In a previous life I was a journalist, albeit a not very successful one. But I still enjoy writing for newspapers and magazines. And sometimes I am invited to comment in the media on issues of Mexican and Latin American politics, crime and the drug trade.
Articles, podcasts and interviews
Cartels as Protection Rackets, Crashout Media, 26 February 2024
The Learning Curve Podcast, 21 February 2024
Historiadores ingleses documentan la masacre del Monte de Chila; vamos a contar la otra historia de la guerra sucia, La Jornada del Oriente, 31 Oct. 2023
(with Alex Aviña), “The Mexican Dirty War”, Guerrilla History Podcast
(with Alex Aviña), “A War to the Death”, NACLA, September 2023.
“How The US/Mexican Drug War Inflamed The Violence & Increased Profits”, Letter & Politics, KPFA Radio, Jan. 2023
Juan Velediaz, El “viaje” del narco en México, Soll de México, Jan 2023
‘En los últimos diez años las adicciones se han convertido en un problema serio en México’: Benjamin T. Smith, Aristegui Noticias, Nov. 2022
Benjamin Smith: "México no está tomando en serio el problema de las drogas", Expansion Politica, Nov 2022
El narcotráfico es la historia de un asunto económico: Benjamin T. Smith, El Economista, Nov 2022
Paperback Row, NYTRB, 6 August 2022
Rafael Caro Quintero: The Narco Rorschach Test, El Acarreo, 25 July 2022
The Cartel Heroin Queenpin Who Ran Juarez for 50 Years with Benjamin Smith, The Underground Podcast, June 2022
“On the Dope and Doing Latin American History in the UK”, Scottish Center for Global History, May 2022
“Five Myths that Narco Propagates about the drug war” Interview with Jules Evans, 16 April 2022
Ricardo López Cordero, “Benjamin T. Smith sobre la historia del narcotráfico en México, Oaxaca y el humor inglés”, 6 February 2022
Chris White, Connected by Controversy podcast, 4 February 2022
Will Pinfold, The Dope: Review, Spectrum, 10 November 2021,
Free Thoughts Podcast, The Drug War in Mexico with Benjamin Smith, 5 November 2021
Ann Deslandes, How Mexico’s Drug Trade became so Violent, Foreign Policy, 3 November 2021
Majority Report, Decades-Old Myths Of The “War On Drugs”, And How They Shape Our Perception Of Mexico w/ Benjamin T. Smith, 26 October 2021
Benjamin Fogel, The Official Narrative About Mexico’s Drug War Is All Wrong, Jacobin, 15 October 2021
Jeremy Kuzmarov, Mexican President AMLO Pleads with Biden to End Failed Trillion Dollar “War on Drugs”—But Powerful U.S. Interests Prefer Deadly Status Quo, Covert Action Magazine, 11 October 2021
Carlos Matienzo, Estado y narcotráfico: vidas cruzadas, Letras Libres, 11 October 2021
Eduardo Guerrero Gutiérrez, ¿Vamos hacia una nueva ‘pax narca’?, El FInanciero, 6 September 2021
“Why it's Impossible to Win the War on Drugs” Interview with the wonderful Amichai Levy (my words, not his; follow his youtube channel), 2 September 2021
Nathaniel Parish Flannery, Can President Lopez Obrador End Mexico’s Drug War?, Forbes, 1 September 2021
New Documents Reveal the Bloody Origins of America's Long War on Drugs, Time Magazine, 24 August 2021
The phony war on drugs, New York Times Book Review, 15 Aug. 2021
New Books Network Interview, 6 August 2021
El Narco en México se creo en un mes, Entrevista con Luis Chaparro, 20 July 2021
Lanzamiento de The Dope, Facebook Live event, 29 June 2021
Interview with Katie Jones, Insight Crime, 21 June 2021
Kirkus Review of The Dope, June 2021
Publishers Weekly of The Dope, June 2021
WIth Bob Mills on TalkRadio, 14 June 2021 (10.10 onwards)
Review of The Dope in the FInancial Times, 10 June 2021
With Bill Padley on TalkRadio Europe, On The Dope, 9 June 2021
With Mark Dolan on TalkRadio on the Mexican Drug Trade, On The Dope, 7 June 2021
The mysterious death of Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, The Independent, 3 June 2021. Long read
“Existe la idea de que antes, el PRI controlaba todo y no existía la violencia, pero esto no es verdad” El Pais Interview, 26 May 2021
Benjamín Smith presentó su libro “The Dope. The Real History of Mexican Drug Trade”, Radio Formula, 27 May 2021
Why we should remember Nixon’s War on Drugs, BBC History, May 2021
(With Romain Le Cour Grandmaison and Nathaniel Morris) La crisis de la amapola: cuando la droga ya no es rentable (II/II), Nexos, 5/2019
(With Romain Le Cour Grandmaison and Nathaniel Morris) La crisis de la amapola: la ultima cosecha? Nexos, 4/2019
“Who Started the War on Drugs” BBC World History, 2019
Fake News, Chinese Boxes, and the Mexican Art of Manipulating the Press, UNC Press Blog, 11/2018
Por Qué, Por Qué? UNC Press Blog, 11/2018
El año en el que México legalizó (brevemente) las drogas, Animal Político, 4/2018
The Year Mexico legalized Drugs, BBC History Extra, 6/2016
Como manipular a la Prensa? Nexos, 5/2017
Violencia del estado, reforma educativa e izquierda, Letras Libres, 9/2016
What does Chapo’s Escape Mean for the Mexican Drug Trade, Dissent, 7/2016
Mexico on the Brink, Dissent, 12/2014
The end of the drug war or a new cartel of cartels, Dissent, 11/2014
Arresting Mexican kingpin El Chapo hardly means the War on Drugs is over, Guardian, 2/2014
Teachers, education reform and the Mexican left, Dissent, 10/2013
Respuesta a “¿Qué quiere la Sección 22 del SNTE-CNTE?” Nexos, 9/2013
In the Press
How Many people work for the Mexican drug cartels, Los Angeles Times, 21 September 2023
In Mexico, Drug Trade Flourished With the Help of the State, New York Times, 6 September 2023
5 de Mayo, Times Radio, This Day in History, May 2023
Oscar López, Mexico’s ex-security chief took ‘millions in bribes’ from cartel, US court hears, The Guardian, February 2023
Jacques Coste, García Luna y la protección al narco en Estados Unidos, Expansión Política, Jan 2023
Savannah Eadens, Oregon Prisons banned my book… and Amy Schumer’s, The Oregonian/OregonLive, Jan 2023
Ioan Grillo, Mexico’s Government Is on Trial in New York, Foreign Policy, Jan 2023
Ioan Grillo, Mexico’s cartel corruption on trial, Unherd, Jan 2023
The arrest at Ovidio Guzmán, World at One, Radio 4, 6 Jan. 2023 (about 25 minutes in),
México es el mercado fuerte para las drogas, La Silla Roja, 16 July 2022
Mary Beth Sheridan, Mexico arrests Caro Quintero, drug lord convicted in death of DEA agent, Washington Post, 16 July 2022
Martha Barcena Coqui, Drogas, política y economía, El Heraldo de México, 7 June 2022
Carlyn Zwarenstein, “The reality of opioid use doesn’t make for good drama — but it makes for great books”, Globe and Mail, 12 February 2022
Jude Webber, “Some Mexicans fear crime cartels are tightening their grip on politics”, Financial Times/Irish Times, 18-19 July 2021
Hector Aguilar Camín, La costumbre policiaca, Milenio, June 2020
Jude Webber, "US drug charges dropped against Mexico’s former defence minister", Financial Times, November 2020
Billy Perrigo, "Marichuy: the indigenous woman who tried and failed to become Mexico’s new President", Panoptic, 6/2018,
"Mexican 2018 Elections and Organized Crime", Sputnik News, 6/2018.
"Presidente da Colômbia toma posse sob pressão de reduzir produção de drogas", Correio Brazilense, 7/2018,
Eloisa Ferrera, "México quiere legalizar las drogas para frenar la violencia (y por qué no funcionará)", El Confidencial, 7/2018
Human RIghts in Mexico, Vaghaye Etefaghiye [Iranian newspaper, "Current Affairs"], 6/2016
Paul Imison, Mexico’s Education Dispute Reflects Wider Obstacles to Reform, World Politics Review, 8/2015
Ricarlos I, Impredecible, lo que puede resultar de las autodefensas: especialistas, La Jornada, 8/2015
SRE responderá a acusaciones en Londres sobre Ayotzinapa, Excelsior, 9/2015
Mexico's Criminal History, International New York Times, 11/2015
Mexican mugshots: Criminal cult heroes of the 1960s, The Guardian, 11/2015
Guilia Mutti, Guerrillas, Bandits and Terrorists: Lost Police Mugshots From Mid-Century Mexico, Vice Magazine, 11/2015
Mexican Crime Photographs from the archive of Stefan Ruiz, The Telegraph, 11/2015
Paul Imison, Mexican Journalists Are Still Being Killed Despite Promises of Protection, Vice Magazine, 12/2015
Mexico's Crime Photographs, Washington Post, 11/2015
TV and Radio
On Mexican drug violence in Monocle Daily, 17 August 2022, from 21 minutes onwards.
On Talk Radio with Kevin O'Sullivan talking about cartels, the drug trade, and legalization, 11/2020
Sky News, Mexico Shooting, 11/2019
"One election, 130 politicians dead: Can Mexico's President stop the killings?" Channel 4 News, 7/2018
"Mexican 2018 Elections and Organized Crime", Sputnik News, 6/ 2018.
"El Chapo's Escape", LBC radio, 7/2015
Sean Penn, el Chapo and Netflix documentary, BBC Radio 5, 10/2017
High impunity rates in Mexico, eFM, South Korea, 7/2017
Oaxaca Teachers Strike 2016, BBC World Service, c. 31.00 minutes, 7/2016
Mexico was most dangerous country to be a Catholic priest, France24, 2/2016
El Chapo's capture, Sky News, 1/2016
Pope Francis' Tour of Latin America, Sky News, 2/2016
HSBC and Money Laundering, World FInance (Video), 2/2015
A cartel's balance sheet, World Finance (Video), 2/2015