Paramilitary groups on the rise in Mexico; a serious threat to both sides of border

A report issued by the Institute of Strategic Studies of the United States War College concludes that paramilitary groups in Mexico represent the "third generation of crime, and present a serious threat to the authority of the State." Such groups are frequently employed by and affiliated with the drug cartels, but are larger and more powerful, said the study. The report also noted that paramilitaries have made incursions into U.S. territory while supporting or guarding drug trafficking activities. The report quoted a former U.S. State Department official who has said that "not since the days of the Mexican Revolution has [border] violence presented such a disturbing challenge to the United States."
The author of the Institute's report, Hal Brands, argues that the United States should treat Mexico's drug related violence as a true political insurgency, a position which the U.S. has officially declined to adopt. "The well financed cartels are waging war against the government to control drug routes north towards the United States," Brands argues, adding that the paramilitaries are terrorists who have effectively adopted classic guerrilla tactics. He noted in the report that drug cartels like Los Zetas use the paramilitaries as "private armies, technologically advanced, sophisticated and particularly brutal and violent." By committing spectacular crimes widely reported throughout Mexico, they even "control the flow of information."
In recent days Mexican officials have flatly denied that paramilitary forces exist within the country, characterizing them instead as ordinary criminals.
[Photo: Mexican Revolutionary War Hero Emiliano Zapata Salazar (August 8, 1879 – April 10, 1919)]