An insurgency is raging along our southern border . . . It is clear that today Mexico represents a unique situation requiring the development of its own specific classification to successfully combat the authority of this expanding criminal control. Today I will continue to make the case that Mexico is facing a criminal insurgency.
The attacks on the state are clear, the criminal organizations are capturing the allegiance of the population through economic and social programs, and as they undermine institutions, they have no desire to replace them. This makes the insurgency in Mexico more of a threat to democratic governance than we have seen in other insurgency scenarios.
Furthermore, these transnational criminal organizations are employing increasingly gruesome terrorist tactics to carry out their threats. The potential threat of criminal organizations controlling our southern border creates grave national security and economic implications for the United States. That is why, in 2007, the United States began funding the Merida Initiative to improve the situation in Mexico. Unfortunately, we face more extreme threats and violence from our border region today than we did four years ago.
