This essay traces the emergence of the Mexican and Mexico-related narconovela. It examines perspectives on drug trafficking and traffickers expressed in novels by Elmer Mendoza, Leonides Alfaro, Gerardo Cornejo, Homero Aridjis, Arturo Perez-Reverte, and Paul Flores. The variety of positions taken refutes the tendency of the Mexican mainstream media to define all narconarratives as sympathetic to drug trafficking. Nonetheless, the writers are unanimous in critiquing the corruption in the Mexican police and government. All the authors are eager to expose the symbiotic link between narcos and state officials, as well as to denounce the duplicity of Mexican officials who publicly repudiate drug trafficking while privately reaping substantial rewards from narco bribes. (Contains 21 notes.)