Are South American cartels as powerful in the real world as they are when portrayed in movies and TV shows?

>What about them makes them so powerful and feared?

Mexican cartels have 70 000 heavily armed men. Most European armies don't have that much fighting men.

Cartels usually take advantage of corrupt or incompetent governments to get away with all kinds of crimes, depending on which cartel you are dealing with the people usually just shut up because they threaten them or they provide money and changing the way of living would imply a danger towards themselves and the community.
There was also a confirmed drug cartel that was a front for CIA money so you never know who you are actually dealing with.

They have literally thousands of former military and ex cops working for them

Don't forget that usually a third of population is positive towards cartels.

Double negative, compa.

Maybe until they get caught and then they are no better than your average cuck. Look at El Chapo. He is in 23 hour isolation and probably made dozens of imaginary friends by now.

They are connected with the upper echelons of government. Corruption is rampant over here, hard choice for most people.
'Plata or plomo' as they say.

Pablo Escobar's cartel managed to bring down a jetliner full of passenger. They're that crazy back then.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avianca_Flight_203

Imagine if there was a colossal demand for child sex slaves in Canada so American politicians and richfags stopped pretending they aren’t in on it

El Chapo ran the prison he was in in Mexico and walked out on a red carpet

thats nothing compared to escobar building his own prison fortress with all the amenities plus a nightclub built in it

Could the US Army defeat the cartels?

I know some guys from that part of the world and they said in general, the concept of law and order literally doesn't exist

I wish Eli Roth would make a cartel film

>Are South American cartels as powerful in the real world as they are when portrayed in movies and TV shows?
Depends on the cartel.
>What about them makes them so powerful and feared?
Money. Cartels exist because drugs make a lot of money. Market forces allocate a lot of resources into hands of capable criminals that way. Asking why they're powerful is like asking why Google has so much influence.

Eli Roth likes not being offered to Huitzilopotchli

Cartels don't fuck around. Some actors from Narcos got butchered to death pretty badly in Season two I think

>that fat obnoxious mexican YouTuber who insulted the cartel and was buried underneath a tent made of the skins of pregnant women

link?

Only because the governments there are fucking pussies. He got treated so shit here even some people in USA were questioning why. But I hope he rots in that prison for the next 50 years.

theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/17/netflix-scout-for-narcos-tv-show-found-shot-dead-in-mexico

>be shooting scout
>get shot

It’s not that they’re pussies. They could make this stop overnight. They’re raking in too much $$$.

>Mexican cartels have 70 000 heavily armed men.
you know what they don't have though? bomber drones and apache gunships.

They are young and stupid, that is there only positive. Mexican cartels are bottom of the barrel crime organizations that only survived because their government is corrupt.

From what I read they tend to splinter a lot but who is going to fuck with them when they make good on promises to kill you and your family.

In what? A stand up fight? Sure. In a guerilla war? Probably the same as the middle east or maybe worse. The cartels get a lot of money from the US though so I doubt they would ever try to piss off the US.

Not yet