Every small town in northern Mexico has army running around in machine gun mounted pick ups. All the cops and army wear baklavas. Creepy as heck.
Truly tilting towards a narco state.
I remember reading a book for a Mexican history course in college. I don’t want to wade through the book for one quote, but it was to the effect that violence was so prevalent in Mexico, that when someone was told about a mutual acquaintance’s passing, the immediate question was “how was he killed?”, not what caused his death.