by Dan Donovan
The American Ambassador and Mexico City’s Mayor agreed to meet in front of the Embassy with the march or-ganizers, and the family of those allegedly killed. The two officials assured the organizers that no one had been injured by gunfire the prior day. (No grieving relatives were on hand, and the march leaders could not provide any names or photos of the alleged victims.) The Ambassador said he had available videotape from security cameras scanning the area. The tapes showed the altercation, and that there were no bodies (wounded or dead) on the ground after the prior day’s protest had dispersed. As the group debated a crowd of reporters surrounded them. Video cameras covered the verbal confrontation from all angles. A member of the protesters shoved his way through the reporters, emerging a few feet from the Ambassador. When the U.S. representative turned away to answer a question the man from the crowd lunged forward and stabbed the Ambassador below his left shoulder blade. Pandemonium erupted. Marines came out from the Embassy with guns at the ready, as some of them carried the diplomat back inside. The riot police charged into the crowd to push them away from the entrance. Meanwhile, instigators urged the people to stand and fight. Over 100 marchers were injured in the melee. The Ambassador was evacuated to a hospital in Houston. He eventually recovered.
U.S.-Mexican relations, as seen by Bert Maurus, were now on a death watch. In an open break with the Administration the Vice President called reporters into his suite at the Senate Office Building the day after the attack on the Ambassador.
Maurus bluntly condemned Mexico, its Government and its people’s “tolerence of evil.” He went on to say, “We have seen a most cowardly assault on a brave American, who was defending this nation’s honor in the midst of a horde of terrorist sympathizers. As far as I’m concerned the narcotics crime-lords have declared war on the United States of America. The so-called Government of Mexico is obviously incapable of handling the crisis. How many more Americans must pay with their blood for Mr. Stratton’s failure to respond as a President must? I had hoped to offer my political experience to Mr. Stratton as he assumed the office of President. He is, as all Americans know, a rookie in the affairs of State. He is use to taking orders, not deciding policy. Before it is too late, I call once again on Cory Stratton to accept my offer of experienced advice. We, as a nation, must deal effectively, decisively and immediately with the criminal conspiracy that is rooted in Mexico.”
Never before in American history had a Vice President so publicly challenged the authority of a President. Since he is an elected official the Vice President cannot be dismissed from office by the President. A cold, sharp telephone call from the President’s Chief of Staff to Bert Maurus later in the day sternly informed him his presence would no longer be tolerated inside the White House.
Perhaps in any other circumstances Bert Maurus would have issued his political obituary. However, the scenes of an angry mob surrounding a beleaguered Embassy brought to mind the hostage crisis that crippled the Carter Administration. News stories and commentaries in all media forms kept raising this point of reference; and for emphasis, images of the blood-stained Ambassador sprawled on the ground were included with the presentations. Undocumented charges won every foot race with fact as a flood-tide of indignation, and accompanying media frenzy, swept the country.
A trend towards a hyper-reactive media on certain topics had been building in America since the 1980s—when it was not wallowing in the fluff of celebrities or the gore of crime or accidents. The Internet-based Information Age accelerated the process. The web gave birth to a breeding ground of opinion-laced conjecture that became accepted as gospel truth in the click of a mouse by those who considered all traditional information sources as tainted by commercial interests. Initially the Stratton Administration refused to be drawn into the maelstrom. The President strived to avoid any public criticism of the Vice President; he considered such verbal brawling as unseemly for the Presidency. He limited his comments on Maurus’ behavior to statements such as: “Administration policy has been settled on the issue. We consider Mexico a vital and reliable ally in our actions against the cartel.”
Various spokespersons issued benign statements calling on Americans to use their good judgement in considering the ramifications of the complex issue. Jingoistic rhetoric did not contribute to well-reasoned policy considerations, they said. All of this was lost in the media demand for “red meat” sound bites and video clips. The professional hard-news journalists felt themselves pressued by their corporate management about losing market share if they did not join the swarm which trailed the Vice President at every turn. A few reports began to appear hinting at the possibility that Maurus might challenge Stratton for the nomination in 2012. As the obsession with Mexico entered its second week the Administration sent its senior Cabinet officers to make the rounds of the Sunday morning talk shows. Their appeals for calm, their detailed explanations of Mexico’s co-operation, and their assurances that President Stratton was dutifully handling an extremely difficult crisis helped cap some of the concern within the Beltway. However, the country at large was unsure. A Gallup poll found that 47% disapproved of the way Stratton was handling the Mexico issue, 42% ap-proved and 11% were undecided. The question of a more dramatic incursion into Mexican territory was deadlocked at 40%-40%. A slight majority (54%) said it was a good idea for the Vice President to have an independent opinion from the President on this topic. A survey by the Washington Post indicated that a majority of the staff of six of the 14 Cabinet members agreed, at least somewhat, with Bert Maurus’ advocacy of “enhanced defensive deployment.”
Summer thunderstorms are awesome displays of electrical and auditory energy; yet for all the force and fury they are relatively short-lived events. The Mexican crisis by early September seemed to be settling into such a pattern. A return to normalcy was not in the interest of a certain observer. Alex Poller lamented to the Vice President, in a meeting at the Naval Observatory, that he feared a vital opportunity for them was slipping away. Maurus noted in his diary that he was not worried. “You always seem to turn events our way by force of will power,” Maurus remarked to Poller.
(Much of what is recounted in this book regarding con-versations between Maurus and Poller comes from several notebooks the Vice President maintained during the primaries and his time in office. Remarks were based on tapes from a miniature recorder Maurus carried with him everywhere. The books were sent to this reporter following the events of July 4, 2010. )
In a later entry the Vice President wondered how much jest actually applied to Poller’s influence on events.
The Durango cartel had once been a loose alliance of five varying-size organizations. At any given time they were as likely to be warring among themselves as engaging in shared enterprises. In the late-90s the largest of these outfits, which was based in the Sierra Madre highlands of central Mexico, experienced a particularly bloody change of leadership. A second-tier divisional organizer, known outside the group even today only as El Guadana, had grown tired of the inflexible methods and routines of the drug traffickers. He wanted to inject a new driving force, a keener business sense, to reach for new horizons, to (frankly) kill anyone who stood in his way of controlling what became a multibillion dollar enterprise.
By 2004 El Guadana, having murdered and bribed his way to the top of his local group, then employed similar tactics in acquiring control of the country’s other major drug-peddling operations. The merger allowed the Durango Cartel (the name is based on El Guadana’s favorite movie, the 1971 Western “Arriva Durango, Pago O Muori” [Durango Is Coming, Pay or Die]) to increase its immense income through re-engineered operations. Such lurative results drew the attention of Colombia’s drug cartel-dependent Government. The difficulties of the de Valera Administration were a signal to Bogota that Mexico could be ripe for plucking. Beginning in the Spring of 2009 a stream of weapons, communications equipment and advisers began infiltrating Mexico from Colombia, and making its way to the Durango cartel.
El Guadana dec
ided to invest some of the cartel’s wealth in the pockets of selected high-ranking Mexican Army of-ficers. Word seeped through the labyrinth of the military that constitutional rule was headed the way of the Aztecs. It would be up to each regional commander to decide his own course of action.
On September 18, 2009 the first major blow was struck in what became the Mexican Civil War. Shortly before dawn an armed force estimated at 5000 men, including elements of the Army, seized control of the city of Hermosillo in the State of Sonora (which borders Arizona and New Mexico). A new Second Republic was proclaimed, and all opponents of the existing order were called upon to join the rebellion. Within days many other municipalities and towns in Sonora were seized or announced their acceptance of the new Republic. This uprising was directed and financed by the cartel.
When President de Valera denounced the rebels and ordered the military to arrest the ring leaders his orders were ignored. Repeated telephone calls and aides sent by de Valera to the Army’s General Staff were evasively responded to with remarks indicating the situation was under review. Finally, on the 22nd Army units in the capital took action. However, this action was to set up blockades throughout the city, to barricade de Valera inside the Presidential palace, and to oust all occupants from the buildings used by the members of Congress. The Army Chief of Staff announced that the nation was in a period of grave emergency, and that politicians were unable to cope with the challenge. He described the Second Republic as a farce, and said it would be dealt with shortly.
In reaction, additional Army units in the north joined the Sonora rebellion, and two fronts opened in the south. In Vera Cruz the MPR established their losing candidate in the prior year’s election as the “true President” of Mexico; while in Chiapas a long-running Indian uprising flared back to life. By the 30th all six Mexican States bordering the U.S, plus Baja California Sur were controlled by the mixture of cartel and military units which now comprised the Second Republic’s defense forces.
President de Valera was offered the choice of seeking asylum in the American Embassy by the Mexican Army’s local commander, but he refused. The Army reacted by severing all communication and utility connections to the Palace. Outside contact was maintained by a battery-operated radio transmitter found in one of the offices. The remainder of the nation was experiencing a wide variety of consequences from the discord. Some areas were in complete chaos as competing gangs tried to seize control, while other regions maintained a fragile status quo.
Despite being a silent partner in the Second Republic, the Durango Cartel could not escape its nature as a crinimal organization. Its smuggling operations continued, and on October 4th one such caper moved the crisis to the next level of anxiety.
President Stratton had been in constant meetings with members of the National Security Council, Congressional leaders and Pentagon representatives. For all his desire to help Cory Stratton saw little possibility to aid the constitutional Government of Mexico. A highly classified evaluation by the Joint Chiefs of Staff bluntly stated, “Unless the Administration is willing to deploy -at a minimum- a half million American military personnel into the worst kind of guerrilla warfare the United States has no platform from which to unilaterally restore order within Mexico.”
All the too obvious cliches regarding pending disasters came true in the early hours of October 4th, near the town of Antelope Wells, New Mexico. The cartel expected a confrontation as it set up the smuggling run, and prepared a response. It had previously issued a statement to the media that the Second Republic “was prepared to deal with any challenge to its interests.”
When the cartel’s convoy detected the advance of a U.S. border patrol it immediately called for back-up forces. As the American troops, three heavily-armed squads of the Army’s 7th Cavalry, approached the convoy they were also awaiting assistance. One soldier described the situation, “It got ugly real fast.”
The cartel forces initiated action by launching flares over the American position, followed by a mortar attack. Arriving on the scene within minutes were two helicopter gunships manned by renegade Mexican soldiers. These crafts unleashed a barrage of rifle-propelled grenades plus machine gun fire. One squad was devastated as it bore the brunt of the assault. Help for the Americans came in the form of three fighter planes designed to assist low-light ground attacks. The pilots had monitored radio transmissions by both sides on their approach; the cartel’s forces neglected to use a secure channel. The cartel’s choppers were caught in the fighters’ radar, and then wiped out of the sky by air-to-air missiles. In the time it took the American pilots to check the region for additional aerial targets, the smugglers ground forces became engaged in a full-throttle fire-fight with the soldiers. A call for help brought the planes back; they unloaded missiles and cannon fire onto the smugglers. The entire confrontation lasted less than a half hour. Its impact reached far beyond the tragic scene where eleven Americans died. The cartel’s casualties were 18 dead and seven wounded. Twenty-four Mexican civilians were found alive in a trailer.
By 5AM that day President Stratton was in the Oval Office with his major advisers. The Vice President had been reluctantly notified, but did not arrive until 5:20. When Maurus entered the President’s face became sterner than it had been and he said, “Maurus, I’m not interested in listening to any nonsense about re-enacting Pershing’s raid. The guys at the Pentagon, whom I know and trust far better than I do you, have told me what price we would have to pay in American lives if I went by your ’experienced’ advice. If you have something worthwhile to say come in, otherwise you can leave.”
“Mr. President. My career has been dedicated to the wellbeing of this great country. As Vice President I have an obli-gation to protect America. I will stay and offer what appropriate advice I can. Please continue your discussion.”
These words were delivered in tones as icy as the brisk morning air outside the White House. Also in attendance were the Secretaries of Defense and State, the National Security Advisor, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and the President’s Chief of Staff. The Congressional leadership was scheduled to meet with Stratton at 6:30.
Bert Maurus endured what he considered five minutes of futile jaw-flapping. “None of this is getting us anywhere,” Maurus finally spat out.
“Excuse me!” shot back the President.
“Mr. Vice President . . ,” the Secretary of State began, but fell quiet with a sharp look from Stratton.
“Maurus, I said…”
“Mr. President! A dramatic move is needed,” Maurus rapidly spoke over the President’s words. “Mexico is in total chaos, but we can shock it back into order. We can tract the head of the cartel through his cell phone use. Then we can take him out. We can deploy New York’s 10th Mountain Division along with the 82nd Airborne, and announce we’re acting to defend Mexico’s legitimate rulers. De Valera can’t object. We’d be saving his neck. Their Army will respond…”
“Their Army will respond,” retorted the President, “by attacking our troops as invaders! You can’t be that stupid, or are you? Maurus, for the last time—either say something intelligent or get out!”
The tension was palpable to the extent that the two Secret Service Agents in the room moved noticeably closer to the President. Maurus rose slowly. “I am shocked by your cowardice,” he said. He turned and left the room, to the audible relief of the Agents. In a hallway nearby Maurus was handed a copy of the Washington Times by his aide, Alex Poller. Beneath the three inch high headline of “Will Cory Act?” was a gory description of the battle at Antelope Wells.
“Has he come to his senses?” Poller asked. Maurus glared at him and stormed out of the building. Poller caught up to the Vice President before he entered his limousine. “Didn’t he listen to you?”
Maurus began a reply, then thought better of it with so many witnesses. He whispered, “That damn fool refuses to act. He wants the diplomats to talk—probably until half of the Southwest has been killed by these hoods!”
&
nbsp; “But what are you going to do?” Poller demanded. “The morning talk shows are all a-buzz on what they’re calling a growing war fever. The web and satellite radio sites are already gone over the top. Everyone in that flea-speck of a town seems to have been interviewed. And they’re all ready to march south today. You have to move on this NOW! We also have to think about the Canadians. The four Premiers are planning next week on calling an assembly of the region’s national parliament legislators. They were hoping for support from you on their proposal of opening discussions with this country. But if soldier boy is going to come across as a spineless fool, the whole deal could collapse.”
As the Vice President stepped into the car he kept muttering “Let me think, let me think.” Poller entered after him. The roadway outside the White House grounds had become a parking lot for media vehicles. Police and the Secret Service took several minutes to clear a path for the limo; when the news crews realized it was Maurus’ vehicle a sizable portion abandoned their waiting game to pursue a more likely prospect. On the journey to the Naval Observatory, Maurus channel-surfed across a video world that was foaming at the microphone for action. Antelope Wells had become the new Century’s “Maine” cause to be remembered. What came to be seen as the American retreat from/abandonment of Basraistan left a growing sense of bitter frustration in the psyche of many Americans. They felt the need to redeem the nation’s honor. Throttling a band of thugs who dared to defy, defile America would set things right.
“What the hell can I do?” Maurus finally asked. “I can’t order in the troops. I can’t ask Congress for a declaration of war. The only constitutional responsibility I have is to wait around in case the President croaks or is croaked.”
“Or fails to carry out his powers and duties,” added Poller.