State Department: Mexican Cartels an ‘Insurgency’

Activities by Mexico’s drug cartels amount to “terrorism or insurgency,” U.S. State Department official William Brownfield told a congressional committee, reports CNSNews.com.

“I do acknowledge that many of the facts on the ground, the things that are being done by those organizations, are consistent with what we would call either terrorism or insurgency in other countries,” Brownfield told a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on potential threats in the Western Hemisphere.

This comment was in response to a question from Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fla., a chairman on the committee.

“If the cartels in Mexico are offering healthcare, if they’re trying to displace the government, isn’t that a political — isn’t that politically motivated?” Mack asked. “[G]oing into these communities and putting on barbecues or picnics and trying to win the support of the public so the public will listen to the cartels and not the government, isn’t that a political motivation?”

Mack summed up Brownfield’s response succinctly: “It is clear that an insurgency is happening in Mexico.”

Legislation was introduced in March to designate Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations, which would enable the United States to freeze their assets and prosecute individuals who support them.