Small War in Mexico: 2002-2015 (closed)

[SWJ Blog]

El Imperativo Estratégico de Estados Unidos Debe Cambiar de Irak/Afganistán a México/Las Américas y la Estabilización de Europa

Entry Excerpt:

El Imperativo Estratégico de Estados Unidos Debe Cambiar de Irak/Afganistán a México/Las Américas y la Estabilización de Europa
por Dr. Robert J. Bunker

Transfiera el artículo completo: El Imperativo Estratégico de Estados Unidos Debe Cambiar de Irak/Afganistán a México/Las Américas y la Estabilización de Europa

Los Estados Unidos al momento se enfrenta con dos niveles de amenazas no estatal (red), pero solo uno de ellos es abiertamente reconocido. Al Qaeda y otros elementos del Islam radical, han sido reconocidos como la amenaza número 1 desde el 11 de Septiembre del 2001 que mato a casi 3,000 Americanos y causo más de 100 millones de dólares en daños a la infraestructura, la respuesta de emergencia, y los trastornos económicos. Esta amenaza que acumula atención de los medios, sin embargo, en muchos frentes palidece en comparación representada por los carteles de la droga y bandillas de narco, que durante décadas han ido evolucionando, mutando y creciendo en capacidad y poder en las Américas. Mientras por lo pronto esto es visto como “un asunto crimen y aplicación a la ley”, como Al Qaeda fue pre – 9-11, esta amenaza estratégica más sutil y envolvente ha dado como resultado la muerte de más de 100.000 ciudadanos de las Américas (unos 30.000 solo en México en los últimos 4 anos) y ha causado la desestabilización de un numero de países incluyendo México, Guatemala y Honduras, y fue testigo del aumento de la influencia narco dentro de las regiones del territorio de los Estados Unidos a lo largo de su frontera sur. Económicamente, los daños sufridos y los trastornos ocasionados por el cartel de droga y las actividades de pandillas narcotraficantes a los particulares, las economías locales, y organismos gubernamentales es más allá de la marca de un trillón de dólares y sigue aumentando. Ambos de estas amenazas no-estatal (red) reta a las instituciones de las muchas naciones afectadas, la lealtad de las poblaciones indígenas para el propio Estado, y son indicativos de la ‘guerra sobre la organización social y política’ que ahora se libra en varias regiones del mundo.

Transfiera el artículo completo: El Imperativo Estratégico de Estados Unidos Debe Cambiar de Irak/Afganistán a México/Las Américas y la Estabilización de Europa

El Dr. Robert J. Bunker tiene títulos en la ciencia política, gobierno, ciencia del comportamiento, ciencias sociales, geografía-antropología, e historia. Entrenamiento tomado incluye la proporcionada por DHS, FLETC, DIA, Cal DOJ, Cal POST, LA JRIC, NTOA, y entidades privadas de seguridad en la lucha contra el terrorismo, contra-vigilancia, respuesta a incidentes, protección de la fuerza, y la inteligencia. Dr. Bunker ha participado en trabajo en equipo rojo y ejercicios de lucha contra el terrorismo y ha proporcionad apoyo a las operaciones dentro del Condado de los Ángeles.



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[SWJ Blog]

Mexico Angry at U.S. Official's 'Insurgency' Remark

Entry Excerpt:

The Associated Press, via The Houston Chronicle, reports that Mexico is angry at a U.S. official's 'insurgency' remark. It seems Mexico's Interior Department took great exception to U.S. Undersecretary of the Army Joseph Westphal's comment "as all of you know, there is a form of insurgency in Mexico with the drug cartels that's right on our border" on Monday at the Hinckley Institute of Politics. Westphal has since retracted his categorization of Mexico's drug-related violence saying he "mistakenly characterized the challenge posed by drug cartels to Mexico as “a form of insurgency.”" Mark Krikorian of National Review Online's The Corner says "the number-two civilian official in the Army committed a Kinsleyan gaffe Monday by telling the truth."

What say you?



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[AdamG]

Mexico's Gun Supply and the 90 Percent Myth

Interestingly, the part of this argument pertaining to guns has been adopted by many politicians and government officials in the United States in recent years. It has now become quite common to hear U.S. officials confidently assert that 90 percent of the weapons used by the Mexican drug cartels come from the United States. However, a close examination of the dynamics of the cartel wars in Mexico — and of how the oft-echoed 90 percent number was reached — clearly demonstrates that the number is more political rhetoric than empirical fact.

http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20110...0-percent-myth

[AdamG]

(Reuters) - Mexico is struggling to avert a collapse of law and order along its northern border in a region that generates a quarter of its economic output, with two states already facing the threat of criminal anarchy.

Even after four years of dramatic military sweeps, drug cartels in Chihuahua and Tamaulipas are extending their control over large areas and the state governments seem powerless to stop them.

Mass jail breaks, abandoned police stations, relentless killings and gangs openly running criminal rackets such as gasoline stolen from pipelines are the new reality in regions once at the forefront of Mexico's efforts to modernize and prosper under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/lt_mexico...1lbmtpbGx1cw--

MEXICO CITY – The killing of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and wounding of another in Mexico highlights the risk for American officials helping with Mexico's crackdown on organized crime under increasing cooperation between the two countries.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...71E4GF20110215

[Bob's World]

As I'm reading this article regarding the meeting between Presidents Obama and Calderon, a viable Mexican COA struck me.

My position on Mexico and drugs remains:

1. This is not an insurgency by any stretch. This is business, but it illegal and highly profitable business so it is impacting the governance of the country.

2. Supply and Demand. Targeting supply without addressing demand is foolish. The number one thing the US can do to assist Mexico is to develop and adopt a creative legalization and demand reduction program. For a wide range of reasons (we all know the old adage that "capital is a coward" in regards to investments in unstable areas. We can add to that "capital officials are cowards" too. Not physically per se, but rather afraid to do the right thing when it will cost them their position to do so (with a few notable exceptions).

So, what can Mexico do? Why not legalize their end of the business. They can make the use of drugs as illegal as they want to, but make the production, transportation and marketing completely legal. Tax the hell out of it and pipe the problem free and clear right up to the US border. Mexico immediately begins to stabilize, and the vast wealth currently going into the pockets of a few criminals becomes much more distributed across the populace.

Of course America would have a cow. "How could you do this to us???" we would cry.

"No, how could you do this to us?" Mexico would reply.

Perhaps such a play would finally give US politicians the out to do what they've known they needed to do for years, but always lacked the will to take on.

[AdamG]

ATF Let Hundreds of U.S. Weapons Fall into Hands of Suspected Mexican Gunrunners
Whistleblower Says Agents Strongly Objected to Risky Strategy

Hoping to score a major prosecution of Mexican drug lords*, federal prosecutors and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives permitted hundreds of guns to be purchased and retained by suspected straw buyers with the expectation they might cross the border and even be used in crimes while the case was being built, according to documents and interviews.

The decision — part of a Phoenix-based operation code named “Fast and Furious” — was met by strong objections from some front-line agents who feared they were allowing weapons like AK-47s to “walk” into the hands of drug lords and gun runners, internal agency memos show. Indeed, scores of the weapons came back quickly traced to criminal activity.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/2976/


* Along with splashy headlines and major career boosts.

[AdamG]

Eric Holder, paging Eric Holder.
The American and Mexican people have some questions for you.

"...approved all the way to the Justice Department".

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?...n&tag=watchnow

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/...20039031.shtml

Senior agents including Dodson told CBS News they confronted their supervisors over and over. Their answer, according to Dodson, was, "If you're going to make an omelette, you've got to break some eggs."

[carl]

"Senior agents including Dodson told CBS News they confronted their supervisors over and over. Their answer, according to Dodson, was, "If you're going to make an omelette, you've got to break some eggs."

What the supervisors really meant to say was "If you want to have really big case that will make the national news and get a bunch of us supervisors promoted because we're geniuses, some people have to die." He got the national news and people dying part right.

[SWJ Blog]

U.S. and Mexico Should Embrace Regional Cooperation

Entry Excerpt:

CNAS Report: U.S. and Mexico Should Embrace Regional Cooperation to Combat Drug Cartels

As Presidents Obama and Calderón continue to discuss the United States and Mexico's efforts to combat growing drug-related violence, the leaders should look to embrace regional cooperation to combat the cartels, according to a recent report authored by Center for a New American Security (CNAS) Non-Resident Senior Fellow Bob Killebrew.

In Crime Wars: Gangs, Drugs, and U.S. National Security, Killebrew surveys organized crime throughout the Western Hemisphere and analyzes the challenges it poses to individual countries and regional security. He argues that Mexico will remain a key state in the struggle against violent organized crime in the region, and that the United States should continue to support Mexico's efforts while examining its own role in the ongoing conflict. In addition, the report notes, the United States and Mexico should:

* Increase U.S.-Mexico law enforcement and intelligence cooperation.
* Increase bilateral training and assistance.
* Embrace regional cooperation to attack cartels.
* Attack the cartels’ financial networks and money-laundering capabilities.

“Whether Calderón and his successors can or will sustain a long-term, bloody fight to root out corruption in the Mexican state and reassert the rule of law is a matter of grave concern for the United States,” said Killebrew.

Download Crime Wars: Gangs, Cartels and U.S. National Security.

This report is also available for download in Spanish: Guerras del Crimen: Pandillas, Cárteles y la Seguridad Nacional Estadounidense.



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[SWJ Blog]

Optimizing Use of the Armed Forces in Combating Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations

Entry Excerpt:

Optimizing Use of the Armed Forces in Combating Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations
by Braden Civins

Download The Full Article: Optimizing Use of the Armed Forces in Combating Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations

The drug war in Mexico threatens the stability of the Mexican federal government, catalyzes widespread border crossing by undocumented aliens (UDAs), and imperils U.S. citizens on both sides of the border. This note examines one proposal to address these concerns—additional deployment of the military along the southwest (SW) border—and the legal issues potentially raised by this response. Part I of this note provides background information on the nature of the problem. Part II traces the law governing military support to civilian law enforcement agencies (MSCLEA) with respect to counternarcotics (CN) operations along the southwest (SW) border. Part III examines how the law will either constrain or facilitate MSCLEA with respect to surveillance and detention operations. Part IV offers recommendations to improve the utility of military deployment to the border to combat drug trafficking organizations (DTOs).

Download The Full Article: Optimizing Use of the Armed Forces in Combating Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations

Braden Civins, a native Texan, is in his fourth and final year of study at The University of Texas, pursuing a J.D. from The School of Law and a Master of Global Policy Studies, with a specialization in Security Studies, from the L.B.J. School of Public Affairs.



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[AdamG]

He got the national news and people dying part right.

Don't worry, that'll be pushed down to the bottom of the news cycle as quickly as possible.

Remember the primary message : American firearms are bad, are killing Mexican people and must be regulated. Repeat as needed.

[AdamG]

Mexico City – The most fearsome weapons wielded by Mexico's drug cartels enter the country from Central America, not the United States, according to U.S. diplomatic cables disseminated by WikiLeaks and published here Tuesday by La Jornada newspaper.

Items such as grenades and rocket-launchers are stolen from Central American armies and smuggled into Mexico via neighboring Guatemala, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City reported to Washington.

The assertions appear in embassy cables written after three bilateral conferences on arms trafficking that took place between March 2009 and January 2010 in Cuernavaca, Mexico; Phoenix; and Tapachula, Mexico, respectively.

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/new...#ixzz1I3JWwW9l


http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/new...am-cables-say/

[slapout9]

Anybody haver any details about why the US ambassador to Mexico resigned??

[AdamG]

Anybody haver any details about why the US ambassador to Mexico resigned??

MEXICO CITY — The U.S. ambassador to Mexico resigned Saturday amid furor over a leaked diplomatic cable in which he complained about inefficiency and infighting among Mexican security forces in the campaign against drug cartels.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0..._n_838047.html

A law enforcement bulletin has been issued warning that the drug cartels were overheard plotting to kill ICE agents and Texas Rangers guarding the Texas border, officials reported this morning.

The cartel members planned to use AK-47 assault rifles to shoot the agents and rangers from across the border, the bulletin said. It did not name which drug cartel was involved.

The details were released during a hearing before the House Committee on Homeland Security on "The US Homeland Security Role in the Mexican War Against the Drug Cartels."

http://www.themonitor.com/articles/t...gers-drug.html

[AdamG]

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Using unusually blunt language, FBI Director Robert Mueller told US legislators on Capitol Hill Wednesday that there is an "unprecedented" level of violence in Mexico linked to the country's drug wars.
"I would not call it a full-scale war," Mueller told members of the House of Representatives as he discussed his agency's 2012 budget.
"I would say there are full-scale warring factions that utilize homicide as a mechanism of retaliation, staking out one's turf, retribution, that have contributed substantially to the number of deaths in Mexico," Mueller said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110406...20110406215243

[SWJ Blog]

Attacks on Journalists and “New Media” in Mexico’s Drug War

Entry Excerpt:

Attacks on Journalists and “New Media” in Mexico’s Drug War:
A Power and Counter Power Assessment
by John P. Sullivan

Download the Full Article: Attacks on Journalists and “New Media” in Mexico’s Drug War

This paper examines the impact of attacks on journalists on media reportage within Mexico’s drug wars, known as “la Inseguridad” in Mexico. It examines two concepts in communication theory (agenda-setting theory and “mind framing” for power and counter-power) to frame the impact of drug cartel information operations (info ops). Specifically, It examines cartel attacks on media outlets, and kidnappings and assassinations of journalists by narco-cartels to gauge the potential impact of the attacks in terms of censorship, cartel co-option of reportage, and the use of new media (horizontal means of mass self-communication).

Download the Full Article: Attacks on Journalists and “New Media” in Mexico’s Drug War

John P. Sullivan is a career police officer. He currently serves as a lieutenant with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies on Terrorism (CAST). He is co-editor of Countering Terrorism and WMD: Creating a Global Counter-Terrorism Network (Routledge, 2006) and Global Biosecurity: Threats and Responses (Routledge, 2010). His current research focus is the impact of transnational organized crime on sovereignty in Mexico and elsewhere.



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[AdamG]

Investigators have unearthed human bones and teeth from pits used by a man known as the "Stew-maker," who confessed to dissolving 300 bodies of drug cartel victims, prosecutors said Friday.

Miguel Angel Guerrero, head of the Baja California state prosecutors' office on disappearances, said about 30 bone fragments and 15 tooth fragments were dug up Monday at a ranch in eastern Tijuana that was once occupied by Santiago "El Pozolero" Meza Lopez.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/04...#ixzz1J8E2iF00

[carl]

Adam G:

Thank you for posting the updates on the troubles down there. It is interesting and keep me reminded that things are still far from over to the south.

[slapout9]

Nice article on how US banks help the drug cartels.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011...ico-drug-gangs

[davidbfpo]

Slap,

Excellent find and just after the other article elsewhere on the US banking system, in the thread 'The Next America Revolution' and:http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...ilout-20110411

What I note is the role of the whistle blower, so much for all the other internal and external measures to hinder money laundering.