The author and reporter Charles Bowden has died the age of 69. Bowden reported extensively for newspapers and magazines, and authored 11 books, many about drug violence in Mexico after the passage of NAFTA. Cartoonist Max Cannon told the Tucson Sentinel: “He lived on his own terms to the extreme — he was a master wordsmith, a detective, a poet, a scholar, a gentleman rogue, and a fearless traveler into humanity’s darkest places.” In 2010, Bowden spoke to Democracy Now! about his views on how to end drug violence and massive migration in Mexico.

Charles Bowden: “Renegotiate NAFTA. We can’t have a peaceful country where it destroys the livelihood of the people in it. There’s got to be decent wages. You have to have the right to organize a union. You have to have plants that have environmental controls. Two, realize the war on drugs is a disaster. It’s 40 years in. We’re at war with our own people. We’re destroying nations, like Mexico. We’ve got — if you’re against drugs — and most of your viewers and listeners are on them, only they got them from their doctor. If you’re against drugs, this is a public health issue. You don’t send a cop because you’re having a cardiac. That’s a start. The third thing is, change our immigration law. We’ve got 20,000 men and women now on the line with guns hunting Mexicans. These Mexicans are coming north because NAFTA in good parts destroy their economic base in Mexico. You’re not going have a peaceful world if you’re making war on the poor. Now, I don’t have a solution to immigration, but I know one solution is nobody is going to stay there until they have a decent living there. If we destroy their living, they’re going to come here.”