Mexico’s elite have clearly lost security control of their country. The hinterlands are now swarming with splintered cartels, emboldened enough to routinely display their firepower on social media and other outlets. It’s a pre-insurrection chapter right out of Mao’s little red book.
Displaying military grade weaponry, including RPGs, APCs, & armored cars with fatigues to match, these various private armies have intimidated Mexican law enforcement to the point they won’t venture far from the bigger cities.
They also know their government and police ranks are rife with cartel moles. Corruption is endemic, while politicians are utterly feckless. Their clueless El Presidente, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, also known as AMLO, makes Barack Obama look like ‘the Rock’, Dwayne Johnson. On July 17th AMLO was forced to put the Mexican Army in charge of all seaport administration and border crossings.
The ineffective former socialist mayor of Mexico City, AMLO constantly spouts blathering nonsense like “Hugs, not drugs.” He preaches daily in a long morning presser, and at every chance virtue-signals his “man-of-the-people” image …like flying 3rd class to see world leaders. Even the most chauvinistic & patriotic of Mexicans are deeply embarrassed; there were serious rumors of a coup in early June.
The United States shares a proportional degree of blame for this present predicament. First of all, it’s our drug habit, and secondly, we contributed to the proliferation of new cartels with a successful decapitation strategy of previous, big-name cartel kingpins, like Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman and others. What was left simply reorganized.
There is no doubt in my mind that a Demshevik elected American president would take down the wall as currently built, exposing millions of Americans AND Mexicans, to even greater danger.
What is needed is an effective denial strategy designed to root out the cartels & their drug lifeblood within 100-300 miles of the American border, probably 100% performed inside Mexican airspace. Cue armed predator drones.
But what about ‘Mexican national sovereignty’, the tired old saw constantly waved in our faces? Well, doesn’t the United States have numerous national security assets in harm’s way along this border? Not to mention millions of people?
Our adversaries have long considered this entire region as America’s “vulnerable soft underbelly”, going all the way back to Germany’s infamous Zimmermann Telegram in World War 1. Defense planners now see the potential for a runaway Maoist insurrection in the Mexican countryside as a far graver possibility. In late 2017, then White House Chief of Staff General John Kelly warned President Trump, “Mexico was on the initial verge of collapse like Venezuela.”
Moreover, for such a US counter-strategy to be effective, it must show its teeth. That also means no sharing of data with Mexican government officials, only highly-vetted law enforcement, until satisfactory results against the cartels has been achieved.
Executed correctly, and after decades of absolute terror for the common people of Mexico’s rural & border areas, there could be no better “respect gesture” and action from the United States to its worthy & beautiful southern neighbor.
Sellers is a South Park Republican who lives in incorporated Oro Valley. His background is federal tech-transfer commercialization.
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