El Centro

Mexican Cartel Tactical Note #10: Claymore Anti-Personnel Mine (and Other Military Hardware) Recovered in Zacatecas.

Should U.S. Troops Fight the War on Drugs? New York Times debate on whether the U.S. military should be involved in the war on drugs.

Lessons of Iraq Help U.S. Fight a Drug War in Honduras by Thom Shanker, New York Times.

Drug Trafficking, Violence, and Instability by Dr. Phil Williams and Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown, U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute.

There are 10,000 saints in the Catholic Church. But there is one that’s not even real that many people are praying to.

H.R. 4303: A bill to direct the Secretary of State to designate as foreign terrorist organizations certain Mexican drug cartels and submit a report on the activities the Department of State is taking to assist Mexico with drug cartel violence, and for other purposes.

In advance of a hemispheric summit in Colombia this weekend the Washington Post reports that Latin American countries are pursuing alternatives to the US drug war strategy.

A new book from two SWJ El Centro fellows on Los Zetas.

Latin American governments are bringing militaries on the streets to combat gangs and cartels, but at what price?

Mexican officers investigating gruesome murders are ambushed leaving 12 killed and 14 wounded.

A few years ago Latin American specialists began warning the defense community at large that the Mexican cartels constituted an insurgency in the actual sense, though one that was strategically different from the ideologically-inspired ones with which we are all familiar.

SWJ El Centro Fellow John P. Sullivan's paper "From Drug Wars to Criminal Insurgency: Mexican Cartels, Criminal Enclaves and Criminal Insurgency in Mexico and Central America, and their Implications for Global Security" was just published as Vortex Working Paper No. 6 at the Scientific Vortex Foundation, Bogota.

Eduardo Guerrero, a consultant on security affairs at Lantia Consultores, addresses lessons in the war against organized crime in ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America.

BBC reports on OAS warning: "Drug Cartels Threaten Latin American Democracy".

SWJ opens a new site feature to focus on small wars in Latin America.

Mexican Cartel Strategic Note No. 12:  The Spreading Criminal Insurgencies in Mexico: States With U.S. State Department Travel Advisories.

Michael L. Burgoyne argues that U.S. COIN doctrine can be applied to problems in South America.  Sometimes, a more enemy-focused approach is needed, he finds.

Mexican Cartel Tactical Note #9: Decapitated Adult Male with Hands and Feet Removed: Found on Side of a Dirt Road Near Marana (Pima County) Arizona.

Mexican Cartel Tactical Note # 8: Teen Tortured, Dismembered, Beheaded by Trafficking Gang in Bethany, Oklahoma.