Los Zetas

They are a pretty mysterious bunch, but I was able to find a little bit of info concerning their origins. Here is clip from an article I wrote for the LA Loyolan about WHINSEC (Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) formally known as the School of Americas (SOA)...

Take the example of The Zetas drug cartel in Mexico. According to CNN.com, the Zetas were once Mexican army soldiers, who deserted with the hope of making better money as mercenaries for the drug cartels. These men are ruthless and borderline psychopathic.

However, it has only recently been uncovered that several of the founding members of the Zetas were once trained by WHINSEC. According to the New York Times, Mexican Deputy Attorney General José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos stated during an interview that most of the original founding members of the Zetas received special training from WHINSEC during their employment in the Mexican military.

What did these men learn during their training? The WHINSEC program teaches a wide variety of military tactics and techniques. For instance, according to Globalsecurity.org, cadets can be taught everything from basic patrol squad formations, to helicopter piloting, to sniper techniques and demolitions. However, some of the more important facets of the training focus on peacekeeping, human rights courses and above all, tactics concerning counter insurgency and counter narcoterrorism.

Following these latter ideals, these men, like hundreds of other Mexican officers and cadets, were being trained to aid both the United States and Mexico in the War on Drugs. This type of training is absolutely invaluable in confronting the extremely powerful drug cartels, and without the American government’s aid, the current drug conflict in Mexico would be substantially worse. However, that being said, the Zetas deserted their brothers-in-arms and took what they had learned and joined the cartels. They found that due to their training and their understanding of narcoterrorism, they could profit much more from working with the cartels than against them.