Small War in Mexico: 2016 onwards

[AdamG]

Dr Rodrigo Nieto-Gomez is a research professor at the Naval Postgraduate School, studying "criminal entrepreneurship" in drug cartels, who beat Amazon to using drones for delivery by years, use modified potato guns to shoot cocaine and marijuana bundles over border fences, and represent the "true libertarian, Ayn Rand capitalism."

In a wide-ranging interview with Motherboard, Nieto-Gomez speculates on the future of drug smuggling (flying and submarine drones), and describes the Silicon Valley-like relationship between a Mexican investor class and the smuggler-innovators, who sell a share in future returns in exchange for capital to fund high-risk/high-tech R&D efforts to beat police interdiction

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2016/0...perations.html

[AdamG]

Mexico City (AFP) - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said Friday troops will remain in the streets to combat drug violence after his defense minister issued a rare complaint about the controversial deployment.
Although Pena Nieto acknowledged that the soldiers and marines have been doing law enforcement tasks that "don't correspond to them in the strictest sense," he said the armed forces are "determined to continue" policing the streets.
The military deployment has allowed "cities and regions in our country to return to peace and calm," he said.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mexico-sa...221410242.html

[davidbfpo]

An article from Open Democracy that opens with:

December marked ten years since Mexico's government embarked on a militarized campaign against the country's criminal organizations which has failed to substantially improve the nation's security situation.

(Concludes with) However, the record of the past ten years points to the conclusion that continuing the current militarized approach will yield similarly lackluster results. Making the politically difficult decisions to reform and strengthen civilian institutions may be Mexico's best hope for making long-term progress in the fight against organized crime. But until politicians make that leap, Mexico seems destined to maintain the current gruesome status quo between security forces and organized crime

Link:https://www.opendemocracy.net/democraciaabierta/mike-lasusa/mexico-s-war-on-crime-decade-of-militarized-failure?

[AdamG]

Drug Cartels Are Looting Mexican Gas Pipelines
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/marke...cid=spartandhp

[AdamG]

A Marine was killed and two civilians wounded when gunmen opened fire on a military patrol in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/02...-acapulco.html

[AdamG]

An alleged regional leader of the Beltrn Leyva drug cartel and 11 accomplices have been killed in clashes with Mexican marines who poured gunfire into a house from a helicopter-mounted machine gun.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...r-killed#img-1

See also
http://john1911.com/video-mexican-ma...ainst-cartels/

[AdamG]

http://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2017...-romo-lklv.cnn

Former Mexican governor arrested in Guatemala
CNN

Guatemalan police arrested former Mexican Governor Javier Duarte who had been missing for more than 6 months. CNN's Rafael Romo has more on the capture, and what it means to Mexico's government.