Metastasis
On December 11, 2006, former president Felipe Calderón declared the so-called war against drug cartels. Since then, according to official figures, more than 500,000 people have been killed and over 130,000 have disappeared. The real numbers are believed to be much higher.
The Mexican government—unable to ensure public security, repeatedly accused of human rights violations, and often in collusion with the cartels—has been described by some as a failed state. The lack of justice and widespread distrust among citizens has given rise to vigilante groups and, in some cases, death squads formed by victims seeking revenge for the murder or disappearance of their loved ones.
Spanning a decade, this series follows armed groups of sicarios and those who hunt them across various narco-controlled territories. From the country’s northern border to its southern coast, as the cancer of violence metastasized into nearly every corner of Mexico.
These photos are an attempt to reveal the dark and blurry experience of life in some of Mexico’s most devastated regions. Rather than offer clear visual answers, they aim to convey the disorientation, unease, and uncertainty that permeate cartel-controlled territories—places where little information escapes, where violence is so widespread that victims are often chosen at random, and where the questions of who will die and why lead only to silence. In these regions, many of those left behind remain trapped in a cycle that perpetuates violence and death.
