It sounds like the sort of gruesome tactic deployed by Islamic terrorists in Iraq. But this horrific scene occurred last month near the main road from Mexico City to the popular tourist destination of Acapulco on the Pacific coast. The soldiers were kidnapped as they left a nearby military barracks and then decapitated in apparent revenge for an army firefight with a narcotics gang in a nearby town that left three drug smugglers dead. Mexico's rapidly escalating drug wars claimed nearly...

- Bernd Debusmann is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. - What do Pakistan and Mexico have in common? They figure in the nightmares of U.S. military planners trying to peer into the future and identify the next big threats. The two countries are mentioned in the same breath in a just-published study by the United States Joint Forces Command, whose jobs include providing an annual look into the future to prevent the U.S. military from being caught off guard by unexpected...

The Israeli incursions into Gaza have triggered protests all over the world with demonstrators calling for an immediate ceasefire. Public fury at the Israeli violence targeting the residents of Gaza has brought thousands of people in Turkey, Argentina, Mexico, Bolivia, Lebanon and Austria to the streets. Austria Austrian demonstrators gathered outside the United Nations Office in Vienna to protest Israel's incursion into Gaza. Protesters slammed Arab states for their silence...

The networks of global terrorism--both formal and informal--leave no region untouched. The Western Hemisphere is no exception, as we recently learned from the tragic events of September 11th. The Americas, from Canada to Tierra del Fuego, is a breeding ground for Islamic radical and extremist organizations that take advantage of the region's ill-equipped, and poorly trained security agencies. Canadian intelligence officials acknowledge that their country is riddled with terrorists and have...

The attacks of September 15th in Morelia were an announced act. What is surprising is that a similar terrorist act had not happened previously. You should remember that in this space we have discussed the possibility of terrorist acts in Mexico, and I’ve made reference to it in several occasions. Robert Grenier, ex-director of the Antiterrorist Unit of Grenier Co., commented to us in an interview that “there are many reasons to be worried. Large organizations with many criminal...

Islamic leaders are allying with South American indigenous groups, because they see this impoverished, illiterate population, as the ideal environment for starting an extremist revolution and converting them to Islam. The process may take hundreds of years, but time means nothing to the fundamentalist. After all Allah is immortal and if Muslims waited 1300 years before invading Europe again, they can wait to convert Christians, animists and pagans. In 711 C.E. Muslims crossed the Straight of...

Since the September 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, U.S. attention to terrorism in Latin America has intensified, with an increase in bilateral and regional cooperation. In its April 2008 Country Reports on Terrorism, the State Department highlighted threats in Colombia and the tri-border area of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. Cuba has remained on the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism since 1982, which triggers a number of economic sanctions. In...

San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, MEXICO --Forget the Inquisition, the bloody conquest of the New World, and the expulsion of Moors from Spain 510 years ago. In a volatile corner of southern Mexico, history is being turned on its head. Muslims settlers from Spain are running a madrassa -- or traditional Koranic school-- on the outskirts of a pretty colonial town in Chiapas state, where they are determined to bring renegade Maya indians to Allah. The Spaniards hope eventually to circulate...

Ibrahim Gonzalez, raised as a Catholic, says he didn't convert to Islam -- rather, he says, he reverted. Like a small but growing number of Hispanics, the New York-born Puerto Rican has found a spiritual home in a faith with a long history in Spain, stretching to the rule of Muslim Moors from the 700s to the 1400s. Today, Hispanics with roots in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Spain and Central and south America are turning to Islam. A mix of immigrants and longtime residents, they are expanding the...

Like hell we Americans and Canadians should be integrating our nations with the Mexicans! Like hell there should be a three-way "North American Union" including Mexico! In a little notice meeting reflecting growing ties between South America and the Islamic world, Mexican President Felipe Calderon welcomed former Iranian President Mohamed Khatami to Mexico City. The two leaders met Wednesday at Los Pinos, Mexico's official presidential residence, to discuss deepening...