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Column 091310 Brewer

Monday, September 13, 2010

Drug War 'Political Correctness' Costs Lives in Mexico

By Jerry Brewer

The time is now to get over playing “name the problem” in

Mexico. Is it narcoterrorism or not narcoterrorism? Is it an
insurgency or not; is it transnational organized crime; is it just
about the drug trade and supply and demand?

Let’s be emphatically clear on the above — it is about the

slaughter of nearly 30,000 human beings, and possibly
thousands more missing and unaccounted for. This includes
massive numbers of dead and missing women.

Some say that we must be careful not to label this an

insurgency.

Why not?

Is it warlike? To those that can’t see it as such, they need to

take a much closer and microscopic look at the facts and
evidence. Recent political rhetoric accuses Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton of making a dangerous mistake when
she spoke of Mexico’s drug cartels as "insurgents." Others
have cautioned the U.S. about getting involved in another
“quagmire south of the Rio Grande.”

With a possible drug demand exceeding US$40 billion in the

United States, as well as an enormous reciprocal flow of U.S.
currency and guns back south of the Rio Grande giving life to
the insurgency, the U.S. is already involved up to its teeth and
soul.

And who is the enemy that tortures, murders, and eviscerates

with impunity?

This insurgency encompasses a melting pot of individuals that

have been identified as having come from as far south as the
Tri-Border area confluence of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil.
Many of them coming as conduits of the drug trade, human
trafficking, arms trafficking, and related transnational
organized crime. There have been suspected links to al
Qaeda and other Middle Eastern terror groups residing in
South America that have been suspected of Mexican drug
cartel liaison. Colombia's FARC guerrillas continue to be
actively involved in drug operations and terror throughout
Central America, and they have links to Mexican crime
organizations.

Mexico is intensely aware of its failings to secure the southern

borders with Guatemala and Belize that serve as open doors
for any and all transnational criminals. Those border areas
routinely seeing Mexican cartels and their Latin American
confederates running back and forth to attack, and returning to
safe havens to reside and recruit fresh blood.

From former Guatemalan special forces units (Kaibiles), to

Mexican military deserters that became Los Zetas, paramilitary
insurgency in Mexico was born and has flourished since at
least 2005. Mingling with FARC, MS-13 gangs and a myriad
of other trained and hostile sources, these insurgents have
morphed into a paramilitary killing machine that is controlling
Central America and regions of Mexico by fear and
intimidation.

This is clearly an organized movement directly aimed at

challenging a government head-on with armed violence. They
have done it and continue to escalate their violence with an
ever-increasing use of explosives and similar ordnance. They
seek out and ambush military and police, as well as media and
politicians. Historians can refer back to their playbooks of
other world armed insurgencies throughout history to see the
correlation.

How did the U.S. and Mexico miss the first signs of all the
death and violence to come through this paramilitary-style
insurgency that manifested on the streets of Nuevo Laredo,
Mexico in 2005? It was not until after the recent car bombing
in Ciudad Juarez, along with the “terrorist modus operandi”
exhibited (once again), that officials began to use the profanity
of “narcoterrorism.”

Mexico is being described as different from Colombia, in that

Colombia “was up against a rebel organization bent on taking
over the government.” Does anyone believe that FARC really
thought that far ahead? They wanted to achieve political goals
without doubt; yet they wanted to weaken the existing
government and remove those contrary to their influence,
business, and control, and thus establish themselves as a
power to be respected.

Where is Mexico’s war any different?

Mexico’s core drug traffickers are not “businessmen,” although

they may be forced to be if drug legalization ever rears its ugly
mask. They are a network of transnational organized criminals
that also enjoy kidnapping for ransom, related extortion,
human/sex trafficking, and assorted high dollar schemes —
along with their thrill of killing.

President Barack Obama told a US Spanish-language

newspaper that there was no comparison between Mexico and
Colombia’s problems of 20 years ago. And Mexico says the
similar comparisons are merely “a high demand for drugs in
the US.” The U.S. in turn says Mexico must tackle its
corruption problems and support freedom of expression.

What both countries need to tackle is reality, which is in fact a

respect for human life and dignity.

——————————
Jerry Brewer is C.E.O. of Criminal Justice International
Associates, a global risk mitigation firm headquartered in
Northern Virginia. His website is located at www.cjiausa.org.
jbrewer@cjiausa.org