Monday, July 19, 2010

Mexico May Not Be Clearly Identifying its Adversaries

By Jerry Brewer

On Friday, July 16, Mexico's Attorney General Arturo Chavez told journalists he had no evidence that the country's drug gangs were involved in terrorism after a deadly attack on two police cars in a northern border city. Meanwhile, new reports of violence in Nuevo Laredo were reported in a warning from the U.S. Consulate in that city.

“We have received credible reports of widespread violence occurring now between narcotics trafficking organizations and the Mexican Army in Nuevo Laredo. We have credible reports of grenades being used. The narcotics traffickers have reportedly blocked at least one major avenue, Lopez de Lara, and are carjacking vehicles. Other roads may also be blocked by narcotics traffickers. We advise all U.S. citizens in Nuevo Laredo to remain indoors until the security situation improves,” the communiqué said.

Mexico remains in a clear and present war-like siege in which weapons and tactics of war are being used to kill with impunity and challenge all enforcement efforts against them at the highest levels.  There is apparently no fear in the eyes of these organized criminal assassins and they are clear that they will continue to inflict massive harm to the Mexican homeland and points beyond. 

The deadly attack earlier in Juarez caused Federal Police to admit that “Thursday's attack — may be one of the first uses of an explosives-packed car."

Four people were killed, while at least seven officers and two civilians were wounded, according to an unnamed state police source.  He said the compact passenger car had apparently been carrying “some kind of explosive or flammable device when it rammed the police trucks. The crash left charred wreckage.” Later reports said that the explosives were detonated by a cell phone call.

As Mexican police continue to abandon their jobs in fear and intimidation of death and torture, numerous resignations of Mexican customs inspectors (OCE), attributed to pressures from organized crime, have resulted in a shortage of personnel along international border crossings. At times, some crossing points are minimally guarded with anywhere from three to no OCE inspectors.

Their jobs are not easy also as reports indicate nearly 150,000 of illegal immigrants apprehended were from South and Central American countries that the U.S. State Department says are being used as corridors for smuggling people from the Middle East, Southwest Asia and East Africa.

The State Department announced that, “Over the past five years smuggling rings have been detected moving people from East Africa, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia to Honduras or through its territory.  In 2008, there was an increase in the number of boats arriving on the north coast, ferrying people from all over the world seeking to enter the United States illegally via Guatemala and Mexico. Nationals of countries without Honduran visa requirements, especially Ecuador and Colombia, were involved in schemes to transit Honduras, often with the United States and Europe as their final destination. Foreign nationals have successfully obtained valid Honduran identity cards and passports under their own or false identities.”

In the past three years over 56,000 people have been apprehended in this country illegally with Honduran identification.  Along with nearly 50,000 from Guatemala, and over 38,000 from El Salvador — that is the home territory of the MS-13 gangs.  These well-established smuggling routes into the U.S. have produced over 180,000 illegal aliens from countries other than Mexico apprehended between 2007 and mid-March 2010.  

Central America remains a conduit of transnational crime and terror as Guatemalan authorities reported seizing US$1,781,000 in cash related to illicit activities to date in 2010. Recent seizures made by Guatemalan authorities included “US$440,800 from three individuals, all headed to Panama.”

In South America, after Venezuela broke relations with Colombia when the latter signed a 2009 military agreement with the United States, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s office said last week it had proof that four leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and one from the National Liberation Army, the ELN, were in Venezuela.  Reports further reveal tons of cocaine shipped from Venezuela’s Margarita Island.

Two weeks ago Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa said that a 2008 arrest order still stands for Colombian President-elect Juan Manuel Santos, “in response to Santos’ role in a Colombian Army attack on a FARC base in Ecuadoran territory.”

As hindsight and peripheral vision on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border is examined, after the facts and failures to adequately plan and prepare with long range security strategies over the past decade, both sides need to finally dump their rose-colored glasses and grasp the realities of inherent terrorism and spillover violence, and deploy a full enforcement and unified team effort in strategic response. 

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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.