I was born and raised in Mexico, this movie speaks the TRUTH

And while exaggerated and simplified at some points, the movie is unfortunately 100% true.

Allow me to explain:
- The ENTIRE society is corrupted: from Benny's mom to the ladies waiting their turn to go over the dead bodies to take whatever they can, it's a way of showing how this problem affects everyone and we all (Mexicans) have contributed to it (our culture of "mordida", "el que no tranza no avanza", "un politico pobre es un pobre politico", etc). Narcos didn't come from Mars, they are us. And children in impoverished states look up to them indeed and dream of becoming "chingones".
- ALL spheres of power are beholden to the drug business (politicians, church clergy, police and military, etc). Hence the scene where Benny kills them all (it means that anyone dreaming to "exterminate" this cancer would need to kill half if not most of the country).
- The "informal" economy is completely intertwined with the drug cartels. Who do you think runs bootleg items (brand clothing, DVD's and CD's that EVERYONE buys at local "tianguis"), prostitution and beggars (every single inch of sidewalk has an owner, NOBODY can work the street in any way without paying them)? Just to name an example. Half if not most of the country eats from it. If cartels were to suddenly disappear, half the country would starve (remember Caro Quintero and the entire town that lived off working his mariguana fields).
- The levels of barbarism and violence: the movie if anything UNDERPLAYED the seriousness: beheadings, people skinned alive SLOWLY, "narcofosas", Centroamerican migrants kidnapped and forced to become beggars on the streets, etc. If you doubt me just google "el blog del narco" and see for yourself all the news that ARE NOT REPORTED OR UNDER REPORTED.

And the worst part of all the movie left out: the "war on drugs" from former president Calderon was DEA backed and coordinated with the purpose of giving the Sinaloa cartel the monopoly of drug trafficking and thus why the overwhelming majority of arrests/missing people belong to Los Zetas, Beltran Leyva, the Gulf and the other Sinaloa rivals. The PF (federal police) and AFI (the mexican FBI at least in Garcia Luna's dreams) effectively became the SInaloa cartel's enforcers to counter Los Zetas's incredible brutality and efficiency (even today they completely own Tamaulipas).

So there you have it. If you think all this is bogus, count your blessings and lucky starts of not living here or being insulated from it. But just like the violence eventually reached Jalisco and Guadalajara (where mid level narcos lived and therefore people thought would never allow it to become a battlefield), it will eventually touch anyone within the border.