The Pentagon treats the cartels as an enemy army now, and enemy armies shoot back. On October 3 the Defense Secretary said troops are coming out of Europe for the Western Hemisphere, called the cartels the ISIS and al Qaeda of our hemisphere, and said we’re at war with them. Troops are on the ground in South America, jungle training runs in Panama through October 25, and a December review of Europe could pull 25,000 to 40,000 soldiers.
A war on the cartels is fought on your supply line. The crossings at Laredo and Pharr move the trucks that fill your produce aisle and the cartels’ money. Cartels don’t fight the Army. They hit the softest thing that hurts. February showed the playbook: when the Mexican army killed El Mencho, CJNG blocked highways with burning trucks across Jalisco and Tamaulipas, and border cities were told to stay indoors. That was one man. This is a campaign.
A blocked highway in Tamaulipas is an empty produce truck in Laredo two days later, and an empty truck in Laredo is a bare shelf in San Antonio by the weekend. Nobody in Washington is pricing your avocados.
The risk for your family is a trip south and a grocery run north that both assume the border is quiet.
This week: cancel or harden any Mexico trip in the next 90 days. Stock two weeks of substitutes for what crosses at Laredo. Set the family’s stay-home trigger if you live near the border.
Today’s SITREP has the warning signs and the full breakdown. 🚧