LIANE HANSEN, host:
As in any war, Mexico needs allies if it expects to win. One nation offering support is Colombia, which was besieged by drug violence 20 years ago. With its experience in fighting cocaine traffickers and increasing success in its current battles against a big guerilla army, Colombia's expertise in counter insurgency has grown. Now, Mexican forces are tapping into that expertise in their own fight against drug cartels.
NPR's Juan Forero has details from a training field in Cajica, Colombia.
JUAN FORERO: Carlos Nieves is just a gumshoe Mexican police investigator. But here he is, in the dead of night, some 8,500 feet high in the mountains of central Colombia.
Officer CARLOS NIEVES (Investigator, Mexico Police Department): (Foreign language spoken)
FORERO: His superiors tell him and more than 60 other cops and soldiers from across Latin America, about the hardships ahead - hours and hours of hiking through thick brush, with temperatures near freezing.
(Soundbite of footsteps)
FORERO: He's outfitted in olive green camouflage and carries a 50-pound knapsack and an automatic rifle.
Officer NIEVES: (Foreign language spoken)
FORERO: He also hasn't slept in five days, Nieves says. That's been hard, he says, but it's been worth it. That's because after four months, Nieves and a handful of other Mexican policemen and soldiers are finishing the toughest of commando training courses. And not just from anyone, it's from Colombia's elite Jungla, or jungle unit.
Part of the national police, it's sort of like a SWAT team but one that targets the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the FARC, Colombia's biggest rebel group, some 9,000 fighters-strong. A group that holds territory, carries out ambushes, wields weapons of war - everything from AK-47s, to anti-tank busters to 50 caliber machine guns.
Officer NIEVES: (Foreign language spoken)
FORERO: The kind of weaponry that Nieves, the policeman, says he sees in raids in Mexico.
There are many ways that Mexico is different from Colombia. Most importantly, there's no rebel army there trying to overthrow the state. Yet, Mexico's violence is spiraling out of control, as in the Colombia of 20 years ago. Medellin cartel leader Pablo Escobar was at the height of his powers.
And there are other similarities. One is that the narcos in Mexico are increasingly starting to control territory and ambush Mexican forces.
Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos told NPR that Colombia can provide training and intelligence gathering. Colombia can also help to better prepare Mexican investigators and court officials for drug cases.
President JUAN MANUEL SANTOS (Columbia): We don't want to sound like we know it all, you know, because we are constantly learning because these people are constantly adapting to new circumstances. And what we can do is work together, in order to help this very difficult situation that Mexico is going through.
(Soundbite of gunfire)
FORERO: Here outside Cajica, what the Mexicans are learning is to take the fight to the enemy.
(Soundbite of gunfire)
FORERO: At 5 A.M., gunfire signals a simulated assault on what's supposed to be a FARC camp.
(Soundbite of gunfire)
FORERO: The trainees swoop into the FARC stronghold.
(Soundbite of yelling)
FORERO: But not everything is going as planned. The FARC commander, dubbed the Little Fat Man, is nowhere to be found. A Jungla commando overseeing the whole thing mocks the trainees, making sure they know they're failing at their mission.
Unidentified Man: (Foreign language spoken)
(Soundbite of laughter and conversation)
FORERO: Yet, in four months, the Mexicans have learned about explosives and assault rifles. They've done jungle training. They've learned how to raid heavily fortified houses. They've patrolled rivers.
It'll all come in handy, says Carlos Mejia, another policeman from Mexico.
Officer CARLOS MEJIA (Mexican Police): (Foreign language spoken)
FORERO: The training has been hard, says Mejia, but he feels better prepared for the violence he expects to face back home.
(Soundbite of men chanting)
FORERO: It's now daylight out. And though they've been up for five days, the trainees are marching again, complete with a rousing song about the competence of Jungla commandos.
Unidentified Man 2: Jungla. Jungla. Jungla...
FORERO: They then shed their heavy packs and begin to crawl up a steep hill in the mud. With that, it's all over.
(Soundbite of men)
FORERO: It ends with the Jungla Oath and graduation from commando training.
Juan Forero, NPR News.