The Mexican Market

01/02/2012

There was good and bad news the past week for those seeking security jobs. The good news was that new markets are emerging. The bad news was various stories reminding us of how challenging and dangerous the work can be. In case anybody doesn’t already have this imprinted on their brain, be careful out there.
 
Good news first: if anyone out there reading this is in Texas we suggest you read the Jan. 19 Austin American-Statesman article about how Some private security companies in Austin and across Texas have begun tapping into a burgeoning demand: personal protection services for wealthy Mexican citizens visiting the United States.
 
While the demand for these services are miniscule compared to what Mexicans spend back in Mexico it is enough to attract notice. Companies such as Professional Bodyguards LLC, which has offices in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio and of BlackStone Group Security in Austin, Reynolds Protection based in Dallas .are among those tapping into this market
 
And, if you are in Mexico there is a very big market for bodyguards. The Tuscon Sentinel reports that during the five years since President Felipe Calderón took power and declared war on drug cartels, Mexico has been shaken by 47,000 drug-related murders as well as rocketing levels of kidnapping and extortion.
 
In the same period, Mexico’s biggest security firm, Multisistemas de Seguridad Industrial, says it has grown by 70 percent. Those looking for armed security jobs take note: it now has an army of more than 10,000 private security guards — including many former soldiers — who are licensed to carry guns to protect the company’s 2,500 Mexican clients. Many foreigners, including Hollywood stars, diplomats and businessman, also hire entourages of bodyguards when they traipse around Mexico.
 
The Washington Post reported that U.S. security contractors are looking for new security jobs in Mexico.
 
DynCorp International has job openings in Mexico for aviation instructors and mechanics. The consulting firm Kroll hires anti-kidnapping specialists to protect Mexican business executives. MPRI is training Mexican soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques.

The companies are beckoned by swelling pots of public and private contracting gold. In November, the Pentagon’s counter-narco-terrorism program office solicited bids on more than $3 billion in contracts worldwide, with an unspecified amount destined for operations in Mexico. The State Department has pledged nearly $2 billion in drug war aid to Mexico since 2008, much of it available to U.S. companies that can provide equipment or services to the embattled Mexican government.
 
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 a Congressional analysis prepared last year.
 
On the bad news front Todd Walker, a contractor, working for killed in AAR Airlift was killed  in a helicopter crash in Hemland Province, Afghanistan.
 
McClatchey newspapers reports that Warren Weinstein, the Pakistan country manager for J.E. Austin Associates, a contractor for the US Agency for International Development, who was kidnapped in August from his home in Lahore, Pakistan, is in the custody of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militants in North Waziristan. Militants and security analysts said retired Pakistani militant commanders were acting as interlocutors to negotiate Weinstein’s release, but they predicted a drawn-out process that could take years.
 
On the legal front KBR will not face a federal lawsuit over civilian truck drivers killed in Iraq, the 5th Circuit ruled.
 
Steven Fisher and Timothy Bell were killed on April 9, 2004, during an  insurgent attack on their military supply convoy. Their families filed suit and claimed said that KBR knew its convoys were particularly vulnerable to attack on April 9, 2004, the one-year anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.
 
Despite this knowledge, the complaint says KBR intentionally misled the drivers about their safety during recruiting and orientation activities.
 
But the appellate court ruled that the Defense Base Act prevents a fraud claim for a covered injury.
 
“It is a generally accepted proposition of workers’ compensation law that an employer’s deceit that precedes and helps produce an otherwise compensable injury merges into that injury for purposes of compensation coverage,” she wrote.
 
So, if your employer lies to you about how safe a mission is and you get killed your family can’t do anything. It seems KBR was MIA when it came to the course on ethical corporate conduct.

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