| | |  Editorials | Opinions 
Alleviating Conflict in Mexico is a Shared Responsibility
 Jerry Brewer - mexidata.info
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April 14, 2010
 |  | The prosecution of smugglers that are apprehended in the U.S. or Mexico must be a collaborative and diligent effort between both nations. |  | | |
The simple response to the highly complex and heinous human misery and carnage being suffered by the Mexican populace is joint strategies and a clear shared vision with the U.S. Why must Mexico and its neighbor to the north reluctantly acquiesce to seeing things, at a minimum, through a prism that may still slant or distort procedural, cultural and other institutional differences?
It is quite easy to answer that both sides are experiencing the organized criminal activity of transnational narcoterrorism. In its simplest form it means that the U.S. has a multi-billion dollar voracious drug habit and the narcoterrorists wish to continue to profit from it. Too, they want the dollars to flow unimpeded back across the U.S. border along with guns that supplement what they can acquire from Central America to enforce their will.
Cooperation between Mexico and the U.S. is a fluid process. However, the problems that exert a dominating influence on many coordinated operational acts, strategies and mutual vision in confronting the same enemy relate to the shared boundary between both nations. This includes issues of state sovereignty and related ethnic independence. Even the enforcement angle of interdiction is quite diverse on the U.S. side as it relates to federal, state, local, and tribal responsibilities. This dilemma is faced on both sides of the border as the Mexican military performs outside of traditional police procedures and the common effort becomes somewhat ad hoc and in unsystematic fashion.
The priorities in confronting the drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) are somewhat diverse to both nations. The death and violence in Mexico is of grave concern and requires urgency. But it also is, and must be seen as, a critical threat to government and a democracy. Law enforcement in both nations is experiencing an enemy that is developing powerfully and technologically at an alarming rate. This impairs a government’s ability to sustain a viable fight with the necessary resources, training, and abilities to maintain authority and prevent additional loss of life.
Mexico is also confronted with securing their frontier with Central America and transnational gangs, the drug trafficking supply pipeline, human smuggling, and other insurgent related issues. Mexico’s necessary tourism industry is stifled and retail businesses thus seriously compromised by a failure to interdict the violence.
U.S. assistance has been effective in many interdiction strategies such as the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) visits and work in tracing the itinerary of weapons flowing south. U.S. intelligence analysis and operational-related information sharing has led to the death and capture of DTO hierarchy. Tips/contributor information has also come from rival DTOs in Colombia and Central American nations. This information is always potentially intercepted and compromised.
Human intelligence (HUMINT) is of paramount concern since the true mission of locating, penetrating, and ultimately dismantling DTOs is a hunt for flesh and not necessarily commodity. The massive wealth of this enemy equates to corruption at potentially every level of government, with this collusion becoming a death warrant for anyone standing in the way of sabotaging the DTO’s mission.
U.S. intelligence, federal law enforcement, and military training provided to Mexican counterparts bring much expertise and specialization gained from many domestic and international venues. Much of this transnational technology brought forth by experience in Middle Eastern war zones and associated technology in border security, unmanned aerial equipment, and similar operational acts.
The DTOs come to the playing field with their own acquired advanced weaponry, technology, communication systems, transportation methods, intelligence information, and financing systems. It is truly a war.
The prosecution of smugglers that are apprehended in the U.S. or Mexico must be a collaborative and diligent effort between both nations. Since kingpin hierarchy harbors massive wealth and related resources and intelligence wealth, this must be a constant priority. Southbound narco revenue dollars and guns must also continue to be a priority for it leads to a recipient. However, absent a reliable symbiotic and focused interdiction strategy and law enforcement effort, a state may choose to equate another interpretation and understanding of justice, and thus impede progress because of conflicting opinion.
To those who have cleverly deciphered that this enemy will never be totally defeated because of supply and demand, regardless of the contraband, it is clear that the U.S. and Mexico share the responsibility in this war. Mexico has much more to lose with a dog in this fight by its state weakening over time without effective interdiction and reducing the violence. This could lead to DTOs acquiring a strong parallel power on Mexican soil due to their resiliency and prosperity.
Jerry Brewer is C.E.O. of Criminal Justice International Associates, a global risk mitigation firm headquartered in Miami, Florida. His website is located at www.cjiausa.org. |
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