The End of Mexico?
The bigger question looms, how will this impact the sovereignty of the United States to secure our borders and ensure tranquility?
….You will note after you read the link embedded above that this blog concurred and wrote on the same issue twice last year and the year before.
….When I read each day that the cancer of lawlessness gains control like a reverse “Oil Spot Strategy” right on our southern border; and then read about this and this from the President of a country where we are spending our most precious resource to secure.
ADDENDUM II. –NEW! (hat tip to “The Warlord”):
WaPo – New adversary in US drug war: Contract killers for Mexican cartels?
CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO — A cross-border drug gang born in the prison cells of Texas has evolved into a sophisticated paramilitary killing machine that U.S. and Mexican officials suspect is responsible for thousands of assassinations here, including the recent ambush and slaying of three people linked to the U.S. consulate.
The heavily tattooed Barrio Azteca gang members have long operated across the border in El Paso, dealing drugs and stealing cars. But in Ciudad Juarez, the organization now specializes in contract killing for the Juarez drug cartel. According to U.S. law enforcement officers, it may have been involved in as many as half of the 2,660 killings in the city in the past year.
Officials on both sides of the border have watched as the Aztecas honed their ability to locate targets, stalk them and finally strike in brazen ambushes involving multiple chase cars, coded radio communications, coordinated blocking maneuvers and disciplined firepower by masked gunmen in body armor. Afterward, the assassins vanish, back to safe houses in the Juarez barrios or across the bridge to El Paso.
“Within their business of killing, they have surveillance people, intel people and shooters. They have a degree of specialization,” said David Cuthbertson, special agent in charge of the FBI’s El Paso division. “They work day in and day out, with a list of people to kill, and they get proficient at it.”
The special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in El Paso, Joseph Arabit, said, “Our intelligence indicates that they kill frequently for a hundred dollars.”
The mayor of Juarez, José Reyes Ferriz, said that the city is honeycombed with safe houses, armories and garages with stolen cars for the assassins’ use. The mayor received a death threat recently in a note left beside a pig’s head in the city.
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Chris van Avery:
April 3rd, 2010 at 4:43 am
In watching the world, it looks more and more like the lawless among mankind are beginning to figure out that order hangs on the most tenuous of strings. With enough violence and coordinated effort, criminal organizations are discovering they can become a law unto themselves and governments just don’t have the resources to deal with the problem.
Alas! Poor Mexico. So Far From God, So Close to Chaos « The Committee of Public Safety:
April 3rd, 2010 at 4:51 am
[…] a comment » Zenpundit makes an important post: The End of Mexico? An ineffective or inappropriate state response will make this tactic go viral: ….Last week, at […]
Fred Leland:
April 3rd, 2010 at 11:42 am
Zen outstanding points Forsight ussually could mean forwarned, but in our country the politicians and hence those they have incharge of security live in the land of OZ where the yellow brick road they follow only leads to reelection or bye bye. Planning for something "that just is not going to happen here" (allthough its happening already) is the ostrich with heads in the sand approach…as ussual!
I am not a big political guy but this PC mindset has inndeed gotten out of hand.
Eddie:
April 3rd, 2010 at 4:07 pm
This is a great post building on an earlier fantastic discussion you provoked. I would quibble a bit here though. Given the political atmosphere in the Southwest and broader populist circles, the current admin. and local officials may alike find themselves fearful of stating the obvious because it could provoke a fierce backlash. As well, at the local and state level especially, they may not be able to do such planning because of political infighting and obstructionism (i.e. those who don’t give a damn about international law mandating refugee treatment) by various appointees and elected officials. ——b———"What the *((# are we feeding Mexican illegals for when we can’t find ourselves?" "Why are we helping illegals who steal jobs and commit crimes?" "Why aren’t we shooting these Mexicans at the border before they get over here?"——-c——–That’s not a caricature of opinions. Those are the attitudes of a good number of Americans who have no sympathy for Mexicans (nor for government officials interested in helping them) given their largely illegal "invasion" of our country in the past 25 years. If you want to see a good ol fashioned populist backlash that will make the Tea Partiers pale in comparison, watch what happens if this does become a humanitarian crisis.
Schmedlap:
April 3rd, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Bring it. Bring the crisis. It’s the only thing that prompts us to take appropriate actions. Of course, it also tends to prompt us to take inappropriate actions. But, in this case, I think just anything is better than nothing..No es bueno
historyguy99:
April 3rd, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Mark,
As I noted in this post, http://hgworld.blogspot.com/2010/04/zenpundit-asks-end-of-mexico-or-end-of.html I was stopped in my tracks. I would concur with what Eddie notes that if this becomes a humanitarian crisis, it will cause the mother of all backlashes.
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It is not unoticed by this observer that the U.S. Army is repositioning the 1st Armored Division from Germany to Ft. Bliss and has moved part of the 4th Infantry from Ft. Carson to be with the 1st Cav at Ft. Hood, Texas. Logistics aside, this puts the Army’s strongest units near the pontential flash point.
J. Scott:
April 3rd, 2010 at 6:24 pm
Zen said: "Political Correctness in national security affairs is the autoimmune disease of our body politic." You nailed it my friend, and this "autoimmune disease" has infected most of the Democratic Party and a good chunk of the GOP—the "governing class" as it were. This will get worse before it gets better. Thanks for posting.
zen:
April 4th, 2010 at 4:02 am
Much thanks Gents!
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Eddie, you raised a very valid point regarding current attitudes and what HG calls "the Mother of All Backlashes". National leaders have created that situation by provoking frustration over not resolving reasonable state level complaints over the effects of deliberately not enforcing immigration laws or setting up a rational guest-worker program.
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"Bring it. Bring the crisis. It’s the only thing that prompts us to take appropriate actions. Of course, it also tends to prompt us to take inappropriate actions"
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LOL! Schmedlap, Before the break, I was talking to my students on how historically in its approach to crisis, especially in foreign affairs, America has two default settings 1) Unprepared and 2) Overreact.
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Did not realize that about troop deployment HG. Good info!
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Scott, I fear that is the case. It is impossible to talk rationally and empirically about many problems because they lead to Stalinistic accusations of racism by ppl whose careers are invested personally in maintaining the status quo.
historyguy99:
April 4th, 2010 at 5:27 am
Coming to a post near Juarez this summer.
http://www.1ad.army.mil/-jumparchive/2010/03/articles/BlissRemodel.html
Seerov:
April 4th, 2010 at 7:29 am
"What they really meant is that this kind of contingency planning is politically unacceptable to national security officials because it would offend the Mexican government, a few members of Congress and some activist constituencies in the Democratic Party’s base." (Zen)
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Exactly, Americans don’t mind helping out Mexicans if serious problems arise in Mexico. All Middle Americans want is an guarantee with the Left that the refugees aren’t going to become 10 million new Democrat voters. We should build really nice camps next to big agro jobs. And the Mexicans will get access to agro jobs and a host of other services American entrepreneurs present them(education, tools, skill training). Maybe while these people are living in the camp, they can get some more education, then in a year or two when they go back to Mexico they’ll have money saved, and maybe a new skill?
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Middle America wants is a guarantee.
Fred Leland:
April 4th, 2010 at 11:32 am
This is a great discussion. Unprepared and overeact is indeed the way we operate! Sadly I say this based on experience.
All that keep ringing in my ears when it comes to our leaders and security related issues is. where is the STRENGTH OF CHARACTER TO LEAD?
zen:
April 4th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Fred, character in a leader is just too much to expect – how about some equivocation? 😉
Containing Mexico « The Committee of Public Safety:
April 5th, 2010 at 5:29 am
[…] own Porfirio Diaz said, ¿Pan o palo? (bread or a beating?). Illegal immigration, perhaps deliberately induced by Mexican drug gangs in an ironic echo of the strategy of Mexico’s incumbent elites, will […]
Chicago Boyz » Blog Archive » Containing Mexico:
April 5th, 2010 at 5:37 am
[…] own Porfirio Diaz said, ¿Pan o palo? (bread or a beating?). Illegal immigration, perhaps deliberately induced by Mexican drug gangs in an ironic echo of the strategy of Mexico’s incumbent elites, will […]
T. Greer:
April 5th, 2010 at 7:55 am
You might also be interested at this post over at Diplopundit on the corruption of U.S. officials by drug cartels.
Mexican drug cartel orders all residents to leave town or die | Politics in the Zeros:
April 5th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
[…] Zen Pundit wonders what happens if (when?) the political asylum tactic goes viral or if thousands start crossing over. […]
Jeff Inglis:
April 6th, 2010 at 1:14 am
The only solution is the legalization of drugs.
Removes the entire basis of existence of the drug lords, cartels, wars, etc.
http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php
Seerov:
April 6th, 2010 at 4:44 am
I need to reiterate something to the American Left (this includes the Wall Street Journal opinion page open borders Conservatives). If Mexico does go down, you don’t have the right to use the influx of Mexicans for your political and economic goals. America doesn’t mind helping our fiends to the South, but don’t push it. I know this will be hard for you to resist. But you have to try. I know it will be beyond tempting to not expoint the fact that "brown people" may have to live in camps on American soil. I realize this is like putting a pile of crack in front of an addict with the hope s/he won’t smoke it.
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With that said, this movement of Mexicans over the border may be a genius military tactic (5GW) by the cartel-military-government complex in Mexico. As anyone who’s studied the spread of cartel power has noticed, their networks lay deepest in locations with the highest concentrations of Mexican immigrants. This may be an attempt to spread their networks by exploiting the multicultural Zeitgeist in the US. They (the CMG complex) would have allies on the American side on the Left, whose job would be to bang the "racism" drum when middle Americans start rejecting the idea that their small towns take up the role of refugee camps.
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This would benefit the Mexican CMG complex, the American Left, and the profit uber allis Right in America. This would hurt middle America and/or the American middle and working classes.
Abandoning Mexico?:
April 6th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
[…] Zenpundit is tracking a very real short-term scenario for the future: cartels are ordering residents of towns to abandon them, and there is now a stream of residents seeking political asylum in the United States. Is the church ready to help people forced out of their homes by criminal gangs? (HT: John Robb) […]
Attack the System » Blog Archive » Updated News Digest April 9-11, 2010:
April 9th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
[…] The End of Mexico? by Zenpundit […]
Freidman of Stratfor writes about “Mexico and the Failed State Revisited” « Fabius Maximus:
April 10th, 2010 at 12:03 am
[…] “The End of Mexico?“, Zenpundit, 3 April 2010 […]
Starfor looks at Mexico: “The Struggle for Balance” « Fabius Maximus:
April 11th, 2010 at 12:03 am
[…] “The End of Mexico?“, Zenpundit, 3 April 2010 […]
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April 22nd, 2010 at 3:57 pm
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