Special Forces Being Prepared Against Narcos
Sedena Trains Special Forces against ''Los Zetas'' (The Zees), ''La Familia'' (The Family), ''Los Pelón'' (The Bald Ones), and ''Los Halcones'' (The Hawks).
This article appeared in El Ágora de Chihuahua on August 5, 2008. This translation is rendered as closely as possible to the original wording. (See the orginal article here).
México DF – August 7, 2008 – The Mexican army high command was ordered to strengthen operational capabilities and logistics of Special Forces Corps, through training courses in which the military is specialized; in parachuting and airmobile military intervention operations.
Training was redirected to specialize in Airtroop Brigade rifle paratrooper operations against the hired assassins known as Zeta (in Tamaulipas), La Familia (in Michoacan), Los Pelon (in Sinaloa) and The Hawks (in Chihuahua), who have been trained in part in joint operations in northern Iraq.
Military sources assured ''The Universal'' that the first phase of these courses was given between December 10th to the 13th, 2007, at the Center for Special Forces training, Temamatla, state of México, and continued until February this year in three steps (levels) at the Military Air Base Number 7 (at Pie de la Cuesta, Guerrero) and the Military Air Base at Zapopán, Jalisco.
There the Special Forces Cells trained in leaping out at night, release of hostages, retaking buildings in urban areas and clashes against armed groups of more than 10 people.
The sources recalled that since April 2007, the Special Forces Rifle Paratrooper Brigade ceased to belong to the Corps, and Special Forces have come under operational and administrative control of the Brigade, whose commander is Brigadier General Pedro Escalera Cobián.
In late 2007, the high command received a detailed diagnosis on the operational capabilities of Special Forces in which they stated that they were not well trained to perform specific tasks, as they lacked the skills necessary to confront aeromobile insertion scenarios and, above all, required high level training to deal with a fire power of drug cartels that could be greater than that faced at other times.
The first phase was completed with difficulty, since the aeromobile insertion exercises were interrupted by flooding of homes in Tabasco and later in other parts of the country.
The Special Forces Brigade Integrated Rifle Paratroopers were sent to the operational headquarters in Chihuahua and Culiacan to confront heavily armed and hired assassins and to head operations against insertion of cells composed of hired assassins from former military (or defectors). According to data from the Army Second Section (Intelligence) and Seventh (operations against Drug Trafficking), they are highly mobile, moving in groups of no more than ten and have increased their capacity in handling weapons of high power.
