Latin American
Gangs Threaten Mexico and the U.S.
By Jerry Brewer
Those most likely
to harbor gangs intent on terror are those who may view the United States as a declining superpower due to recent events. Many in countries that find it virtually impossible to control gangs, criminals and
terrorists within their own territories – a threat that emanates as far south as the tri-border confluence of Argentina,
Paraguay, and Brazil.
Charles Shapiro,
the former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, states, “Almost every extremist terror group is now represented in Latin America.” And that includes Islamic terrorists, among others al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and
Islamic Jihad. Living there among an estimated population of 25,000 Arabs, or
those of Arab descent.
Apart from Western
Hemisphere criminals, for decades there have been pockets of smugglers, terrorists, drug traffickers, arms dealers, and organized
crime figures from Russia, Japan, China, Nigeria and others nations in the area. And
most of the successful infiltration into Latin American nations is due to weak governments, corrupt establishments, unscrupulous
leftist leaders, and sagging economies.
The isthmus between
North and South America, with Panama as a central hub, is a chokepoint for the movement of land-based vehicles and people
towards Mexico and the border of the United States. Reports have described sightings
of al-Qaeda operatives in Central America, and some observes believe their alleged presence “conforms to their desire
to secure land routes to the United States through collaboration with Central American gangs.”
The U.S. Justice
Department recently reported that a drug trafficker, Noel Exinia, admitted importing a quarter ton of cocaine into the United
States from Mexico. Too, he was to smuggle in 20 men who were “Iraqi terrorists,”
charging them US$8,000.00 a head. Exinia, according to papers filed in a Brownsville,
Texas federal court, told associates in wiretapped conversations that these men were “Osama’s people” (Usama Bin Laden). Although
this information was subsequently deemed questionable, it spoke considerably of human trafficking possibilities with an Islamic
terrorist potential.
Former U.S. Attorney
General John Ashcroft has claimed that Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a known al-Qaeda member and suspect in the planning of 9/11,
was spotted in July 2004 in Honduras meeting with Mara Salvatrucha gang members. This
announcement was followed by a confirmation by U.S. officials that Shukrijumah had attempted to acquire radioactive material
for the production of a “dirty bomb” to be smuggled into the U.S.
U.S. Government
officials report that over 90 MS-13 gang member insurgents have been apprehended nationwide since 2004. More than a third have been caught in the Rio Grande Valley sector of Texas, with at least 40 caught in
the Laredo area.
There are reports
of Kaibiles, ex-members of Special Forces units from Guatemala, training paramilitary “Zeta” gunmen – who
are the enforcement arm of Mexico’s treacherous Gulf Cartel, and other cartel assassins.
Gun battles throughout Mexico have clearly shown the death and destruction brought on by unchecked violence and the
sophisticated weapons used by these rogue commandos.
The Tucson (Arizona)
Sector has reported more than a hundred attacks against Border Patrol agents along the border by paramilitary-looking attackers. This in total disregard for our law enforcement at all levels. They are bold and no longer content to keep a low profile on and around U.S. soil, plus some have placed
bounties on the lives of U.S. law enforcement officers.
Border Patrol agents
say they are not prepared to fight an enemy this sophisticated and well armed.
A report from Dallas
last year, by the Associated Press, advised of Latin American gang violence “that’s become all too common in Mexico,
right here in Dallas.” The report described seeing “execution-style
murders, burned bodies, and outright mayhem.”
Here too is a wake
up call to go hand in hand with a nation’s voracious drug habit, and the suppliers of the demand from the south –
according to officials in both countries an estimated 95 percent of the unlawful weapons seized or confiscated in Mexico were
first sold legally in the United States. In one case, Mexican and U.S. authorities
working together traced 80 confiscated firearms to a Mexican citizen who had paid Texas residents to buy weapons on his behalf.
The terrorism risk at
our southern border is real and requires the attention of authorities at the highest levels of government. Yet walls and fences will not block this threat, for many of the gangsters and insurgents already reside
in many of our cities. Protection can only come from initiative, commitment,
diplomacy, and an international team effort by free nations interested in stemming this cancerous world phenomenon.
Jerry Brewer, the Vice President of Criminal Justice International Associates, a global risk mitigation firm headquartered
in Montgomery, Alabama, is also a columnist with MexiData.info. He can be reached via e-mail
at Cjiaincusa@aol.com
