CIA OPERATIVE WHO OVERTHREW GOV'T OF EL SALVADOR TOURS PORT: HIS PRESENCE HERE RAISES QUESTIONS

Port of Brownsville

Various Sources

Today, the Port of Brownsville welcomed U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson for a tour of the port with Brownsville Navigation District Chairman Esteban “Steve” Guerra.

 The port's public relations spin is that the visit spotlighted the port’s role as a gateway for U.S.–Mexico trade, or so it would appear. It is interesting to note that this was not a public press conference, but a semi-private meeting between select officials and the ambassador.

And what an ambassador. 

His background indicates that Johnson is a counter-insurgency operator and retired CIA official. Which raises the question: What is he doing here in a hush-hush visitation? Or is it an infiltration, or worse, an investigation?

Or is he the point man for the preparation for an intervention against Mexican cartels? 

He graduated from the Special Forces (Green Beret) officers course in 1977, while assigned to the 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne). 

In 1984, he entered full-time active duty as the detachment commander with 3rd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) in Panama. He would serve in a wide variety of command and staff positions including being selected as the first Special Forces officer to attend the Army War College fellowship at the Central Intelligence Agency.

Johnson spent a significant portion of his military career in the Southern Command Area of Responsibility and is fluent in Spanish. He led combat operations in El Salvador as one of the authorized 55 military advisors during the civil war in the 1980s. 

He also deployed to the Balkans in the 1990s as the senior military officer of an integrated team from the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, and Special Mission Unit personnel to apprehend persons indicted for war crimes. 

After his military career, Johnson served a second career with the Central Intelligence Agency and participated in worldwide operational and combat experiences in integrated (covert) actions with special mission units. 

He also served as the senior representative for both the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) at the U.S. Southern Command, and as the Science and Technology Liaison to the U.S. Special Operations Command for the Central Intelligence Agency

Joining Ambassador Johnson were Mary Virginia Hantsch, Consul General at the U.S. Consulate in Matamoros; Carlos J. Guizar, Assistant to the Ambassador and Strategic Communications Advisor at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico; and Jake Stevens, Political and Economic Officer at the U.S. Consulate in Matamoros.

With a background like that, it has raised questions that his semi-private meetings at the Port of Brownsville indicate that something besides the port's geographical location is of interest to the U.S. Government. Is it time for someone to get a bit worried about his presence here?