El Centro

Many crime control strategies developed today are based upon successes of the past. Given the complex nature of the environment, the chances for these strategies to achieve real success are limited.

SWJ El Centro Fellows Vanda Felbab-Brown and Eduardo Salcedo-Albarán Highlighted in Article.

Mexican Drug Cartels Fight Turf Battles in Chicago by Armen Keteyian, CBS News.

Mexico Cartel May Have Targeted CIA by E. Eduardo Castillo, Associated Press.

Via Fox News: 2 US Border Agents Shot, 1 Killed, Near Major Drug Corridor in Arizona

Mexican Cartels Operating Throughout the Western Hemisphere: "Mexico’s drug cartels now have a foothold in 16 countries in the Western Hemisphere".

Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico under martial law after multiple gun Battles.

Mexico Captures Zetas Drug Lord Ivan Velazquez Caballero via the Beeb.

The intent of this note is to update the Mexican cartel tactical note series with some archival information dating back to 2009. The following Mexican cartel weapons should be considered rare and have been encountered sporadically as in the case of .50 cal. machine guns and singularly (potentially) as in the case of surface-to-air missiles.

Mexico Deploys Troops to Outskirts of Mexico City: This deployment may represent another “firebreak” crossed concerning the criminal insurgencies taking place in Mexico.

Mexico's Gulf cartel will likely survive arrest of high-level leaders.

This new Military Review article supports the perception that a ‘commercial insurgency’ is taking place in Mexico.

Mexican Cartel Tactical Note #13: Man Crucified in Michoacán, Mexico.

There has been a dominant narrative in the study of Mexican drug trafficking which argues that violence goes down when one dominant trafficking organization monopolizes a locale.

More on Mexican Federal Police firing on a US Embassy vehicle via the New York Times.

The New Security Reality: Not Business as Usual - A Strategic Studies Institute Op-Ed by Dr. Max Manwaring.

Transnational Organized Crime, Terrorism, and Criminalized States in Latin America: An Emerging Tier-One National Security Priority by Douglas Farah, Strategic Studies Institute.

While transnational organized crime elements operating in Latin America may not be engaged in an ideological “terrorist insurgency,” the observed conflict between them and regional states can be accurately described as a “criminal insurgency.”

New Book by SWJ El Centro Fellow Paul Rexton Kan: "Cartels at War: Mexico's Drug-Fueled Violence and the Threat to U.S. National Security".

Mexican Cartel Strategic Note No. 13: City of Hidalgo, Texas, Fearful of Cartel Violence Potentials - Will Not Release New Police Chief’s Photo.

Continue on for a recent article and report by SWJ El Centro Fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown.

The apparent election of Enrique Pena-Nieto as President of Mexico is a development that is full of irony and contradictions