U.S. vulnerable to exploitable mercenaries
”Join the ranks of the Gulf Cartel,” reads a recruitment banner. “We offer benefits, life insurance, a house for your family and children. Stop living in the slums and riding the bus. A new car or truck, your choice.”
Such banners and signs are appearing in various Mexican states urging members of Mexico’s national military to join the Zetas, the hit squad of the Gulf Cartel.
Last week, federal agents detained the Reynosa police commissioner Juan José Muñiz, for questioning because of evidence he was protecting the Zetas, the Mexican Justice Department said.
Read the daily’s complete article here.
In the border town of Juárez, information about who is fighting whom on the streets is hard to come by. The International Herald Tribune has reported that the local police chief professes that he knows nothing about the conflict, despite having been an officer there for 30 years. He acknowledges that the 1,600-member police force is riddled with corrupt officers, a consequence, he says, of low pay and the lack of a career path that leads them to seek other sources of money.
The elephant-in-the-room question becomes who else will impoverished Mexicans aid if the price is right? The United States remains vulnerable to the threat of international terrorist organizations. Their ability to exploit the poverty, lawlessness, economic instability and governmental corruption south of our border places us in an untenable situation.
As long ago as 2004, TIME magazine reported border agents have encountered not only a wide variety of invaders from Latin Americans (Guatemala, El Salvador, Brazil, Nicaragua and Venezuela) but also intruders from Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Russia and China as well as Egypt, Iran and Iraq
The presidential candidates must stop side-stepping this critical issue. Empty promises and inaction cannot continue as America stares squarely in the face of impending peril.