The President's Daily Brief - May 13th, 2022: Mexican President's Cartel Policy: Hugs, Not Bullets? COVID and your Cash.

Episode Date: May 13, 2022

It’s May 13th. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. I’m your host and former CIA Officer Bryan Dean Wright. Your morning intel starts now. First up, Mexico’s president said yesterday that we should treat Cartel members kindly because they’re people, just like you and I. We’re going to talk about why he said that, and what it means for America. And as always, I’m keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put these two on your radar. First, Russia is blowing up America’s weapons once they get to Ukraine. Or at least some of them. We’ll talk about the implications of that development.  Finally, COVID and money. No, I’m not talking about the profits of Pfizer and Moderna. I mean whether the COVID virus can live on our paper money and coins. A new study answers that question. All up next on the President’s Daily Brief. ------ Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's May 13th. You're listening to the President's Daily Brief. I'm your host and former CIA Officer Brian Dean Wright. Your morning intel starts now. The brief you're about to hear is in the same spirit of the actual President's Daily Brief, which is a top secret summary of the most critical events in the past 24 hours, all delivered to the President each day by the nation's spymasters. And so, ladies and gentlemen, I am your spy, and this is your brief. Here's what we're going to be talking about this morning. First up, Mexico's president said yesterday that we should treat cartel members kindly because they're people, just like you and I. We're going to talk about why he said that and what it means for America.

And as always, I'm keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put these two on your radar. First, Russia is blowing up America's weapons once they get to Ukraine, or at least some of them. We'll talk about the implications of that development. And finally, COVID and money. No, I'm not talking about the profits of fighting. and Moderna, but instead, I mean whether the COVID virus can live on our paper money and coins. A new study answers that question.

All up next on the president's daily brief. Your first piece of intel this morning. Mexico's president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, or AMLO, for short, said at his weekly press conference yesterday that he and his government will treat cartel and gang members with kindness. It's a curious statement that has very serious implications for America's security, so let me explain. Last Tuesday, there was an attack on a military checkpoint in the state of Michoacan. It was an attack that was launched by the Halisco New Generation Cartel, which if you listen to the

PDB yesterday, you know that that is the cartel responsible for lots of terrible things to include shipping fentanyl into America. You also know that that state, Michoacan, is home to the port that was overtaken by that same cartel so that they could bring in all those Chinese chemicals to and cooked up the fentanyl and so forth. So regardless, last Tuesday, there were 16 military members at a checkpoint, and they were attacked and chose to retreat. The cartel gave chase, and as they did, a cartel member videowed the whole thing and posted it to social media, as one does these days.

Well, it went viral. Most Mexicans saw it, and they were outraged, because they said that if their own military can't stand up to the cartels, well, then who can? So President Amlo was asked about this at his press conference yesterday, and he pushed back against any and all criticism. In fact, he applauded the retreating soldiers. And here is what he said. Quote, we have to recognize the army's responsible attitude in retreating, because before, it was different. And he was referencing that there was a time in the past when under the previous president,

the soldiers would have, you know, fought back. At any rate, he finished by saying, yes, we take care of members of the armed forces, but we, quote, also take care of the gang members. They are human beings too. My goodness. So what exactly is going on here? And how does whatever is happening impact our efforts to protect ourselves from the cartels? So let's tackle the first question of what exactly is going on here. President Amlo has a very unique view of how to stop violence in his country.

You see, he is a very liberal fellow who won the presidency back in 2018 in no small part because he promised his fellow countrymen that he would stop the bloody war against the cartels. And instead, he promised a policy of, quote, hugs, not bullets. And yes, you did hear me right there. Hugs, not bullets. In other words, he would negotiate his way to peace with kindness and compassion. So in his mind, when the Mexican soldiers retreated from that, checkpoint on Tuesday, that was actually a good thing. It was an extension of the policy that he has

of hugs and not bullets, all in hopes of reducing violence. The problem is that that violence hasn't been reduced. Murders in Mexico have largely stayed the same since he was elected, about 33,000 to 34,000 killed each year. Now, some would argue that there's been a tiny decrease, but there's been no real material change. To the point, the U.S. State Department says that you probably should not travel to about half of Mexico's 31 states because of crime and kidnapping. And in the rest of the states, you're supposed to, quote, exercise increased caution because of those same issues of crime and kidnapping. In other words, data would say that President Amlo is failing with his hugging policy. But I think he's also failing to understand how truly awful the cartels are. Because when he says that he

wants hugs and not bullets, I want to remind you all of exactly who the Halisco New Generation Cartel is and what they want. Fair warning, what you were about to hear is incredibly graphic. When the Halisco New Generation Cartel inducts new members into their group, they demand that the recruit finds a target, sometimes a cop, sometimes an opposing cartel member, and then they're supposed to wound that person, pin them down, dead or alive, and then open up their chest with a knife and eat their heart. Now, new recruits are also taught how to sever fingers and toes, which is the cartel's preferred torture technique, and then the recruits are supposed to eat those assorted bits. Lastly, the cartel, unfortunately, they cut off the hands and arms of pregnant women who are dating

or married to opposing cartel members to send a warning to not mess with their turf. So I could go on here but let's just say it gets a lot uglier, and I'm actually very sorry if you were eating breakfast during all that. So to take a deep breath here and remind ourselves of what's going on, it's these cartel savages that Mexico's president said yesterday should be taken care of with kindness and love because they are, quote, human beings too. So I want to put another fine point on this, right?

The halisical cartel that chased off those Mexican soldiers, they aren't messing around when it comes to weaponry. All right, they've got landmines, armored trucks, rocket-propelled grenades. They have drones that drop explosives. They even have modified a dump truck, and that serves as sort of a tank. All right, so let's be fair. The Mexican army has, under President Amlo, stepped up some of its fights against the cartels. There are about 5,000 troops in Mituo Khan, and they've given. got some helicopters that patrol and so forth. And it's true that sometimes they arrest a cartel member

or they bust a drug lab. But on the whole, there's no reasonable observer who says that the Mexican cartels are somehow on the run. And in my view, and I think most folks who follow this, the cartels more or less run the show down there. And that gets back to the earlier set of questions. We just answered the first of what exactly is going on with this hug-it-out attitude that President Amlo has with Mexican cartels. But we have a more pressing second question. How does this love fest with cartels affect our ability to protect America when our Mexican partners have this kind of peculiar leadership? Well, there's a little bit of good news here, but mostly very bad. So let's start with a little bit of good. The one sliver of hope is the Mexican Navy. They tend to be the most

effective, the least corrupt of frankly, pretty much everybody down there. They've helped. They've helped us with some very important operations against cartels, and actually about a year ago, they were put in charge of Mexico's ports, which are, as you know, notorious for all those fentanyl shipments, as well as sending off the poor endangered animals that we discussed the other day. But the Mexican Navy can't carry the burden of policing the entire nation, and they're not even allowed to. Now, instead, we have a much less effective and much more corrupt Mexican army and police to do that. Now, I have a thousand examples of how bad these folks are, how corrupt they are, but let me tell you what I think is the most outrageous. Consider the case of the former Mexican

Defense Secretary. His name is General Salvador Sienfuegos Zepeda. He was arrested on drug trafficking and money laundering charges while he was transiting Los Angeles International Airport. Now, the DEA busted this guy. He was their former top partner. because this general was protecting cartels and actually helping to find ships to move drugs. Again, he was Mexico's defense secretary. And by the way, our Department of Justice dropped all charges on him because President Amlo was very angry about this whole arrest. And so they sent him back to Mexico and he walked away, Scott-free.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, if you were the president and I were briefing you this morning, my counsel to you would be this. We do not now, nor will we ever likely have a good partner in Mexico when it comes to combating anything related to the cartels. Mexican officials are so wildly and completely corrupt from top to bottom, from civilian to military, that whatever tiny bits of progress we make, maybe a cartel member here or a drug lab there,

well, frankly, that's just window dressing. If you want to make serious permanent progress on this cartel front, you will have to take unilateral action. That is, you will have to use our military and intelligence tools and use them without the cooperation or knowledge of the Mexican government. Now, some of you might be raising your eyebrows right now, and I understand why. Because depending on the operations that you'd authorize in this scenario, that could be a very risky proposition. In the world of the CIA, we call it potential blowback, and it's very serious. For instance, the Mexicans could sever relations with us. They could encourage illegal immigrants to flood across our border.

Maybe they'd invite Russia or China to build a military base in Chihuahua or something. But more likely, they'd probably start shutting down those American factories that operate in northern Mexico to take advantage, of course, right now, cheap labor. But I'll tell you what, is you wrestle with what we ought to do, I want to remind you of what we talked about yesterday. There are 107,000 plus Americans dead because the drugs that flowed across our border just last year. And those drugs got here, in part or in whole, because fundamentally Mexican government officials allowed it, because they either profited from it or they looked the other way. So we can keep up the window dressing of, say, you know, working with the Mexican Navy to arrest a

cartel guy here or there, or perhaps you can quietly on a very targeted and methodical basis start taking unilateral action to destroy the Mexican cartels on a clandestine time and schedule of your choosing. And that is the choice, ladies and gentlemen, that is before us this morning, and it is ours to make. As always, I'm watching a few other stories this morning. put these two on your radar. First, we have confirmation that Russia is targeting all those weapons that we provide that end up in Ukraine. As you might remember from previous briefs, Joe Biden is sending all sorts of weapons first to Poland and then shipping them overland into Ukraine. Now, once we turn all those weapons over to the Ukrainians, we lose control and insight into what happens to those

weapons wherever they may go. Now, as of this morning, we have pretty good reporting that Russia is, as I expected, watching all those weapons delivery in Poland, and then they target them for destruction, at least in a few cases, once they cross over into Ukraine. So we have confirmed strikes at a railroad station in the northeast of Ukraine, an ammunition depot in the southeast, and then there are a few other supply locations in the south and southwest that the Russians have hit as well. We also have confirmed reports that the Kremlin carried out some strikes on infrastructure that is being used to facilitate those weapons being sent around Ukraine. Now, this week, the Russians hit an electrical substation, a bridge, and then a couple of railroad

facilities. Now, all those losses were either confirmed by the Pentagon in the press or by other sources. Now, the reason that you should care about this is that if Russia, by design or accident, were to strike one of our weapons convoys just inside Poland, now that could be labeled as an attack against a NATO country. And the result would be a potential war declared between the U.S. and NATO and Russia. In other words, we'd be staring at the very real prospect of World War III. And with the Senate about to pass a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine, with many billions more and weapons shipments to come, the odds that one of those goes badly, well, I think you can see where this possibly could go.

And for very obvious reasons, I think we all should be watching for these targeted strikes by the Russians very, very closely. I certainly will be, and I will report any escalation related to any of them. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can

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Kayak, got that right. Your final brief for the morning, money and COVID. You may remember that when the COVID pandemic hit, a lot of businesses stopped accepting physical cash because what they thought it was helpful to reduce the spread of the virus. The idea was and remains in some cases that paper money could have a smear of the virus on it and then we'd all be touching that physical cash and encourage the spread, well, as we bought things. Well, there was never any data on this type of viral spread actually happening, but folks just thought it made intuitive sense.

And even though the CDC didn't encourage it, lots of people just started doing it and still do. Well, the folks at Brigham Young University put that theory to test. They smeared COVID on cash, coins, and debit cards. then they waited four minutes, 30 minutes, and then another 24 hours, and then finally 48 hours, to see what amount of the virus, if any, remained. All right, so let's have some fun. Which of the three do you think had the virus on it after 30 minutes? Do you think it was cash, the coins, or those plastic debit and credit cards?

The answer, coins and debit cards. Both had about 10% of the virus still left on them after 30 minutes. The paper cash, however, had none. In fact, the cash had nothing on it after four minutes. So that's all according to Richard Robison, who's a BYU professor of microbiology and molecular biology. He's when he conducted the study. So his counsel to America is to ditch the plastic.

Pretty smart anyway, given high interest rates these days. And ditch the coins too. So instead, stick to cash. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes your morning brief. A quick thanks to everybody who sent me an email asking to be added to the future PDB newsletter, which, by the way, is still hopefully coming out at some point over the summer. I'll be responding to your emails over the next few days just to say thanks. I should also mention that I'm working on a few special briefs for you, so no Saturday podcast this week.

I need some time to research, so I'll keep you posted. Ah, one last quick thing. Just a little brag here for all of us. Yesterday's PDB broke our records for downloads and listens. Look at us. You want something good here. That, by the way, is all of you. It's all what you've done. You are spreading the word. And I say that makes you pretty awesome. And with that, my friends, we close out the week reminding each other of why we are here, talking about our country and our world. It's the creed of every good spy and every smart American. It's from John chapter 8, verse 32. And you shall know the truth. And the truth shall make you free. Good day.

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