Monday, August 9, 2010

Mexico and the Impact of Central America on its Future

By Jerry Brewer

While the United States and Mexico continue their attempts to define mutual border protocols, the northern Central American cone countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have unwittingly solidified their nations' roles as pivot points in Mexico’s future success or failure.

There appears to be little doubt that the stability of democracies throughout Central and many South American nations are at risk. This instability is due to paramilitary/guerrilla style movements; high levels of violence and murder; organized crime; and an array of transnational criminal activities.  This war-like crime scourge brought forward by a myriad of criminal activities from the tri-border regions of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, and along Mexico's northern and the U.S. southern border.

The poorly defined and porous borders throughout these graphic corridors of death are fast becoming a significant and fluid threat to Mexico. To the south, the continued threat to Mexico by this transnational criminal insurgency involves much more than drug trade. Law enforcement in Central America, especially in El Salvador and Guatemala, has been completely overwhelmed.

Drug legalization is simply an attempt to stem or interrupt major sources of profits, or a way to improve perceived tarnished and failing anti-drug strategies, and this will not end the culture of lawlessness and impunity, nor will it bring about the rule of law.  There simply will be no respect for the law, and it would be seen as something that can be challenged by superior weapons and savagery — regardless of the illegal contraband of choice that must continue to flow for illicit profit.

The debating of the pros and cons of drug legalization by Mexico, the U.S., and other Latin American nations does not address the terrorist nature and ritual murder and attacks on government, police, military, and innocent victims.  The world history of plain and simple anarchy is far more complex than the greed of massive drug revenue by organized criminals.  They must be infiltrated, dismantled, prosecuted, and incarcerated as a matter and rule of law for the human lives they have taken and the willful subordination of justice.

The murder rate due to criminal activities throughout Latin America is at an all time high.  The savagery of so many of these murders and associated atrocities are terroristic in nature and modus operandi, and designed to inflict massive fear at all levels of populace and governments.  Too, the Colombian guerrilla army FARC has been routinely linked to this violence.

Many nations throughout Latin America have made direct accusations of meddling by leftist leaders in their political processes. Some have been accused of harboring guerrillas and criminal insurgents, as well as turning a blind eye and/or facilitating drug trafficking and assassinations. Fabrizio Correa, the brother of Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, recently accused the President of being a puppet of Hugo Chavez’s government in Venezuela.  "This is a communist project, led by a political bureau that receives orders from Venezuela," he said.

Honduras is experiencing unprecedented levels of murder, organized crime, and assassinations of government officials and journalists.  As a strategic transshipment point for illegal drugs, Honduras is an example of criminal organizations posing a major threat to the political stability of regional governments.  As well, the sphere of influence of the radical left has left its mark in Honduras.

From his inauguration in January 2006, former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and his administration were battered by several scandals that raised suspicion across the country. Zelaya’s own financial, nepotistic and corruption scandals included a number of hotly sought-after appointments to state-run companies that were ultimately steered to the brink of bankruptcy, as well as his own questionable use of state funds for personal projects.  His alignment with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela became a concern as Zelaya also tried to hold a referendum on changing the Constitution of Honduras, which many saw as an attempt to impose a Chavez-style socialist government.

The Supreme Court claimed that it ordered the Armed Forces to seize Zelaya in order to “defend the state of law.”  And the seven month government of President Roberto Micheletti, who the Honduran Congress swore in after Zelaya's removal, accused Venezuela’s Chavez of meddling in its affairs and of threatening to use its armed forces against Honduras.

Mexico must continue to attempt to restore the rule of law and continue its focus on democracy as an important legitimizing force of government.  Mexico, as well as its Latin American neighbors, must continue to reject oppressive and other rogue regimes that deny human rights and basic freedoms.  Mexico must not turn a blind eye to terrorism, drug trafficking, and the harboring of transnational criminal insurgents as part of a united hemispheric effort declaring a zero tolerance for such actions.

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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.