narco gang and drug cartel violence in Mexico

[Ed Jewett]

Religions of the Chaos Lords


Pamela L. Bunker and Dr. Robert J. Bunker at SWJ Blog
The Spiritual Significance of ¿Plata O Plomo?

Conventional wisdom holds that narco gang and drug cartel violence in Mexico is primarily secular in nature. This viewpoint has been recently challenged by the activities of the La Familia cartel and some Los Zetas, Gulfo, and other cartel adherents of the cult of Santa Muerte (Saint Death) by means of religious tenets of ‘divine justice’ and instances of tortured victims and ritual human sacrifice offered up to a dark deity, respectively. Severed heads thrown onto a disco floor in Michoacan in 2005 and burnt skull imprints in a clearing in a ranch in the Yucatán Peninsula in 2008 only serve to highlight the number of such incidents which have now taken place. Whereas the infamous ‘black cauldron’ incident in Matamoros in 1989, where American college student Mark Kilroy’s brain was found in a ritual nganga belonging to a local narco gang, was the rare exception, such spiritual-like activities have now become far more frequent.
These activities only serve to further elaborate concerns amongst scholars, including Sullivan, Elkus, Brands, Manwaring, and the authors, over societal warfare breaking out across the Americas. This warfare- manifesting itself in ‘criminal insurgencies’ derived from groups of gang, cartel, and mercenary networks- promotes new forms of state organization drawn from criminally based social and political norms and behaviors. These include a value system derived from illicit narcotics use, killing for sport and pleasure, human trafficking and slavery, dysfunctional perspectives on women and family life, and a habitual orientation to violence and total disregard for modern civil society and democratic freedoms. This harkens back to Peter’s thoughts concerning the emergence of a ‘new warrior class’ and, before that, van Creveld’s ‘non-trinitarian warfare’ projections.

Cultural evolution in action, accelerated by extreme violence.


This entry was posted on Saturday, May 29th, 2010 at 4:29 am and is filed under 21st century, 3 gen gangs, 4GW, Evolution, Latin America, Mexico, Religion, Theology, anthropology, cultural intelligence, culture, dystopia, extremists, futurism, gangs, gap, global guerillas, ideas, insurgency, intellectuals, mob, national security, networks, non-state actors, organizations, primary loyalties, propaganda, psychology, small wars journal, social networks, social science, society, theory, transnational criminal organization, warriors.

3 Responses to “Religions of the Chaos Lords”

1. seerov Says:
   May 29th, 2010 at 5:40 am So not only are there powerful drug cartels conducting cartel activities (basically a war for the supply chains to move narcotics through Mexico), but there appears to be a spiritual manifestation of these activities that has a growing following. The biggest danger would come if one of cartels eventually wins and starts supporting Aztlan nationalism in the SW USA. They have funding, a spiritual symbol, and aren’t afraid to kill at will. The US may be looking at a narco-fascist death-cult state to its south in 20 years or so? Which is much more exciting to the average 18 year old Mexican than picking strawberries is.
   
2. Lexington Green Says:
   May 29th, 2010 at 6:02 pm I don’t think our national security apparatchiks are mentally prepared for this type of challenge.
   
3. seerov Says:
   May 29th, 2010 at 7:26 pm Lex Green,
   I’ll take it one step further. I’d be on the lookout for something even more insidious. Right now the transnational elite in America are scanning the environment and they don’t like what they see. Their projects overseas are producing negative return on investment, and now flyover country(Middle America) is getting uppity. Geopolitically, they (the transnational elite) like having friends in Mexico to help contain Middle America. If a/the cartel[s] win in Mexico, I expect that the transnationals may see them as a better ally than Middle America? They both need Middle America for its material, human, spiritual resources. Don’t be surprised if the Death Cult/Cartel, merges with the transnational elite/diversity alliance to form a super multi death cult.
   .
   I see three big forces in North America. 1) The transnational elite(TNE)/multicult alliance 2) Middle America 3) Cartel Mexico
   .
   If the transnational elites’ in Mexico lose, then I expect the American TNEs to form an alliance with Cartel Death Cult Mexico to contain Middle America. Their spiritual promotional plan will be the Multi-Death Cult.
   
   

[Austin Kelley]

The authors have very interesting backgrounds:

Pamela L. Bunker is a senior officer of the Counter-OPFOR Corporation. Research interests include less lethal weapons (LLW) and CONUS OPFORs (radical environmental and fringe groups and religious cults). Her work has been presented in policing and academic conferences in Alaska, Australia, and Germany. She was a contributor to the Encyclopedia of World War I (ABC-CLIO, 2005), has written on less lethal weapons for a NLECTC-West project, and has fired LLW on the South Australia Police (SAPOL) Range. She graduated from California State Polytechnic University Pomona with a B.S. in anthropology/geography and a B.S. in social science and from The Claremont Graduate University with a M.A. in public policy with additional post-graduate work completed in comparative politics and government. Past professional experience includes research and program coordination in University, Non- Government Organization (NGO), and City Government settings.

Dr. Robert J. Bunker attended California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and the Claremont Graduate University. He holds a Ph.D. in political science and an M.A. in government and bachelors' degrees in anthropology/geography, social science, behavioral science, and history. Dr. Bunker is Adjunct Professor, National Security Studies Program, California State University, San Bernardino, and Professor, Unconventional Warfare, American Military University, Manassas Park, Virginia. He has served as a consultant to both the military and law enforcement communities. His research focus is on the influence of technology on warfare and political organization and on the national security implications of emerging forms of warfare. Dr. Bunker's works have appeared in Parameters, Special Warfare, Army RDA, Military Intelligence, Red Thrust Star, Airpower Journal, Marine Corps Gazette, Institute of Land Warfare Papers, Institute For National Security Studies Occasional Papers, and various law enforcement publications, military encyclopedias, and in book chapters.

[Ed Jewett]

Yes, peering into that world on occasion is illuminating. "ZenPundit" is heavy into the worlds of COIN, 4GW, etc. There is a small coterie of folk who banter back and forth in that field; some of it is coherent, much of it is very advanced theory (it's like watching the neo-con world on steroids), and most of it is incomprehensible to me. There is a need, in some way, for someone to try to understand in what ways and directions we are being pushed. It is fairly clear now that there is a mechanism at work and which is growing hair and muscles now which creates reality out of fiction. This has been discussed in many ways, at many places, and I think in particular about the work of RAND, DARPA, alternate reality games, the use of simulation games, think tanks, et al. It also blends into chaos theory, disaster capitalism, and other branch lines of thought and action. If it is true that mind control techniques were used at Gitmo to craft new Taliban leaders..., if it is true that such techniques are also heavily embedded in our media, our political world... Much of this has been forecast by Huxley, Brzezinski, and others. It's all about how a small handful to get a lot of specific individuals and even a culture to do things they would not otherwise do. It is, I gather, the Hegelian dialectic writ large, in microcosm and macrocosm. The only response I can think of is to try to match it with individual and collective instruction in mindfulness, awareness, somatic psychology, and related topics.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Gentlemen - good work.

What we appear to have is a classic spook pseudo-anthropological attempt to frame, control and influence a geopolitically important theatre.

The reality of the Mexican drug wars is more accurately revealed here:

http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/...ght=mexico

Bunker and Bunker, eh? That's somehow deeply appropriate. :vroam:

The true "academic" line of their work includes intel-funded anthropology into Haitian voudou, central African "black magic", and numerous "field experiments" conducted through implausibly deniable cults.