A big thanks to Doug for sending me this, and this is kind of a follow up to my other post. The thing I ask myself is what would a ‘spill over’ into this country look like, if things got worse in Mexico? Already, drugs/people/weapons are all being smuggled across the border–through tunnels and over land. The kind of spill over I am thinking of, is if these drug cartels feel threatened at all by the US support of Mexico in this drug war and decide to hit back. I think in terms of what Colombia looked like at it’s worst during it’s drug war, and then I try to apply that to what this situation could look like in the present and near future for Mexico.
The other angle I am looking at, is the contracting opportunities if this gets worse. Surveillance stuff and some training opportunities will be the big ones. Maybe some aviation stuff as well. But if we need muscle on the border, and the troops are already spread thin, would security contractors come into play? Security contractors are already being used to help secure borders or train the border patrols of Afghanistan and Iraq, they could easily be used for the US border efforts. We are a resource that has been used in the past by the federal government for disasters, namely hurricane support, and a disaster at the border is no different. Of course that is only my opinion on the matter.-Matt
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U.S. plans border ‘surge’ against any Mexican drug wars
By Randal C. Archibold
Thursday, January 8, 2009
The soaring level of violence in Mexico resulting from the drug wars there has led the United States to develop plans for a “surge” of civilian and perhaps even military law enforcement should the bloodshed spread across the border, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday.
Chertoff said the criminal activity in Mexico, which has caused more than 5,300 deaths in the last year, had long troubled American authorities. But it reached a point last summer, he said, where he ordered specific plans to confront in this country the kind of shootouts and other mayhem that in Mexico have killed members of warring drug cartels, law enforcement officials and bystanders, often not far from the border.
“We completed a contingency plan for border violence, so if we did get a significant spillover, we have a surge ? if I may use that word ? capability to bring in not only our own assets but even to work with” the Defense Department, Chertoff said in a telephone interview.