U.S. military prepares for

failed state in Mexico



(front page)

The commands Joint Operating Environment 2008 report discusses future wars the U.S. military must be ready to fight. Its conclusion about Pakistan and Mexico is presented in the documents chapter on weak and failing states.

Based in Norfolk, Virginia, the Joint Forces Command oversees army, navy, air force, and Marine Corps operations for the Atlantic Ocean geographical region. Its current mandate includes leading the transformation of U.S. military joint warfighting into the 21st Century, according to the commands Web site.

The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, the report states, but the drug wars ravaging Mexico will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state. Mexico is Washingtons third largest trade partner and its third-biggest supplier of oil.

The intensifying violence and kidnappings organized by capitalists involved in Mexicos drug trade have killed more than 8,000 people over the past two years. Although the Mexican government has sent some 45,000 federal cops and army troops to fight the drug lords, those raking in cash from the drug operations reach into the highest echelons of the government and local and federal police forces.

In November former top antidrug official Noé Ramírez was charged with accepting at least $450,000 a month in bribes from a drug cartel in exchange for information about police and antinarcotics operations. A month later army major Arturo González was arrested on suspicion that he sold information about President Felipe Calderóns movements for $100,000 a month. Government officials operating out of the federal attorney generals office have been arrested for sending secret information to the Beltrán Leyva drug cartel in exchange for cash, reported the New York Times.

Any descent by Mexico into chaos, the Joint Forces report states, would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone. The report does not elaborate upon specifics, but the U.S. government has already adopted contingency plans for use of aircraft, armored vehicles, and troops in border trouble spots.

Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the Houston Chronicle January 14 that federal SWAT teams along with National Guard and army troops would be called into action if Mexican drug wars cross the border. Another department official said federal forces were prepared to respond to a number of different contingencies, which, according to the Chronicle, include cross-border raids or kidnappings by Mexican drug gangs to refugees storming the border.





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