Texas Makes Emergency Plans in Case Violence Spills Over from Mexico
March 9th, 2009Via: Star Telegram:
The state and federal governments have prepared contingency plans to deal with spillover violence from across the border as Mexican troops clash with ruthless drug cartels terrorizing Mexico.
“Anything you can think of that’s happened in Mexico, we have to think could happen here,” said Steve McCraw, Gov. Rick Perry’s director of homeland security. “We know what they’re capable of.”
A crackdown by Mexican President Felipe Calderon has turned Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, into a war zone as federal troops battle feuding cartels.
Thousands of soldiers and agents have surged into the border city in the government’s latest effort to free Mexican citizens from a daily spectacle of assassinations, kidnappings and beheadings ordered by rival drug czars.
McCraw predicted that the violence in Mexico “will get worse before it gets better.”
Mexico’s active-duty armed forces number more than 130,000 and are being aggressively used to combat the cartels. But U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters last week that Mexico’s two largest drug cartels have fielded a combined army of 100,000 foot soldiers to battle not just government forces but also one another.
Potential threat
The state’s contingency plan was developed under the umbrella of Operation Border Star, a multiagency law enforcement offensive led by Perry’s homeland security office. The plan, which has not been released publicly, envisions scenarios of violence, such as kidnappings or a takeover by hit squads, with a corresponding response by law enforcement, McCraw said.
While declining to elaborate on specifics for security reasons, McCraw called it a “very aggressive plan to deal very quickly with all threats that might be posed.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has also prepared contingency measures to respond to cross-border violence, agency spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said. Like the state plan, the federal response “contemplates a number of contingencies that could result from violence” in Mexico, Kudwa said.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, interviewed last week on PBS’ NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, said the grisly murders and kidnappings that are signatures of the Mexican drug wars haven’t made their way north.
“But let’s be very, very clear,” she said. “This is a very serious battle. It could spill over into the United States. If it does, we do have contingency plans to deal with it.”
Research Credit: eyeofthestorm
Wow, this must also be Change we can believe in. Cheese-us. Less than six weeks ago GWBush was practically pouring gasoline to promote this situation.
Drugs from South of the Border equals cash to Wall Street, the Federal goverment, etc.
The DRUG LORDS of the Americas have had a happy time since Reagan staging many a happy coup taking out any one who interferes with the flow of drugs.
Oi vey. I see yet another bubble popping. The bubble of illicit drug “smuggling.” Yea, sure, no one knew who was making money. Sure.But I think AIG is going down because they can no longer finance their gig with drug money, and anyone else who has been flying drugs around the world – ie, the CIA- well, push is coming to shove and oh, well. Think I’ll be worrying about their bubble bursting? HA. I’ll be enjoying their stories about “why they failed” in the US press who will be spinning their sad tales. I won’t even besmirch the name of the fairies when I say we are going to hear some really supposedly majic stories.
Hoo boy, Texas…
Looky here:
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/What_the_Huck_Chuck_Norris_.html
I can imagine many there welcome strife spilling over. I have to wonder.