Thread: US drones help fight Mexico drug cartels

US drones help fight Mexico drug cartels

By Adriana Gómez Licón \ El Paso Times
Posted: 03/17/2011 12:00:00 AM MDT

The U.S. government has begun deploying drones into Mexico after Mexican officials requested U.S. aircraft to help them fight drug-trafficking organizations.

Although U.S. agencies remained tight-lipped Wednesday on flying drones over Mexico, the chief of the Mexican National Security Council, Alejandro Poiré, admitted that his government asked for this type of support to gather intelligence.

Poiré in a statement said the Mexican government defines the operations, most of which take place in border areas.

"When these operations take place, they are authorized and supervised by national agencies, including the Mexican Air Force," Poiré said Wednesday.
Furthermore, Poiré said, the governments were not breaking any national sovereignty laws because they were simply assisting in gathering intelligence. The drones are for surveillance only and are not armed.

The announcement came the day The New York Times published a story revealing that U.S. agencies have been sending an undetermined number of Global Hawk drones to interior Mexico since last month.

Homeland Security drones flew along the U.S.-Mexico border in past years to gather intelligence on organized crime.

Global Hawks are military drones that have been used for surveillance missions in Afghan istan as well as for relief efforts in natural disaster zones. Global Hawks can look over areas as large as 40,000 square miles.

The newspaper cited officials who spoke anonymously because the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, who reportedly operate the drones, did not publicly comment.

"All U.S. cooperation with Mexico is at the government of Mexico's invitation and is fully coordinated with the government of Mexico," said Matt Chandler, Homeland Security spokesman.

Chandler declined to comment specifically on the use of unmanned aircraft in Mexico.

Department of Defense officials did not return calls on Wednesday.

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, is the chairman of a Homeland Security subcommittee. McCaul said he did not know that drones flew over Mexico before Wednesday.

"They are probably trying to do it under the radar," he said.

But McCaul said it is a positive sign to increase the role of the United States in the Mexican drug war. Mexico, he said, has been reluctant to accept U.S. intervention, but he said times are changing.

"It's a significant departure in the right direction," he said. "We are seeing the (Mexican President) Felipe Calderón administration welcoming our military presence."

McCaul said he learned from agencies on Wednesday that a drone helped Mexican law enforcement capture gang members in connection to the murder of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jaime Zapata. He was killed on a highway in San Luis PotosÃ* on Feb. 15.

The drones may also set a precedent to devise a joint military operation with Mexico, McCaul said.

When President Calderón visited the White House on March 3, he said, officials sought to be "very open-minded and search for more creative solutions."

"It seems to me that we are experiencing extraordinary circumstances that call for extraordinary actions by our governments," Calderón said.

Mexican army and embassy officials declined to comment on the U.S. drones flying over Mexico, and instead referred inquiries to the National Security Council.

Earlier this week, Juárez Mayor Héctor MurguÃ*a hosted Carlos Pascual, the U.S. ambassador in Mexico, to discuss national security matters.

MurguÃ*a appeared welcoming to ideas such as placing ICE agents on the ground in Juárez. He also said he is pleased to receive any support the neighboring country could give to the city of 1.3 million that has been ravaged by drug-cartel violence.

MurguÃ*a refused to comment on whether he and Pascual spoke about the drones, calling it a matter of "national security."

The fact that U.S. drones are flying inland by the request of the Mexican government shows the two countries' relations are deepening, said Eric Olsen, senior associate at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars' Mexico Institute in Washington, D.C.

"Of course these kinds of operations are shrouded in secrecy," he said. "There is enormous sensitivity, but there is also a realization that the threat posed by drug cartels is severe."

Olsen said the U.S. presence is still limited. There are no law enforcement operations on the ground, and American agents are not armed.

While Mexican officials said on Wednesday that they will heighten their use of technology with the help of the United States, Olsen said a military intervention in Mexico is not likely.

"I certainly believe that Mexico with the appropriate support and help from the United States has the ability to tackle its problems."

The question of how secure the U.S.-Mexico border is was raised last week during a judiciary committee hearing with U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

At the hearing, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, cited a Government Accountability Office report for fiscal 2010 on the U.S. border with Mexico.

"The Government Accountability Office points out that of the 2,000 miles along the southern border that 1,120 of those miles were not yet under operational control by the federal government," Cornyn said.

Cornyn also said that of 445,000 people detained on the Mexican border, 45,000 came from 140 countries, according to Border Patrol figures for fiscal 2009.

At least four countries on this list of 140 have been designated by the U.S. Department of State as state sponsors of terrorism, Cornyn said.

"With our porous border admitting people coming from 140 different countries other than Mexico, including four nations that are state sponsors of international terrorism -- this is a national security threat," Cornyn said.

Napolitano during the hearing said the federal government was working to secure the border.

"You have to understand first of all that operational control is a term of art by the Border Patrol. It doesn't include all of the assets that are being deployed to the border -- the technology and so forth," she said.

Adriana Gómez Licón may be reached at agomez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6129.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_17631672

RELATED

U.S. Military Drones for Border Work? - POLL

http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-1199122.html

Related: http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-231497.html