Breathe
By Sofia Guadarrama
"In Mexico, to be a good politician, you don't need to know how to solve problems; you have to know how to create them", Alfonso Martínez Domínguez, president of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies (1964-1965), president of the PRI (1968-1970), regent of the Federal District (1970-1971) and governor of Nuevo León (1979-1985).
"If the United States is to survive, it must rethink long-held American concepts of 'fair play.' We must develop effective espionage and counter-espionage services and we must learn to subvert, sabotage and destroy our enemies with smarter, more sophisticated and more effective methods than those used against us," Jimmy Doolittle, U.S. Air Force Gen.
In 1947 - as part of the National Security Act and to replace the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), created during World War II - President Harry S. Truman instituted the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), whose purpose was to conduct espionage operations, collect, analyze and centralize all information on foreign threats to protect the security of the United States.
This, of course, implied having agents all over the world. In Mexico, to monitor communist influence, the CIA began operating during the Cold War, in 1956, with agent Winston Scott, sent by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
According to documents declassified by the CIA -and analyzed by Jefferson Morley, former Washington Post journalist and author of Our Man in Mexico: Winston Scott and the Hidden History of the CIA-Operation LITEMPO was created, which included high-level political informants to whom the U.S. government offered immunity and protection for the rest of their lives. These informants included Adolfo López Mateos, Gustavo Días Ordaz, Luis Echeverría Álvarez, José López Portillo, Emilio Bolaños and Fernando Gutiérrez Barrios.
They did not have to work or go out on the streets to perform espionage tasks. All they had to do was to receive Winston Scott in their offices and provide a report on political and economic matters, the activities of movements opposed to the United States, particularly the communists.
The U.S. government never imagined that the socialist Luis Echeverría would deceive them, forging two massacres: one in 1968 to become president and the other in 1971 to take revenge on the regent of Mexico City, Alfonso Martínez Domínguez, with the argument that he was fighting the communists.
Scott retired in 1969. Nevertheless, the CIA has not stopped operating in Mexico, despite López Obrador's rejection of its interference, and continues to do so in the current administration. Since Joe Biden's administration with the use of drones to monitor drug cartels in Mexico. Now it is understood how the final capture of El Mayo Zambada was achieved.
Donald Trump kept his word and designated 7 cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco Cartel - New Generation (CJNG), United Cartels, Northeast Cartel, Gulf Cartel and La Nueva Familia Michoacana). Yes, it sounds scary. Even more so if we are invaded with fake news claiming that the U.S. military will enter Mexico in search of drug traffickers.
The United States has designated more than 60 organizations in the world as terrorist organizations. Some of them are: Al-Qaeda, Islamic State (ISIS), Hamas, Hezbollah, Taliban, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Shining Path, ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) and Hezbollah. Most of them continue to operate despite being in the crosshairs of the world's most powerful country.
What does this imply? What can the U.S. government do in Mexico? Can they invade our country?
No. The designation of Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations allows the U.S. government to apply harsher sanctions against these organizations, such as freezing their bank accounts and expropriating their assets, as well as those of their associates. The sale of weapons to terrorists is prohibited. This implies that those who sell weapons to drug traffickers in the United States will also be prosecuted and imprisoned. A military invasion is not an option without the consent of the Mexican government. But they will do it. Obviously, with Claudia Sheinbaum's endorsement, as long as it is done discreetly.
