How to Subvert the Mexican Drug Cartels Michoacán Style- Turning the Insurgent Center of Gravity into a Community Center of Gravity

 

Another Counter Cartel/Criminal Community Emerges

It began in Cheran in 2011when the indigenous population dissolved their local government for its inability to establish a safe and secure environment for its people. One year later, crime went down and the people established a safe and secure environment for its own people. Now in a town approximately 8 miles

Soldiers dismantle telecom network used by Mexican traffickers

Comment: Hopefully this is the lead into a major operation to put the cartels on the run. Over the weekend, a group of hackers threatened to expose cartel members, as well as local and authorities colluding with cartel activities.

Excerpt:

Soldiers dismantle telecom network used by Mexican traffickers

Published October 31, 2011

Mexico City - Soldiers seized communications equipment being used by drug traffickers in Reynosa, a border city in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, the army said.
The telecommunications gear was seized on Oct. 11 and Oct. 25 by army patrols, the 4th Military Region command said, without identifying the criminal organization operating the network.

A total of 21 antennas, 22 repeaters, 18 duplexers, eight filters and three transceivers were seized.

The telecom network was dismantled as part of the government's "Operation Northeast" targeting drug traffickers and other organized crime groups, the army said.

Marines dismantled an encrypted communications network last month being used by the Los Zetas drug cartel in 10 cities in the Gulf state of Veracruz.

The network employed 12 antennas, computers, radio transmitters, scanners, thousands of feet of cable, cell phones, decoders and solar panels.

The Gulf cartel and Los Zetas have been waging a brutal turf war in Tamaulipas that has left hundreds of people dead since last year.

The two drug trafficking organizations are trying to gain control of smuggling routes into the United States.

...

A total of 15,270 people died in drug-related violence in Mexico last year, and more than 40,000 people have died since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the country's cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006.

Source:
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/10/31/soldiers-dismantle-telecom-network-used-by-mexican-traffickers/

MEXDRUGCARTELS in Texas – A Warning from Two Retired Army Generals and the Data to Back that Up

 

Last night MEXDRUGCARTELS posted a summary of two articles regarding a report produced by two retired Army Generals, Barry McCaffrey and Dr Robert Scales, concerning the growing threat along the Texas/Mexico Border. That piece was titled, “Cartel Violence Heading North and Federal Government in “Deep Denial” According to Retired Army General”.

Here is the link to the actual report found on the Texas Department of Agriculture website that resulted in media attention, “Texas Border Security A Strategic Military Assessment September 2011.” You can also download a copy of the report here.

Here are a couple excerpts from the report:

TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

TODD STAPLES

COMMISSIONER

September 26, 2011

Dear Fellow Texan:

I am pleased to deliver to you this important report entitled “Texas Border Security: A Strategic Military Assessment.” This report is the culmination of many efforts that started with rural farmers and ranchers bringing pleas for a secure border to me. The 82nd Texas Legislature recognized this critical issue and the numerous accounts of cross-border violence and tasked the Texas Department of Agriculture via House Bill 4, to conduct:

“an assessment of the impact of illegal activity along the Texas-Mexico border on rural landowners and the agriculture industry and working in conjunction with other appropriate entities to develop recommendations to enhance border security.”

In accomplishing this legislative directive, the Texas Department of Agriculture joined with the Texas Department of Public Safety to jointly commission retired four-star Army General Barry McCaffrey and retired Army Major-General Robert Scales for this unique and strategic assessment.

General Barry McCaffrey is the former Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under President Bill Clinton and former Commander of all U.S. troops in Central and South America. Major-General Robert Scales is the former Commandant of the United States Army War College.

The report offers a military perspective on how to best incorporate strategic, operational and tactical measures to secure the increasingly hostile border regions along the Rio Grande River. It also provides sobering evidence of cartel criminals gaining ground on Texas soil. As Texas continues to seek and deliver solutions to this attack on our nation’s sovereignty, I hope you will find this report enlightening and helpful in our collaborative efforts. We must continue this effort until the rights of property owners to live and work are upheld without threat of violence.

Sincerely yours,

Todd Staples

Another excerpt here (format slightly modified to fit on this page)…McCaffrey is a fine writer, his work is often very well done…easy to understand…excellent clarity on issues addressed.

The study by McCaffrey and Scales is 182 pages and begins with an executive summary. Here’s a small excerpt of that summary from a military perspective. OF SPECIAL NOTE, understand that McCaffrey is not a newbie to the overall drug issue, McCaffrey served as the 4^th Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy:

TEXAS BORDER SECURITY: A STRATEGIC MILITARY ASSESSMENT

Executive Summary

During the past two years the state of Texas has become increasingly threatened by the spread of Mexican cartel organized crime. The threat reflects a change in the strategic intent of the cartels to move their operations into the United States. In effect, the cartels seek 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. To achieve their objectives the cartels are relying increasingly on organized gangs to provide expendable and unaccountable manpower to do their dirty work. 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.

Strategic, Operational and Tactical Levels of Conflict

The authors of this report, both retired senior military executives bring more than 80 years

of military and governmental service to their perspective on Texas border security viewed in terms of the classic levels of conflict: strategic, operational and tactical.

Strategic

America’s fight against narco-terrorism, when viewed at the strategic level, takes on the classic trappings of a real war. Crime, gangs and terrorism have converged in such a way that they form a collective threat to the national security of the United States. America is being assaulted not just from across our southern border but from across the hemisphere and beyond. All of Central and South America have become an interconnected source of violence and terrorism. Drug cartels exploit porous borders using all the traditional elements of military force, including command and control, logistics, intelligence, information operations and the application of increasingly deadly firepower. The intention is to increasingly bring governments at all levels throughout the Americas under the influence of international cartels.

Operational

In the United States the operational level of the campaign against cartel terrorism is manifested at the state. Texas has become critical terrain and operational ground zero in the cartel’s effort to expand into the United States. Texas has an expansive border with drug cartels controlling multiple shipping lanes into the state. Texas’ location as the geographic center of the U.S. allows for easier distribution of drugs and people. In effect, the fight for control of the border counties along the Rio Grande has become the operational center of gravity for the cartels and federal, state and local forces that oppose them.

Tactical

At the tactical level of war the cartels seek to gain advantage by exploiting the creases between U.S. federal and state border agencies, and the separation that exists between Mexican and American crime-fighting agencies. Border law enforcement and political officials are the tactical focal point. Sadly, the tactical level is poorly resourced and the most vulnerable to corruption by cartels. To win the tactical fight the counties must have augmentation, oversight and close support from operational and strategic forces. History has shown that a common border offers an enemy sanctuary zone and the opportunity to expand his battlespace in depth and complexity. Our border with Mexico is no exception. Criminality spawned in Mexico is spilling over into the United States. Texas is the tactical close combat zone and frontline in this conflict. Texans have been assaulted by cross-border gangs and narco-terrorist activities. In response, Texas has been the most aggressive and creative in confronting the threat of what has come to be a narco-terrorist military-style campaign being waged against them.

If you want another perspective of the drug war you are not hearing about from the Federal government or mainstream media Skim through, if not read the entire report. 

“Complacency Kills”…is a quote and concept I first learned as a young Marine during studies on Terrorism and as an Anti-Terrorism Force Protection Instructor.  You have to have the mind and agility of a hunter, or you may end up as someone else’s meal. 

Note:  Sources are hyperlinked.

Cheers,

MX Government Denies Mexican Right to Defend Themselves

Newsmax

Hard for Citizens in Mexico to Arm Themselves

Wednesday, May 18, 2011 04:14 PM

By: John Lott

So what do you do if the government can't protect your from crime? Well, in Mexico, it is pretty hard for you to do much of anything, legally.

Here's another point. Apparently I don't live next to the cool U.S. gun stores touted in this article. If the Mexican drug gangs get their weapons from the U.S., could someone please tell which gun stores sell anti-aircraft guns, a grenade launcher, and dozens of grenades?

This is a useful article on many points.

“People are desperate,” said Rogelio “Chief” Bravo, a private investigator in El Paso who has worked for clients just across the border in Ciudad Juarez too. “They’re telling the government, if you can’t protect us, let us protect ourselves.”

Juarez is ground zero in the drug war with 8,000 killings since the city exploded in violence in 2008. Mexican authorities regularly display the weapons they confiscate from powerful drug traffickers.

Earlier this month, federal police raided a home in an upscale neighborhood in Ciudad Juarez looking for kidnapping victims. Instead they found a well-stocked arsenal that included three anti-aircraft guns, a grenade launcher, dozens of grenades, AK47s and several machine guns.

Many ordinary residents in Mexico believe guns are banned.

“The Mexican constitution allows people to possess firearms,” explained John Hubert, a certified-concealed hand gun instructor in El Paso. “But over the years the government has passed so many requirements and laws and restrictions that it’s basically almost impossible.” . . . .

source:  http://www.newsmax.com/JohnLott/mexico-drugs/2011/05/18/id/396883

READ this article too, it tells you why the population needs to be able to fight back:  http://www.mexdrugcartels.com/2011/01/narco-insurgent-center-of-gravity.html

http://www.swothunters.com

Rudimentary Insurgency Center of Gravity Analysis

Excerpt from Notes of a Counterinsurgent

Rudimentary Insurgency Center of Gravity Analysis

The Center of Gravity (see figure 3) for the insurgent is the indigenous population. Local support is helps arm and sustain the movement by providing the insurgent Critical Capabilities of supply, intelligence, communication, fire support, force protection, infiltration nodes, etc.  Support may be active, passive or coerced.

The Critical Requirement the insurgent requires in order to nurture and protect his Center of Gravity (local population) is psychological dominance of the battlespace.  As long as the population fears/prefers the insurgent more than COIN forces the insurgent has achieved his objective.

Examples:

Many people are afraid to speak out against the Mexican cartels because law enforcement measures are ineffective against them, or law enforcement official are colluding with the cartels.

Sunni moderates are afraid to speak out against al Qaeda or Palestinian Extremists.  Al Qaeda calls moderates infidels and kill them as opportunities develop.  Palestinian leader, Mahmud Abbas, was unable to stop extremist violence in late 2008/2009 that resulted in Israel conducting operation Cast Lead.  Extremist Palestinians threatened civilian Palestinian lives if they did not fight against Israel.

Afghan locals are afraid to speak out against the Taliban because they believe the US will desert them before they can develop a sustained capability to protect themselves and their families.

Despite the overt fear and control however likely lurks a silent minority waiting to come out from the cold and fight against the terrorist or insurgent when he feels he can make some positive gains.  Identifying such individuals is a COIN information collection requirement.  Such people are the heart of an insurgent movement, or the heart of a COIN countermovement.

·         There have been low-level reports of isolated forms of vigilantism against the Mexican cartels, but the effort is not sustained; this indicates a silent minority exists that want to fight against the cartels.

The Critical Vulnerability to the mosaic of the insurgents needs is trust.  Trust ties everything together.  Break the trust, and the insurgent (or counterinsurgent for that matter) has nothing to sustain him.

The true Center Of Gravity for COIN forces is also the indigenous population.  For the objective of the counterinsurgent is to ensure the indigenous population complies with rule of law and run their own areas without assistance from COIN forces.

It is therefore a competition between the insurgent and counterinsurgent to control the population and win by proxy.  Winning is achieved via the population by both sides, NOT by direct contact between the two opposing forces.

Hence this is why the late David Galula’s following comment remains valid today, as it did during his day.

"It can no longer be ignored or applied unconsciously in a country beset by a revolutionary war, when what is at stake is precisely the counterinsurgent’s power directly challenged by an active minority through the use of subversion and force. The counterinsurgent who refuses to use this law for his own purposes, who is bound by its peacetime limitations, tends to drag the war out without getting closer to victory.

How far to extend the limitations is a matter of ethics, and a very serious one, but no more so than bombing the civilian population in a conventional war. All wars are cruel, the revolutionary war perhaps most of all because every citizen, whatever his wish, is or will be directly and actively involved in it by the insurgent who needs him and cannot afford to let him remain neutral. The cruelty of the revolutionary war is not a mass, anonymous cruelty but a highly personalized, individual one. No greater crime can be committed by the counterinsurgent than accepting, or resigning himself to, the protraction of the war. He would do as well to give up early.

The strategic problem of the counterinsurgent may be defined now as follows: “To find the favorable minority, to organize it in order to mobilize the population against the insurgent minority.” Every operation, whether in the military field or in the political, social, economic, and psychological fields, must be geared to that end."

This excerpt was obtained from David Galula’s Counterinsurgency Warfare:  Theory and Practice, pages 56 and 57, dated 1964 and printed by Frederick A. Praeger, Inc.  All rights reserved.  Reproduced with permission of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc, Westport CT.

Of interest to counterinsurgents is a quote by one of America’s favorite insurgents and founding fathers, Samuel Adams…

“It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.”

THE POINT HERE IS TO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF A VOCAL AND ACTIVE MINORITY.   DO NOT IGNORE THE TECHNOLOGICALLY INFERIOR, OR AN ENITITY’S WILL TO PERSEVERE.  IF ONE CANNOT OVERTLY CAPTURE OR KILL A VOCAL MINORITY, YOU MUST FIGURE A WAY TO SUBVERT HIM, OR GET HIM BY PROXY.  HE MAY NEED TO BE A FOCUS OF YOUR OPERATONAL AND INTELLIGENCE EFFORT.  IF HE IS IGNORED, OR ALLOWED TO CONTINUE UNABATED, HE MAY COME BACK TO HAUNT YOU.

Insurgent Center of Gravity 101

Excerpt from Notes of a Counterinsurgent

 

Insurgent Center of Gravity 101

Center of Gravity (COG) - is the population; without the population insurgents have no way to sustain the movement or to infiltrate and subvert society.

Critical Capabilities (CC) – are the insurgents warfighting capabilities e.g. intelligence, logistics, command/control, fires, force protection, recruitment, propaganda, etc.  Conventional forces bring their capabilities to the fight; insurgents have to rely mostly on the preexisting environment or surrounding countries for their capabilities.  This is why the population is the center of gravity.

Critical Requirements (CR) – Psychological dominance of the battlespace.  The insurgent requires the local populace to support him, or he cannot succeed.  If the insurgent cannot buy popular support, he will force popular support via terrorism, blackmail, torture, extortion, kill informants, etc.  Disrupt this and the counterinsurgent disrupts his operational capacity; the population will often side with the perceived winner to survive.

Critical Vulnerabilities (CV) - Social Seams, and varying reasons to fight, are most susceptible to attack.  The population supports the insurgent for different reasons; find those reasons, the seams, and fill that void if possible with alternatives so locals avoid terrorism and insurgency, or even fight against it.  This will allow the counterinsurgent to reserve killing for hard-core members while turning the population against the movement.  Exploit social seams and lack of trust…undermine the mutual trust, or leverage to the point where the population see the relationship with insurgents a liability…most of the tactical COIN effort should be spent here…everything else (COG, CC and CR) are tied to this, particularly the CR.

Center of Gravity

Excerpt from Notes of a Counterinsurgent

Center of Gravity

“Serving in the Joint Staff as the focal point in counterinsurgency operations and training, I went to Vietnam eight times between 1962 and 1964. In those early years, I learned something of the complex nature of the conflict there. The problem of seeking out and destroying guerrillas was easy enough to comprehend, but winning the loyalty of the people, why it was so important and how to do it, took longer to understand. Several meetings with Sir Robert Thompson, who contributed so much to the British victory over the guerrillas in Malaya, established a set of basic counterinsurgency principles in my mind. Thompson said, "The peoples' trust is primary. It will come hard because they are fearful and suspicious. Protection is the most important thing you can bring them. After that comes health. And, after that, many things--land, prosperity, education, and privacy to name a few."

--Lieutenant General Victor H. Krulak, USMC

Center of Gravity (COG) - is what the enemy must have to achieve his objectives. COG can be physical, mental/perceptual or morale.

Critical Capabilities (CC) - are those capabilities that constitute the center of gravity; its what the COG has to offer; without critical capabilities the COG is likely nothing.  CCs can be physical, mental/perceptual or morale. 

Critical Requirements (CR) - are those requirements that give an entity its Critical Capabilities (CC). CRs can be physical, mental/perceptual or morale.

Critical Vulnerabilities (CV) - those critical functions most susceptible to attack. CVs can be physical, mental/perceptual or morale.

"Narco Execution Videos and its Effects on the Population"

One seriously has to ask themself:

-What drives people to go with this way of life?
-What would dissuade them from participating in this type of activity?
-What good will jail do if they only do time, but often get out early?
-What will stop this activity if less than 3% of these criminals are ever indicted for their crimes (Buscaglia in 2010 BBC video posted to this site)?
-What makes young children grow up and participate in such atrocities?

Even al Qaeda never appeared to go through this extreme; there was a politcal/quasi religious over tone in their activities.  The Mexican drug cartels have none of that.

As long as the cartels have the psychological advantage to use whatever force they deem necessary, while the government appears unable to control its state, the people will align with the cartels to survive in active or tacit support roles.

The cartels will not submit themselves to any law, but their own, while they have the means to resist.  They appear to only respect lethal force.  Only high-op tempo lethal force is going to cause a disruption in their activities until a form of governance can be established.

While it is likely these kind of activities may be few in nature, they appear to be a norm according to media reporting.  A strategic communications campaign is needed thwart this perception of strength.

Other comments-

This video highlights why the Mexican government needs to have a death penalty.   The video also captures why the US needs to take a greater interest as to what's occurring at our southern borders and bleeding over into the US.  The drugs are not the only concern coming across the border, but also the culture. THE VIDEO CAPTURES A NORM IN MEXICO WHERE CARTELS ARE ACTIVE, NOT AN ANOMALY.  

Forget Libya, Egypt, etc...focus is needed on Mexico.  Where are the US politicians, Human Rights Activists, UN and other international organizations in this fight?

Currently the cartel remains the only power able to control life and death.  The population will align themselves with the power that has the greatest influence over their lives.

Warning, the video is extremely graphic.  It captures the harsh reality of the cartels and the inability of the government to protect its people. 

Narco Execution Videos and its Effects on the Population: "This video surfaced today on the narco blogs, its content is extremely violent. It is unknown exactly when it was filmed, nor where it took ..."

Other related articles of interest:


Mexican Drug Cartels: Narco-Insurgent Center of Gravity


Mexican Drug Cartels: Strategy to Counter Drug Operations


Mexican Drug Cartels: 'Disrupt Insurgent Psychological Dominance'


Mexican Drug Cartels: Ripping Apart Narco-Insurgents ...


Mexican Drug Cartels: Narco-Terrorists Fills Governance Void - See How

Strategy to Counter Drug Operations

Strategy for Military Counter Drug Operations by Robert Culp

Article Key Points:The Mexican government’s approach to curtailing the criminal-insurgency must be comprehensive and populace centered.  While targeting both supply and key personalities are part of the effort, those activities are only a stop-gap tool to disrupt criminal momentum.  Subverting the criminal insurgency involves penetrating the movement, and disrupting the movement from the inside out.  The key terrain, the center of gravity for the all the chaos we see in Mexico is tied to effective governance meeting the needs of the people. And, if Mexico does not meet the needs of the people, the people will ally themselves with entities that will.  Those entities, drug trafficking organizations, have their eyes and hands on expanding their activities in the US. Comment regarding the article:  The US economy appears to be getting worse, not better.  People are going to look at other means to survive; providing active and/or tacit support to various criminal activities is one of them.  Add the immigration factor, most of them reportedly coming from Latin America, each of the potential of being recruited or extorted to support narco-operations on US soil.  If we lose neighborhoods, we lose towns; if we lose towns we lose counties; and if we lose counties, we lose states.  How governments effectively meet the needs of its people will often determine who the people will ally with.

Cartel Recruitment

"The Recruitment of Assassins by Mexican Drug Cartels"

This 6-page piece is a small compilation of open source accounts regarding cartel recruitment. Recruitment means identified in the piece are by newspaper, internet, community and radio.  Date of information is early 2009; file is in Adobe PDF ~199 Kb.  Of interest are the charasteristics of insurgency where organized gangs and criminal groups employ methods to separate the population from the government, thus gaining their allegiance (psychological dominance).

Perspectives on Warfighting: Centers of Gravity & Critical Vulnerabilities (Number Four, Second Edition)

Narco-Insurgent Center of Gravity

This posting follows suit with the previous couple of postings regarding the full destruction and exploitation of La Familia.

The purpose of this posting is to highlight some interelationships that identify narco-insurgent strengths and weaknesses. **Note that 'COIN' refers to counterinsurgency.