Home

/
International
/
Central American Criminal and Terrorism Nexuses are Maturing
HOME
Central American Criminal and Terrorism Nexuses
are Maturing
Written by Jerry Brewer

As Central America's northern cone nations set records for willful deaths,
Honduras leads the world with a murder rate of 90.4 per 100,000. El Salvador,
Guatemala and Belizes homicide rates are averaging, collectively, 42 percent per
100,000, as people literally fight for their lives. These seemingly unabated rates of
murder, plus the kidnappings and assassinations of public figures, police, members of
the armed forces and journalists, are the continuing and expanding product -- and
chosen role -- of transnational organized criminals (TOC). And much of their achieved
movement would not have been possible without facilitation and nurturing by rogue
leftist political regimes, and paramilitary and guerilla-like forces, within this hemisphere.
Each of the countries in the northern cone of Central America, as well as Mexico and
the United States, have shared borders within the regions of hostile operational
activities that witness fluid and seemingly unstoppable encroachment by the criminal
insurgent-like actors. These TOCs, for the most part, use advanced military-type
weaponry, superior firepower and more advantageous military tactics, including seen
before elements of intelligence tradecraft employed by world terrorist organizations.

Mexico's military has forced many gangs south into Guatemala and El Salvador. Quick
to follow were the Zetas, albeit the Zeta movement south has been described as a
proactive movement and not a reactive strategy of retreat. Their reach into Central
America has corrupted police, while they have recruited talent and trained recruits in
Guatemalan camps. Movements into Honduras graphically mark the Zeta's area of
influence as a clear indicator of turf superiority, as they have expanded their territorial
range from the Gulf of Mexico coastal states to Central America.

The transnational influence and power of the Zetas paved the way for an upswing in the
long distance shipping of cocaine from South America, much of this through the risky
Central America drug pipeline into lucrative North American markets. Other violent
criminal activities, including human and sex trafficking, have matured into lucrative
markets of incredible revenue. These awesome endeavors required a power that had to
prevail against all obstacles designed to interdict.

In El Salvador alone, the strong and violent Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang became a
fertile recruiting ground for the Zetas. Law enforcement and government concerns and
fears that powerful Zeta alliances would lead to jail breaks, to free previously captured
gang members, became realities. This insurgent-like equation became the new
organized crime-terror nexus. Fear, intimidation, political tampering, kidnappings,
murders, bombings, and torture became the norm. The organizational similarities of
organized crime and terror merged to essentially form a single merchant of violence and
death, available to the highest or most powerful bidder or survivor. Groups emerged as
third generation gangs possessing extensive, asymmetrical warfare capabilities.

The critical question that must be asked, again -- and much more vociferously: where
are all of these affected nations priorities, strategies and proactive solutions to protect
against TOCs using asymmetric tactics against the States and further threatening their
nations' security and economy. Many ask, Just how real and serious is this? As far
back as 2009, the previous director of the CIA, General Michael Hayden, stated:
Escalating violence along the US-Mexico border will pose the second greatest threat to
US security this year, second only to al Qaeda.

In framing the discussion of the realities of the nexus of many heavily armed nefarious
groups and organizations within the hemisphere, and their desired and actual agendas,
we must look at the issues of not only corruption but too covert support and facilitation
by other powerful entities above soldier levels.

Last February 14 security consultant Douglas Farah gave testimony before the
US House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism,
Nonproliferation and Trade regarding, Terrorist Groups in Latin America: The Changing
Landscape. Farah stated that hybrid groups like Colombia's FARC, the Taliban in
Afghanistan, and many others thrive in the seams of the worlds illicit trade
pipelines. He described FARC as a prototype of the coming hybrid terrorist-criminal
insurgency, which remains at the center of a multitude of criminal enterprises and
terrorist activities that stretch from Colombia south to Argentina, and northward to
Central America and into direct ties to Mexican drug cartels.

According to Farah, the US DEA has shown direct and growing criminal drug ties
between the FARC and Hezbollah. Too, his testimony revealed that FARC is a central
part of the revolutionary project of bringing together armed groups and terrorist
organizations under the umbrella of the (Venezuelan) Bolivarian Revolution. He cited
known and reported links to the late Hugo Chavez, Nicaraguas President Daniel
Ortega, Ecuadors President Rafael Correa, and current president-elect Salvador
Sanchez Ceren of El Salvador, as Giving significant logistical, financial, and political
support to the FARC, allowing FARC to expand its international networks and increase
its resources. (4/26/14) (photo courtesy Internet)

Note: This article was reprinted with permission of the author. It was originally published
at MexiData.info. Jerry Brewer is the Chief Executive Officer of Criminal Justice
International Associates, a global threat mitigation firm headquartered in northern
Virginia. His website is located at www.cjiausa.org. TWITTER: CJIAUSA
Jerry Brewer Published Archives:
Published in International