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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Mexican Army Reinforces in Tamaulipas |
| 2011-02-21 |
| For a map, click here. For a map of Tamaulipas, click here. by Chris Covert Four of 18 new rifle battalions are to be raised in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, according to Mexican news reports. Mexican Army secretary of defense, General Guillermo Gavan Galvan, speaking in Reynosa announced that the four of the 18 new rifle units proposed and funded last November by the Chamber of Deputies will be raised in Tamaulipas. Galvan Galvan also announced a number of other new reforms including enhanced compensation for soldiers. Mexican President Felipe Calderon along with General Galvan Galvan were visiting the border city of Reynosa in an observance of Army Day last Saturday. Army Day celebrates the formation of the Mexican Constitutionalist Army, the forbear of the modern Mexican Army 98 years ago. Tamaulipas and its long border with the United States is a prime transit point for illegal drugs coming from the Gulf Cartel and its main rival Los Zetas. The three Tamaulipas border cities, Reynosa, Matamoros and Nuevo Laredo have long been flash points of fighting between the rival groups. The fighting in these area also extends to roads south leading into the cities. Tamaulipas has in the past been considered to be a state in the thrall of Mexican drug gangs with some state and municipal officials in the pay of organized crime. Last July, however, a new state administration under Governor Egidio Torres Cantu has seen some changes in security arrangements in recent months, including the mixing of federal security forces from Tamaulipas and neigboring Nuevo Leon. Torres Catu's invigorated involvement in fighting the Mexican drug trade is understandable: His brother, Rodolfo, was murdered by a group of assassins, said to be Los Zetas, last June. Egidio took over Rodolfo's campaign and went on to win the governorship of Tamaulipas. To see Rantburg's reports on the murder of Rodolfo Torres Cantu click here. Calderon is politically considered to be a lame duck. The year 2011 is his last full year as president before the 2012 presidential election in July, 2012. Calderon's visit during Mexican Army may has some symbolic significance given the severe criticism he has received nationally and internationally, both from his political opponents and his Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) compatriots, for his war on the drug cartels. Calderon has made trips in the past to northern states and nearly all of them presided over by Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) governors. Indeed, the new head of the PRI is a governor of Coahuila, Humberto Moreira. Such visits do not seem to signify anything more an exchange of views between Mexico City and state politicians. The Army Day visit and the subsequent announcement of the new forces in one of the most violent areas of Mexico does signify that criticism will not dissuade anyone from fighting the cartels, not even PRI politicians, not even a lame duck president. In fact, a news story released last Saturday quoted support for the war on the drug cartels from the coordinator of the Partido Verde Ecologista de Mexico M, Arturo Escobar, stated his support for the war on the cartels. PVEM local politicians often align themselves with PRI to win local elections. The latest announcement takes the ind out of the Mexican drug war as a political issue in 20120 The only wild card in Mexican national politics with regard to the drug war is the Partido Democratica Revolucion (PRD) ands its leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Lopez Obrador was Calderon's main opponent in the 2006 presidential elections, who lost by less than one percent of the vote. The mainstream Mexican left represented by the PRD may well win the presidency in 2012, and if Lopez Obrador is the PRD candidate, he has made it very clear resources in his national government will shift from the drug war to income supports for the poor, effectively ending the war, at least in Mexico. International elements threaten to intervene in Mexican politics as well. A news report last fall by a Mexican national publication published Lopez Obrador's denial that his 2006 presidential campaign was directly aided by Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. In his speech Saturday General Galvan outlined some of the pay enhancements Mexican soldiers can receive.
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| Posted by:badanov |
