Tuesday, October 22, 2019

What's really going on in Mexico - and threatening the US


Three articles have shed a great deal of light on what's really happening in Mexico right now.  They're essential reading, particularly because the mainstream media simply aren't covering that country in anything like sufficient detail.  To call Mexico a "failed state" is being charitable, as this news report makes clear.





The first article is from The Federalist, titled "A Drug Cartel Just Defeated The Mexican Military In Battle".

The battle of Culiacan marks a turning point in the collapse of the Mexican state. There is now no doubt about who is in control of Sinaloa, let alone the rest of the country. Cartel forces seized a major regional capital city in broad daylight and defeated the national armed forces in open battle.

Violence is rampant across Mexico. Earlier in the week, more than one dozen police officers were massacred in a cartel ambush in western Mexico. A day later, 14 suspected gang members were killed by the Mexican Army. Homicides in Mexico this year are on track to surpass last year’s record total of more than 29,000.

Understand that the fighting in Culiacan is not just another episode in the “drug war,” nor is it merely an incident of organized crime. What’s happening Mexico right now is more like an insurgency. Yes, drug-trafficking is one of the things the cartels do, but it doesn’t nearly describe what they are or what role they’re playing in the disintegration of civil society in Mexico. Indeed, over the past decade cartels have diversified their economic activities to include everything from oil and gas production to industrial agriculture to offshore commercial fishing.

In other words, it’s fair to say that Mexico is now on a trajectory to become a vast gangland governed more by warlordism than by the state. The last time this happened was a century ago, during the decade-long Mexican Revolution, which eventually triggered the invasion and occupation of northern Mexico in 1916 by the U.S. Army, including the mobilization of the entire National Guard and a call for volunteers. Before it was over, U.S. forces attacked and occupied Nogales, Sonora, in 1918 and Ciudad Juarez in 1919.

There's more at the link.

The second and third articles are by Larry Lambert, blogging at Virtual Mirage.  He knows the situation in Mexico intimately, and has had extensive experience there.  Here's an excerpt from the first of his articles.

The cartels have run Mexico since the days of Amado Carrillo Fuentes. It didn't happen overnight, but in the model before Amado Carrillo, each state in Mexico had an army general who oversaw the state for the PRI Party. They each received the tax/mordida/bribes for allowing drugs to flow through the state and they spread the juice. For the past thirty years it became even more institutionalized.

Let's talk about the recent presidents of Mexico: In the case of President Vincent Fox Quesada, formerly an executive for Coca Cola, his wife, Marta Shagun (and her children) handled the bag for the cartel money. You could say that he made a token effort to distance himself. In essence, Fox and his family "licensed" certain states in Mexico to certain cartels in exchange for a fixed amount. There were some ripples with the Zapatista revolution in Chiapas (left over from the Zedillo presidency), etc. but it was managed.

President Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa took a different approach to the situation, selling the licenses to deal in narcotics more than once (selling the same horse several times to different buyers). This led to a massive drug war since each cartel felt that it had the rights to the states that it bought. During this administration the Catholic Church in the diocese of Morelia (Michoacan) created its own cartel, Los Cabelleros Templarios, which dealt primarily in methamphetamine. The Archbishop took his cut.

Again, more at the link.

Larry's second series of comments on that country may be found by scrolling down at the link to the section titled "Mexico".  They're also well worth reading.

Knowing all that, how anybody could dispute the need for a border wall between the USA and Mexico is utterly beyond me.  Right now, that sort of institutionalized criminal chaos is being exported wholesale to the USA - because the cartels are running the illegal immigration networks, and putting their own people in place inside our borders.  The tighter we can insulate ourselves from that revolutionary chaos, the happier I'll be!




Peter

17 comments:

Arthur Sido said...

We are never going to get a wall because the people who would have to make that happen, in both parties, are completely sold out on open borders. Democrats get a permanent political majority, Republicans get their donations from the Chamber of Commerce for importing cheap labor and consumers, and heritage Americans get screwed. Our ruling class are locust, plundering what is left of America's wealth while they still can.

Old NFO said...

Just like other things not covered, it goes against the 'agenda' the left is pushing. And it won't change anytime soon, unless those in the line of fire (literally) start shooting back.

Beans said...

I feel that it's going to take another Pancho Villa style raid across the border to get some people to wake up.

And the only reason this will happen is to attack another Pancho Villa style villain already on this side of the border whose keeping the cartel taxes for himself.

Mexico, from pretty much Day 1 has been what we would call a failed state, with only some periods of 'semi-unfailed state' where the failed state is well hidden but still there.

Like the Mexico of Tijuana that US servicemen so fondly remember and US shoppers in lower Cali also remember. A great place to save money on certain things. But, really, even when 'open borders' were good and some towns and cities were 'safe', once you got into the hinterland, there was always failed state showing. Corrupt cops and politicians, gangs ruling huge territories, all of it. Just wasn't seen, and thus reported, by the media.

Mexico, except for a few enclaves well patrolled and protected, has always been a no-go world, that too many clueless tourists and starry-eyed bambies (like whom Murphy escorted through Mexico) just can't see the reality, until it bites them.

I fear that the only way to curb the violence for a reasonable time is to go all 1846 or 1916 on their collective buttocks. Mayhaps a few A-10s or AC-130s will have much more success than Pershing's Wright Flyers.

Beans said...

And if we go, the ROE should be anything that points a gun or picks up supplies or helps the enemy is considered the enemy.

Let loose the chains and show Mexico who really are the most deadly killers on the planet. From sea, from air, from ground, from space itself, unleash the fury of the US war machine for a smashing rapid strike and destroy the cartels and the corrupt politicians, and leave the country in the capable hands of the Mexican Marines and the few uncorrupt people there.

Hulk Smash.

Then leave.

And build the damned wall, and place troops with orders to shoot. We've been dealing with a feckless Mexico since before Texas became Texas. It's time for it to stop.

Doug said...

This will spill over the border at some point. It will be interesting to see how quickly the government and media run away from this cluster fark.

The Lab Manager said...

What's sad Mexico is a resource rich country with some smart and capable people, but a disfunctional and corrupt government with in your face corruption at the local level.

Beans said...

The Lab Manager - part of the problem in Mexico is Family and Tribe matters more than society and morals. Pretty much the same problem in all of Central and South America, and in 'liberal' cities in the US of A.

Family first, Tribe second, the city/state/nation/world a very distant third.

SiGraybeard said...

What's really ironic, as Larry points out at Virtual Mirage, is that the same people who don't want a border wall want to go door to door confiscating guns, yet they don't see the same porous border will allow the cartels to flood guns to the north into the US. I heard some time ago (an internet rumor, so it must be true) that fully automatic AKM pattern rifles go for a couple of hundred dollars in Guatemala, so American Deplorables will be armed with fully auto guns.

Dave said...

I did my Master's thesis on the old Army GREEN series of war plans. The last update to the plan, before the start of WWII and the post-war scrapping of the 'Color' designations for war plans (all sort of war plans are still existing, and still being updated and new ones made; that's what plans staffs DO; they're just numbered now, and made by the geographic combatant commands - CENTCOM, EUCOM, etc) was done in 1940.

The 1940 GREEN plan consisted of 3 phased, sequential plans:
GREEN-1 called for using the Army and National Guard to secure the border from the American side.
GREEN-2 called for a limited incursion across the border into Mexico to secure a buffer zone between whatever lawlessness, instability, and violence was the problem and American soil.
GREEN-3 called for a full scale invasion and occupation of all of Mexico, and required more troops than the combined strength of the regular Army and National Guard at the time the plan was written.

I wonder if anyone the the J-5 and G-5 shops at NORTHCOM and ARNORTH are dusting off those old plans, or their current equivalents?

(My thesis is available from the Texas A&M library, if anyone's interested.)

JaimeInTexas said...

I have been thinking for some time that we care very close to just jump to green 2.

Paul said...

We should take over mexico. we might do some good there instead of Afghanistan or Iraq or Iran or Syria. Those places will never amount to anything. A clean and working mexico on the other hand could be an asset. Course we need to turn back the clock in this country a good 50 years before we could try it.

War is coming and most likely will be in Texas first.

Tom Grey said...

I first saw this link:
https://claireberlinski.substack.com/p/on-mexican-state-collapse-a-guest

The US needs to ally with the Mexican gov't, and have their gov't invite the US army to help stop the terrorist gangs.

The US should push for a "Second Amendment" change in Mexico, to make it legal for individuals to have guns, and make it culturally appropriate for normal folks to defend themselves. The need of normals for better self-defense is a big reason the Dem media don't want to cover this story.

On the other hand, the people of Mexico need to understand that they've been voting for corrupt politicians who are willing to accept gang control of illegal drugs and other activities. They vote for corrupt pols because they, as voters, are also corrupt.

Corrupt voters want to get benefits from Other People's Money.
Corrupt politicians want to get benefits from taxpayer's money.
Pretty similar.

Kind of silly to support anti-corruption on politicians, while always being in favor of selfish corruption.

McChuck said...

Declare war on Mexico. Build the wall and mine it. Clear out the 30 kilometers south of the border with bulldozers, flame throwers, and artillery. Arrest every Spanish speaker here in the US as a spy/infiltrator. Shoot any who resist.

We cannot fix their country for them. The best we can do is to make it not our problem.

Ray - SoCal said...

Good news is what happened is getting more attention! It’s good Tucker Carlson mentioned it.

This blog has more details on what happened:
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/?m=1

WhatIfWeAllCared? said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Aesop said...

I've been telling people how effed up Mexico was since 2005.

When it shows up in L.A., Chicongo, or NYFC, they still don't notice, nor care.

Maybe when it's everyday in Kansas City or Asheville, they'll pay attention.

And when it really completely melts down there, 80M of them will be moving north. In haste.

Good luck staunching that outflow with present resources and capabilities, and no Great Wall.

Chuck Pergiel said...

I blame the sorry state of property rights in Latin America. I don't know if that can be fixed. A new constitution might help, which might require a revolution, which might be what is happening. I suspect the Catholic Church is tangled up in this, which is going to make finding a solution extra difficult.