USE OF IEDS AND VBIEDS IN MEXICAN CRIME WARS
USE OF IEDs AND VBIEDs IN MEXICAN CRIME WARS By Robert J. Bunker, John P. Sullivan, David A. Kuhn, and Alma Keshavarz, Small Wars Journal-El Centro and C/O Futures, LLC © Copyright 2021
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ACKGROUNDER
Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (VBIEDs) have been utilized by various organized crime groups and the cartels, initially in Colombia and later in Mexico. Their deployment patterns have been sporadic for over three decades. In Colombia, the old Medellín and Cali cartels utilized smaller IEDs for threat messaging and assassinations, as well as sizeable VBIEDs (containing between hundreds to over a thousand pounds of explosives), for anti-infrastructure targeting during the 1988 through 1993 period. In fact, the December 1989 Medellín cartel bombing of the Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS; Administrative Department of Security) headquarters resulted in 58 deaths and 1,000 injuries as part of the narco-terror campaign being waged by wanted cartel capo (boss) Pablo Escobar against the Colombian state. Both of these cartels were sequentially neutralized, with the killing of Escobar and the demise of the Medellín cartel effectively ending the anti-governmental bombing campaign. In the Mexican criminal landscape, explosive devices have been utilized in two historical phases of deployments with a newer cycle once again emerging – albeit intermittently – over the last four years or so. The initial phase took place during the early 1990s as a
component of the fragmentation of the Guadalajara Cartel into Sinaloa and Tijuana factions with at least one, if not more, assassination attempts being made on Sinaloa Cartel leadership. This phase subsided due to direct Government of Mexico (GOM) suppression of these activities as the cartels were still subordinate to Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) mandates under its then authoritarian rule. The second phase of IED – and more significantly VBIED – employment took place during roughly the 2006 through 2012 era, spanning most of the Felipe Calderón sexenio (six-year term) under the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN). One notable incident during this time period was the 15 July 2010 bombing in Ciudad Juárez where a primitive car bomb targeted police. During Calderón’s sexenio, the ‘drug war’ in Mexico went into full force with increasing military deployments. As a component of this direct crackdown on the cartels and their intensified infighting, roughly twenty low-yield VBIEDs were deployed, primarily against Mexican state law enforcement and military facilities and personnel with three ambush incidents identified. Still, some media and a car dealership were also targeted for intimidation purposes. Perpetrators of these bombings included Los Zetas, La Línea, Cártel del Golfo (CDG), and Cártel de Sinaloa (CDS) – with Tamaulipas state being one of the geographic hotspots of these incidents as intense cartel
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