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Benjamin T. Smith

@benjamintsmith7.bsky.social

History Content Provider at University of Warwick. "If Raymond Chandler had written a history of the drug trade, it would read like the Dope"

323 Followers  |  629 Following  |  55 Posts  |  Joined: 13.11.2024  |  1.6027

Latest posts by benjamintsmith7.bsky.social on Bluesky

πŸ‘‡This

03.02.2025 18:31 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Odd, met very few Cruz Azul fans in Oaxaca. None in team I played for...very badly.

14.12.2024 19:30 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Immensely enjoyable.

14.12.2024 19:28 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Cultural Politics in Revolution | UAPress

RIP MKV. Brilliant historian of modern Mexico. uapress.arizona.edu/book/cultura...

14.12.2024 19:23 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Well deserved. Congrats! Just finished it. Genuine eye opener.

14.12.2024 11:06 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Yep, v true. How can you claim state can't find organised crime if it can capture 350k migrants in 2 months.

13.12.2024 13:31 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Here's a fucking cat.

13.12.2024 10:47 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Borderland with Vincent 'Rocco' Vargas Podcast Β· IRONCLAD Β· New Episodes Every Monday. An unfiltered look at real stories from America's Southern Border. Each week, special operations combat veteran, actor, writer, and veteran BORSTAR A...

Rant over. Here's a podcast I did on this open.spotify.com/show/6w9YAIl...

13.12.2024 10:47 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

Wake up. This is the liberal order, just like the old one. For communists read migrants. West is just exporting its problems to other countries, while maintaining a thin veneer of civilisation.

13.12.2024 10:47 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Rich countries farm out the state of exception to poorer neighbours. While media wang on about tariffs (never going to happen) and end of liberal order.

13.12.2024 10:47 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Yet what is happening in Mexico (and Hungary, and Poland, and Turkey) appears to be the key dynamic in contemporary international relations.

13.12.2024 10:47 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Morenistas ignore it (as it is a stain on AMLO and Sheinbaum's governments...payment for a degree of national autonomy). Nor does the PRIAN (same reason as the Republicans).

13.12.2024 10:47 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Yet, US liberals don't talk about it (as Democrats as complicit in this as Republicans). Republicans don't talk about this (as they don't give a shit).

13.12.2024 10:47 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Six migrants killed after Mexico soldiers open fire Officials say the incident happened after a military patrol saw a vehicle carrying 33 migrants travelling at speed.

Military effectively runs detention centres. And often shoot to kill www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Torture, rape, extrajudicial killing is common.

13.12.2024 10:47 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Mexico detains more than 5,200 migrants in single day Mexican authorities detained more than 5,200 migrants across the country on Tuesday, officials said on Wednesday, in a major sweep as the nation is under pressure from the incoming U.S. government to crack down on arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Right, got your attention. Can someone explain to me why no one is talking about/investigating the 500,000 migrants detained in Mexico on U.S. orders? In just October and November, 350,000 were detained. www.reuters.com/world/americ....

13.12.2024 10:47 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Here's something thoughtless and snobbish about Trump supporters.

13.12.2024 10:47 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Here is a picture of some books.

13.12.2024 10:47 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Here's a cute cat.

13.12.2024 10:47 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
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β€˜Mother of all battles’: terror for Mexicans as war rages inside Sinaloa cartel Violence shows few signs of ending after three months of war between rival factions that have left more than a thousand dead or disappeared

Three months of war in the Sinaloa Cartel have left 1000+ dead or disappeared, and a city in a kind of humanitarian crisis.

CuliacΓ‘n is trying to return to normality – but is frequently reminded it lives at the whim of organised crime.

πŸ“Έ by JesΓΊs Verdugo

www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

12.12.2024 15:46 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
The Secret Deals Between Governments and Cartels: Kingpins, Migrants and Cocaine | Borderland #43
YouTube video by IRONCLAD The Secret Deals Between Governments and Cartels: Kingpins, Migrants and Cocaine | Borderland #43

Loved appearing on Vincent Vargas' Borderland Show. Genuinely good fun. great host and great show. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gNN...

10.12.2024 10:33 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

There are currently 500,000 migrants in Mexican detention centres. It is the story no one will touch.

06.12.2024 11:41 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Don't worry, they won't affect the price of your car. But they will be used to stick 100s of 1000s of Central and South Americans in squalid, militarised detention centres in Mexico.

06.12.2024 11:41 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

What no one seems to mention is that they are not policy proposals but THREATS. They are aimed entirely at forcing Mexico to act as the US's Border Patrol.

06.12.2024 11:41 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

They are covered by the Anglophone newspapers like they are realistic policy proposals. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a... They are mostly just ignored in Mexico.

06.12.2024 11:41 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

But it has made me even more annoyed about coverage of Trump's threats against Mexico.

06.12.2024 11:41 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Amazon.co.uk

Just finished Jason de LeΓ³n's extraordinary Soldiers and Kings www.amazon.co.uk/Soldiers-Kin.... It is beautifully written, moving, defiant and like Levi Vonk's Border Hacker strangely hopeful.

06.12.2024 11:41 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

So it is a rich area. There are loads of hippy memoirs. But no histiry I know of

05.12.2024 10:16 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I, for one, do hope this doesn't start a bout of copycat targeted assassinations of the superwealthy.

04.12.2024 19:24 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Great piece

02.12.2024 17:26 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

I am amazed that evangelicalism has flatlined in Mexico. Surely not correct?

01.12.2024 10:19 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

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