That has a broad, chilling effect on U.S. contractors contemplating work in Mexico, even among those who do not directly work in security details as bodyguards, analysts say. Many private security contractors are military veterans who are accustomed to keeping at least a handgun for self-defense, and they balk at the thought of going unarmed into one of Mexico’s hot zones, such as Ciudad Juarez or Nuevo Laredo.
“A lot of guys ask me: ‘How do you carry down there?’ And when I say I don’t, they can’t believe it,” said Rick Sweeney, chief executive of California-based SECFOR, which provides personal security services to business executives in several of Mexico’s manufacturing centers, mostly along the border.
Sweeney said he worked as a security contractor in Iraq until 2006. Today, all of his 15 or so contractors are deployed in Mexico. Most are ex-soldiers from Britain and Australia. None is allowed to carry a weapon, so they team with local Mexican companies that can provide firepower.
“Everyone thinks if they worked in Iraq and Afghanistan they can work in Mexico, but it’s a different ballgame,” Sweeney said. “I’m not looking for the guys who come to me and say they’re an expert shot or a black belt. I’m looking for guys who can plan and stay out of trouble, rather than blast their way out of trouble once it starts.”
Partners vital — and risky
Armed private security is a booming business in many parts of Latin America, and demand for personal protection services in Mexico is growing at least 20 percent a year, driven by foreign and local business executives looking to safeguard their families and employees, according to Robert Munks, a senior Americas analyst with London-based IHS-Jane’s, which tracks global security trends.
Foreign contractors who partner with Mexican firms to provide armed guards typically subject those workers to extensive background checks, according to Munks, but contractors are still exposed to considerable risk.
“They have to be incredibly careful about who they partner with,” he said. “A very large percentage of people working in private security are suspected of working with organized crime networks.”
Still, the huge volume of trade between the United States and Mexico often necessitates that American executives cross the border. Companies that do not have much experience in Mexico are especially concerned about sending their staffers, even for short trips, according to Robert Oatman, a Maryland-based security consultant.
“You’re not going to see many executives traveling to Tijuana, or if they do, they’re not spending the night,” Oatman said.
A boom in training
A growing number of former and current U.S. military personnel are also training Mexican security forces in counterinsurgency, electronic surveillance and other techniques honed by the long American engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan.
American security aid pays for some of those programs, while other contractors are paid by the Mexican government, whose spending on security jumped from $1.7 billion in 2005 to more than $12 billion in 2011, according to the think tank Mexico Evalua.
There are no precise figures on the number of U.S. security contractors working in Mexico, but the Pentagon and the State Department spent $635.8 million on counternarcotics contracts in Latin America in 2009, a 32 percent increase from 2005, according to an analysis prepared by the office of Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) in June.
The report found that the United States awarded more than $170 million in counternarcotics contracts in Mexico between 2005 and 2009, much of that from the nearly $2 billion in security assistance that Congress has allocated through the Merida Initiative.
Still, analysts say the U.S. role in Mexico will always be limited by sensitivities to the bitter legacy of armed American troops south of the border.
“The U.S. government is afraid of overstepping, given the limited welcome it has in Mexico,” said Nick Schwellenbach, an investigator at the Project on Government Oversight, a District-based watchdog group. “And given the history,” he added.
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