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Column 032910 Brewer

Monday, March 29, 2010

U.S. Dollars Alone will not end the

Drug War in Mexico

By Jerry Brewer

To end the violent carnage and war-like

atrocities that are routinely occurring
across the U.S. border, in our
neighboring nation of Mexico, requires
much more than U.S. funding. The
recent Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton-led delegation of senior U.S.
officials to Mexico was an honest start
in eyeball to eyeball attention and
accountability.

The US$1.4 billion three year aid

package (Merida Initiative) brought by
President George W. Bush formally
ends after this year. Continuing to toss
dollars with the simple mandate to
“keep attacking” is worrisome,
especially to the survivors of the 18,000
victims killed in the violence.

The correlated murderous rampage

includes a U.S. spillover, with cross-
border assassins that carry U.S.
passports and assimilate with their
counterparts nationwide. Their
euphemistically described travel
luggage — a blend and well-
coordinated cache of superior
weaponry. Too, they are composed of
persons from other Latin American
nations, as well as those with U.S.
citizenship. This has been the case for
well over five years.

Is Mexico losing this war? Certainly

not.

In fact, it is a profound insult, especially

by any U.S. official, to declare this.
President Felipe Calderon has met and
taken the war directly back to the
cartels head-on. This action obvious
when reports of cartel organizations
describe paying demonstrators to
protest the military involvement. And it
is ludicrous to believe, at this time, that
there is any other enforcement arm
inherent in Mexico’s arsenal of security
cadre other than the military to confront
the type of weaponry used against them
and their citizens.

While one can simply call the death and

destruction in Mexico a drug war
between rival factions, those that
connect the dots see all of this as clear
acts of terrorism within the true
definition. Reminiscent of the battles
that have occurred in Baghdad, police
are routinely targeted and blown up as
the weak link in a stand of defense.
The police forces were never designed
or prepared for such an onslaught.

And now, police in the U.S. are being

threatened by drug cartels and their
gang enforcement arms. As well, you
can bet they will be well-armed to carry
out their threats.

Mexican authorities have asked

Washington for help, citing the flow of
weapons and bulk cash smuggled from
the U.S. to fuel the flames. The two
sides have tentatively agreed to step up
joint planning and cooperation to
“prevent illegal movement of drugs and
weapons across the border, and to
tackle money laundering and share
intelligence.” What’s new? A further
initiative attributed to Secretary Clinton
is that “both governments would focus
more on building sound institutions and
stronger communities.” They also said
the nations would study drug
consumption.

The session by the delegation was

described as part of a series of annual
anti-crime strategies. Long range
planning is good, but it is not going to
stem the flow of blood and continued
misery that crosses borders daily.
Perhaps Defense Secretary Robert
Gates, a former head of the Central
Intelligence Agency, has a much more,
although concealed, thought of
proactive, tactical, and strategic
intervention and interdiction. He may
have to keep it to himself in frustrating
political correctness circles. Admiral
Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, is certainly also
one that can understand what the
Mexican military is facing. After all,
both of these tenured professionals
think much further ahead of just
stronger communities and drug
consumption studies.

Let us then think ahead to the thoughts

of strengthening civilian law
enforcement institutions in Mexico. We
might also consider the thoughts of U.S.
civilian law enforcement SWAT teams
in our own country tackling the drug
cartel’s arsenals of light anti-tank (LAW)
weapons, hand grenades
(fragmentation and rocket propelled),
and other armor-piercing munitions.
The Mexican police did not stand
(literally) long for this. The military
subsequently got the task handed to
them and they have paid with their
lives. Yet, Mexico’s drug hierarchy has
continued to be pruned, they are on the
run, and fractions of disrupted cartel
organizations flee and attack in
retaliation like rodents.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet

Napolitano has made several trips to
the border in recent months to discuss
“community policing techniques” with
Mexican authorities. Secretary Clinton
sort of summed up the dilemma: “Our
goal in this intensive consultation is to
see what works and pursue it, and to
see what doesn’t and improve it.”

Political types have described the

violence in Mexico as “primarily a
reaction against the efforts of the
Mexican government to take on the
cartels and battle the organized crime,
corruption, and violence that comes
with the illegal drug trade.” That about
sums it up.
——————————
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