Monday, September 28, 2009

Mexico’s Security – a Declining World Topic of Priority

By Jerry Brewer

In a true perversion of justice and truth, many are failing to see Mexico’s security dilemma in the Western Hemisphere.  The political antics of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez and other leftist leaders, as well as the tribulations of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, appear to take center stage in a theater of life and death reality with our immediate neighbors to the south.

The fact of the matter is that Mexico is a primary conduit for criminal insurgents throughout Latin America sporting a host of maladies that continue to threaten the homeland of Mexico, as well as the U.S. border.  Over the past several years the world has constantly been reminded of the total disregard for human life by these murdering thugs, and the hierarchies that marshal their forces.  All of this primarily in pursuit of massive financial gain through the misery and sorrow of victims. 

There is no doubt that rogue leftist regimes of the world have continued to be a part of the problem in this hemisphere as opposed to a part of the solution.  They have exploited and manipulated agendas of hate and weapons proliferation, and conspired to deny essential democratic freedoms such as the freedom of speech, press, and the right to a quality of life free of oppression and iron-fisted rule.

Mexico’s valiant fight against these organized criminal thugs, with very limited resources, has been and is a formidable and awesome task.  Lame criticism, with possible hidden agendas, continues to be directed at President Felipe Calderon’s approach in relying “too much on the military, and not enough on local law enforcement organizations.”

Mexico’s police forces, as is the case of most local law enforcement entities throughout the world, were never created nor designed to face the massive resources and armament they and citizens are up against.  Wars are meant to be faced with equal to superior methods and weapons.  Who can deny that Mexico is at war in their homeland?  The U.S. has even demonstrated a lack of adequate manpower and resources to effectively perform border interdiction under the current structure. 

Where are the voices of other Latin American nations in defense of the citizens of Mexico and their efforts to survive this festering onslaught?  The proverbial writing on the wall for this scourge of an insurgency of armed and murdering revolt against the Mexican people and their government is graphically outlined in blood.  Placating the narcotraffickers and other critics by concessions due to armed force and violence is an obscene and utterly nonsensical thought process.

Any form of destabilization of the internal order of a nation, especially by armed insurgents, paramilitary- styled groups and/or criminal factions, creates a seismic reaction to neighboring borders resulting in the need for appropriate and adequate resources to combat the potential threats.  Weak government and law enforcement entities are simply overrun and/or corrupted by superior weaponry or the massive finances that pave the way.

In Mexico police were routinely murdered or bought off; police chiefs are run out of town or worse; and other government officials and federal police are tortured and murdered.  President Calderon’s proactive and strategic approach was military power in a staunch, no nonsense approach.  Those interdiction methods were felt swiftly.  Yet Mexico continues to battle this enemy with little other than a pat on the back and U.S. assistance.

Criminal reaction to Mexico’s military response created an elixir in the form of an absolute lunatic reaction.  Cowardly attacks on innocent men, women, and children ensued.  What had previously been fertile ground for control and corruption by narcotrafficking against weak enforcement resistance became lines in the sand.

Mexico’s military action, matching firepower with firepower, sent many of the cellular-like groups to areas of lesser control and violently took over local drug trafficking entrenchments, or joined simple-formed alliances of convenience.

While there appears, on the surface at least, to be little sympathy or hands offered in cooperation in interdiction and monitoring of this transnational enemy throughout the Latin American region, the U.S. has in fact assisted and partnered with Mexico in their fight.  And this cross-border cooperation and the subsequent unification process against a common enemy are showing positive results.

The reaction by leftist regimes in Latin America has shown their true positions and lack of partnership for the common good and human value of life, by vehemently stopping and/or curtailing U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration cooperation and mutual assistance.  Too, Ecuador and Venezuela have taken a hardline position in the sand against U.S. military bases in the hemisphere and associated aircraft operating in drug assistance and interdiction efforts. 

Latin Americans must unite and reach common understandings in order to address common afflictions bred from neighboring death and violence.  As well, they must reject leftist leader’s rhetoric and question their association with state sponsors of terrorism.

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Jerry Brewer is C.E.O. of Criminal Justice International Associates, a global risk mitigation firm headquartered in Miami, Florida.  His website is located at www.cjiausa.org.