:00:00. > :00:18.Mexico's brutal drug war has claimed the lives of 160,000 people, at
:00:19. > :00:34.least 30,000 others are missing. With witless assassins on their
:00:35. > :00:39.payroll and an annual turnover of $30 million, the cartels have the
:00:40. > :00:48.nation under siege, traumatised by extreme violence. Family people have
:00:49. > :00:52.you killed? Hundreds. We have our brand, and our brand is death. But
:00:53. > :00:57.this newly elected state governor says he won't be intimidated. El
:00:58. > :01:04.Bronco, the rebel, says he is taking them on.
:01:05. > :02:22.I have come to Mexico to find out if El Bronco can succeed.
:02:23. > :02:39.On New Year's Day 2016, a small town just 100 commenters from the
:02:40. > :02:45.capital, less then 24 hours later, she was shot dead. Mexico is a
:02:46. > :02:50.violent city. It lies on an important drug route and has become
:02:51. > :02:55.a hotbed for cartel activity. Too dangerous for us to visit, so her
:02:56. > :03:13.parents met us in the nearby state capital.
:03:14. > :03:17.I can see you have security now, but did your daughter have any security?
:03:18. > :03:56.No. Gisela has joined a growing number
:03:57. > :04:06.of murdered mayors. 40 have been killed in the past eight years.
:04:07. > :04:08.Intimidation, threats and assassination attempts are part of
:04:09. > :04:14.daily life for politicians in Mexico. Criminal groups have
:04:15. > :04:23.infiltrated the police, and there is little protection for those who
:04:24. > :04:29.challenge the drug lords. Enter El Bronco, the newly elected governor
:04:30. > :04:33.of the state of Nuevo Leon. El Bronco has been a politician for
:04:34. > :04:38.more than 30 years. A few months ago in a bold move he resigned from one
:04:39. > :04:44.of Mexico's main political parties and stood as an independent. With
:04:45. > :04:49.his unique popular style, he re-engaged many disillusioned
:04:50. > :04:55.voters, tired of corrupt party politics, and one in a landslide. --
:04:56. > :05:15.and he won. El Bronco's powerbase is the city of
:05:16. > :05:22.Monterrey, the capital of Mexico's wealthy state, a few hours' drive
:05:23. > :05:26.from the US border. Governor, how you? Nice to see you. -- how are
:05:27. > :05:32.you? How many security guards did you
:05:33. > :06:28.have? Are all of these people watching out
:06:29. > :06:57.for you? The cleaners, the local shopkeepers?
:06:58. > :07:44.You can defend yourself against guns? You are not armed?
:07:45. > :09:09.At the heart of El Bronco's operation is his social media team.
:09:10. > :09:15.Yes, but since 2006, 100 politicians have been killed since the election
:09:16. > :09:19.you run four, seven politicians have been killed. Another male was killed
:09:20. > :09:25.just in the last few weeks. -- mayor. These facts, the ignored. --
:09:26. > :10:09.can't be ignored. I wasn't entirely convinced by El
:10:10. > :10:13.Bronco's apparent confidence, and when the governor travels beyond the
:10:14. > :10:20.centre of the city, we notice it is in a convoy of armed vehicles. When
:10:21. > :10:29.you leave Monterey, you feel much less safe. What is quite incredible
:10:30. > :10:33.about all of this is we are so close to the US border, about 100
:10:34. > :10:39.kilometres, and yet this feels like nomen's land. I keep being told the
:10:40. > :10:43.cartels are operating out of here. These are the areas that the
:10:44. > :10:47.governor told us was completely under the control of the
:10:48. > :10:53.authorities. But the feeling we get is that that is not the case. A man
:10:54. > :12:20.who knows this very well they do not want to be identified was our guide.
:12:21. > :12:30.This village once had a population of about 14,000. When the cartels
:12:31. > :12:35.moved in the people left. A situation hundreds of thousands of
:12:36. > :12:39.Mexicans face across this country. When the cartels came here, they
:12:40. > :12:45.started to kill people and push them out of their homes. The police have
:12:46. > :12:50.regained control now of this area, but they're still afraid and very
:12:51. > :12:54.concerned. In fact, that is supposed to be the police station and has no
:12:55. > :13:22.sign. Nothing to indicate that they're operating out of there.
:13:23. > :13:32.The locals are the cartel is regarded as the most ruthless in
:13:33. > :13:35.Mexico. -- Zetas cartel. Many of the members are former soldiers, trained
:13:36. > :13:40.to kill. They dominated the state until they got caught up in a turf
:13:41. > :13:51.war with a rival cartel. A war which is still going on. This is the
:13:52. > :14:00.biggest Mexican national corporation now. They have enough resources,
:14:01. > :14:05.they have armies, they have access to the most sophisticated weapons
:14:06. > :14:14.because in the US you can buy very easily sophisticated weapons. That's
:14:15. > :14:20.why they are the epicentre of organised crime in the world.
:14:21. > :14:23.There's something about the murkiness of the drug wars in Mexico
:14:24. > :14:29.that makes reporting from here very difficult. It's hard to know who to
:14:30. > :14:33.trust. But while we are here we are offered an interview with the man
:14:34. > :14:40.who claims to be in charge of local operations for the Zetas cartel.
:14:41. > :14:46.TRANSLATION: Iambic head of the area, I am the head of this
:14:47. > :14:58.territory here. We show no mercy. We are ruthless. Have you beheaded
:14:59. > :15:09.people? Yes. Assassinations? Yes. Executions? Yes. Extortion? Yes. How
:15:10. > :15:18.many people have you killed? I don't know an exact number, but many.
:15:19. > :15:29.Hundreds? Thousands? Hundreds. Any innocent civilians? Yes. We regret
:15:30. > :15:39.that? No. Do you feel responsible for the violence in Mexico? No. We
:15:40. > :15:41.all have a boss. Tell me about the relationship it when the police and
:15:42. > :15:50.the military. What's relationship of your cartel group with them? I won't
:15:51. > :15:57.answer that. What you think of the Governor? It could be him or another
:15:58. > :16:03.one, they are all the same. Do you think he works closely with the
:16:04. > :16:06.cartels? He must be. To politicians, in order to survive in this
:16:07. > :16:14.country, worked closely with groups like yours? I won't talk about the
:16:15. > :16:20.government. -- work closely. Tell me about the state and this area. Is it
:16:21. > :16:30.still being controlled by cartels? 100%. Right now we are fighting to
:16:31. > :16:50.control this turf. We have our brand and our brand is death.
:16:51. > :16:59.His men say they want their boss to leave.
:17:00. > :17:09.I was shocked that this man, who claims to be a Zetas cartel boss,
:17:10. > :17:14.had the confidence to come here, around the corner of the tell me he
:17:15. > :17:19.was still in charge. In stark contrast to everything I was told
:17:20. > :17:30.previously. So who is really running this place? I went to see El Bronco
:17:31. > :17:34.again, this time at home on his Ranch. You understand how the
:17:35. > :17:38.politics of this country works. Tell me about the negotiations that
:17:39. > :17:49.politicians strike with the cartels and criminal gangs?
:17:50. > :17:55.There are some people who speculate that perhaps you have come to some
:17:56. > :17:58.kind of deal with the cartels in order to ensure peace in this state
:17:59. > :18:22.and also your own survival? What about a series of attacks that
:18:23. > :18:26.happened in this state, in fact in Monterey, just several months ago?
:18:27. > :18:28.Toadie two people killed in three separate incidents and there are all
:18:29. > :18:29.linked according to the authorities to drug trafficking and criminal
:18:30. > :18:43.gangs? The US government has issued a
:18:44. > :19:03.warning against travel in certain states in Mexico, including yours.
:19:04. > :19:11.This is clearly personal. He has survived two Acehnese and events --
:19:12. > :20:14.assassination event at his daughter was briefly kidnapped.
:20:15. > :20:20.Organised crime was created by politicians in power. In a side
:20:21. > :20:28.business they started the traffic drugs. Then in the 1930s, 40s and
:20:29. > :20:34.50s, a lot of that activity created this extraordinary power over the
:20:35. > :20:43.most powerful world criminal organisations in the history of
:20:44. > :20:48.mankind. If you are in the town, you will be approached and told to name
:20:49. > :20:54.people who are ahead of police and transit and we will give you that
:20:55. > :21:06.much money. If you don't accept you will be killed. You, your family,
:21:07. > :21:09.your wife, your children. El Bronco is an example of the relationship we
:21:10. > :21:15.have with the elites. They are corrupt, selfish, inefficient and
:21:16. > :21:23.very expensive. They are useless for the common good. We'll El Bronco be
:21:24. > :21:27.a solution? I don't know, it is an experiment. I felt like when I met
:21:28. > :21:35.El Bronco that he was perhaps in denial. They have to deny that
:21:36. > :21:41.organised crime exists because they don't know how to handle it. Then
:21:42. > :21:47.you have the next psychological state, which is the acceptance. El
:21:48. > :21:52.Bronco is just the beginning. El Bronco has been in power for just a
:21:53. > :21:56.few months. For a state politician in Mexico that's a long time to be
:21:57. > :22:01.alive when you vowed to defeat the cartels. The rest of Mexico is
:22:02. > :22:06.closely watching El Bronco's governorship, hoping for signs of
:22:07. > :22:09.success. But just days after we left, if the prisoners died in
:22:10. > :22:16.Monterey Jail in cartel related violence. -- 50 prisoners. The
:22:17. > :22:18.battle for control is not over and El Bronco has a very long way to go
:22:19. > :22:22.to fulfil his promises.