Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
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Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Is Mexican Govt. Outgunned By the Cartels?

.Borderland Beat Posted by DD republished from the Washington Post

DD:   
Between 2006 and 2014 the Mexican government seized 162,858 firearms and explosives, according to government data. Weapons have become more powerful over the past 10 years, and enough guns and rifles have been confiscated to arm 60 percent of the Mexican Army.

it’s the increased firepower behind the trigger that’s been troubling authorities.  With AK-47s leading the list of favorite narco weapons, explosives are also increasingly part of their arsenal with items such as land mines and bazookas repeatedly on the list of weapons seized by officials.



The shooting down of the heliocoptor in early May proved they possessed RPG's (rocket propelled grenades).


But the Mexican Government is on a spending spree to purchase military equipment that should equalize any inequality in firepower as shown in this report from the Washington Post.



What’s behind Mexico’s military buying binge?

By Joshua Partlow.


MEXICO CITY--It started with 27 rail cars full of ammunition rolling down the tracks into Mexico.

That load of 30 million bullets was soon followed by fleets of Black Hawk helicopters and thousands of Humvees: in all more than $1 billion of American military equipment sold to Mexico within the past two years.



In a security relationship between Mexico and the United States often described as standoffish, foreign military sales have lately become a big exception. Admiral William E. Gortney, the commander of Northern Command, the U.S. military headquarters that deals with Mexico, testified to Congress earlier this year that Mexico’s buying binge represented a “100-fold increase from prior years.”

 Americans and Mexicans familiar with the foreign military sales program said that the change in part reflects a revived security partnership between the two countries. It also shows Mexico's aggressive push to modernize its military in the face of powerful drug cartel adversaries.
 
U.S. officials have hailed the sales in part because they're so rare. Gortney, the Northcom commander, described Mexico's decision to approach the Defense Department about buying military equipment as "unprecedented" and that it marked a "historical milestone" in relations between the two countries.

 Mexico's long been suspicious of gringo motives (at least since it lost about half a million square miles of its territory to the U.S. in the 19th century) and has tended to not be a big U.S. military buyer, relying more on European equipment or private commercial agreements. At the start of President Enrique Peña Nieto's term more than two years ago, his administration felt the United States had wormed its way too deeply into the drug war, and Mexico halted many security programs.

Mexico's long been suspicious of gringo motives (at least since it lost about half a million square miles of its territory to the U.S. in the 19th century) and has tended to not be a big U.S. military buyer, relying more on European equipment or private commercial agreements. At the start of President Enrique Peña Nieto's term more than two years ago, his administration felt the United States had wormed its way too deeply into the drug war, and Mexico halted many security programs.

 "We knew that the President came in really wanting to focus on things other than security," said a U.S. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. "He found out he really needed to pay a lot of attention to security."

 In late 2013, Mexico asked the United States if it could fill a large order of 5.56 mm ammunition, and the embassy helped deliver the trainloads of $6 million worth of bullets within 100 days, the official said. 
"That case really kind of broke the ice," he said. "They saw the responsiveness of what we could do as a partner in foreign military sales. And they liked it."
 
That sale paved the way for even larger purchases: orders for more than two dozen UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters for the Air Force and Navy, and more than 2,200 Humvees. Since Peña Nieto came to office in late 2012, Mexico has purchased about $1.5 billion in equipment through the government's military sales program, plus $2 billion more through U.S. companies, said Inigo Guevara Moyano, a Mexican defense consultant based in Washington.

"All of these buys have been to replace existing systems that averaged 30 to 40 years old and drained budgets through high maintenance costs and poor availability," he said. He noted that defense spending also rose sharply under Peña Nieto's predecessor, Felipe Calderon, and that it reflects the "maturing military-to-military relationship at the institutional level, regardless of who is in power."

The buying also is a sign of the intensity of the war against the drug cartels. The Mexican military has aggressive operations ongoing in several states such as Tamaulipas, on the Texas border, and Jalisco, against the ascendant New Generation drug cartel. These operations have driven a rapid increase in defense spending over much of the past decade. Since 2006, spending has tripled, from $2.6 billion to $7.9 billion this year. Despite the growth, Mexico spends less than many other countries in the hemisphere, just .51 percent of gross domestic product, compared to a Latin American average of 1.31 percent, Guevara said.


In addition to tactical raids and statewide operations against drug cartels, the Mexican military is involved in all sorts of other missions, from vaccination programs, to reforestation, to securing voting booths in volatile parts of the country, as it did last week. The lavishly funded drug cartels it fights are sometimes better armed and equipped than the security forces. Cartel gunmen recently shot down a Mexican military helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade.


"The Mexican armed forces, including the Army, is one of the most overtasked military forces in the world," said Alejandro Hope, a security analyst.

 Some have been critical of the U.S. sales, particularly in a climate where Mexican security forces have regularly been accused of human rights violations. Last year, 43 teachers college students disappeared in Guerrero, allegedly captured and killed by local police working with drug gangs. A few months earlier, 22 civilians were killed by the Mexican military in the town of Tlatlaya south of Mexico City. The army first described the incident as a firefight but later admitted that a number of the civilians had been executed after surrendering. Relatives of the 42 men killed last month on a Michoacan ranch have accused the authorities of torturing and executing them, claims the government denies.
 
Researcher John Lindsay-Poland wrote for the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) that the “massive militarization” is “bad news for the many Mexicans devastated by the abuses of police and soldiers.”

 “The United States must develop other capacities besides producing guns and military equipment for finding a healthy balance of trade and addressing our own problems,” he wrote.
 
But others see this as necessary maintenance and modernization for an under-equipped military.
 
"It's mainly a process of correcting the imbalance," Hope said. "Having Humvees will not affect how much respect they have for human rights."

DD.  While not weapons per se, this video of military equipment crossing the border at Laredo in April   gives an idea of the scale of the purchases.


45 comments:

  1. Dont be surprised if them cartels have helicopters too hahaha but there was no doubt about them out gunning the gov.

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  2. I am shocked these cartels regardless of the security on the rails with all the merchandise did not attempt to derail or steal the load. You know that they knew what was coming and there was no secret about it, but why didn't they attempt something? That is what I feel is odd.

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    Replies
    1. They were probably given a percentage of the weapons, vehicles and ammo for non aggression. But you are right, very curious why not one single attempt was made -- or was there and no one ever heard of it? Mexico is too corrupt that something did not happen (when it should have). Yes, very very strange. Multiple Devil's at work.

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    2. The train cars will be fixed to be completed into gas chambers, the nazis used to do that, no proof needs to be left behind...

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    3. @3:52 pm
      YEAAAPPPP...Im with u..Im sure they got they money worth..!!

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  3. Mexico's long been suspicious of gringo motives (at least since it lost about half a million square miles of its territory to the U.S. in the 19th century) and has tended to not be a big U.S. military buyer, relying more on European equipment or private commercial agreements. At the start of President Enrique Peña Nieto's term more than two years ago, his administration felt the United States had wormed its way too deeply into the drug war, and Mexico halted many security programs.

    This paragraph is repeated.

    Chito

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    Replies
    1. 5:26 mexico got 1/2 a million Sq miles stolen by the US, who did not steal it all because the other half was full of indians, now the US is arming the mexican governing narco-mierdocracia to keep the indians working peacefully and ON the plantation, they tend to want to have too many rights on the US, like minimum wage increases, health care and shit, which even black or white americans do not have because they do not qualify...
      --The only ones to benefit from these weapons is the mexican governing narco-mierdocracia, the pious amerikkkan government knows it, and they do not give a fuck even when they know there are no more carteles...

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    2. What you call "stolen" 12:17pm I call "spoils of war". The US still paid around $15 million for the acquired lands to the Mexican government.

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    3. Spoils of "war"
      The texans forgot very soon that they came to mexican texas begging for a chance, inspired by their greedy political leaders...
      --Just white men bitting the hand that fed them...again and again and again...
      "Indians scalp their enemies, white man skins his friends"

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    4. No need to cry over spilled milk 2:02am. We all know the plight of the European white man in North America. Just let it go. If it were up to me I wouldn't allow my government to sell military equipment to ungrateful countries like Mexico. Sink or swim is my motto. If it weren't for the US Mexico would be at the bottom of the lake instead of treading water.

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    5. If it wasn't for mexico, the US would not have the credit to keep sucking arroz con popote from china said to have 17 trillion surplus dollars in the bank, while the US has lost about 20 trillion all over the world and has nothing to show for it other than a debt much bigger than that, a thousand wars all.over the world for benefit of its billionaire chickenhawks profit and the killed and maimed sons of other americans, plus the millions of people killed in their own countries without having anything to do with anything...
      --and all
      --@4:39 you let go, I will not, if all I ever do is say it here while it lasts...

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    6. Who really cares about international debt in the US? I don't because I live in a state where 183 men standing in a church facing thousands of Mexican nationals, fighting for freedom, who had a chance to walk out and save themselves, but stayed to fight and die for the cause of freedom. My state is Sam Houston (one of my paternal forefathers) who captured Lopez de Santa Ana at the battle of San Jacinto and he (Santa Ana) willingly gave up Texas in exchange for his own life. No matter how much you blame the US for Mexico's mishaps the buck will always stop at the doorstep of the presidential palace in Mexico City.

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  4. So mecico cant even load their own ammo? Lame..

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    Replies
    1. 7:05 The ammo get loaded on the US.
      Guess you are stupid AND lame...

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    2. I thought 7:05 was petty and bitter....probably goes hand in hand with stupid and lame

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  5. quick question: who does cjng get along with more. cds or ncj??

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    Replies
    1. CDS, not sure about the other.

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  6. With all the government corruption, it won't be long (probably already happening) and the thugs will be in possession of those newly purchased weapons.

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  7. The epn administration and el pri are just fortifying their military base to keep sticking it to the mexicans under excuses of the "Biig Baad Narcos" that traffick drugs for the priistas in power...
    --Mexicans need better schools, education, health.care, etc etc.etc, but the amerikkkan weapons merchants need more the corporate welfare sales, a big jump from selling weapons to the narcs...
    --Oil money from pemex has not come in yet, because prices dropped, but epn gets more weapons to exact votes for his motherfucking party and his gorilla army and generals trained to murder on the schools of the assassins...

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  8. Thank you Mexico for helping the US with it debt problem :)

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    Replies
    1. The profits from these sales WILL NOT PAY ONE RED PENNY of the foreign debt of the US, those profits have been safely offshored by now, and the expenses too, for the american taxpayer to pay or owe, but the interest is all the US pays ever...
      --The point being is get the US in debt, 0.00001%of all transactions, until it is all "gone offshore" with all the money stolen from the US from oil, drug trafficking, industry etc etc etc etc...

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    2. Well said mijo

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  9. US is selling to the Gov. the same ammo that its has sold to.Cartels hahaha who wins here? America again, NICE!

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    Replies
    1. Not America you Idiot, the corporate monsters that run America benifit. You're just an American peasant that believe's in the feeble minded theory of trickle down economics. Lol

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    2. No I'm pretty sure it's the a, mexican gov. Drugs are good way to make alot of money but the real money comes from war

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    3. The mexican government people are so stupid they think getting 1% "commissions" on everything they steal makes them 1%ers...
      --real 1%ers are not madafakin raggedy biker drug addicts, but those that take 99% from every deal offshore to the bank of their choice...

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  10. Interesting article as usual DD but will these arms and amo end up in cartel hands so the people can be terrorized even more?

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  11. 30 million cartuchos! And Obama and his anti-gun folks do all they can to keep U.S. Citizens from being able to buy ammo. For a year in recent past no 5.56 (.223) ammo was available. You still cannot reliably find 22 rimfire ammo. So let's think about this. 30 million more rounds WE send south to an unstable, corrupt government who cannot control the cartels......... At least some of that ammo and HumVees will certainly end up in the hands of the cartels, military defectors taking it with them. I sure hope we (U.S.) are don't see this ammo used against us along the border. Think recent helicopter taking a bullet in Laredo.

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    1. Hey Gun Control works in Chicago, just like mexico

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    2. I don't think the cartels would be stupid enough to steal a military issued humvee and expect to not stick out like a sore thumb. Civilian vehicles probably do a better job of blending in amigo. But then again, what do I know, I'm just a gringo.

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  12. I'm guessing the US bought these at inflated prices and probably took a loss by selling them to Mexico, but they have to make room for the newer technology they buy to replace these also at inflated prices. My question is, "what companies are building these and can I buy stock in one?" Guessing they aren't offered publicly

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    Replies
    1. Bought in china for cents, sold to mexico for dollars, petro-dollars and torti-bonos...
      ---The mexicans WILL pay with their ass for all of this, with the only thing they have, slavery...

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  13. This is ridiculous to think that any countries military is outgunned by "cartels" or organized crime. The killings of 42 CJNG members by just the Mexican Federal police forces alone about a month ago proves that the country has more than an adecuate amount of firepower at their disposal to counter the cartels. It is not like all the cartels have combined together in one or two specific areas and are threatening the national government as a whole. The cartels are not an army like the Zapatistaz from Chiapas years ago! Unfortunately people in the U.S. think the same way about cartels. Just ask the Texas government in its quest to "beef up" security along the Mexican border because of dangerous cartels and to some extent illegal border crossings

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    Replies
    1. Desde Tierra Caliente
      The problem is the narcos hide in plain sight. Los soldados ni policia sabes quien es quien. Nos autodefensas know who is who are where they belong. When LFM had this area we had brutal justicia. But it kept the ladrones out. When LCT then CJNG came they fucked us over. They have no friends. We tell autofensistas every thing new. But soldiers come and they walk past a sicario on the street and know nothing. That is the big problem. Los sicarios hide in plain sight. Gobernacion is too stupid too macho to admit this. They cannot win this way.

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  14. The cartels never bought no 30 million nothing from anybody, and what they bought at inflated prices, they earned the money to pay for it...
    --the mexican governing narco-mierdocracia is going to steal from all the mexicans to help support amerikkkan corporate welfare queens that hung from obama's nuts like crab lice...

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  15. Yes because us supplies cartels

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  16. seems like united states want always to push firearms to Mexico, why? ATF’s Fast and Furious scandal federal operation dubbed Fast and Furious.

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  17. I knew I read this story somewhere.

    Lucio already posted a great post about this

    http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2015/05/mexican-spending-spree-purchasing.html

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  18. Mexico needs to buy a weapon that can shoot down rampant corruption. The real auto defensas have used this with great success against the cartels. The gob. can buy nukes if they want but with corruption they will always fail.

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  19. Were any incinerators included in the package?
    --You know, it is hard to burn the "dead killed by their own stupidity" casualties in open fields, with tires, under the rain...at night... and it is harder to argue with scientists debunking whatever the government says...even mexican scientists...and that is the HISTORIC TRUTH...

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  20. These weapons will neutralize those that can see dead people, I mean corruption on the corrupt mexican governing narco-mierdocracia who suddenly need to establish the rule of their law and respect for their authority...
    --And then the US government denies their criminal involvement and complicity with the mexican criminals they later harbor in the US...nice going, like prostitutes drop their nylons at the sight of one dollar bill...

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  21. http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2015/06/19/artist-creates-donald-trump-pinata-for-angry-mexicans/

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    1. YAY!!!
      AT LAST! some good news from fox news, even if it is latino, we know it is only propaganda to earn some mexican votes for their conservative neo-liberal and libertarian candidates (all nazi teabaggers)...
      As if...
      --Liberal libertines have more fun just watching the fat oxes stampede from outside the corral...

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