Cartels as Terrorists

Here is a useful Idea that I have advocated for in the past.

BRANDON DARBY: One of the things that’s very interesting about Texas on the border, as you know, there’s nine sectors on the Southwest Border, five of which are in Texas. Part of the problem that we have in Texas is that two of the most brutal criminal groups south of the border, which actually operate north of the border as well, as you know, are Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel. But unlike most of the other criminal organizations in Mexico along our border, which would be Sinaloa, Juarez Cartel, Tijuana Cartel. Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel are extremely brutal. In fact, the videos they release resemble ISIS videos. We try to challenge them as much as possible, but what more could the U.S. do? There’s talk of declaring certain factions as foreign terror organizations so you could appropriately go after the money and the politicians. Again, Tamaulipas, a state below Texas, the last two governors are fugitives from U.S. justice for being surrogates of the Gulf Cartel. Several of the governors in Coahuila are now in trouble because they were Los Zetas. What more could the U.S. do to to challenge Mexican transnational criminal groups who operate in our country, who kill our kids? What could we do to challenge them?

SEN. TED CRUZ: We could do a great deal more. What has happened in the last decade with Mexican drug cartels has been nothing short of tragic. Mexico is a great and wonderful country. The Mexican people are wonderful people. Growing up in Texas, we spent a great deal of time in Mexico. Most Texans have long and deep commitments to Mexico. Whether family ties, or business ties, or cultural ties. Where Texans vacation in Mexico. Mexicans vacation in Texas.

In the past decade, we have seen the control and reign of terror of the cartels wreak enormous damage to the nation of Mexico. Where ordinary citizens are terrified for their lives. Where crime and kidnapping becomes almost routine and the corruption that goes hand and hand with billions of dollars of illegal narcotic trafficking resources combined with vicious violent transnational criminal cartels has done enormous damage to Mexico and enormous damage to America.

What can we do about it? One of the things I think we should explore very seriously is something along the lines of what we did in Colombia: Plan Colombia. Where President George W. Bush worked with President Uribe to target the cartels and take them out. It was treated less as a law enforcement matter than as a military matter. Where our military went into Colombia and helped destroy the cartels.

It did so on the invitation of the Colombian government. Look, we should not engage in a military action in Mexico without the active cooperation of the duly elected government there

Proposition: We label the Drug Cartels as Terrorists.

Why?

Because they are.

Note that I am not advocating for  a military invasion of Mexico. The modern iteration of warfare is not conducive to that type of warfare, and it is too darn expensive.

What I am advocating for, is precision special operations to go into specific compounds identified as Cartel hubs. The drug trade from the south has observably caused more death and terror and has destroyed more lives than all of the combined terror attacks from Islam to the United States in the past 100 years.

One of the driving forces of the Mexican migration/invasion into the United States has been the lack of incentive to stay in Mexico. Heck, I wouldn't want to stay in a country where there exist no effective rights of the people because all aspects of life are governed by the Cartels who control the politicians.

Imagine a marketing campaign to persuade Mexicans to take action into their own hands and take back their country from the corrupt and evil leaders of the Cartel. The strike forces that the U.S. will use can be populated by ethnic Mexicans, the U.S. politicians who support the effort wholeheartedly can be Hispanic, and there can be voluntary programs introduced which are funded and ran by Mexicans.

Just a little idea that I've been throwing around in my head.

Tell me what you think of it, and in what ways it can be improved.

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