Picture of a banner hung in a house in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo state, in Mexico on Feb. 23, 2010. These kind of messages are known as "Narcomantas" in Spanish and are sent among drug cartels or to the government. (Jose Dominguez/AFP via Getty Images)
Public "narco -anners," or narcomantas, have long been used by proximity to America’s borders.
"When you’re dealing with a cartel that serious and that TRUMP STORMS MOST VIOLENT US CITY WITH FEDERAL MUSCLE AS POLICE GROUP WARNS OF SOFT-ON-CRIME CONSEQUENCES
Peters, who served in senior roles in the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush, said the current threats echo the global cartel tactics he saw firsthand.
In the 1980s and ’90s, Colombia’s cocaine cartels controlled entire regions through intimidation, corruption and fear tactics that are nearly identical to what’s now unfolding in parts of Mexico.
"Their strategy is simple: if they can control the levers of power in a nation through intimidation, then they control the nation," Peters said. "They assassinate police, judges and journalists, and they use fear to rule, the same way authoritarian regimes do."
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