Posted on 02/07/2020 2:06:14 PM PST by karpov
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, under pressure from the Trump administration, has beefed up his strategy to fight drug cartels, including bringing the marines, Mexico’s elite security force, back to the front lines of the drug war.
The moves mark a shift by Mexico from a counternarcotics strategy that largely ended the pursuit of high-profile arrests and focused almost exclusively on poverty alleviation.
“We are operating again,” said a senior Mexican navy officer. “The targets we need to go after have been defined.”
The change in strategy comes amid growing alarm in Washington at Mexico’s failure to crack down on drug gangs, particularly after the November massacre of nine U.S. citizens by suspected cartel hit men. Preliminary Mexican government figures indicate an increase in the number of murders in Mexico last year, after a record 36,685 in 2018.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr has taken a lead role in pushing for changes by the Mexican government, including to bring the marines back to counternarcotics enforcement and accelerate the extradition of suspects wanted for crimes in the U.S., according to people familiar with the matter.
As Mexico ramps up its efforts, the U.S. has agreed to step up actions to prevent guns from being smuggled into Mexico, these people said.
The marines, the Mexican security force that U.S. officials say they trust the most, were behind most high-profile arrests and killings of cartel leaders in the past two decades, including twice capturing drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
The elite navy force was largely sidelined by Mr. López Obrador soon after he took office in late 2018, part of a strategy by the new government to halt the pursuit of top cartel figures and focus instead on attacking poverty—an approach it dubbed “hugs, not bullets.”
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Elites forces sidelined because he is on the cartel’s payroll.
The celebrated wedding of El Chapo’s daughter was a huge embarrassment for AMLO.
Marines are hard to corrupt down there and have developed a passionate hate for cartels, and pride in being the only straight up good guy force down there.
That happened because Marines were not assigned to one geographic zone the way the Army was.
Which is more likely?
A. The elite forces will crush the cartels.
B. Cartel money will corrupt the elite forces.
Alleviating poverty could contribute - but the only effective way for Mexico to do that is to adopt free-market policies.
The Mexican Marines are particularly suited for this because during their enlistment, they are kept sequestered on their bases, permitted no communication with the outside. They only leave either going to or coming from a battle, then return to their bases. Even if a cartel kidnaps or kills their family, they won’t know.
Because of this threat, however, they are under no obligation to be gentle with the cartel members they fight, so those are real brawls and bloodbaths.
Their identities are also kept under high security.
This technique is similar to what the US Army did with the ARVN part of the Phoenix Program. It works.
Acquittal has it’s benefits, this is but one small one.
Stopping to rest a moment..........................OK, on to more winning.
He isn’t serious because the cartels are paying him too much.
You know, let’s just buy Baja California & 10 miles of land due south of the existing border, and just landmine the s—t out of it. Let Mexico stew in its own feces. Great country, hard-working people, but they need to have their civil war and let good people lead their country.
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