Part III of III: From Turf to Ideology, The conversion of gangs to movements.
2004 Special Opinion for the Pioneer Press
The good old days of narcotics’ trafficking solely operated by profit-driven entrepreneurs is giving way to something new. The notion of a friendly old “hippie” peddling pot is a myth whose time has come. Savvy traffickers of yesteryear are rapidly, and alarmingly, being taken over by ideological zealots that seek the destruction of both the U.S. and our friends abroad.
The profit motive as a central organizing factor made traffickers relatively easy to penetrate, track and monitor. Traffickers dabbled little in politics, avoided polite bribes and tended to focus violence on competitors and counterparts. The good old days of the drug trade have come to a sudden, irreversible and screeching halt.
The convergence of transnational trafficking interests being seized by anti-American insurgencies is an undeniable fact. Late last week, a former narcotics prosecutor in Bolivia was assassinated by way of car bomb. The seemingly faraway war on terror may soon come to a city near you unless our government acts swiftly. This is not a movie, it’s the real thing. No popcorn, no intermission and no refunds. Put aside the belief that the gang problem and Latin American insurgencies are somebody else’s problems. The happenings south of the border are becoming our problem, a national problem that will increasingly threaten the viability of our nation if left unattended.
Ideological movements from al-Qaida to Earth Liberation Front are taking over the production and distribution of global domestic trafficking. This trend will force our nation to its knees; unless however, the United States wakes up and begins fighting the war on terror with the same zeal as we did during WWII. If we do not support those national leaders that warn of a global war against us, we will soon be fighting highly organized and ideologically-driven criminal gangs financed by the drug trade. If it comes to that, let us pray it never does, you can kiss your milk, vacation plans and retirement good-bye.
Lurking in the shadows is none other than Fidel Castro himself. Through military groups, Castro distances himself from being a responsible party for the growing revolutionary movement against the US. Through highly insulated groups Castro and his friends are building the necessary structural and organizational properties for trafficking operations to operate across borders. Further, through smuggling and training Castro affiliated groups are forming the anti-American militarized backbone of the insurgencies. Although never mentioned in the mainstream press Castro, through his brother Raul with the help of Mexican-based nationals, has networked an international web of narcotics trafficking organizations from South America to Mexico to the United States. Castro’s friends in Mexico are big names with ties to the upper echelons of the Democrat party. Perhaps this is a reason the Democrats want to see Homeland Security defamed and stop tracking money transfers?
A radical notion, a diatribe and rightwing reactionary rhetoric you say? That’s exactly what the U.S. leftwing wants you to think. Who do you think started the mainstream drug trade, has advocated for loosely controlled borders, slobbers all over Castro, has fought physical US border barriers due to nonsensical environmental concerns, supports the regional drug trade, funds subversive radical green groups, slashed the CIA’s budget in the 90s, is destroying our intelligence community through well-planned public relations campaigns, bashes a president with enough cajones to defend our nation without concern for the communist press’ ego, is now cutting additional national security-related budgets and the Lord only knows what else they’ve done? That’s right. No, actually it’s the left.
It’s the same leftwing that gave you violent student protests, violent anti-war demonstrations, over regulation, less irrigation water, higher food prices, unemployment, more crime in the streets. White House what is “is” sex, the conditions necessary for 911, let off the hook Mexico’s dominant drug traffickers, and soon coming your way $3 a gallon gas at the pump that leaves the poor family on foot. That’s right! No, that’s left.
Movement without borders
Do foreign anti-American movements stop at our border? Do the movements destabilizing friendly democracies in Latin America form part of a larger interlocking narcotics production and distribution system being operated on our own soil? Are street gangs future frontline troops in a protracted ideological war against the US? Are gangs becoming part of a greater pan-American anti-US ideological movement?
These questions, or rather their answers and our response to them, may determine our future national borders and the integrity of our nation’s sovereignty.
Latin American insurgencies that once operated independently from each other confined and contained within single nation states are morphing into a pan-American ideological umbrella movement. From Colombia to Ecuador to Bolivia to Peru to Mexico anti-US rhetoric is used to fuel movements that seek to destroy the underpinnings of our economy and those throughout the America’s. Late last week Venezuelan President Chavez, who shares close ties with Castro, bashed the US with Third World nations further provoking anti-US movements to act against our interests. The growing revolutionary movement against the US is in full swing and it’s financiers and organizers are all from the leftwing.
The people we see toting guns in jungles and elsewhere are only a front that hides the movers and shakers behind the scenes. Oh, you mistakenly thought the Soviet Union was dead and buried. Castro was now all alone without the ability to feed off mother Russia. Think again.
The New Threat from Drug gangs – From Turf to Ideology
The groups operating from Latin America are not just trafficking organizations. They are movements that are tied together by ideology. The ideology is a blend of Maoism, Trotskyism, environmentalism and Indigenous anti-Western philosophy. This is the same philosophy that emerged from communes and radical movements in the late 60s to early 70s. Did the anti-American movements of the 60s and 70s go away and disappear? Not a chance.
The movements of yesteryear just became smarter, better funded and moved simultaneously into both the mainstream and organized criminal enterprise. Working both the mainstream political side and through criminal enterprise the left deftly manipulated the nation’s agenda to foment social conditions necessary for their social apocalyptic visions that will lead to their socialist utopia.
Enter the gang problem with ties to Latin America. Gangs are consolidating. They are becoming larger. They are becoming better organized. They are becoming better financed. But, most dangerously is that they are beginning to conform to a single ideology that looks and smells like movements in South America and Mexico. This ideology is one of separatism that creates a parallel state within a state.
Neighborhood turf squabbles are giving way to cooperation in the fight of a greater struggle. The struggle is the battle against “occupational” forces of the mythical land known as Aztlan. Aztlan covers the South West and most of the Pacific Northwest. Latin gangs are converging and developing into an ideological movement. The movement shares similar concepts as do armed insurgents in remote jungles as far away as South America and nearby as California’s northern coast.
