“The Family doesn’t kill for money; it doesn’t kill for women... only those who deserve to die, die... [T]his is divine justice.”
US Army North (ARNORTH) has played an instrumental role over the past several years in building rapport and establishing new engagement opportunities with the Mexican Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA). Over the past four years, ARNORTH has greatly increased the frequency of these engagements, from only a handful of training events in 2008, to nearly one hundred in FY2012, with more planned for FY13. (The chart below illustrates this dramatic increase) These engagements are facilitated by the Mexico branch of ARNORTH’s Security Cooperation Division, composed of an engagement section and training branch, has focused its efforts at conducting senior leader engagements and Subject Matter Expert Exchanges (SMEE)/Mobile Training Team (MTT) activities respectively.
ARNORTH Partnered Training Events With SEDENA
ARNORTH’s senior leader engagements are aimed at the strategic level and are designed to strengthen ties between high-ranking U.S. and Mexican leadership to create opportunities for institutional development, and to identify areas in which the U.S. may assist with building partner capacities with Mexico. Traditional engagement activities include the annual Fifth Army Inter-American Relations Program (FIARP) and the Border Commanders Conference (BCC).
FIARP, established after World War II, is a week-long program which hosts Mexican senior leaders at US Army installations. FIARP builds rapport, understanding and confidence with senior Mexican officers and their spouses while sharing information about the U.S. Army and the American way of life within a professional, social and cultural context.
The BCC, established in 1987, has served as a forum to improve mutual cooperation and understanding between both armies by bringing together leaders of the Mexican and U.S. military in an annual conference focused on border security issues. This is one of many ARNORTH engagements designed to exchange information with our Mexican partners as we both work to combat Transnational Organized Crime (TOC). The BCC has the added benefit of strengthening interoperability to better respond to disasters along the border.
In the past year, ARNORTH’s engagement branch has instituted a number of different exchange programs, including:
In addition to these new programs and projects, ARNORTH sponsored twenty Border Contact Meetings (BCMs), which brought together Mexican military security forces along the border and US law enforcement agencies. For the first time ever, in 2012, ARNORTH exchanged liaison officers with SEDENA during a major national defense exercise, ARDENT SENTRY. In the next fiscal year, ARNORTH will develop a guest speaker exchange program that which will allow US and Mexican generals to speak at each other’s military institutions and schools. ARNORTH will also explore opportunities to introduce Army Corps of Engineer resources as a security cooperation capacity, and facilitate a visit by Mexican logistics officers to Army Material Command.
Tactical-level military-to-military relationships have grown significantly over the past few years, with training programs focusing accelerated mission planning, tactical intelligence operation training, and Counter-Improvised Explosive Device training. Most of these training events are focused on training Mexican trainers, who can spread this expertise throughout the institution.
These events strengthen both of our institutions, and are helping the US military and SEDENA advance towards better interoperability, as we both work together to address mutual security concerns.
The presence of Mexican-origin drugs in Chicago is more prominent now than ever before
Could Central American Gangs Usurp the Role of Mexican Cartels? By Edward Fox, Christian Science Monitor.
Mexican groups currently use Central American gangs to launder money, infiltrate local police, and traffic drugs. With the crackdown on Mexican cartels, the role of Central American gangs could increase.
The Logic of Violence in Criminal War: Cartel-State Conflict in Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil.
Political Science Dissertation, University of California Berkeley, by Benjamin Lessing.
Why do drug cartels fight states? Episodes of armed conflict between drug cartels and states in Colombia, Brazil and Mexico have demonstrated that ‘criminal wars’ can be just as destructive as civil wars. Yet insurgents in civil wars stand a reasonable chance of winning formal concessions of territory or outright victory. Why fight the state, if like drug cartels, you seek neither to topple nor secede from it?
Some great lessons for law enforcement, military, and intelligence professionals for countering street gangs of all stripes.
The following post is taken from the AUSA’s annual Institute of Land Warfare panel discussion.
Quarterbacks do not win football games. Nor do tight ends, coaches, or even general managers. Rather the team – a partnership working as one – wins games.
Colloquial? Yes. Simple? No.
Forging a team to protect and secure our Homeland is no small matter, either. The Southwest Border (SWB) alone is approximately 1,900 miles long with varying types of terrain – urban, desert, and mountains. So, how does the Department of Homeland Security accomplish such a feat? It takes a whole of community effort - a partnership of federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, private sector, and international team members. One partner in particular is the United States Army.
During a recent visit to Washington, DC, I observed a panel discussion titled “Enhancing North American Security along the Southwest Border (SWB).” Hosted by LTG William Caldwell, commander of US Army North, it was one of many panels during the Association of the United States Army’s (AUSA) annual Institute of Land Warfare conference. It was an open forum to discuss the shared efforts and responsibilities associated with maintaining our way of life and our safety.
The panel members – four in total – represented over 120 years of experience in homeland security and national defense, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), US Northern Command, and the California National Guard.
What did these gentlemen discuss? How many tanks and snipers to place on our borders? How many helicopters to patrol from the skies along our border? Not even close.
Rather, all the panel members emphasized partnership: one that is required to win the “away” games as well as the “home” games; a broad-based enterprise that leverages unique capabilities of various entities; a partnership that builds trust and confidence among neighboring countries so that they can defeat a common threat.
Protecting the citizens of the North American countries from the negative effects of transnational criminal organizations is not a purely military endeavor. It is a national, hemispheric, and global security issue. In the US, the federal department lead for protecting our borders is the Department of Homeland Security.
But why do we see pictures of soldiers with binoculars scanning remote deserts along the SWB or military personnel walking along side civilian law enforcement? Why do we see our Army National Guard helicopters assisting law enforcement?
The answer is partnership.
While CBP is the lead agency for our border security, they may have gaps or lack depth in a unique capability. They may have shortfalls in their budget. They often have a legitimate requirement to answer a need and have the authority to request support from the military. Likewise, the military has a requirement to conduct training to remain proficient in its skills – be it flying, scouting, or simply exercising its tactical radios. Rather, spending money on contrived scenario-based training, they can achieve the same training objectives while supporting a CBP sector chief. Mutually beneficial exchanges are not only an efficient use of taxpayer dollars, but they allow our soldiers the opportunity to serve their citizens right here in the US.
One intriguing question posed from an audience member was aimed at Al Qaida’s intent on attacking America. Though we all generally accept the fact that Al Qaida intends on attacking us again, we often assume that they are still trying to use aircraft as the main weapon or the primary mode of entry in the US. Yet, the panelists all highlighted the fact that a large percentage of people that attempt to cross the northern or southern US land borders are not from Mexico or Canada. Rather, they come from scores of other places, like Syria. One panelist said he personally saw two Syrians trying to enter a port of entry on the US SWB who were seeking political asylum.
The federal budget and the potential fiscal challenges ahead of us make the news on a daily basis. While budget crunches are generally seen as a negative impact on a government’s ability to provide services, the panelists highlighted a silver lining. When funding streams begin to dry up, you begin to look to your friends on either side of you for help. Federal agencies are no different. Planners in the homeland security entities and law enforcement agencies have begun to forge new relationships and leveraging the efficiencies of partners.
Whether it is budget constraints, law, public policy, or simply an urgent need for a resource, the Army serves as an enabler for those partners who have primacy in the security of our homeland. The mutually beneficial training opportunities gained by our Army while supporting lead agencies along the SWB enhance the Army’s readiness. Our nation’s law enforcement and security specialists have a daily challenge to stay ahead of a versatile and focused threat. Their success in protecting America’s borders and facilitating robust trade is achieved only through maximizing partnerships across the whole of community – on both sides of the SWB.
It sounds crazy, but catching the most notorious and wanted drug trafficker in the world might be a bad thing.
Harvard Tracks Mexican Drug Gangs via Google by Hannah Stone of InSightCrime.
According to a study which used Google searches to map the activity of drug cartels in Mexico, these criminal organizations are far from overrunning the whole country, being active in less than a third of the country's municipalities...
Tracking the Steady Rise of Beheadings in Mexico by Elyssa Pachico of InSightCrime.
According to Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office, conflict between organized criminal groups has resulted in the beheading of 1,303 people in five years, a grisly tactic becoming the hallmark of the war between the country's cartels...
