The U.s.-mexico Border Wars Demand Action

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MEXIDATA . INFO Column 112105 Brewer

Monday, November 21, 2005 The U.S.-Mexico border wars demand action By Jerry Brewer Delays, lip service, or simply ignoring the potential of hostilities along our long southern border with Mexico is outlandish, unwise, and must not be tolerated. There is a clear and well-defined enemy lurking about and penetrating that border routinely. The enemy is not the usual Mexican immigrant seeking work and a better way of life. Nor is it an enemy that will be stopped by a wall or fences, or worry about a civilian militia. This enemy is a well-trained and skilled army of former Special Forces’ commandos and military deserters from Latin American countries. Paramilitary types who are recruited as enforcers for the drug cartels. Assassinations, kidnappings, shootouts, and related violence are their calling cards. Calling cards that are strewn metaphorically to the tune of 157 drug-related murders and 63 kidnappings in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas alone this year. U.S. Border Patrol agents along the southern border know the enemy well, as so far there have been 548 assaults on agents in 2005, this compared to 220 in 2003. Law enforcement personnel defending our southern border are out manned, and quite simply outgunned – with many of these brave men and women having stared down the barrels of AK-47 assault rifles and other sophisticated automatic weaponry. And many have watched as camouflaged paramilitary types stealthily parade past, escorting contraband across the border, hunkered down because they face such superior firepower.

Let us be clear and realistic. Fences and walls will not stop the above, just as those with knives will not win a gunfight. A porous border plugged with walls might stop and inconvenience the migrants’ march to their perceived utopia and reunions with family members who crossed before them. However well armed paramilitary types or dogma driven terrorists will still complete the trip. Furthermore, these insurgents have allies north of the border. Organized crime groups in the United States that include the Mexican Mafia, the Central Americanbased Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, and other gangs that support them. Another accomplice in the United States, in this alliance of terror, is the US$30 billion drug habit. This conveniently allows the continued purchases of leadingedge weapons and hired guns, plus it permits untold bribes and payoffs. And it is money that paves the cross-border entry routes with gold. Walls and high fences are not obstacles to suppliers, considering the intense demand for contraband and the profits involved. This is about money and power, and it also involves weapons, human trafficking for multiple purposes, terrorist ideology, financial crime, and other forms of criminal violence. The lucrative overland smuggling corridors are alive and well, plus there are air and sea routes, and you can bet those involved in drug trafficking and people smuggling are constantly researching every perceived obstacle to stop them. As for a wall, the drug cartels could pay the US$8 billion construction costs from petty cash, a deception just to make us feel better. What they could not stop is a strategic, comprehensive, well-planned and properly executed enforcement plan. In addition, Mexican drug cartels and their associates are running marijuana farms, and protecting them with booby traps and assault rifles, right here in the United States. Last year the National Park Service seized marijuana at a street value of US$240 million in California where it was being grown. One might repulsively admire their tenacity however, for increased attention at the Mexican border has convinced those involved it is easier to grow marijuana in the U.S. than to smuggle it in. In the interests of our homeland security, now is the time for U.S. politicians to halt the partisan tug of war

with the American public. Who supported war, who lied about weapons of mass destruction, who changed their minds, and who is posturing for a run for the presidency and office in the next elections, seem a little shallow. The American homeland is vulnerable and lives are at risk. An internal implosion doesn’t sound unrealistic, given the facts and assessing the threat. America needs to roll up its sleeves like it has throughout our proud history, and politicians need to be called on the carpet in this democracy to once again unite for the common good. War does not stop at the border. —————————— Jerry Brewer, the Vice President of Criminal Justice International Associates, a global risk mitigation firm headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, is also a columnist with MexiData.info. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected] and [email protected].