Has the laudable notion of 'shared
prosperity' in North America gone
off the rails? Columnist Carlos Fazio sees it as Washington's latest ploy
to seize the sovereignty of Mexico
Arming U.S. Covert Agents in Mexico is Integration Run Amok (La Jornada, Mexico)
"According
to Mexican Foreign Secretary José Antonio Meade, the gist of the new regulation
[to allow undercover U.S. agents to carry firearms in Mexico] is the
'harmonization' of Mexican law with that of the United States. He argues that
the presence of armed U.S. agents on our territory is vital to creating more
space for competition and shared prosperity in North America. … Secretary
Meade, who heads a chancellery that was once a bastion for defending against
interventionism, knows that ICE, the DEA, the CIA, the Pentagon, the FBI, ATF
and other intelligence services have for years been operating covertly and
armed in our country. … The language of the Security and Prosperity Partnership
has permeated the vocabulary of those who should be defending our national
sovereignty."
The United States wants to legitimize its long-running
intervention in Mexico. Over the past 60 years, through so-called bilateral
integration, Washington has penetrated the security and intelligence agencies
of the Mexican government. Now it wants thousands of undercover U.S. agents
operating on our national territory to be permitted to legally carry firearms.
The vehicle for consummating this above-said demand is the new PRI
[Institutional Revolutionary Party] of Enrique Peña
Nieto. The U.S. started with softening his stance, and now, as it was with [former presidents] Salinas, Zedillo, Fox and Calderón, Peña is the one proposing that U.S. agents carry firearms in Mexico.
The initiative to reform the Federal Law of
Firearms and Explosives was sent to the Senate on February 24. The objective? To allow agents of U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE is the acronym in English) to carry firearms in Mexico
as part of the joint program of pre-inspection, which is similar to the one
Washington has with Canada. Beyond being a euphemism for the immigration
authorities of one country to exercise their authority on the territory of
another, the intention is to allow U.S. agents to review the documentation and
consult databases on the movement of passengers at the international ports and
airports of Mexico and control and monitor the flow of exported and imported
goods at Mexican customs offices.
Washington's initiative, which was entrusted to Peña, proposes that its agents carry 40 caliber firearms
(maximum), and that security details of the U.S. president, secretaries and
other senior officials of the United States be permitted to carry firearms in
Mexico to provide them adequate protection. According to Mexican Foreign
Secretary José Antonio Meade, the gist of the new regulation is the
“harmonization (…) without ambiguity” of Mexican law with that of the United
States. He argues that the presence of armed U.S. agents on our national
territory is vital to creating more space for competition and shared prosperity
in the North American region.
Secretary Meade, who heads a chancellery that was once a
bastion for defending against interventionism - until Vicente Fox and Jorge G. CastañedaGutman came up with a
cunning way of ceding our sovereignty - knows that ICE, the DEA, the CIA, the
Pentagon, the FBI, ATF and other intelligence services have for years been
operating covertly and armed in our country. Recently, a former agent of the
CIA estimated the number of covert U.S. agents in Mexico to be 25,000. Just
last November, The Wall Street Journal revealed
that agents from the U.S. Department of Justice Marshals Service, armed and disguised
as members of Mexican Navy Department and supported by DEA and FBI agents,
participated at least four times a year in counternarcotics operations on
Mexican territory. According to WSJ, undercover
U.S. agents participated in the capture of Joaquín El
ChapoGuzmán, and a
marshal was wounded in Sinaloa last July during an operation against the BeltránLeyva Cartel. Rescued
by a member of the Navy, he was transported to Culiacán
and then to Texas.
Since 2005, under the Security
and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP)
and then in the guise of the Mérida Initiative
(2007), the U.S. has exponentially increased its political, police, military and
intelligence interference in Mexico. Another detail revealed by The Wall Street Journal is that U.S.
agents even enlist the resources of the Mexican government – such as weapons
and Navy uniforms - in actions that should be carried out by exclusively
national agencies. This indicates that the government of Peña
Nieto has gone one step further in abdicating its sovereign powers. Even
worse – it has been proven beyond doubt that within the framework of this much
vaunted cooperation, Washington has stocked Mexican criminal organizations it
claims to oppose with high-powered weapons, as demonstrated by operations Fast and Furious
and Wide
Receiver.
Peña was tasked with the
initiative to arm U.S. agents in Mexico by President Barack Obama at a meeting
held in Toluca during the North American Leaders Summit on February 19, 2014.
The following April, the Second
Tri-lateral Meeting of North American Secretaries of Defense, Canada, U.S. and
Mexico agreed to seek joint responses to transnational threats. They
gathered at the headquarters of the Secretary of National Defense, General
Salvador Cienfuegos, who, beside his counterpart from Canada, Robert D.
Nicholson, and Charles Timothy Hagel of the United
States, asserted that North America's geostrategic importance is so great that
the countries are obliged to tighten cooperation to address threats diverse in
nature and multilateral in scope. In a joint statement, the three ministers of
defense and Navy Secretary Admiral Vidal Soberón said
that due to the depth of our relations, geography, demography and economic
integration, the three countries share mutual defense interests. Asymmetries be damned!
Posted By Worldmeets.US,
There is no doubt that the language of the Security and
Prosperity Partnership has permeated the vocabulary of those who should be
defending our national sovereignty. In the last section of a booklet produced
last October by the almighty Council on Foreign Relations in New York, a
unified North American security strategy and greater U.S.-Canada-Mexico energy
integration is proposed. To paraphrase Bill Clinton, one might shout, “its
the fossil fuels, stupid!” But of course, Peña
understands that and continues on track to complete surrender.
