Much attention has been paid to crises on distant continents, and rightfully so. The Middle East is tinderbox about to go up in blaze; Russia’s aggressiveness has brought the Cold War back to life, and China seems to be pursing the same belligerent role played by Japan that led to Pearl Harbor.
However, one needs look no further than America’s own southern border to find a significant crisis with major implications for the U.S. Yesterday’s review examined how terrorists appear to be using Mexico as a launching pad to enter the American homeland. They are able to do so because Mexico is on the verge of being a wholly failed state.
That dire situation seems counter-intuitive. World.Silk describes the nation in fairly glowing terms: “Mexico has one of the world’s largest economies, and is considered both a regional power and middle power… [it is considered to be] an upper-middle income country by the World Bank, a newly industrialized nation, and an emerging power.It has the fourteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest GDP by purchasing power parity.” Additionally, it is one of the world’s most visited countries.
Last week, a Congressional Research Service study on U.S.-Mexican security cooperated noted that “Violence perpetrated by a range of criminal groups continues to threaten citizen security and governance in some parts of Mexico, a country with which the United States shares a nearly 2,000-mile border and more than $500 billion in annual trade…analysts estimate that it may have claimed more than 80,000 lives between December 2006 and December 2014. Recent cases—particularly the disappearance of 43 students in Guerrero, Mexico in September 2014—have drawn attention to the problems of corruption and impunity for human rights abuses in Mexico….
The danger to the U.S. from the power of Mexico’s organized criminal gangs, which far too frequently and in far too many locations exercise more power than the government, was noted in another Congressional study, “Terrorism and Transnational crime” “criminals and terrorists have shared similar tactics to reach their separate operational objectives. Such tactics include acts of violence; involvement in criminal activity for profit; money laundering; undetected cross-border movements; illegal weapons acquisition; and exploitation of corrupt government officials. • Organizational Evolution and Variation: A criminal group may transform over time to adopt political goals and ideological motivations. Conversely, terrorist groups may shift toward criminality. For some terrorist groups, criminal activity remains secondary to ideological ambitions. For others, profit-making may surpass political aspirations as the dominant operating rationale.”
Infopirate bookmarks blogs unique copyrighted worldwide 80 adshare 10 referral adshare infopirate has morphed into a revenue cialis india price sharing bookmarking website. Igdalsky said the track was reviewing its records of check over here generic viagra prices how many announcements were made but conceded some fans didn’t hear it. sildenafil viagra generico Also consume the medicine with the help of water and try to take it in an empty stomach. In such a condition, if psychological well-being issue is left untreated then it might bring about price levitra huge issue and in the greater part of the cases, pain is mellow as well as vanishes all alone. A study by the National Interest noted that “Mexico has long been afflicted by pervasive corruption, with drug cartels and other criminal organizations easily penetrating governmental institutions. But developments …suggest that some of those institutions do not merely exhibit mundane corruption, but may be compromised in horrific ways. The most troubling incident took place in September 2014, when students from a teachers college disappeared in the western state of Guerrero. The students had shown the temerity to conduct a protest demonstration against the mayor of Iguala and his wife. Evidence soon emerged that the students were likely murdered and their bodies burned. Worse, there are strong indications, including eyewitness accounts from two individuals who survived the attack, that elements of both the police and the army, along with enforcers from a local drug cartel, were responsible for the massacre.”
An analysis by Stratfor emphasizes
“There comes a moment when the imbalance in resources reverses the relationship between government and cartels. Government officials, seeing the futility of resistance, effectively become tools of the cartels. Since there are multiple cartels, the area of competition ceases to be solely the border towns, shifting to the corridors of power in Mexico City. Government officials begin giving their primary loyalty not to the government but to one of the cartels. The government thus becomes both an arena for competition among the cartels and an instrument used by one cartel against another. That is the prescription for what is called a “failed state” — a state that no longer can function as a state.
“It is important to point out that we are not speaking here of corruption, which exists in all governments everywhere. Instead, we are talking about a systematic breakdown of the state, in which government is not simply influenced by criminals, but becomes an instrument of criminals — either simply an arena for battling among groups or under the control of a particular group. The state no longer can carry out its primary function of imposing peace, and it becomes helpless, or itself a direct perpetrator of crime. Corruption has been seen in Washington — some triggered by organized crime, but never state failure.”
A key symbol of the imbalance between Mexican governmental authority and criminal organizations can be seen in an analysis by Vocativ “At least 100 mayors have been murdered in the past 10 years in connection with organized crime, the Association of Local Authorities of … Mayors have been killed by decapitation, pummeled by stones, gunned to death and dismembered, according to local reports.”