[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Pages 25688-25689]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         BORDER WAR--THE ZETAS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, I bring you news from the second 
front--the war on the border between Mexico and the United States. 
Dangerous drug cartels are already in control of major stretches of the 
U.S.-Mexico border, and they're taking over whole Mexican border towns.
  The Zeta drug cartel is the most violent and the most feared of the 
Mexican drug cartels. Zetas have attacked Mexican towns in military-
style operations at platoon-strength numbers. They have massacred 
hundreds of their competitors, often beheading and dismembering them. 
They have fought hour-long battles with the Mexican military in the 
streets of Matamoros. Madam Speaker, Matamoros is a border town on the 
Rio Grande River across from Brownsville, Texas.
  Recently, shots came over that border, hitting buildings and a 
parking lot at a University of Texas branch in Brownsville. Authorities 
presumed this violence was from the drug cartels, themselves. The Zetas 
have moved into Matamoros. They also claim to control Nuevo Laredo, 
which is across from the Texas town of Laredo.
  The Zetas have no fear of the authorities. There is no law or order 
in any of the towns they control, and they have assassinated police 
chiefs and local politicians. They own the towns. They have raised 
terror throughout Mexico--fighting their rivals, the Mexican Army and 
the police. The success of the Zeta cartel has forced other Mexican 
drug cartels into an arms race with military weaponry and tactics.
  Who are these Zetas, and where do they come from?
  Well, the Zetas were formed by deserters from the Mexican Army's 
veteran elite Airborne Special Forces Group. The Zetas also include 
former members from the Guatemalan Kaibiles Special Forces 
organization. We trained them here in America, at the School of the 
Americas, in the latest and best tactics and weaponry. When they got 
back home, they deserted from the military, and they went to work for 
the drug cartels. In essence, they declared war on the Mexican 
Government, and they became part of what they were trained to fight.
  They make a lot more money in trafficking guns, drugs and people than 
they would ever have in working as a Mexican or a Guatemalan soldier, 
and they're using superior military training--that training they 
received at the expense of the United States. Trafficking in drugs, 
arms and human beings is a very lucrative business. Billions of dollars 
worth of merchandise is moved across our southern border every year.
  The Zeta international trafficking cartel has evolved into a 
privately funded military army. They have the best military equipment 
money can buy, and they have transformed into an international gang, 
working even in the United States. Without a secure southern border, 
the violence will continue in Mexico, and only those who live in never-
never land will think the problem will not get to the United States. 
The Zetas are an urban guerrilla organization which threatens to topple 
any semblance of law and order.

[[Page 25689]]

  According to the Houston Chronicle, the ``Zeta gunmen and their 
accomplices routinely blockade Matamoros' downtown streets. Last 
winter, the gangsters mobilized thousands of people to briefly close 
the region's bridges across the Rio Grande, halting trade'' with the 
United States into Brownsville.
  Now, the administration's strategy is to look the other way and to 
pretend it's not happening. Well, we cannot wish away this threat to 
public safety and to America's national security. We must not allow the 
situation to continue to escalate unchecked, because violence is 
actually spilling out into the streets of America near our border 
towns. Our local law enforcement is overwhelmed. The border sheriffs 
need more assistance. They are not equipped or trained to handle these 
military-style incursions by the Zetas and by other drug cartels.
  While the administration is stalling and deliberating about what to 
do in Afghanistan, the government is also giving little attention to 
our southern border, but this is not the first administration to 
neglect enforcing the rule of law on the southern border. There has 
been much rhetoric for years from the government about protecting the 
border, but like my grandfather used to say, ``When all is said and 
done, more is said than done,'' and that is especially by the 
government.
  The Nation needs to understand there is a border war on our southern 
border. Immediate action is necessary, and the United States should 
conduct training on the southern border with our military. This will 
help deter incursions. Plus the Governors from Texas and New Mexico 
have asked for the National Guard to be sent to the border. So more 
National Guard troops should be sent to protect the dignity and the 
sovereignty of our Nation, because the first duty of government is to 
protect the people, to protect us from the invasion of the crime 
cartels.
  The people who live on the border on both sides of the Rio Grande 
have a right to expect their government to protect them from the Zetas 
and from all other criminal cartel enterprises which illegally cross 
the border.
  And that's just the way it is.

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