Projects

While America preoccupies itself with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mexico, America’s third most important trading partner and a country with whom the US shares a 2,000-mile border, hangs by a thread. In The Savior of Juaréz, Ricardo Ainslie will argue that America’s greatest national security threat lies just across the southern border, in a country that is in the midst of a fight for its very survival. The Savior of Juaréz explores Mexico’s war against the drug cartels and the implications of this campaign for Mexico and the United States. The focus of the book is Ciudad Juarez, epicenter of Mexico’s war against organized crime, where thousands have died and where 25% of the Mexican government’s forces fighting this war are deployed. The book reveals an intimate portrait of a city caught in the crossfire, where no one can escape the extraordinary violence that is taking place.

This film describes the wave of kidnappings and other crimes that have swept over Mexico in the last decade. Today Mexico has one of the highest incidences of kidnapping in the world, for example, and while the phenomenon was initially a problem for the wealthy elite, it has become increasingly ‘democratized’ (as the rich found ways of protecting themselves). Today, people in all walks of life are ready targets.

This exhibit (part of the permanent collection at Humanities Texas) explores the impact of the racially motivated murder of James Byrd on that community. Ricardo Ainslie created, wrote, and produced Jasper, Texas: The healing of a community in crisis, a traveling photographic exhibit (New York City, Austin, Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Galveston) for which he enlisted the collaboration of photographer Sarah Wilson. Each exhibit opening (the exhibit book won the 2003 Digital News Award for Best Project -photography, text, design) was conceived as an event in which audiences learned the lessons of Jasper as conveyed by some of the Jasper residents who were widely credited with keeping the peace in the tense aftermath of the murder.

In April, 2010 Ricardo Ainslie was named a Guggenheim Memorial Fellow for 2010-2011 for his work about Juarez as the epicenter of Mexico's war against the drug cartels.

From August 15 to September 15 Ricardo Ainslie was selected to be a Resident at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, in Italy, to work on his book, The Savior of Juaréz: México at the Time of the Great Drug War.

Ricardo Ainslie was in Mexico City between November 14 and November 17, 2010 where he interviewed the head of the Secretaría de Seguridad Pública and the head of the Centro de Investigación y Seguridad Nacional regarding Mexico's evolving strategy in the drug war. This image is from a demonstration which he witnessed in Mexico City on Avenida Reforma in front of the Monumento a la Independencia (the Angel) on November 15th, 2010.

Ricardo Ainslie interviews former Colombian presidential candidate and FARC hostage, Ingrid Betancourt, for C-SPAN at the Texas Book Festival, October 24, 2010.

Ricardo Ainslie moderates author panel of books related to Mexico's drug war. The panel was broadcast on C-SPAN during the Texas Book Festival on October 24, 2010.

In September 2010 Ricardo Ainslie interviewed Eduardo Medina-Mora in London. Medina-Mora is Mexico’s ambassador to Great Britain and until September 2009 was the Federal Attorney-General in the cabinet of president Felipe Calderón.

Texas is the number one source for guns recovered from Mexican drug cartels, but there has been a proliferation of gun stores all along the 2000 mile U.S. - Mexico border. "Straw buyers" often purchase weapons legally and then sell them to cartel representatives.

An excellent New York Times video captures journalism on the front lines in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. "Journalists in Juarez stay alive because of what they don't say. There is no government authority that will keep you safe in this city. In Mexico when a journalist gets killed it will never be solved. You report what you can see, what's on the streets, but you don't give up because you're going to get into trouble." -- Edgar Roman, Canal 44, Ciudad Juarez. "Without journalists there is no democracy." -- Pedro Torres, Editor of El Diario de Juarez.

Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, known as "El Chayo" or "El Doctor" and one of the main leaders and founders of the drug cartel known as "La Familia Michoacana" was killed in a joint operation of the Mexican Federal Police, army, air force, and navy. Five Federal Police officers and three civilians died over the course of the two-day operation.