Narco-violence is highly variable across the country, but the city of Juárez is a grotesque aberration

Ed Vulliamy, in his article on Mexico's drug wars, talks of flayed faces, headless corpses and acid baths (Juárez is all our futures. This is the inevitable war of capitalism gone mad, 21 June). I study Mexico: a diverse and fascinating country which, when it makes the news, usually does so because of narco-violence – an important phenomenon, to be sure, but one that deserves sober reflection, not sensationalism.