Small War in Mexico: 2002-2015 (closed)

[AdamG]

The U.S. border with Canada, even though it sees far fewer detentions and arrests every year, is a "more significant threat" to American security than the Mexican border, a senior Homeland Security official said Tuesday.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/canadian-bo...172605563.html

[AdamG]

The Zetas may have first entered Guatemala at the invitation of two drug bosses, Otoniel Turcios and Hearst Walter Overdick. But instead of partnering with local Guatemalan smugglers, the Mexicans became intent on displacing them.

The interesting part

Like Guatemala, where the Zetas have recruited from the army's special forces unit, the Kaibiles, the Mexican group has also reportedly attempted to recruit members of the security forces in El Salvador, according to officials. In July 2010, a former Salvadorean police officer was killed in a shootout with the Mexican army in Nuevo Leon, one of nine police agents who may have found work with the Zetas in Mexico, reports El Salvadorean paper El Diario de Hoy.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Ameri...ce59289b80%2C0

[AdamG]

CHERAN, Mexico (AP) - Masked and wielding rifles, the men of this mountain town stand guard at blockades of tires and sandbags to stop illegal loggers backed by drug traffickers. Their defiance isn't just about defending their way of life; it's one of the first major challenges to the reign of terror unleashed by Mexico's drug cartels.
The indigenous Purepecha people of this town surrounded by mountains of pine forests and neat farmland took security into their own hands last month after loggers, who residents say are backed by cartel henchmen and local police, killed two residents and wounded several others.
"There is no fear here," said one young man, defiantly peering out between a red handkerchief pulled up to his dark eyes and a camouflage baseball cap riding low over his brow. "Here we are fighting a David-and-Goliath battle because we are standing up to organized crime, which is no small adversary."

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_180878...ce=most_viewed


Village Boy 2: We're ashamed to live here. Our fathers are cowards.
O'Reilly: Don't you ever say that again about your fathers, because they are not cowards. You think I am brave because I carry a gun; well, your fathers are much braver because they carry responsibility, for you, your brothers, your sisters, and your mothers. And this responsibility is like a big rock that weighs a ton. It bends and it twists them until finally it buries them under the ground. And there's nobody says they have to do this. They do it because they love you, and because they want to. I have never had this kind of courage. Running a farm, working like a mule every day with no guarantee anything will ever come of it. This is bravery. That's why I never even started anything like that... that's why I never will.

[AdamG]

It was like a scene out of Grand Theft Auto, but it was all too real.
Mexican soldiers seized a big cache of weapons after fighting a running gunbattle with drug cartel gunmen fleeing in a 17-vehicle convoy near a northern border city, the military said Thursday.

Mexico's Defense Department said three suspected gunmen were killed and three captured in the confrontation Wednesday.

Soldiers seized 83 assault rifles and shotguns, five grenade launchers and more than 18,000 rounds of ammunition as well as hand grenades, 18 pistols and about 17.5 pounds of marijuana, a statement said.

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/new...#ixzz1MuuTBZXo

[AdamG]

Two weeks ago, Mexican army forces captured a tank built by a drug cartel capable of hauling 12 gunmen and reaching 68 mph. Now authorities have taken another off the street — one that shows how every iteration gets tougher.

This one, dubbed the "compacto" version of El Monstruo 2010, appears to be a 2011 Ford SuperDuty truck chassis armored all over and given a bay for ferrying up to 10 gunmen. Captured in Jalisco, this version also came with its own entertainment system via speakers built into the back hatch, along with "satellite communications equipment." And unlike the El Monstruo '11, the builders were smart enough to protect the truck's wheels from stray bullets.

http://jalopnik.com/5804681/mexican-...homebuilt-tank

[AdamG]

Cartel OP/LPs, Pancho Villa style.
Paging General Pershing, General Blackjack Pershing to the courtesy phone please....

TUCSON, Ariz. — Hiking through rough Arizona desert terrain a few miles north of the Mexican border recently with a group of armed DEA agents, we were approached by a lone U.S. Border Patrol agent. He warned we should be careful up ahead, because two people believed to be spotters for a Mexican drug cartel had just been seen running down a ridge to elude U.S. authorities.

By now, agents told us, the men were probably hunkered down in a cave or crevice to wait out the patrol. But just to be safe, the DEA agents spread out to cover more ground as they moved forward again, watching closely for the suspected Mexican surveillance team likely sent by drug traffickers to spy on American law enforcement officials on their own soil.

*
“Typically these are low-level members of the Sinaloa cartel, the Mexican cartel, and we estimate at any given time there are about two or three hundred scouts working in these positions,” said Scott, the DEA agent. “With night-vision goggles, binoculars and things like that, the scouts check for Border Patrol presence, DEA presence, any law enforcement and they help guide and coordinate the smugglers on the ground.”

To speak with each other, and with the smugglers below, agents said, the spotters use sophisticated radios with rolling encryption, the sort used by military organizations. They also use radio repeaters and set up solar panels to charge the equipment.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43096521/ns/nightly_news/

[AdamG]

MEXICO CITY—Three days of raging gun battles this week between rival drug gangs in Michoacán state killed an unknown number of people, forced hundreds to flee their homes and raised fresh fears that another major Mexican state has become all but ungovernable.

Fighting broke out Monday and lasted for three days. But news of the conflict was slow to get out because local media in states like Michoacán have largely stopped covering the carnage on orders from drug gangs.

The situation is so bad that Mexico's three main political parties on Wednesday signed a joint statement saying they were exploring the possibility of fielding a single, unity candidate in November's gubernatorial race in an attempt to set aside partisan bickering and save the state.

The uptick in violence in Michoacán this week could be related to December's killing of La Familia chief Nazario Moreno, the messianic leader of the cartel who was known as "El Mas Loco," or "The Craziest One."

But in March, dozens of banners pinned up across the state announced the creation of a new local cartel, dubbed "The Knights Templar." The Templars are thought to be remnants of La Familia that have regrouped.

Raul Benitez, a security analyst at the Autonomous University of Mexico said the federal government is determined not to lose control of Michoacán in part because of its strategic location between Mexico and Guadalajara, the country's two largest cities. "Michoacán is a big problem," said Mr. Benitez, who fears the violence that plagues the state could contaminate the capital and Guadalajara.

Unlike Mexico's other cartels, La Familia and the Templars have a messianic creed and strive to gain popular support among the local population. This worries Mexican officials who see the drug traffickers taking on some of the characteristics of guerrilla fighters, said Mr. Benitez.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...044266434.html

MORELIA, Mexico — Mexico’s federal police detained nearly 50 members of two major drug cartels, including suspects in the recent armed attack on a police helicopter, authorities said Saturday.

In a separate incident, an Air Force helicopter crashed Saturday near the same violence-plagued Michoacan city of Apatzingan where the first helicopter had been shot on Tuesday, the Defense Department said in a statement.

This time, however,the crash was an accident caused by apparent mechanical failure and is being investigated, the Defense Department said. The pilot and co-pilot suffered minor injuries when the chopper went down in a wooded area shortly after lifting off from a local Army base.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...YDH_story.html

and
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?Arti...tegoryId=14091

[Kevin23]

I was reading the piece on the drug related violence in Mexico by Bunker and Sullivan:http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/jou...ersullivan.pdf, and I just had some questions about the problems manifesting south of the border in general.

The article spoke in the beginning of how values and attitudes are being affected by the conflict. I would really like to see some polling or statistical results on this subject.

Additionally, is there really any truth to the claims in the article(even though they had through citations) that the drug cartels taking on a pesudo-religious cult like aspect? I haven't seen that mentioned in the news, lit, or ever brought up before on this site or others. Although why back during the intervention in Panama against Noreiga, I had they found cult like items amongst his entourage and amongst some gangs.

[AdamG]

If you ever watch video or look at pictures of the drug war in Mexico, you'll notice some pretty heavy weapons. This is a war being waged with rockets and plastic explosives, not pea shooters and Saturday Night Specials * You can't buy this stuff at a U.S. gun store. So where do the cartels get it?

According to leaked diplomatic cables, there are three sources.
1. U.S. Defense Department shipments to Latin America, known and tracked by the U.S. State Department as "foreign military sales."
2. Weapons ordered by the Mexican government, tracked by the State Department as "direct commercial sales."
3. Aging, but plentiful arsenals of military weapon stores in Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/04/28...#ixzz1NxLFjhU0

[AdamG]

First of a three-part series.

Mexico's drug cartels are carving out new territory in Central America, in some of the poorest and most fragile countries in the hemisphere. Mexican gangs are cutting clandestine airstrips in the Guatemalan jungle, laundering money in El Salvador and unloading boatloads of cocaine on the coast of Honduras. The World Bank recently warned that narcotics trafficking poses one of the greatest threats to development in the region.

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/30/136690...entral-america

[AdamG]

Mexico has long been a trampoline for migrants from around the world trying to bounce over the Rio Grande into the United States. Now Mexico's drug gangs have become increasingly involved in the human trafficking business while the nation's prisons and police are under increased pressure from the crime wave. Amid these conditions, the migrant issue has come to a boil in Mexico.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/n...ing-drug-gangs

[SWJ Blog]

A Strategy for Mexico?

Entry Excerpt:

A Strategy for Mexico?
by Johnny M. Lairsey Jr.

Download the Full Article: A Strategy for Mexico?

For over a century, United States foreign policy was guided by the Monroe doctrine. Then, around 1890, a nascent concept of American Imperialism was popularized and served to shift foreign policy away from the Monroe Doctrine. Since then the United States has exercised many different forms of foreign policy. The current United States foreign policy as evinced by the United States Secretary of State proclaims that United States freedom and prosperity is linked to the freedom and prosperity of the rest of the world. The approach the United States Department of State uses to preserve our freedoms and prosperity includes building and maintaining international relations and protecting ourselves and our allies against transnational threats. Given the existing conditions in Mexico and the United States current approach to foreign policy the United States should assert its national powers to defeat transnational criminal organizations and help to improve the conditions in Mexico. However, before taking action the United States must clearly articulate the purpose of why it is taking action in a foreign country.

Download the Full Article: A Strategy for Mexico?

Mr. Johnny Lairsey is DA Civilian serving as a Plans Specialist at US Army North, the Army Service Component Command to US Northern Command and is a recent graduate of the School of Advanced Military Studies. He has over five years of experience as a plans specialist in an operational headquarters and has extensive experience working with other US Government agencies. The views expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.



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[SWJ Blog]

Mexico: A Mosaic Cartel War

Entry Excerpt:

Mexico: A Mosaic Cartel War
by Paul Rexton Kan

Download the Full Article: Mexico: A Mosaic Cartel War

A situation of high-intensity crime does not mean that a war is not occurring in Mexico. But it is a war of a different kind. In fact, there are several conflicts occurring at once that blend into each other. There is the conflict of cartels among each other, the conflict within cartels, cartels against the Mexican state, cartels and gangs against the Mexican people and gangs versus gangs. When combined, they form a mosaic cartel war that creates an atmosphere “somewhere between Al Capone’s Chicago and an outright war”. It is not an irregular or regular war; neither is it a small war nor a general war, nor a limited war, nor a total war, nor any of the familiar appellations given to armed conflicts fought by conventional militaries. And, finally it is not “a war about nothing.” It is a multidimensional, multiparty and multi-location armed conflict fought among criminal groups over what are essentially criminal goals; the groups are resisted by the state while their goals are rejected by it, making the state a party to the conflict.

Download the Full Article: Mexico: A Mosaic Cartel War

Paul Rexton Kan is currently an Associate Professor of National Security Studies and the Henry L. Stimson Chair of Military Studies at the US Army War College. He is also the author of the book Drugs and Contemporary Warfare (Potomac Books 2009) and was recently the Visiting Senior Counternarcotics Advisor for CJIATF-Shafafiyat (Transparency) at ISAF Headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan. He recently completed field research along the US-Mexico border for his forthcoming book, Cartels at War: Mexico's Drug Fueled Violence and the Threat to US National Security (Potomac Books).



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[AdamG]

The elderly are killed. Young women are raped. And able-bodied men are given hammers, machetes and sticks and forced to fight to the death.

In one of the most chilling revelations yet about the violence in Mexico, a drug cartel-connected trafficker claims fellow gangsters have kidnapped highway bus passengers and forced them into gladiatorlike fights to groom fresh assassins.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...#ixzz1PB2ZJSjL

[SWJ Blog]

Mexico's Justiciabarometro (Justice Barometer)

Entry Excerpt:

The Trans-Border Institute has released the results of a new survey of judges, prosecutors, and public defenders in nine different Mexican states. The survey is part of a series of studies, titled the Justiciabarometro (Justice Barometer), which examines the performance of Mexico's criminal justice system through the assessments of those who operate it.

The results are summarized in two recent reports co-authored by Matthew C. Ingram, Octavio Rodríguez Ferreira, and David A. Shirk. The full report (135 pages, 14.1MB) can be found here and the special report (32 pages, 4.6 MB) can be found here.

Continue on for a brief summary of the results...



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[SWJ Blog]

Speaking of Mexico....

Entry Excerpt:

... please tell me this is an example of sensationalized reporting or the source is a bald-faced liar. If not, then let's stop debating whether we should call this an insurgency or not and start debating whether the events down south are part of our world or a Mad Max world:

Narco Gangster Reveals the Underworld by Dane Schiller of the Houston Chronicle. BLUF: "Cartels have taken cruelty up a notch, says one drug trafficker: kidnapping bus passengers for gladiator-like fights to the death."



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[AdamG]

The arrested leader of Mexican drug gang the Familia Michoacana revealed that he had recently sought an alliance with the Zetas to support his group in its standoff with rivals the Caballeros Templarios. Jose de Jesus Mendez Vargas, alias "El Chango," was arrested on Tuesday and paraded before the media on Wednesday. (See video below).

http://insightcrime.org/insight-late...milia-alliance

A convoy of three military trucks loaded with Mexican soldiers crosses the border at Bridge Number Two clearly violating international law.

It happens as Customs and Border Protection inspectors try to figure out what to do.

A CBP spokesperson says they got on the phone with Mexican authorities after being alerted that the military trucks were heading their direction loaded down with soldiers and weapons.

Mexican leaders say the soldiers, who had just been deployed to Nuevo Laredo, didn't know the area, got lost and then made their way through Bridge Two.

http://www.pro8news.com/news/local/M...124469714.html

[motorfirebox]

Hah, well, I'm not sure the US has any room to complain on the national sovereignty front...

This paragraph was pretty funny:

Some noted had it been Mexican drug lords they could have taken inspectors by surprise and easily crossed the international border deeper into the United States.

Yes, up until now we've had great success keeping the cartels from crossing the border into the US! Aside from, y'know, all the drugs.

[SWJ Blog]

Mexico: The Accidental Narco?

Entry Excerpt:

Mexico: The Accidental Narco?
by Paul Rexton Kan

Download the Full Article: Mexico: The Accidental Narco?

The Obama Administration’s National Security Strategy clearly makes the case: “Stability and security in Mexico are indispensable to building a strong economic partnership, fighting the illicit drug and arms trade, and promoting sound immigration policy.” For the National Security Strategy, it was the first time that the words “stability and security” were used in association with Mexico. President Barack Obama himself was clearer: “I think it's unacceptable if you've got drug gangs crossing our borders and killing U.S. citizens. I think if one U.S. citizen is killed because of foreign nationals who are engaging in violent crime, that's enough of a concern to do something about it.” But doing something about it is proving to be exceptionally thorny.
With the escalation of drug cartel and gang violence in Mexico directly and indirectly affecting US interests, the US government’s response has been to bolster border security and support Mexican president Felipe Calderon administration’s efforts to break the cartels and strengthen the institutions of the Mexican state. This approach can be labeled as “contain and consolidate”—contain Mexico’s violence within that country while helping Mexico consolidate its government reforms to better combat corruption and tackle the cartels. The centerpiece of this approach is the multi-year, billion dollar Merida Initiative that was initiated in 2008 by the Bush Administration and re-authorized and expanded in 2010 by the Obama Administration. The Merida Initiative is at its core a joint security plan with four pillars: 1) Disrupting organized criminal groups; 2) institutionalizing the rule of law; 3) building a 21st century border; 4) building strong and resilient communities.

Download the Full Article:

Paul Rexton Kan is currently an Associate Professor of National Security Studies and the Henry L. Stimson Chair of Military Studies at the US Army War College. He is also the author of the book Drugs and Contemporary Warfare (Potomac Books 2009) and was recently the Visiting Senior Counternarcotics Advisor for CJIATF-Shafafiyat (Transparency) at ISAF Headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan. He recently completed field research along the US-Mexico border for his forthcoming book, Cartels at War: Mexico's Drug Fueled Violence and the Threat to US National Security (Potomac Books).



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[SWJ Blog]

Narco-Armor in Mexico

Entry Excerpt:

Narco-Armor in Mexico
by John P. Sullivan and Adam Elkus

Download the Full Article: Narco-Armor in Mexico

Known alternatively as “narco-tanks” (narcotanques), “Rhino trucks,” and “monster trucks”(monstruos), the crude armored vehicles emerging in Mexico’s cartel war are evidence of a changing tactical logic on the ground. ”Narco-tanks” are better characterized as improvised armored fighting vehicles (IAFVs)—portending a shift in the infantry-centric nature of the cartel battlespace.

Narco-tactics have been, for the most part, infantry-centric—consisting of small raids, blockades, and gun battles. The use of armored sport utility vehicles for transportation, raids, and tactical in-battle maneuver is largely an extension of the small unit infantry operations that characterize the tactical logic of the cartel war. The presence of armored vehicles ups the ante.

Download the Full Article: Narco-Armor in Mexico

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.

Adam Elkus is an analyst specializing in foreign policy and security. He is Associate Editor at Red Team Journal. He is a frequent contributor to Small Wars Journal and has published at numerous venues including The Atlantic, Defense Concepts, West Point CTC Sentinel, Infinity Journal, and other publications. He blogs at Rethinking Security.



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