Questions about the Juarez surge
CNN:
However, questions hang over this surge. How will the traffickers react? Will the cartels simply increase their offensive operations elsewhere to pull the government's attention away? The Mexican government can't put 7,000 troops into ever city. My big concern is that the cartels start violent actions elsewhere, forcing the Mexican government to spread its troops more thinly.
Can it be sustained over time? The Mexican military isn't big enough and well trained enough to maintain thousands of troops deployed for years. When and how does Mexico plan to transition back to civilian police forces? Mexico doesn't seem to have an "exit strategy" or an end game.
These questions should concern the Mexican government. They seem quite certain they want to wage war against the cartels, but they need to start thinking about what their strategy is for winning the war, not simply fighting it from day to day.
Nearly 7,000 Mexican soldiers and federal police arrived in the U.S.-Mexico border city of Ciudad Juarez this week to restore security to a city plagued by a long-standing, bloody drug war.7,000 more troops will bring some results. That's almost a given. In the short term, Ciudad Juarez should become safer simply because that's a lot of troops. President Calderon hopes to make a statement with this action.
Random vehicle checkpoints, patrols of masked soldiers and police in SWAT gear are some of the signs of the massive military buildup ordered by Mexico's president, Ciudad Juarez police spokesman Jaime Torres Valadez said Thursday.
Another 1,500 soldiers are expected to join the 3,500 that rolled into Juarez earlier this week to support municipal police in street patrols and ultimately take control of their operations, Torres said.
However, questions hang over this surge. How will the traffickers react? Will the cartels simply increase their offensive operations elsewhere to pull the government's attention away? The Mexican government can't put 7,000 troops into ever city. My big concern is that the cartels start violent actions elsewhere, forcing the Mexican government to spread its troops more thinly.
Can it be sustained over time? The Mexican military isn't big enough and well trained enough to maintain thousands of troops deployed for years. When and how does Mexico plan to transition back to civilian police forces? Mexico doesn't seem to have an "exit strategy" or an end game.
These questions should concern the Mexican government. They seem quite certain they want to wage war against the cartels, but they need to start thinking about what their strategy is for winning the war, not simply fighting it from day to day.
Labels: illicit-trafficking, latinamerica, Mexico, military, security |
