|
2023-03-29 Caribbean-Latin America
|
|
'The Failed Narco-State.' In the United States, they are talking about sending troops to Mexico
|
 Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[REGNUM] Senator Lindsey Graham questioned US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken about whether the cartels control parts of Mexico. Blinken replied that one could agree with this fact. The Secretary of State also said that Mexican authorities should do more to detect and intercept shipments of fentanyl. Graham couldn't help but ask - wouldn't it be better to simply declare the cartels terrorist organizations and "act in accordance with US law?"
| Rantburg files drug cartel activities under War on Terror, originally because the goals and activities of transnational jihadi groups and those drug cartels that supply European, North American, and Australian users have been long intertwined. |
Overseas, almost the entire month of March, the information space is shaken by a scandalous exchange of remarks between American politicians and the President of Mexico. The United States says that Obrador is collaborating with the cartels, threatening to designate them as terrorist organizations and send his own military contingent to Central America to restore order. Mexican authorities deny all accusations, recalling the US attack on the Nord Stream gas pipeline. How can this squabbling end and is the US really going to send troops to Mexico?
CONVENIENT INCIDENT
Continued from Page 2
In early March, the US Embassy in Mexico announced the kidnapping of four American citizens in the municipality of Matamoros. This happened almost immediately after they crossed the border crossing in a car and were fired upon by a group of unknown persons.
The “unknowns” were allegedly members of the Golfo cartel, who control the Mexican side of the local crossing and arrange such performances with enviable regularity.
While US authorities announced a reward for information on the whereabouts of the kidnapped citizens, reports began to appear on social networks that at least two of them were shot while trying to capture them. Later, a video from the crime scene in Matamoros showed two lifeless bodies of missing Americans.
With a high degree of probability, they died during a shootout between cartel members and Mexican military personnel, which, according to the local population, happens here with enviable regularity and usually causes indecently few questions from American officials, and even more so from the Mexican authorities.
At the same time, this incident - absolutely ordinary for these places - was immediately picked up by American officials and put into circulation.
EQUATE CARTELS WITH ISIS
On March 7, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said that due to the resonant kidnapping and murder of American citizens, he is preparing to submit a bill to the US Senate regulating the deployment of US military contingents in Mexico. Of course, with the right to conduct military operations.
Graham also gave an interview to Fox News, in which he said that he was going to follow the advice of the 45th US President Donald Trump in relations with Mexico. Specifically, he warned Mexico that " if it continues to harbor drug traffickers, it will become an enemy of the United States."
The interview spawned a series of statements of a similar nature from Republican politicians, including members of the Trump team. For example, former Attorney General William Barr, in an interview with the same Fox News, began to refer to Mexico as a " failed drug state " whose government is "completely corrupt and incapable of fighting cartels."
As a result, Barr turned everything to the idea that was at one time one of the popular theses of Donald Trump - to treat cartels the same way as members of the "Islamic State" (IS).
Another Republican, Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw, recorded a video message to Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador in Spanish. In it, Crenshaw said that the elimination of the cartels was in the interests of both the United States and Mexico. In the future, Crenshaw also could not resist commenting to the press, where he shared his thoughts that the leadership of Mexico was " undoubtedly bribed by cartels ."
The newly-minted US presidential candidate Nikki Haley did not stand aside.
During one of the conferences, the official said that when it comes to cartels, the Mexican president should be confronted with a “either you do it or we do it” style. As “that,” Haley suggested deploying US special operations forces in Mexico in the same way that they had done in due time because of the threats posed by IS.
"INSULT TO THE PEOPLE OF MEXICO"
The President of Mexico called such calls " a threat to the country's sovereignty "
and stated that he would not allow any foreign government to invade Mexican territories. In addition, he regarded such threats as " an insult to the people of Mexico ".
Finally, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador himself could not resist the threat - he promised that if American Republican lawmakers try to use Mexico for propaganda, electoral and political purposes, he will call on the Mexican community in the United States not to vote for this party.
| Did he indeed. That does dovetail neatly with the pamphlets and such handed out by the Mexican government for years explaining how its citizens can infiltrate across the American border. |
In this case, the president took advantage of the fact that the Republican Party has been relying on the Latin American community in its election campaigns for the past few years.
Another question is that the Republican electorate is the children of emigrants, born and raised already in the United States, and from among the representatives of the so-called "middle class" (or at least those who are approaching it).
They stand out for their emphasized adherence to conservative values and feel more like Americans than residents of the Hispanic part of the mainland.
So in this case, the threat of the Mexican president looks rather weak.
| Ahhh... so Russia sees that, even if Mexico does not. |
HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES
After the threatening statements of politicians of the Republican Party, other representatives of the American political fauna also woke up.
Out of nowhere, numerous anti-drug experts have emerged to claim that US-Mexico cooperation in combating drug trafficking is at its lowest level in decades.
Naturally, this is the fault of Mexico, whose officials are " so corrupt that they do not give permission for joint raids or even surveillance by US law enforcement ."
The American authorities, on the other hand, have a full range of information about the activities of traffickers in both drugs and human goods, but the Mexicans " simply refuse " to use the most valuable intelligence information.
As a result, this resulted in direct accusations and the imposition of responsibility on the leadership of Mexico in the epidemic of overdoses of synthetic opioids in the United States, and on March 20, the State Department even published a report on serious human rights problems in the neighboring country.
NORD STREAM AND SYNTHETIC OPIOIDS
And here Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador again took the stage.
The very next day after the publication of the report, the Mexican president declared that all this was “ a complete lie ”, once again disproving the fact that Mexico produces synthetic opioids.
And if the Mexican authorities decided to write a report exposing human rights problems in the United States, then it would obviously be more interesting. Obrador offered to mention in it the ordeals of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange , and also asked why companies involved in the illegal distribution of synthetic opioids can still safely work in the United States.
And in general, the Joe Biden administration has no right to talk about violence in Mexico, since it itself authorized sabotage on the Nord Stream gas pipeline - here Obrador timely referred to the fact that such accusations did not belong to him, but to the award-winning American journalist Seymour Hersh.
The White House immediately stated that all allegations of US involvement in the attack on the gas pipeline are “lies”, and the problem with the distribution of synthetic opioids (in particular, fentanyl) is global, affecting both the United States and countries such as Mexico.
At the same time, the White House softened the pill, saying that relations with neighbors are vital for the United States, and mentioned the "very successful negotiations" that Biden and Obrador had held back in January.
However, a day later the situation changed.
At the next hearings in the US Senate, the already mentioned Senator Lindsey Graham asked US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken about whether the cartels control part of Mexico.
Blinken replied that one could fairly agree with this fact. The Secretary of State also said that Mexican authorities should do more to detect and intercept shipments of fentanyl in the border area.
Of course, Graham couldn't resist asking if, instead of intercepting at the border, wouldn't it be better to simply declare the cartels as terrorist organizations and " act in accordance with US law "?
Blinken replied that the State Department would think about it.
BIDEN, BRING IN THE TROOPS!
The bill that Lindsey Graham is about to present, and the theses contained in it (or rather, their fragments), in principle, are not something sensational. It was on the endless threats to recognize drug cartels as terrorist organizations that Donald Trump once promoted the idea of building a wall on the American border.
No one was recognized as a terrorist, but many members of the Trump team in those glorious years made good money on government contracts, building walls on the southern American borders and, as a result, did not even finish the job.
Graham, to some extent, turned out to be even softer than Trump - he proposed recognizing only certain cartels as terrorist organizations. Considering that there are at least four criminal organizations of this level operating in Mexico, as well as dozens of poorly controlled (but identifying themselves as cartel members) gangs, the recognition process can take a long time.
It would be much easier to recognize any cartels as terrorist organizations, as Donald Trump once suggested. In this case, it would be enough to take action not even from a real cartel, but from a crypto group that published a threat to the American authorities somewhere on Twitter.
In addition, military action in Mexico requires permission to use military force, which must be approved by the US Congress (requires a two-thirds majority) and then confirmed by the president's signature.
And even then, direct control (at least on paper) over the armed forces will have Joe Biden, who back in January quite calmly agreed with Obrador on cooperation in combating cross-border drug trafficking.
At the same time, the recognition of cartels as terrorist organizations implies not only the possibility of introducing troops into the territory of Mexico (and potentially other Latin American states), but also the imposition of economic sanctions against Mexican officials associated with the cartels.
However, no one seriously dares to take such steps, which suggests that the criminal situation in Mexico in general and in the American border area in particular is frankly beneficial to American officials.
TRAFFIC
The situation on the border between Mexico and the United States leaves much to be desired.
Official figures hover around two million arrests in 2022, but the actual number of illegal crossings could well be as high as four million a year.
At the same time, cross-border drug trafficking is inextricably linked with illegal migration, since most illegal Hispanics are used as forced drug couriers (for example, in this way they can pay for help with crossing the border or pay off the debts of their relatives).
With this increase in the number of migrants, the opportunities for drug trafficking are logically expanding.
Recently, another interesting trend has emerged - given the ever-increasing amount of fentanyl and other types of synthetic opioids in the United States, we can safely conclude that they are not only imported by migrants who can carry just one batch.
We are talking about industrial-scale deliveries, in which drugs are brought into the country by cars and planes, miraculously passing all forms of control - and this already suggests that American officials are not only aware of this situation, but also supervise it.
With this approach, any strengthening of checks in the framework of the fight against illegal drug trafficking in the border areas acquire a completely different meaning. By increasing the number of inspections and seizures in conditional Texas, the American authorities are seeking to redirect drug flows to California or Arizona, where they hold individual carriers accountable and actually force out “strangers” from the drug market, taking it under their personal control.
The Mexican authorities, for their part, practically do not put any obstacles to the smuggling of drugs and migration flows, also receive certain benefits from what is happening. In fact, the action on the US-Mexican border is a kind of symbiosis, in which, however, it is the American businessmen who benefit the most.
By the way, all of the above applies not only to drugs - across the border (and in both directions), with this approach, you can safely transport live goods and weapons.
"UKRAINIAN" WEAPONS
In mid-March, information appeared in thematic online communities that Mexican cartels were using " weapons brought from Ukraine " in their local conflicts.
At the moment, there is no clear evidence that the firearm was actually delivered from Kyiv - and from among American deliveries - at the moment.
However, it has long been known that over the years, products from companies such as Smith & Wesson Brands Inc., Barrett Firearms Manufacturing Inc., Colt's Manufacturing Co., and Glock Inc. have been smuggled into Mexico and other Latin American countries. .
At one time, the current Mexican leadership even decided on an adventure in the form of filing a lawsuit against all of the above weapons companies, trying to accuse them of negligence and involvement in the violence perpetrated by the cartels.
At the same time, most of the militants from the cartels are completely undemanding in the choice of weapons, in fact, they take what they can get, and make something themselves.
Since the beginning of the Ukrainian conflict in the United States, arms dealers of various levels have become more active.
For example, Florida-based KelTec donated about 400 semi-automatic rifles to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. To do this, I just had to contact the Ukrainian embassy, which took care of all the problems of obtaining a federal export license.
In the future, Ukrainian diplomats pledged to deliver the party to facilities controlled by NATO, and only after that - to hand over to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. At the moment, it is not known whether the party (by the way, far from the only one) made it to the Old World.
However, other circumstances also surfaced.
For example, the Ukrainian embassies - in the same Mexico - openly recruited persons with combat experience into the ranks of mercenaries.
For the most part, the necessary contingent was found with the help of individual citizens who have connections with local criminal groups. It is doubtful that individual personalities from among American and Ukrainian officials missed the chance to earn money by selling several unaccounted arms shipments to some new acquaintance.
A NEW ROUND OF QUARREL
Why did the American authorities start a public skirmish with the President of Mexico - after all, in fact, the cross-border drug trade is debugged remarkably well and brings income to people from among the leadership of both countries.
Here you can consider several versions.
For example, the desire of individual politicians from the Republican Party to increase their own ratings on the eve of the elections in 2024.
| It is now the end of the first quarter of 2023. The 2024 elections will take place in the fourth quarter of that year — so it will be 1 1/2 years before we are on the eve of elections for which our politicians need worry about their ratings. |
Or it could be a fight to redistribute shares of the proceeds from the drug trade. Taking into account the fact that the US authorities are pushing small drug dealers out of the border, it can be assumed that they have begun to do the same already on the territory of Mexico itself.
| Assuming is easy. Making useful assumptions that will lead to realistic conclusions is something altogether much harder. |
The intelligence resources and military contingent already in Central America as part of the activities of the US Drug Enforcement Administration are quite capable of doing this.
| If they were capable of doing so effectively, they would have started decades ago. |
As recently as last month, with the help of information from American sources, several cocaine laboratories in the state of Sinaloa, owned by one of the cartels, were destroyed. At the same time, according to information from individual sources, workers from these laboratories could well have avoided arrest and simply transferred to another area to new employers and old occupations.
As for the threats to recognize the cartels as terrorist organizations, at the moment this may mean, first of all, the threat of sanctions against certain Mexican officials.
It is still difficult to say what exactly can be achieved from the Mexican authorities in this way, but this clearly promises new income for a separate group of American elites.
March 28, 2023
Olga Kuznetsova
|
Posted by badanov 2023-03-29 00:00||
||
Front Page|| [14 views ]
Top
File under: Narcos
|
|
Posted by MikeKozlowski 2023-03-29 08:20||
2023-03-29 08:20||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by M. Murcek 2023-03-29 08:25||
2023-03-29 08:25||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by Skidmark 2023-03-29 09:12||
2023-03-29 09:12||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by Skidmark 2023-03-29 09:13||
2023-03-29 09:13||
Front Page
Top
|
|
09:25 Whiskey Mike
09:21 Whiskey Mike
09:21 M. Murcek
09:12 M. Murcek
09:11 M. Murcek
09:09 M. Murcek
09:08 Huputle+Cherelet4131
09:06 Skidmark
09:06 DarthVader
09:05 Huputle+Cherelet4131
09:05 DarthVader
09:00 M. Murcek
09:00 Huputle+Cherelet4131
08:59 M. Murcek
08:59 Skidmark
08:56 Jolusing+Hatfield1692
08:52 Skidmark
08:46 M. Murcek
08:45 Skidmark
08:37 M. Murcek
08:35 M. Murcek
08:34 Besoeker
08:32 M. Murcek
08:30 M. Murcek
|
