate enough to see aside traveled around in my political life. sometimes it's things as simple as sitting on a park bench in mexico which is one of the areas and just getting the sons of the families and the people in the rhythm and knowing at 5:30, 6:00 you will have to find an umbrella or move indoors because it's going to rain. it kind of cleans it up and it smells beautiful and you can get out and feel the rhythm again but just like there are so many

in texas and the united states states -- it would be hard, i would just say the rhythm and the field of the country wherever you might be i think. it's pretty special. >> let me ask the reverse of that quickly. what do you wish mexicans knew about the united states that they don't, the biggest point of ignorance? speeds that -- is pretty nice and el paso. listen, it's the same difficulty. there's just so much that we offer in this country but the resilience on the strength and the optimism among the american people. i think we have a healthy cynicism about government. i think that is a nice thing.

our cynicism is about a pretty good government. they are cynical about government because they wanted to be better. >> they want a democracy. i think it would be nice for them to see our cynicism and how it can lead to a healthy democracy and perhaps that would give a little more optimistic spirit in their country. >> you know, i find that a lot with my colleagues in mexico. there is always surprises or skepticism in my reporting and they always think that is very healthy that we can ask questions. i have done some workshops and what is the -- that -- that is one of the first things they say. how do you see president obama and being able to ask any questions that they can. that is something i have scene change in the last 20 years. people holding the government

more accountable. one of the things that than if you don't know is three of the pulitzers went to mexico and that shows just how much journalism has really expanded in the last few years. the role of journalism. >> speaking of journalism one of the questions from the audience, reporting is such a difficult story. how do you decide who to trust? >> that is always a tough one. well it depends. if you cover organized crime you spend a lot of time with people and you are always crisscrossing information. one of the advantages i think i have is i have been based obviously in mexico city and on the border. that gives me three different sources of people to contact and check information. and really over the course of the years we know who to trust that you are constantly changing.

especially in mexico, they are always changing officials so it's always getting back to an old source and saying what you know about this guy and what do you know about this person and checking and checking and checking. >> at the level of ambassador i'm sure you have some of the same challenges. who do you talk to in who do you trust? >> we have had some of those conversations and he knows that much better because he is a better journalist. in the united states and in mexico -- you just have to figure out which ones are trying to kill you. but from the standpoint of the officials that you trust, you always hear rumors and as i said about one official, look i have heard the same sorts of things you have heard but it's kind of like poker. you have to play the hand you're dealt. you never trust completely and you never bet the ranch.

we are constantly confirming and at some point you end up with their instincts. but you know it's very situational. depending on the situation of the individual. you develop some instincts. >> another question from the audience ,-com,-com ma can you discuss the solution to the cartel's? for example should we legalize drugs? are there other answers? [laughter] and in 10 words or less. that's a tough one. >> ultimately it's going to be a country that has a much healthier rule of law and institutions that can contain some of the criminal activity that they have. so it's going to be rule of law. as far as immigration you can argue but the truth of the matter is we are never going to legalize it and we shouldn't legalize the methamphetamine, the cocaine, the black tar. there are many things they're simply not going to legalize so

you are still going to have institutions strong enough to deal with the players that will be acting in those arenas. >> i noticed you didn't mention marijuana. >> that's a debate going on in the united states. listen, even if we were to legalize it in in the united states more broadly there is still potential for the black market and for those that would move into the united states to individuals that didn't have the prescriptions and didn't qualify for let's say the medical marijuana so regardless of what you want in mexico doesn't build stronger institutions. we have institutions that generally contained it and that deal with prosecutors that prosecute. so that is what makes the rule of law and society. there is no -- it will make it much more competitive on the business side as well. a contract is enforceable is something that takes away from

their competitiveness. >> that is one of the criticisms we get most is u.s. journalist, why don't we cover the cartels on the the u.s. side of the border? have the distribution looks. last week we had the shooting of the mexican attorney in south lake and be covered that and we said it was a targeted hit from a mexican cartel. it was ordered in mexico and the paramilitary group coordinated and sanctioned it here in north texas. i was surprised. it was huge news in mexico after reported it in texas. but i talk to you when you were very surprised that it actually happened. but i think you are right, takes a different form, different ways when you operate in that state. >> might comment on that was listen we shouldn't be surprised where occasionally scre and i dd

sound -- it's not indifference. it's just the reality of it and i think that's just my own experience seeing it in brownsville along the border and in the valley. it is their distribution networks occasionally scores are going to be settled in those communities where these networks exist. and it's tragic. we hate to see it and unfortunately we could deal with it a bit better because of our institution. >> do you think that the public and the media in specific fully understands the tentacles in the distribution and the operations, the reach of cartels like this? north texas for example, do they fully understand that? >> here in dallas we spent a lot of time and resources and i think we were one of the first papers that actually detailed the penetration.

i have seen more reporting and other parts of atlanta for example north carolina and l.a. but i think that is one area -- and i think we need to put much more of a human face on the issue here. i am curious who operates the operation in north texas. i'm curious to find out who are they related to and how do they work and how do they function in? how do you kill an attorney in south lake and they are going to get away with that. >> we have had a lot of these conversations and variations of them but you asked if the media fully understands and i'm not sure anyone completely understands in terms of the movements of both the drugs and the movement of money. when i am asked about the spillover of violence and my concern about spillover

violence, yeah but what in many respects to me is the spillover corruption and the capacity of large amounts, huge amounts of money and the capacity to intimidate and start to weaken our own own institution. we have to be vigilant about the quality of people that are out there, law enforcement and the other prosecutors. you hear stories about there are some of these cartels focusing in on the academies where young federal agents are being trained in trying to target individuals that might be vulnerable at that point in their career. so those are the kinds of things we have to constantly be aware of. that to me is in some ways should be more of a concern. it's insidious and it goes right to the heart of our institutions.

at one point it's been a few years now but i remember along that stretch of border, two or three of the sheriffs were either indicted or in jail and then you had the corruption scandal. it was one of the federal agencies in arizona. and so we are not immune to it. we have to be aware that it's not just the violence. if the capacity to corrupt. >> how large a role in all of this does the u.s. play in terms of money laundering or guns across the border? how much of that fuels this problem and are there steps that we should be taking beyond what is already being done in? what would you recommend? >> the recommendation that the ambassador made. >> i think there is a lot already been done. perhaps this is one of those issues that we were slow to appreciate completely and once we realized our institution was

being used for these sorts of things we got a lot more aggressive both as a government and the institutions themselves. the big financial institutions do not want to be part of this and they are recognizing that there were vulnerabilities and they are doing everything they can to address them. i think maybe perhaps we are a little late, a little naïve but i think both our government and the large financial institutions are really stepping up and doing what they need to do. guns, a tough one. i think it's always going to present some challenges. and really i think on the guns, it's not a popular thing to say in mexico but i think they got a bad rap on this one. most of those guns aren't coming from the states. the larger ones are coming from

central america. when there was a grenade tossed over the fence at their consulate in monterey it was colombian faction. but no doubt it's a challenge. there are no easy answers. if i had them i would have put them out there a long time ago. there is no easy answer. >> can you add to that? >> no, i know as a "dallas morning news" reporter we would always get a complaint that the nogales people are bringing in the guns and especially texas. i don't -- writing. >> i think we are about out of time. i'm getting the sign that we need to wrap this up. let me take a moment and be sure that we thank our partners here tonight most especially the power center for housing this, c-span for filming it barnes & noble for providing the books,

the museum and most especially the ambassador for joining us and alfredo corchado for sharing your thoughts and wisdom with us. >> can i think u.n. u.n. ambassador garza? sits in sit-in evening i will never forget and i also want to thank the organizers. this was kind of his idea from the beginning so thank you so much. [applause] >> this is one of the imprints of the shed but grew. we are previewing some of their fall 2013 -- with brian mclendon. mr. mcclendon we want to start with dallas 1963. >> it's a book we are very

excited about. when they came and her first thought was the 50th anniversary, we are not touching it. we brought the proposal homan preempted that the next day. it's not a book about assassination. it said biography of the city of dallas and it shows how in many ways what was going on in dallas at the time made the assassination inevitable the city. you had the head of the nazi party living in dallas and the head of the kkk in dallas. you had -- trying to run for president. you also had a very conservative right-wing faction there. the hero of the book is stanley marcus of neiman marcus fame whose clientele was a lot of the women and men. he had to quietly support the democratic party because he was a client but as things got more and more out of hand in dallas he had to step up. the book really takes you up until the day.

>> this is coming out november 2013? >> is coming out at the end of october 2 lead into the 50th anniversary of the assassination. >> endure the author's? speak to major texas guys. they both worked, they are both at universities now by bill in particular has worked in almost every university across texas and writing the first biography george w. bush back in 1998 after he was governor of texas. everybody in texas, they interviewed anyone who was still alive at the time and family members and heirs were there and have looked into a treasure trove of archival material, letters, pamphlets. the cover of the title of the book was asked to being handed out. >> dallas 1963 coming out at the end of october and another book that 12 is publishing, call me boroughs. >> it's the first biography in

william burroughs and is the first biography to encompass his entire life. believe it or not february 2014 will be the centennial. he would have been 100 years old. one of the premier beach biographers. he is a biographer of paul mccartney and others that he is basically had access to all the papers and archives and letters carried he interviewed anyone who is still alive at the time. he interviewed allen ginsburg to bring this full story to us. >> who was -- >> he wrote naked lunch. what are my favorite things having read the manuscript he is famous in experimental films that were very popular during that first famous -- but his input on american culture is unprecedented. >> now your october title. >> by tom hartman the huge radio host writing about the crash of 2016. it is a large book looking at

the cycle of crashes in boom and bust times in american history and it argues that the crash of 2008 was just a prelude to the big crash coming in 2016 and how they oligarchs and the big money, the people on the who own the government are actually heading is towards disaster. >> that is a preview of some of the titles coming out by 12. this is booktv on c-span2. ..