The Wire - July 1, 2025

//The Wire//2300Z July 1, 2025//
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//BLUF: CARTEL VIOLENCE CONTINUES IN MEXICO. USDA ANNOUNCES OPENING OF CATTLE IMPORTS DESPITE PARASITE OUTBREAK.//

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-International Events-

Mexico: Cartel violence continues as before, amid a recent wave of murders that have taken place around the country over the past few weeks. Last night, several human remains were discovered hanging from a bridge in Culiacán, with a total of 20x remains discovered throughout the site.

Europe: Tensions between Germany and Poland have been on the rise, as recent changes in German immigration policy have caused problems for Poland. Various protests have occurred along the border in Poland, as citizens have voiced concern with Germany deporting illegal immigrants from their country, into Poland.

Analyst Comment: This practice has been ongoing for some time, and many legal battles are in progress pertaining to immigration issues that have caused problems among European nations. Nevertheless, dissent is growing among the citizenry with regards to how governments are handling immigration issues.

-HomeFront-

Texas: Yesterday afternoon the US Department of Agriculture announced that the import of foreign livestock from Mexico will recommence on July 7th. The import of all livestock had previously been halted in May due to an outbreak of New World Screwworm (NWS) in Mexico, a flesh-eating parasite which is infamous for devastating entire herds of cattle, deer, and bison.

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Analyst Comments: The decision to begin re-opening imports of foreign livestock has been received with raised eyebrows for two main reasons: For one, screwworm is very serious and the wisdom of re-opening imports while the outbreak is ongoing is questionable. And secondly the press statement by the USDA essentially boiled down to the USDA trusting Mexico to increase parasite surveillance operations. Trust is hard to come by these days, and this move to re-open imports is at odds with the concerns raised by the state of Texas concerning this disease.

Texas agricultural agencies, research groups, and health officials, recognizing the risks posed by NWS have begun more intense efforts to combat the disease. Governor Abbott signed a letter last week ordering the creation of various Task Forces to coordinate and share resources to combat the cross-border transmission of the parasite.

The press statement also indicates that the USDA is more or less taking the position of opening up cattle imports, and hoping it doesn't spread. The USDA has been increasing operations to release sterile NWS flies throughout Texas and Mexico, however the timing of this is suspect considering that it was the Mexican Minister of Agriculture that requested the acceleration of timelines concerning the re-importing of Mexican cattle. Since roughly 20% of the beef consumed in the United States originates from Mexico, the decision to allow imports during an outbreak is probably based more on economics than medicine. Time will tell if this is a good decision or not. On the one hand halting beef imports for too much longer will probably cause a rise in prices at the supermarket, but on the other hand NWS was only eradicated in the US during the 1960's after long and arduous efforts, so if this gets out of hand again this has the potential to become very serious once more.

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground
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