javier valdez described it to me. imagine a shootout in a house where the family divides and people are firing at each other. that is what it was like to live there during the time because these people had been so connected for generations. they were, you know, godfathers and mothers to each other's children, and they were cousins, to, obviously, knew where each other lived and it made an incredibly desperate and violent situation. but also i think there are a couple of things to be accepted by the cartels themselves. i think that idea reinforces an assumption that these organizations exist entirely. and they have somewhat quasi mystic character which i don't think is accurate at all. as i've said, they cannot function if they don't have direct participation from state employeings. and that happens at every level. so you'll have -- and that's why sometimes the violence can get very intense because either groups split, and they have contacts in every level of state police, municipal police, sometimes they're going to b