Feral Jundi

Armed private security is a booming business in many parts of Latin America, and demand for personal protection services in Mexico is growing at least 20 percent a year, driven by foreign and local business executives looking to safeguard their families and employees, according to Robert Munks, a senior Americas analyst with London-based IHS-Jane’s, which tracks global security trends.

Here are two great articles that cover the current situation of security contracting both in Mexico, and on the US side of the border. The bottom line is that business is good for US executive protection providers in places like Texas, and business is good for Mexican security companies on their side of the border.

The first article talks about business on the US side and mentions a few companies that folks can check out if they are interested. The companies listed are Texas Professional Bodyguards LLC, BlackStone Group Security, Reynolds Protection and Sentry Security and Investigations LP. These are all Texas companies and it sounds like all of them have seen an increase in business.

The reason for the increase is pretty simple. Affluent Mexicans that come to the US fear getting attacked by sicarios hired by the cartels. Here is the quote that perked me up.

In Texas, crimes linked to cartels include 25 homicides since 2009 and 120 kidnappings and extortions reported since 2004 that have involved drugs and immigrants unlawfully in the country, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. At least one Austin homicide in the past five years has been cartel-related, police have said.

The second article is a Washington Post article and it describes the private security market on the other side of the border. They basically cover what is already known and that is Mexican security companies are doing well, but US companies are limited because of the firearms restrictions. Although there is a lot of money for training and support related stuff, the reality is that you just won’t see many armed US (or other) security contractors down there because of Mexico’s Article 27 firearms codes.

On the other hand, they do mention a few companies that are operating across the border. They are DynCorp International, Kroll, Spectre Group International LLC, SECFOR, and Robert Oatman.

Personally I think Mexico is foolish for not tapping into this wartime security contracting industry. If the laws were changed and there were provisions that allowed security contractors to be armed and operate in Mexico under some type of SOFA, then you would see this side of the industry getting more involved. I mean if you have entire towns in Mexico that have become vacant because of drug violence, then that might indicate that they do not have enough competent security folks to meet then need. Just saying….

Of course training and logistical support will be there and I expect to see more of that as time goes by. Just look how much money has already been spent according to this quote?

American security aid pays for some of those programs, while other contractors are paid by the Mexican government, whose spending on security jumped from $1.7 billion in 2005 to more than $12 billion in 2011, according to the think tank Mexico Evalua.
There are no precise figures on the number of U.S. security contractors working in Mexico, but the Pentagon and the State Department spent $635.8 million on counternarcotics contracts in Latin America in 2009, a 32 percent increase from 2005, according to an analysis prepared by the office of Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) in June.

That is a lot of cash being dedicated to the cause and the companies will certainly provide whatever services that are needed. –Matt

Private security for Mexican citizens a growing business in Austin, state
By Jazmine Ulloa
Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012
Some private security companies in Austin and across Texas have begun tapping into a burgeoning demand: personal protection services for wealthy Mexican citizens visiting the United States.
The increase over the past two years correlates with a wave of Mexican citizens, typically well-off business owners and entrepreneurs, looking to relocate to Texas in the wake of the bloodshed seething south of the U.S.-Mexico border, and some security businesses have noted the rising need statewide, agents said.
“There is a growing niche for personal protection (among Mexican citizens), but it is a very low-key niche,” said Philip Klein , CEO of Klein Investigations and Consulting and founder of Texas Professional Bodyguards L L C, which has offices in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. “There are very few of us who can provide these high-end services, and a lot of us don’t talk about it.”
An example of the security trend was revealed this month when the American-Statesman reported that several Austin police officers were paid cash by an affluent Mexican citizen to watch over his daughter while she attends college. Two officers have left the Austin Police Department since federal and local authorities started criminal and administrative investigations into the off-duty employment, police have said.
But an increasing number of Mexican clients are opting for private security companies, which must meet licensing, registration and insurance mandates, private security professionals said.

Determining the depth of the new market is difficult. Several security companies in Austin and statewide said they have received increased inquiries and business, while others have not. Among those who have such clients, they said they keep contracts confidential and would not provide names of such customers.
The requests and queries from affluent Mexican clients have “certainly increased with the level of violence that we have been seeing in Mexico and along the border, most noticeably in the last 18 to 22 months,” said R. Kent Morrison, owner and president of BlackStone Group Security in Austin. The agency has devoted more than 60 percent of its resources to offering these types of services in the past year and half, he said.
Operations do not involve big men in sleek suits and spy earpieces but are nearly always covert, with agents “floating” within a few feet around their clients, posing as fellow employees or passersby. Whether on trips for business or pleasure, some customers coming to Texas have security details back home that they wish to duplicate while in the United States, private investigators said, with fears of kidnapping the top concern for many.
“They opt to take precaution knowing that the prevalence of it is much, much lower here, but that it is still possible and that we are seeing a rise in the level of risk and violence traveling north,” Morrison said.
Chad Reynolds, owner of Reynolds Protection based in Dallas, said he has not only seen an increase in the work his company is doing for Mexican citizens across the state but also in requests for personal protection from Mexican and U.S. company owners going to Mexico to conduct business for a few days. Many private security firm owners said they have stopped allowing their agents to go across the border following recommendations from the State Department.
Reynolds said his agency still provides its services across the border, but his agents can use only weapons they are allowed to carry into Mexico.
“Once you cross the border, you have to play by their rules,” he said.
In Texas and across the United States, a mix of two variables is driving Mexican families to seek private protection, said Ricardo Ainslie, an educational psychology professor at the University of Texas. One is the high degree of violence and vulnerability people in Mexico have lived under for an extended period of time.
“When you have lived in an environment where there is this constant threat to you or your family, that is not something you can set aside from one day to the next; it’s a mindset, a frame of reference,” he said.
The other variable is an ever-present question — is the breadth of cartel violence going to reach across the border?
“Some of these families have been threatened in Mexico, and they have been told, ‘Anywhere you go, we will follow you,'” said Ainslie, whose forthcoming book is titled, “The Savior of Juaréz: México at the Time of the Great Drug War.” “They truly fear these cartels.”
U.S. lawmakers and law enforcement officials have long disputed the level of threat Mexican cartels pose in the United States. In Texas, crimes linked to cartels include 25 homicides since 2009 and 120 kidnappings and extortions reported since 2004 that have involved drugs and immigrants unlawfully in the country, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. At least one Austin homicide in the past five years has been cartel-related, police have said.
Many Mexican residents have long hired and maintained private security in their country. But as corruption and incompetence have wracked Mexican police departments at all levels, the country has seen a “meteoric rise” of private security firms in recent years, said George Grayson, a government professor at William and Mary College in Virginia .
Private security guards patrol not only at banks and government buildings but also around small shops and offices, while Mexican residents can contract bodyguards, chauffeurs and security consultants from a mushrooming number of companies.
“To the degree that crime crosses the border, private security firms will not be far behind,” Grayson said.
Allen Treviño, owner of Sentry Security and Investigations L P in Austin, said he has not noted an increased demand from a company standpoint but was contacted by a colleague because of his background for a potential partnership that would offer all-around services to Mexican transplants in Texas. The business would help expatriates with housing, education and personal protection resources, said Treviño, who also serves as president of Associated Security Services and Investigators of the State of Texas.
“A sense of security is a big part of the adjustment to a new location,” he said.
But the amount of money and resources residents spend for personal security in Mexico by no way resembles what Mexican transplants spend in the United States, said Ricardo del Blanco, a Mexican business owner who has intermittently lived in Austin since 1990. “We spend zero on the U.S. on that regard,” he said.
Most visitors find themselves safe in the United States, del Blanco said, and Mexican citizens are coming here precisely because they do not have to live in a box surrounded by armed guards.
He said he has never hired personal security and did not have any friends or family members who had, but with a greater mix of people visiting the United States to do business, he can see a reason for the new demand.
“The bottom line is that people are coming here to invest,” he said in Spanish. “It is amazing how many people that never thought of opening a business in San Antonio or Austin are now coming to Texas.”
Story here.
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Security contractors see opportunities, and limits, in Mexico
By Nick Miroff and William Booth
January 3, 2012
With the Iraq war over and the American presence waning in Afghanistan, U.S. security contractors are looking for new prospects in Mexico, where spreading criminal violence has created a growing demand for battle-ready professionals.
After years of lucrative work in the Middle East and Central Asia, where their presence has been occasionally marred by incidents of excessive force and misconduct, contractors and private security firms of varying sizes and specialties are being drawn into a conflict closer to home. But Mexico’s restrictive gun laws mean that foreign contractors must enter the bloody drug war unarmed as they take jobs ranging from consulting and technical training for the Mexican military to guarding business executives from kidnapping gangs and extortionists.
Virginia-based DynCorp International has job openings in Mexico for aviation instructors and mechanics. The New York consulting firm Kroll hires anti-kidnapping specialists to protect Mexican business executives.
The companies are beckoned by swelling pots of public and private contracting gold. In November, the Pentagon’s counter-narco-terrorism program office solicited bids on more than $3 billion in contracts worldwide, with an unspecified amount destined for operations in Mexico. The State Department has pledged nearly $2 billion in drug war aid to Mexico since 2008, much of it available to U.S. companies that can provide equipment or services to the besieged Mexican state.
Security spending by private companies in Mexico and the Mexican government has also surged. Since President Felipe Calderon deployed Mexico’s military against the country’s drug kingpins in December 2006, the number of armed private security firms in the country has doubled, Mexican federal police statistics show. But while there are 1,400 licensed firms in good standing, analysts say there may be an additional 10,000 operating without proper authorization.
Still, despite Mexico’s potential for highly remunerative work, experts caution that it will never equal the bonanza that U.S. companies found in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For one, the money available in Mexico doesn’t measure up to the cash that flowed through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the U.S. government spent more than $200 billion on private contractors over the past decade.
Gun law restrictions
Then there’s the issue of Article 27 of Mexico’s firearms code, necessary reading for anyone tempted to make a transition from Kabul or Baghdad to Mexico’s urban badlands. It essentially bans foreigners from carrying guns in Mexico — a deal-breaker for many would-be soldiers of fortune, despite their growing interest in the country, said Michael Braun, former DEA operations chief and now a partner with Spectre Group International LLC, a private security firm based in Alexandria.
“The Mexican government is not going to allow U.S. contractors to be armed in Mexico, and I can tell you that alone will cause many companies large and small to not even consider performing work there,” Braun said.
“The Mexican government and the Mexican people are extremely sensitive when it comes to these questions of sovereignty, and we need to respect that,” he added.
Mexico maintains some of the tightest gun-control laws in the hemisphere, even as drug gangs amass formidable arsenals of AK-47 assault rifles, grenade launchers and other military-grade weapons. While foreigners who are permanent residents in Mexico can get permits to own certain firearms for hunting or home defense, Mexican law prohibits non-citizens from working as armed security guards or carrying concealed weapons for self-defense.
That has a broad, chilling effect on U.S. contractors contemplating work in Mexico, even among those who do not directly work in security details as bodyguards, analysts say. Many private security contractors are military veterans who are accustomed to keeping at least a handgun for self-defense, and they balk at the thought of going unarmed into one of Mexico’s hot zones, such as Ciudad Juarez or Nuevo Laredo.
“A lot of guys ask me: ‘How do you carry down there?’ And when I say I don’t, they can’t believe it,” said Rick Sweeney, chief executive of California-based SECFOR, which provides personal security services to business executives in several of Mexico’s manufacturing centers, mostly along the border.
Sweeney said he worked as a security contractor in Iraq until 2006. Today, all of his 15 or so contractors are deployed in Mexico. Most are ex-soldiers from Britain and Australia. None is allowed to carry a weapon, so they team with local Mexican companies that can provide firepower.
“Everyone thinks if they worked in Iraq and Afghanistan they can work in Mexico, but it’s a different ballgame,” Sweeney said. “I’m not looking for the guys who come to me and say they’re an expert shot or a black belt. I’m looking for guys who can plan and stay out of trouble, rather than blast their way out of trouble once it starts.”
Partners vital — and risky
Armed private security is a booming business in many parts of Latin America, and demand for personal protection services in Mexico is growing at least 20 percent a year, driven by foreign and local business executives looking to safeguard their families and employees, according to Robert Munks, a senior Americas analyst with London-based IHS-Jane’s, which tracks global security trends.
Foreign contractors who partner with Mexican firms to provide armed guards typically subject those workers to extensive background checks, according to Munks, but contractors are still exposed to considerable risk.
“They have to be incredibly careful about who they partner with,” he said. “A very large percentage of people working in private security are suspected of working with organized crime networks.”
Still, the huge volume of trade between the United States and Mexico often necessitates that American executives cross the border. Companies that do not have much experience in Mexico are especially concerned about sending their staffers, even for short trips, according to Robert Oatman, a Maryland-based security consultant.
“You’re not going to see many executives traveling to Tijuana, or if they do, they’re not spending the night,” Oatman said.
A boom in training
A growing number of former and current U.S. military personnel are also training Mexican security forces in counterinsurgency, electronic surveillance and other techniques honed by the long American engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan.
American security aid pays for some of those programs, while other contractors are paid by the Mexican government, whose spending on security jumped from $1.7 billion in 2005 to more than $12 billion in 2011, according to the think tank Mexico Evalua.
There are no precise figures on the number of U.S. security contractors working in Mexico, but the Pentagon and the State Department spent $635.8 million on counternarcotics contracts in Latin America in 2009, a 32 percent increase from 2005, according to an analysis prepared by the office of Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) in June.
The report found that the United States awarded more than $170 million in counternarcotics contracts in Mexico between 2005 and 2009, much of that from the nearly $2 billion in security assistance that Congress has allocated through the Merida Initiative.
Still, analysts say the U.S. role in Mexico will always be limited by sensitivities to the bitter legacy of armed American troops south of the border.
“The U.S. government is afraid of overstepping, given the limited welcome it has in Mexico,” said Nick Schwellenbach, an investigator at the Project on Government Oversight, a District-based watchdog group. “And given the history,” he added.
Story here.