full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Rodrigo Canales: The deadly genius of drug cartels


Unscramble the Blue Letters


In contrast to them, the Knights Templar that arose in miocáchan emerged in reaction to the incursion of the Zetas into the state of Michoacán. Michoacán is a ghgllaocaeipry strategic state because it has one of the lagsert ports in Mexico, and it has very direct routes to the center of Mexico, which then gives you direct access to the U.S. The Knights tapmler realized very quickly that they couldn't face the Zetas on violence alone, and so they developed a strategy as a social enterprise. They brand themselves as representative of and protecting of the citizens of Michoacán against organized crime. Their brand of social enterprise menas that they require a lot of civic engagement, so they ivenst heavily in providing local services, like dealing with home violence, going after petty cirlnmias, tnaeitrg addicts, and keeping drugs out of the local mkretas where they are, and, of course, petcrntiog people from other criminal otzrnngaiaois. Now, they kill a lot of people too, but when they kill them, they provide very cuefarl narratives and descriptions for why they did them, through newspaper insertions, YouTube videos, and billboards that explain that the ppeole who were killed were killed because they represented a threat not to us, as an organization, of course, but to you, as citizens. And so we're actually here to protect you. They, as social enterprises do, have created a moral and ethical code that they advertise around, and they have very srcitt rriteucnig practices. And here you have the types of explanations that they provide for some of their actions. They have actually retained access to the profitable drug trade, but the way they do it is, because they control all of Michoacán, and they conortl the Port of lzraáo Cárdenas, they levagree that to, for example, trade cepopr from Michoacán that is legally created and laeglly extracted with illegal ephedrine from China which is a critical precursor for methamphetamines that they produce, and then they have partnerships with larger organizations like the Sinaloa Federation that place their products in the U.S.

Open Cloze


In contrast to them, the Knights Templar that arose in _________ emerged in reaction to the incursion of the Zetas into the state of Michoacán. Michoacán is a ______________ strategic state because it has one of the _______ ports in Mexico, and it has very direct routes to the center of Mexico, which then gives you direct access to the U.S. The Knights _______ realized very quickly that they couldn't face the Zetas on violence alone, and so they developed a strategy as a social enterprise. They brand themselves as representative of and protecting of the citizens of Michoacán against organized crime. Their brand of social enterprise _____ that they require a lot of civic engagement, so they ______ heavily in providing local services, like dealing with home violence, going after petty _________, ________ addicts, and keeping drugs out of the local _______ where they are, and, of course, __________ people from other criminal _____________. Now, they kill a lot of people too, but when they kill them, they provide very _______ narratives and descriptions for why they did them, through newspaper insertions, YouTube videos, and billboards that explain that the ______ who were killed were killed because they represented a threat not to us, as an organization, of course, but to you, as citizens. And so we're actually here to protect you. They, as social enterprises do, have created a moral and ethical code that they advertise around, and they have very ______ __________ practices. And here you have the types of explanations that they provide for some of their actions. They have actually retained access to the profitable drug trade, but the way they do it is, because they control all of Michoacán, and they _______ the Port of ______ Cárdenas, they ________ that to, for example, trade ______ from Michoacán that is legally created and _______ extracted with illegal ephedrine from China which is a critical precursor for methamphetamines that they produce, and then they have partnerships with larger organizations like the Sinaloa Federation that place their products in the U.S.

Solution


  1. careful
  2. people
  3. geographically
  4. leverage
  5. protecting
  6. treating
  7. michoacán
  8. invest
  9. recruiting
  10. criminals
  11. largest
  12. control
  13. markets
  14. legally
  15. copper
  16. strict
  17. means
  18. templar
  19. lázaro
  20. organizations

Original Text


In contrast to them, the Knights Templar that arose in Michoacán emerged in reaction to the incursion of the Zetas into the state of Michoacán. Michoacán is a geographically strategic state because it has one of the largest ports in Mexico, and it has very direct routes to the center of Mexico, which then gives you direct access to the U.S. The Knights Templar realized very quickly that they couldn't face the Zetas on violence alone, and so they developed a strategy as a social enterprise. They brand themselves as representative of and protecting of the citizens of Michoacán against organized crime. Their brand of social enterprise means that they require a lot of civic engagement, so they invest heavily in providing local services, like dealing with home violence, going after petty criminals, treating addicts, and keeping drugs out of the local markets where they are, and, of course, protecting people from other criminal organizations. Now, they kill a lot of people too, but when they kill them, they provide very careful narratives and descriptions for why they did them, through newspaper insertions, YouTube videos, and billboards that explain that the people who were killed were killed because they represented a threat not to us, as an organization, of course, but to you, as citizens. And so we're actually here to protect you. They, as social enterprises do, have created a moral and ethical code that they advertise around, and they have very strict recruiting practices. And here you have the types of explanations that they provide for some of their actions. They have actually retained access to the profitable drug trade, but the way they do it is, because they control all of Michoacán, and they control the Port of Lázaro Cárdenas, they leverage that to, for example, trade copper from Michoacán that is legally created and legally extracted with illegal ephedrine from China which is a critical precursor for methamphetamines that they produce, and then they have partnerships with larger organizations like the Sinaloa Federation that place their products in the U.S.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
drug violence 4
sinaloa federation 4
billion dollars 3
business model 3
los zetas 3
la familia 2
organized crime 2
bad guys 2
yearly revenues 2
market requires 2
guarantee delivery 2
profitable drug 2
knights templar 2
social enterprise 2



Important Words


  1. access
  2. actions
  3. addicts
  4. advertise
  5. arose
  6. billboards
  7. brand
  8. careful
  9. center
  10. china
  11. citizens
  12. civic
  13. code
  14. contrast
  15. control
  16. copper
  17. created
  18. crime
  19. criminal
  20. criminals
  21. critical
  22. cárdenas
  23. dealing
  24. descriptions
  25. developed
  26. direct
  27. drug
  28. drugs
  29. emerged
  30. engagement
  31. enterprise
  32. enterprises
  33. ephedrine
  34. ethical
  35. explain
  36. explanations
  37. extracted
  38. face
  39. federation
  40. geographically
  41. heavily
  42. home
  43. illegal
  44. incursion
  45. insertions
  46. invest
  47. keeping
  48. kill
  49. killed
  50. knights
  51. larger
  52. largest
  53. legally
  54. leverage
  55. local
  56. lot
  57. lázaro
  58. markets
  59. means
  60. methamphetamines
  61. mexico
  62. michoacán
  63. moral
  64. narratives
  65. newspaper
  66. organization
  67. organizations
  68. organized
  69. partnerships
  70. people
  71. petty
  72. place
  73. port
  74. ports
  75. practices
  76. precursor
  77. produce
  78. products
  79. profitable
  80. protect
  81. protecting
  82. provide
  83. providing
  84. quickly
  85. reaction
  86. realized
  87. recruiting
  88. representative
  89. represented
  90. require
  91. retained
  92. routes
  93. services
  94. sinaloa
  95. social
  96. state
  97. strategic
  98. strategy
  99. strict
  100. templar
  101. threat
  102. trade
  103. treating
  104. types
  105. videos
  106. violence
  107. youtube
  108. zetas