Small Wars Journal

El Centro

Third Generation Gangs Strategic Note No. 56: The Tren de Aragua in Chile: The Ronald Ojeda Kidnapping and Murder Case ZFTWARNING Fri, 03/29/2024 - 10:55pm
This research note examines the kidnapping and murder of former Venezuelan military officer, Lieutenant Ronald Ojeda by suspected members of the Tren de Aragua gang in Chile.
SWJ El Centro Book Review – Frontera: a journey across the US-Mexico Border ZFTWARNING Fri, 03/29/2024 - 10:22pm
SWJ−El Centro Associate reviews "Frontera: a journey across the US-Mexico Border" by Sergio Chapa and Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera.
Third Generation Gangs Strategic Note No. 55: Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) Expanding its Reach to Chile ZFTWARNING Mon, 03/25/2024 - 9:37pm
Brazil’s Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) is expanding its reach into Chile. The group, also known in English, as the First Capital Command is reportedly consolidating its expansion into Chile. This expansion is triggering intense political debate in Chile as the Chilean state seeks to come to terms with transnational organized crime’s impact on the local criminal ecosystem and challenges state capacity to address globalized gangs.

Frontera: A Journey across the US-Mexico Border

Sun, 03/24/2024 - 5:27pm

Frontera: A Journey across the US-Mexico Border, a new illustrated book chronicling the US−Mexico frontier, has been released.  The text by Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a SWJ−El Centro Fellow and Sergio Chapa, a freelance journalist and oil and gas expert, examines social, cultural, political, and security situation along the US-Mexico border from the Rio Grande Valley to the Pacific Ocean, stoping at border towns and cities along the way. 

Frontera

Publisher's description:

Following the border formed by the Rio Grande and moving cross-country to the Pacific Ocean, Frontera is a lavishly illustrated book that offers a comprehensive examination of the nearly two thousand-mile border shared by the United States and Mexico. The region has a reputation for being a dangerous place, with US Border Patrol and Mexican authorities playing cat and mouse with smugglers and undocumented migrants, and with drug cartels inflicting unspeakable violence on the region. Frontera takes an unblinking look at those dangers, but it goes beyond stereotypes and offers the reader vivid portraits of the beauty and complexity of the area—its history, its contemporary attractions, its rich cultural life. Moving through thirty-eight municipalities on the Mexican side and twenty-four counties in the US, Frontera includes maps, key cities, points of interest, border crossings, festivals, local cuisines, and more, along with analyses of local politics and security issues. Despite its troubles, the US-Mexico border is a beautiful place, the home of welcoming and warm people. It is a land of contrasts—austere landscapes and lush oases, thunderstorms and rainbows in the desert, robust industry and ghost towns, great wealth and aching poverty. Frontera is both a feast for the eyes and an encyclopedic reference that offers readers a clear-eyed perspective on a subject of critical importance to the United States and its southern neighbor.

Co-author Sergio Chapa describes the book in his article "Border Angels and Magic Moments" at the Texas Observer (26 January 2024). 

Source: Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera and Sergio Chapa, Frontera: A Journey across the US-Mexico Border. Fort Worth: TCU Press, 2024 (Hardcover,  516 pages). 

Organized Crime Groups and their Discourse in Mexico

Sun, 02/18/2024 - 1:30am
Organized crime groups (OCGs) in Mexico are some of the most violent and sophisticated active criminal cells. The conflict with the Mexican state, commonly understood to have begun in 2006, has resulted in approximately 400,000 casualties. The focus of this research is the discourse produced by Mexico’s OCGs. The tropes within the discourse projected by these groups present an ominous threat to the legitimacy of the Mexican state. OCGs operate, largely, in the rural areas of Mexico, those with populations that have been, in their eyes, long forgotten by the central government. These groups establish a discourse in which the state is weak, corrupt, and a distant outsider in their communities. Further, the populations of these regions should invest their trust and loyalties to the OCG rather than the state. This paper utilizes available theoretical frameworks to trace the parameters of OCG discourse to better understand how it functionally serves these groups and how it serves to undermine the legitimacy of the Mexican state. In doing so, this paper draws on the teachings of several scholars of the region from various diverse backgrounds. This paper also utilizes data collected from several organizations measuring the mood of the Mexican people surrounding their relationship with their government. Finally, this paper uses available examples of discourse through the works of prominent journalists who work in Mexico. This paper concludes that while these groups do not have a direct objective to replace the state, the discourse they produce to legitimize their activities is expansive in scope and successfully devalues the popular perception of the state.

About the Author(s)

SWJ El Centro Book Review – Narcas: The Secret Rise of Women in Latin America’s Cartels ZFTWARNING Tue, 02/06/2024 - 4:03pm
Book Review of Deborah Bonello's "Narcas: The Secret Rise of Women in Latin America’s Cartels" by SWJ−El Centro Senior Fellow Dr. Nathan P. Jones.

Drugs, Elites and Impunity: The Paradoxes of Money Laundering and the “Too-Big-To-Fail” Concept

Fri, 01/26/2024 - 4:27pm
This paper puts forward the thesis that the concept of “Too-Big-To-Fail” functions as a cover for the impunity conferred to financial elites in the United States in cases that also involve transnational organized crime, such as drug trafficking activities and drug-related violence. The authors illustrate their argument by examining the case of the HSBC bank (2012), in which no entity or person suffered a federal conviction for extensive criminal conduct for banking/financial violations that facilitated money laundering by Mexican and Colombian drug trafficking organizations. In Mexico, these criminal enterprises seek political protection through the bribery of public officials. By explaining this case, the authors demonstrate the futility of protecting big banks in related circumstances, and note that larger banking institutions have indeed failed without precipitating a collapse of the economy. The authors conclude with recommendations for reforms to the penalties typically applied in these types of cases facilitating money laundering of criminal groups.

About the Author(s)

In Memoriam Major General Robert H. Scales, Jr.

Thu, 01/18/2024 - 2:47pm

In Memoriam Major General Robert H. Scales, Jr.

Small Wars Journal is saddened to acknowledge the death of Major General Robert Hinds Scales, Jr. (5 August 1944 – 12 January 2024). General Scales was a founding Small Wars Journal–El Centro Fellow. General Scales was a 1966 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point.

RH Scales

Robert H. Scales was involved as a founding SWJ–El Centro Fellow until his death in January 2024.He was one of America’s best known and most respected authorities on land warfare. He was President of Colgen, Inc, a consulting firm specializing in issues relating to landpower, wargaming and strategic leadership. Prior to joining the private sector Dr. Scales served over thirty years in the Army, retiring as a Major General. He commanded two units in Vietnam, winning the Silver Star for action during the battles around Dong Ap Bia (Hamburger Hill) during the summer of 1969. Subsequently, he served in command and staff positions in the United States, Germany, and Korea and ended his military career as Commandant of the United States Army War College. He is the author of Certain Victory, Firepower in Limited War, Future Warfare, Yellow Smoke: the Future of Land Warfare for America’s Military, The Iraq War: a Military History (with Williamson Murray), and Texas Border Security: A Strategic Military Assessment (with Barry McCaffrey). He was a graduate of West Point and earned his PhD in history from Duke University.

Scales

 

A Social Network Analysis of the Guerreros Unidos Crime Syndicate

Fri, 01/05/2024 - 12:09am
Guerreros Unidos, a transnational crime organization (TCO) based in the Mexican state of Guerrero, has been linked to violent crimes, including the disappearance of 43 university students in 2014. The organization’s history of widespread violence, drug trafficking, corruption, and other crimes has made the Guerreros Unidos a notable concern to both the United States and Mexico. Understanding how this illicit network operates can provide valuable information on how to disrupt other transnational crime organizations. Social network analysis was used to map the relationships of members of the organization and measure their centrality within the network. The data for this analysis was collected from the United States v. Cuevas et al. (2014) indictment, which included wiretaps and surveillance conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). This counternarcotics operation included the Illinois subnetwork of the Guerreros Unidos organization. This portion of the Guerreros Unidos network was centralized around a few highly central actors and densely interconnected. Based on this information, comparisons to other illicit networks can be made to identify trends and create strategies for disruption.

About the Author(s)

Small Wars Journal–El Centro Top 10 Articles for 2023

Tue, 01/02/2024 - 10:10pm

Small Wars Journal–El Centro Top 10 Articles for 2023

These articles represent the best of SWJ–El Centro for 2023. These articles were selected by the SWJ–El Centro Senior Fellows. This list includes nine peer reviewed research articles and one strategic research note. All SWJ–El Centro content is available at https://smallwarsjournal.com/elcentro.

Tire Shop

Tire Shop Sign. Photo by Tomás Andres Michael Carvallo

  1. Raúl Benítez Manaut and Josué González, “The Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación: The Most Significant Security Challenge in the Mexico-United States Relationship,” Small Wars Journal, 30 September 2023.[1]
  2. Tomás Andres Michael Carvahlo, “Why Tire Repair Workshops Are the Target of a Wave of Violence in Guanajuato, Mexico,” Small Wars Journal, 19 January 2023.
  3. Sean Fiorella, Tony Payan, Daniel Potter, and Rodrigo Montes de Oca Arboleya. “Crime and COVID-19 in Mexico: Some Counterintuitive Results,” Small Wars Journal, 23 July 2023.
  4. Howard Campbell, “Changing Faces of Immigrants Crossing through Ciudad Juárez and into the United States: Reflections on Migrants, Culture, and Crime,” Small Wars Journal, 24 March 2023.
  5. Russell W. Glenn, “Monterrey, 1846: Still Offering Urban Combat Lessons after All These Years,” Small Wars Journal, 6 March 2023.
  6. Pamela Ruiz, “Security at the Expense of Constitutional Guarantees: The Case of Honduras,” Small Wars Journal, 6 February 2023.
  7. Mahmut Cengiz and Camilo Pardo-Herrera, “Hezbollah’s Global Networks and Latin American Cocaine Trade,” Small Wars Journal, 25 April 2023.
  8. Diego Ramírez Sánchez, “Organized Crime in Chile: The Challenge Ahead,” Small Wars Journal, 4 May 2023.
  9. Girisanker SB, “Demystifying the Synthetic Drug Menace: India’s Struggles and Strategies,” Small Wars Journal, 11 September 2023.
  10. Daniel Weisz Argomedo, John P. Sullivan, and Robert J. Bunker. “Mexican Cartel Strategic Note No. 35: Mexican Security Forces Arrest Ovidio Guzmán,” Small Wars Journal, 17 January 2023.[2] 

The SWJ–El Centro Senior Fellows thank all of our contributors and peer reviewers for their support in contributing to the literature needed to build a comprehensive understanding of crime wars, criminal insurgency, criminal governance, corruption, conflict, and state transition. We look forward to next year’s articles.

Endnotes

[1] This article is also available in the original Spanish Version, “El Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación: El mayor reto de seguridad en la relación México-Estados Unidos,” Small Wars Journal, 30 September 2023. 

[2] For an in-depth treatment of this subject see:  Daniel Weisz Argomedo, Nathan P. Jones, and John P. Sullivan, “Virtual Urban Siege: Modern Urban Siege and Swarming in Culiacán 2019 & 2023,” Journal of Strategic Security. Vol. 16, no. 3 (Fall 2023): pp. 30–52, https://doi.org/10.5038/1944-0472.16.3.2172.

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