CaboRon
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Mexico Likened to 1980's Colombia
DEA Intelligence Chief Likens Mexico to 1980's Colombia
By J. Jesus Esquivel
· None of the Mexican drug kingpins feel truly threatened by the
war unleashed against them by the government of Felipe Calderón,
because they find it easy to buy protection from authorities,
lamented the Chief of Intelligence of the DEA, Anthony P. Placido.
Although he states that Mexico will win this fight, he warns that
before doing so the people "will pay a high price" due to narco-
violence. In an interview with Proceso, Placido revealed one of
Washington's current concerns: the repeated references to criminal
ties of the closest collaborators of the Secretary of Public
Security, Genaro Garcia Luna.
WASHINGTON – To the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), narco-
violence and the serious problem of corruption due to drug
trafficking, at top levels of the Mexican government, are
because "none of the kingpins of the drug cartels" feel really at
risk by the actions of President Felipe Calderón.
And "the main reason they don't feel threatened is because they have
broad powers of corruption that gives them a kind of immunity, we
say, guaranteed," Anthony P. Placido, head of Intelligence Operations
of the DEA, explained in an interview with Proceso.
He added that the Calderón government is striving to eradicate
corruption due to drug trafficking, but to end this practice it will
take time and cause bloody struggles.
"The situation in Mexico is now similar to that experienced in
Colombia at the beginning of the 1980s," he says. And he
predicts: "The Mexican government's challenge is to transform a
threat to national security into a problem that can be resolved by
civil police. And, from our point of view, that is the path that
Mexico is following, but it will take time and a greater sacrifice of
people will be required in cities like Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez,
Culiacan and elsewhere in the state of Sinaloa where there is too
much violence. The situation will worsen there just before the
problem is resolved."
Placido said that the DEA could even accept agreements with Mexican
drug traffickers, similar to agreements made in Colombia in order to
make it easier for them to hand over drug lords, although at this
time he does not see conditions for it.
"If they are willing to surrender on terms that are acceptable to us,
we would be happy to accept their proposals, (but) none of the
Mexican criminal organizations would surrender at this time, [not]
unless they feel really threatened by the operations of the Mexican
government."
In the late 1980s and for most of the nineties, several of the major
Colombian cartel kingpins (Medellín, Cali, and Northern Valley)
negotiated, through the DEA, their surrender to U.S. authorities.
"People who have been involved in drug trafficking for years and
agree to cooperate, by providing information and evidence to solve
the problem, could receive a reduction in their sentence, which I
think is one of the most appropriate ways to agree to negotiate with
the drug traffickers," said the agent in charge of worldwide DEA
planning and operations against drug trafficking.
The worrisome García Luna
Drug trafficking in Mexico, said Placido, counts on a power of
governmental corruption that provides benefits, which greatly worries
the U.S. government.
He explains that is why there are those in the U.S. Congress who
refuse to openly support Mexican authorities in a common struggle. In
fact, he notes, dozens of lawmakers on Capitol Hill now oppose giving
Mexico the US$1.4 billion agreed to as part of the Merida Initiative.
"We are concerned, for example, that it is constantly mentioned that
several of the closest associates of (Public Safety) Secretary Genaro
Garcia Luna could be involved with criminal groups such as the
Beltran Leyva (brothers)," he said, and he avoided giving names or
further details on this rumor that worries the Barack Obama
government.
Placido notes, that despite this, the Obama government has confidence
in Calderón because he is acting with transparency and determination
in the dismantling of government networks corrupted by organized
crime.
"Honestly, the U.S. government would not be investing US$1.4 billion
dollars in the Mérida Initiative if we were not sure that it is
moving in the right direction," said Placido, who was also head of
the DEA in Mexico.
[Question] Which is the most powerful cartel in Mexico?
[Response] The Sinaloa Cartel's federation is the most powerful and
murderous. Certainly the Gulf Cartel is still violent; the Arellano
Félix [Cartel] is fighting for its survival, held up on one leg; the
factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, such as that of the Beltran Leyva,
are aligning with Vicente Carrillo Fuentes (of the Juarez cartel).
But without doubt we can say that Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman are the most powerful drug lords in Mexico.
The latest DEA investigations on the Sinaloa Cartel's federation,
that is led by "El Mayo" Zambada and "El Chapo" Guzman, conclude that
this criminal organization controls the entire Pacific coast and the
main Mexican transshipment routes for cocaine and heroin.
"It gives them more power, the fact that they are the absolute owners
of the Mexican arrival areas of cocaine sent from South America, but
too they have the lucrative marijuana market, which allows them to
get a lot of cash and to cover losses suffered when their shipments
of cocaine, heroin and other drugs are confiscated here in the United
States or Mexico," he stresses.
However, Placido does not share the view of the Pentagon's Joint
Forces Command, according to which Mexico is a "failed state" due to
its inability to curb drug trafficking.
"I do not think we are even close to saying that the Mexican
government has failed and that the drug traffickers have been
victorious, or that Mexico is a lawless land and without a government
controlling it. No doubt there is much violence in Mexico, but it is
the result of the government's efforts to curb the power and impunity
of drug trafficking," said Placido, who paused to reflect on what he
said and then makes a notation:
"Certainly the failed state [term] could be applied to places in
Mexico like Ciudad Juárez or Tijuana, where there are very high
levels of violence. But by saying this I do not want it thought in
any way that I am trying to minimize the great problem of violence
Mexicans are suffering elsewhere in the country.
"My prediction on what could happen in Mexico is that the people will
first pay a high price for this violence, but the government is going
to win the war and it will break the cycle of impunity enjoyed by
drug traffickers, and it will destroy their influence of corruption
and power of intimidation."
Penetration in the U.S.
Placido was asked about the presence of Mexican cartels in 195 cities
in the U.S. He replied that the DEA and other federal agencies of his
country are doing everything possible to dismantle these cells,
although he acknowledged that they are expanding rapidly and that it
is increasingly difficult to discover them.
"They are a powerful force in the U.S.," Placido accepted, explaining
that since Colombian drug traffickers began to use Mexican operators
to transport drugs in this country, groups like those of the Arellano
Felix, Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, and "El Chapo" Guzman began the
conversion into absolute owners of the U.S. market.
For example, he says, "the Miami drug market was supplied by
shipments that the Colombians sent by boat or aircraft from different
Caribbean and South America locations. Nowadays these drugs are taken
by Mexican drug traffickers in trucks that depart from different
points on the border with Mexico; El Paso, Texas, is one of them,"
Placido exemplified, [and he] pointed to Atlanta, Georgia, and Los
Angeles, California, as two cities where Mexican cartels have a "very
consolidated" control, and from where they launch their distribution
networks for the east and west coasts.
"All of the Mexican cartels are active here. They are competing among
themselves for control of the cities, but a bloody war over this
situation has not yet broken out like the one in Mexico; we say that
here they are less violent," he adds.
Seated at a small round table on the ninth floor of DEA headquarters,
at this time Placido does not venture a forecast as to when "El
Chapo" Guzman, one of the most wanted criminals by the U.S. agency,
might be arrested.
Whereas, with the wave of narco-violence affecting nearly every state
in Mexico, this is not the time to do their usual predictions. And he
reveals:
"There have been several, many, occasions (in Mexico) when we have
been very close and ready to catch "El Chapo"; but in the end
something happens that prevents us from arresting him. For some
reason (El Chapo) receives a tip-off that we are close to him and he
escapes in the nick of time."
He clarified that in all such operations the DEA agents are always
accompanied by Mexican federal agents and soldiers, who are those
responsible for executing the arrests.
And he advised: "We simply provide intelligence information as part
of the bilateral actions and commitments for the exchange of
information we have with Mexico in the war against drug trafficking."
For the head of intelligence operations for the DEA, "Mexico's
success (in this fight) is the success of the United States, but
without doubt this victory will be consolidated the day that we
arrest the kingpins of Mexican drug trafficking and when they are
extradited to the United States."
——————————
Proceso (weekly magazine), February 22, 2009, Mexico City.
MexiData.info translation
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Woooosh
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We pretty much figured out the Narcos weren't afraid of Calderon already. The only one who doesn't know is Calderon. They will kill and kill as
many thousands as it takes for a silent truce to be declared. Peace will come from out of nowhere- but the problems that caused the violence won't
have been resolved- just hidden in plain sight.
\"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing\"
1961- JFK to Canadian parliament (Edmund Burke)
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nancyinpdx
Nomad
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Registered: 1-16-2009
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Mood: muy eccentrica
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Calderon
| Quote: | Originally posted by Woooosh
We pretty much figured out the Narcos weren't afraid of Calderon already. The only one who doesn't know is Calderon. They will kill and kill as
many thousands as it takes for a silent truce to be declared. Peace will come from out of nowhere- but the problems that caused the violence won't
have been resolved- just hidden in plain sight. |
I believe Calderon is intelligent enough to realize they're scared of NO one. I just hope no one assisinates him nor any of his loved ones. I have
admiration and respect for him. God, please bless and protect him, in Jesus' name' amen.
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