When Americans think of Mexico, it is generally in the context of vast numbers of unlawful immigrants, or of a place for vacations on sandy beaches.
It is time to start thinking of that nation in a different and frightening context: that of a dangerously failed state on our border, a vacuum of power that is attracting America’s enemies. The murder several months ago of 43 teachers-in-training by drug cartels highlights the depths to which Mexico has fallen. Despite the viciousness of this atrocity, Washington has been comparatively silent, even though in parts of the Texas border area, the kidnapping, murder, and harassment of landowners within the U.S. by these cartels are already occurring.
According to the National Interest, “Since 2008, the seven main drug cartels have emerged as an existential threat to Mexico’s future. Cartels like Los Zetas, which recruit members from Mexico’s Special Forces and federal police, behave like organized paramilitaries, not ordinary criminals. They generate perhaps $30 to $40 billion a year in illicit profits. And the price has been horrendous. Between 2007 and 2012, around 47,000 Mexicans were killed in the drug war. Some estimate that the true toll is over 60,000.”
Violent crime may be the least of the threats.
The illegal drug trade provides an opening for the infiltration of the U.S.’s southern neighbor by antagonist nations across the globe. According to theJamestown Foundation, “In April 2012, authorities in the prosperous and generally peaceful Caribbean nation of Belize intercepted a shipment of precursor chemicals sent from China and apparently bound for representatives of the Mexican cartel “Los Zetas.” The shipment—sufficient to produce an estimated $10 billion in methamphetamines—highlights growing criminal ties between China and Latin America that have accompanied, but, to date, have lagged behind the exponential growth of trade and investment between the two regions.”
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The national security implications for the United States are staggering, and some are already occurring. With Russia, China and Iran’s Hezbollah aggressively seeking increased footholds in the Western Hemisphere, a failed state—especially one right on the U.S. border—represents a great prize. It is attractive as well to Al Qaeda and ISIS as a launching pad for terror attacks on American soil.
Robert Kaplan, author of a notable study on the impact of geography on world events notes, “While we have spent billions of dollars to affect historical outcomes in Eurasia, we are curiously passive about what is happening to a country with which we have to share a long land border, and whose population is close to double that of Iraq and Afghanistan combined.”
Recently, the Judicial Watch organization reported that “Islamic terrorist groups are operating in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and planning to attack the United States with car bombs or other vehicle borne improvised explosive devices (VBIED). High-level federal law enforcement, intelligence and other sources have confirmed to Judicial Watch that a warning bulletin for an imminent terrorist attack on the border has been issued… Specifically, the government sources reveal that the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) is confirmed to now be operating in Juarez, a famously crime-infested narcotics hotbed situated across from El Paso, Texas.”
The Washington Times notes that Mexico, along with Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia recently purchased Chinese arms. “A joint Mexico-China statement said Mexico pledged not to interfere in China’s affairs on Taiwan and Tibet.” The move is part of increased closeness between Mexico and China. The Wall Street Journal recently noted that China has become the largest financier for Venezuela, a nation whose government is rabidly anti-American.