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Column 013012 Brewer

Monday, January 30, 2012 Are Drug Cartels, Gangs and Terrorists Destabilizing the Americas? By Jerry Brewer The fact is that in recent times we have heard the terms "drug war, war on crime" and "war against terror" ad nauseam. A vernacular that often seems to move us into complacency and formulates naive opinions that this is simply political rhetoric or a tool for aspirants to political office. However, a prolonged law enforcement campaign as we are seeing throughout the Americas doesn't appear to measure up in factual detail to anything short of ongoing and imminent conflict. The enemy is a transnational and systematic killing machine. The enemy's focus is a superior armed and capable strategy that is based on violence and territorial acquisition. Too, it is a fluid epidemic that filters through much of Latin America. This corridor is a gateway for illegal migration, drugs and other contraband, with financing efforts and other brazen sources of revenue that include kidnapping and extortion, cargo threat, human trafficking for a myriad of reasons, robbery, and related violent acts against local societies and governments. The destination markets of this onslaught are no longer a clear thought process or picture due to obstacles such as enforcement officials pushing back with even stronger force. As well, it was clearly militarized enforcement techniques and related strategies that pushed many organized drug cartel insurgents south across Mexico's southern border. These narcoterrorists were pushed into Guatemala and points beyond, with their corruption, extortion

and ruthless enforcement methods; and promptly, as well as rather easily, they penetrated key state institutions in Guatemala. Their acts have been quickly destabilizing, and they have helped to transform Guatemala into a nearly lawless state. This complex situation of aggression forced former general and now President of Guatemala Otto Perez into a top priority of ending a long-standing U.S. ban on military aid to his homeland. Guatemala and many Central American nations that are facing this enemy of increasingly adaptable and sophisticated capabilities that are consistently employing new and advanced technology to facilitate their agendas, stand much like deer in the headlights of death. The U.S. slowly responded to Mexico and transitioned to a priority from the initial assessment of simply sharing intelligence information on narcotics traffickers, and building "police infrastructure and community policing concepts," to the necessity of military and tactical training to Mexican Marines and other federal enforcement authorities to combat superior arms and tactics directed head-on against them. This much like the advisors that went into Vietnam in the early 1960s to stop foreign aggression. This ever increasing complex problem of facing unconventional, irregular and criminal terrorist capabilities has been a sobering wakeup call, although late in the conflict, and led proactive fluidity in adapting and attempting to overcome the widespread effects. Covert tactical specialists from the U.S. that have crossed the U.S. southern border are a clear indication of the high stakes and sovereignty issues that are in play now. This is now clearly about armed aggression, the interference with law enforcement and judicial processes and the rule of law, as well as the wide spread corruptive influences shaping criminal markets and facilitation of movement. Is this alarm just simply hype and misleading due to perceived over-dramatizing of events? After all, organized crime has flourished for decades in a deliberately low profile manner to avoid

interdiction. Many of these transnational criminal organizations (TCO) appear to own the police, the judiciary and the prison system. They have viciously murdered and tortured government officials, police officers, journalists and citizens. With their virtually limitless funds and unlimited access to weaponry, they clearly have the ability to destabilize an entire hemisphere. The U.S. intelligence and defense communities have apparently realigned their sights to this war-like threat. With U.S. border state governors practically pulling their hair out from frustration, and knowing that local policing on our borders is no match for this adaptable enemy that is capable of engaging them in lethal encounters, action is needed in lieu of prolonged studies. As if the picture could not be worse regarding U.S. concerns, added to this is increasing activity of Native American gangs whose presence has increased on Indian Reservations, and in federal and state prison systems. Too, the northern border with Canada is posing a growing problem for law enforcement as gangs smuggle drugs, cigarettes, firearms, and immigrants across the US-Canada border. It is time that we pull our heads out of the sand and notice the large-scale shootouts, frequent assassinations, and the increasing use of explosives by the narcoterrorists. The "hit lists" against police and military personnel in Mexico and neighboring nations, as well as the surveillance and stalking of these and other officials, represent graphic terrorist modus operandi. ---------Jerry Brewer is C.E.O. of Criminal Justice International Associates, a global threat mitigation firm headquartered in northern Virginia. His website is located at http://www.cjiausa.org/.

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