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U.S. intelligence community (IC) declared last week that the greatest danger to American national security is old-fashioned organized crime – mainly Mexico’s drug cartels – many former IC experts wondered about other major threats: global terrorism, cyberattacks, and the multiple menaces traced to China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
But the placement of Mexico at the top of the Annual Threat Assessment is welcome news for law enforcement veterans who have worked inside Mexico and on the southwest border for years, and also for many community leaders and citizens in places beset by drugs and crime. Their views of the drug threat have collided with conciliatory approaches urged by the Washington foreign policy establishment and the American business community, which often oppose any move that might disrupt Mexico’s status as America’s top trading partner.
