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HORIST: It is time to get tough on Mexican drug cartels

HORIST: It is time to get tough on Mexican drug cartels

The brutal murder of nine Americans – including six children – should convince of something we should have known all along – that the United States is being victimized and terrorized by the vicious criminal elements south of the border. The criminal gangs and drug cartellians being exported by Mexico are as vicious as ISIS and a lot closer.

As in the Middle east, powerful gangs have taken effective control of regions of Mexico by intimidating local officials – and killing those who would not be intimidated.  The economic and political influence of these gangs reaches all the way to Mexico City.

In recent months, we have seen the release of Ovidio Guzmán López, the son and successor of Joaquin Guzman – better known as El Chapo.  His release followed a shoot out with gang members.  Lopez was wanted in both Mexico and the United States.  The enormous power of the Guzman operation is based on money as well as violence.  Prior to his arrest and extradition to the United States, El Chapo was estimated to be worth more than $15 billion. His Sinaloa Cartel is fully operational even as El Chapo sits in an American prison.

Every gangbanger that enters America – and ever ounce of illicit drugs – should be considered a threat to our security and an attack on the United States.  Even drugs that are not produced in Mexico – some coming from the Middle and Far East – us our southern neighbor as a conduit.

Following the recent murder of the nine Americans, President Trump called on Mexican President Andrés Obrador to go after the cartels.  Amazingly, Obrador demurred, saying that had been tried and did not work.  Rather he proposed eliminating poverty.

With Democrats refusing to secure our southern border and Mexican authorities refusing to take on the violent cartels, it is time for the United States to get tough.  We should deal with the situation just as we are dealing with terrorists from the Middle East.

We should declare the drug cartels to be international terrorist organizations.  They are, in fact, much more than local criminal elements.  We should lead an effort to get the UN seriously involved in defeating the international drug industry.  Of course, that will just prove again how ineffective is the UN when it comes to actually doing something meaningful.

We should then use the leverage of the United States to DEMAND that America and Mexico join in a united MILITARY operation to wipe out the cartels.  We should target their leaders for assassination – just as we did with Osama Bin Laden and Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.

And what if Mexico refuses to participate?  We then have to explain that the United States WILL take action unilaterally.  Yes, that means we would have to cross over into Mexican territory.  We went into Pakistan to get Bin Laden and Syria to get al Baghdadi. We should employ both overt and covert operations.

If Mexico was convinced that the United States would act unilaterally, there is a very high probability that the Mexican government would cooperate – at least to the extent of permitting U.S. military intervention.

We can use highly sophisticated military technology to identify and destroy locations where drugs producing plants are grown and where they are manufactured.

Rather than dealing with domestic drug dealers or folks like MS13 as common criminals, we should apply terrorist status and deal with him accordingly.  Those in the United States illegally should be treated as foreign combatants and subjected to military tribunals – and maybe spend their best years playing Scrabble at Gitmo. We have a lot of empty beds there.

If they are American citizens, the application of terrorist laws would at least get them much longer prison terms.

Yes … the left-wing civil libertarians will have a hissy-fit – as they do almost any time America shows leadership.  Nothing proposed above, however, is different than what we are legally and properly doing in other parts of the world.  The only changes are that we are not looking the other way in the face of the attacks on the United States from international organized crime syndicates.

Of course, border security is an important element, but until Democrats get serious about protecting our border and our national security, that will be a lagging option.

If this seems too extreme, put yourself in the shoes of those millions … yes, millions … of Americans who are mourning the deaths of loved ones at the hands of illegal aliens and international criminals – those whose loved ones were macheted to death or died with needles in their arms.

So, there ‘tis.

Editor’s note: A LOT more people die from needles in their arms.

About The Author

Larry Horist

So, there ‘tis… The opinions, perspectives and analyses of businessman, conservative writer and political strategist Larry Horist. Larry has an extensive background in economics and public policy. For more than 40 years, he ran his own Chicago based consulting firm. His clients included such conservative icons as Steve Forbes and Milton Friedman. He has served as a consultant to the Nixon White House and travelled the country as a spokesman for President Reagan’s economic reforms. Larry professional emphasis has been on civil rights and education. He was consultant to both the Chicago and the Detroit boards of education, the Educational Choice Foundation, the Chicago Teachers Academy and the Chicago Academy for the Performing Arts. Larry has testified as an expert witness before numerous legislative bodies, including the U. S. Congress, and has lectured at colleges and universities, including Harvard, Northwestern and DePaul. He served as Executive Director of the City Club of Chicago, where he led a successful two-year campaign to save the historic Chicago Theatre from the wrecking ball. Larry has been a guest on hundreds of public affairs talk shows, and hosted his own program, “Chicago In Sight,” on WIND radio. An award-winning debater, his insightful and sometimes controversial commentaries have appeared on the editorial pages of newspapers across the nation. He is praised by audiences for his style, substance and sense of humor. Larry retired from his consulting business to devote his time to writing. His books include a humorous look at collecting, “The Acrapulators’ Guide”, and a more serious history of the Democratic Party’s role in de facto institutional racism, “Who Put Blacks in That PLACE? -- The Long Sad History of the Democratic Party’s Oppression of Black Americans ... to This Day”. Larry currently lives in Boca Raton, Florida.

11 Comments

  1. Randy Hash

    Great read and right on.

    • Rattlerjake

      Not even close. These terrorists need to be hung and their bodies run though a tree chipper. We don’t need to be wasting tax dollars housing and feeding these scumbags for decades; we also need to start executing those cartel members and MS-13 gang thugs we already have in prison. It will be a surprise if the corrupt Mexican’t government will turn on their cartel buddies.

  2. raygun

    Ban all non essential travel for US citizens across the Southern Border. Reduce the risk of non political US citizens. Finish the damn border wall ASAP. As far as coyotes/narcos go, open season. Remove all constraints on CBP agents. If needed, place military snipers at 100 meters. Forget rubber projectiles, soft/ hollow point munitions of .30 caliber. Use military style drones with kill capability. Muster civilian militias for remote areas.
    We can’t let these animals take over and murder innocent US citizens. Ammo up. US Navy vet, 1966-1969

  3. Donl Longo

    Have the CIA send ASSASINS down there, Ban ALL travel for Americans going down there. You would have to be an IDIOT to go there any way.

    • Donna M Slivka

      IT’S time to send assassins to mexico to end their killing of American citizens RIGHT NOW ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ASSASSINATE the ASSASSINATERS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • Rattlerjake

      Sending the CIA is like sending a Whore to break up an orgy!

  4. Leslie M. Seely

    Why do these people live in Mexico? Why do they have dual citizenship, what kind of stuff are they involved in that we do not know bout? Just questions to consider.

    • Donna M Slivka

      The reason goes WAY BACK but now the story has changed & they should fear for their lives ESPECIALLY the babies because those cartels are vicious, depraved killers as evidenced by the recent SLAUGHTER of whole families including babies, children & mothers of same !!!!!! WISE UP FOLKS !!!!!!!!!!!! there ain’t a wall big enuff to keep that mexican trash out of the United States, they will blow up, tear down, saw thru any wall erected…

  5. Thomas

    Mexico offers a lower cost higher standard of living with affordable medical care. The only problem is Mexico doesn’t have a second amendment right to bear arms for self defense . I’ve visited many times but don’t feel safe out after dark.

  6. Dennis Karoleski

    Our sovereignty has been breached and our borders invaded over and over by international terrorists and the host country is too corrupted and terrorized themselves to either help or stop encouraging them. It’s well past time to target the centers with airstrikes followed up by mop-up troops to obliterate the cartel family centers once and for all.