This is a great little publication and a big hat tip to retired Generals McCaffery and Scales for putting together such an enlightening report.
The bottom line here folks, is as the Mexican authorities become better at countering the cartels, the cartels will increasingly depend upon safe havens to continue business and operations. So strategically speaking, the cartels are looking to set up sanctuary in the US border regions and play the border like a rib bone.
I should say that they ‘are’ using the US as sanctuary, just because if you combine this report with the other report I posted, then it isn’t too hard to put two and two together. And in a war sense, this is akin to the Taliban using Pakistan as a sanctuary so they can continue operations in Afghanistan.
The other element of sanctuary is the idea that cartels are operating along the seams of the law and law enforcement agencies, both federal or state, or between two countries. These guys are playing the borders in the literal sense, and in the legal sense, and definitely taking advantage of the grey areas.
Here are some quotes from this thing that jumped out at me:
A successful sanctuary permits insurgents to move freely and operate on whichever side offers greater security. In a curious twist of irony, the more successful the Mexican military becomes in confronting the cartels, the greater likelihood that cartels will take the active fight into Texas as they compete against each other in the battle to control distribution territories and corridors….
…..This paper will be the first to conclude that the cartels are following a twofold strategic plan:
1. First, to create a “sanitary zone” inside the Texas border — one county deep — that will provide sanctuary from Mexican law enforcement and, at the same time, enable the cartels to transform Texas’ border counties into narcotics transshipment points for continued transport and distribution into the continental United States.
2. Second, to increasingly rely on organized gangs to provide expendable and unaccountable manpower to do their dirty work inside Texas and elsewhere in the country. These gangs are recruited on the streets of Texas cities and inside Texas prisons by top-tier gangs who work in conjunction with the cartels.
Check it out and let me know what you think? Definitely pass this around and get the word out. –Matt
Texas Border Security: A Strategic Military Assessment, 2011