But they ARE a reconstituted company of day laborers!.
Mexico has "universal conscription" and like most countries with universal conscription anybody with two bucks or two brain cells can avoid the draft if they really want to.
I was talking with one of the warehouse guys in Guadalajara some years back. He had bailed for the US when he got his draft notice and spent a couple of years here (illegally I assume) before going back to do his duty to his country. Apparently conscripts get a few weeks of basic training and are allowed to return home and only has to come in on weekends for a year. He compared it to work release (which suggests why he may have been encourage to return to Mexico). He said that all they did was sit around, attend classes on tactical principles and political indoctrination. He said that after basic he never touched a rifle but this was 10 years ago so that may have changed.
Anyone who stays around after their year is up is considered a "professional". I have a feeling these are what are being thrown against the cartels.
Are you talking abut those little wedge shaped 4x4s with the flat noses and funny tires? They're a joke.
Most of the time, they’re riding in the back of old 1/4 ton pickups.