El Centro
SWJ El Centro, or "downtown" in Spanish, is our town square for analysis and discussion of Latin America's guerilla wars and criminal insurgencies. More about El Centro here.
Recent El Centro Journal Articles and SWJ Blog Posts:
Mexican Cartel Tactical Note # 17 : Indications & Warnings (I&W) for Small Caliber Mortar Deployment.
The writings of SWJ El Centro Fellows John Sullivan, Paul Kan, and Robert Bunker are mentioned in a work with an anti-statist and anti-capitalist perspective.
Santa Muerte: Inspired and Ritualistic Killings (Part 1 of 3)
Drug traffickers utilize “saints” and spirits to protect themselves from U.S. law enforcement. Some information and support for law enforcement officers.
US Military Expands its Drug War in Latin America by Martha Mendoza, Associated Press.
An overview of the recent findings of the Justice in Mexico Project.
Via Borderland Beat: "For more than 48 hours armed men held the entire town of Marcos Castellanos hostage, killing two people and kidnapping a police officer. After the attack most of the police force resigned…”
Grenades are becoming more and more common in Mexico with thousands seized from the gangs and cartels and are becoming an officer safety concern on this side of the border.
Rare photos of receovered cartel car bomb are reminiscent of IEDs found in Iraq.
Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto plans to create a Gendarmería Nacional, initially of 10,000 officers, to police the contested plazas and regions impacted by insecurity.
Op-Ed: The Need For A "Half-Pivot to the Americas" by Dr. Robert J. Bunker and posted by the US Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute.
Chinese Organized Crime in Latin America by R. Evan Ellis, National Defense University, PRISM.
Mérida Initiative: Transnational Security Governance or Governance Intervention?
US Army North has played an instrumental role over the past several years in building rapport and establishing new engagement opportunities with the Mexican Secretariat of National Defense.
Could Central American Gangs Usurp the Role of Mexican Cartels? By Edward Fox, Christian Science Monitor.
The Logic of Violence in Criminal War: Cartel-State Conflict in Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil.
Insights on AUSA ILW Panel: “Enhancing North American Security Along the Southwest Border”.