Ben Rhodes

And they did kill at least 25 police officials in Mexico as part of the retaliation.

There were quite a few deaths, mostly lower-level police that were in more vulnerable locations.

And there was a spasm day one, a little bit of violence subsequently.

And it should kind of end with that.

Or there might be other scattered episodes.

But for the most part, this is not like the sustained war of attrition against the state.

They're making a point about their reach.

And then after that, they'll go back to kind of a more business as usual.

There was a report this afternoon that his leader, his replacement has already been named.

a relative of his who was born in the United States.

Juan Carlos Valencia.

Orange County.

Well, so...

You know, there's a long history of the CIA being used against primarily criminal organizations, because remember, they don't just commit drug related crimes.

They're involved in a whole range of organized crime activity, state threatening organized crime activity in Latin America very often.

And so there is there's an intelligence community.

There's intelligence community work there.

That is carried out against these organizations that, for example, in Colombia overlap with guerrilla organizations as well, political criminal groups as well.

And what there is now is and has been extensive cooperation between law enforcement organizations.

Now, U.S.