A narcotrafficking technique first used in Mexico now expands to other countries in Central and South America.
SOUTHCOM’s diplomatic actions are effective because it can operate at both ends of the spectrum within the realm of coercive diplomacy.
This second Small Wars Journal-El Centro anthology signifies the important debate that this new forum, focusing on the crime wars and criminal insurgencies taking place in Mexico and other regions of the Americas, is helping to generate in U.S. defense and homeland security circles. The debate comes at a time when neither of the two major U.S. presidential candidates were willingly to candidly discuss this issue and at the end of the recent Felipe Calderón administration which saw over 80,000 dead, 20,000 missing, and 200,000 internal refugees stemming from gang and cartel violence during its tenure in Mexico.
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Grant Martin offers his thoughts on the rewrite of FM 3-24 and more realistic and sustainable COIN efforts.
