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Column 071910 Brewer

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.

——————————
Jerry Brewer is C.E.O. of Criminal Justice International
Associates, a global risk mitigation firm headquartered in
Northern Virginia. His website is located at www.cjiausa.org.
jbrewer@cjiausa.org