Whack-a-mole: Colombia stepping up anti-drug training of Mexico's army, police

*** This important article brings to light how the U.S. is out-sourcing the training of Mexican military and police to Colombia. This makes it possible to side-step Mexican objections to the U.S. military being sent into Mexico. It also keeps U.S. involvement below the political radar in the U.S.

Colombia stepping up anti-drug training of Mexico's army, police: "Long experienced in fighting cocaine cartels and Marxist guerrillas, Colombia is training thousands of Mexican policemen as well as soldiers and court officers to help contain drug gangs that have turned parts of Mexico into virtual combat zones. ....

Most of the training has taken place in Mexico, Colombian and American officials say. But in a sign of how serious the threat posed by the Mexican cartels has become, an increasing number of Mexican soldiers and policemen are traveling (to Colombia) to train with Colombia's battle-tested police commandos. ...

Colombia's new role provides the Obama administration, which pays for part of the training and has a close alliance with Colombia, with a politically viable way to improve Mexican security forces without a substantial American military or police presence in Mexico. Placing U.S. forces there would be politically contentious in Mexico even as Washington commits hundreds of millions of dollars to help smash powerful drug cartels.

'The American military can indirectly do a lot more through the Colombians than they politically would be able to do directly,' said Roderic Ai Camp, an expert on Mexico's military at Claremont McKenna College in California. 'Given the loss of half of Mexico's national territory to the United States in the 19th century, and the Mexican army's hesitant cooperation with their American counterparts, the Colombians are a logical proxy.'" Jan. 22, 2011, Washington Post