The protests at the border against the Mexican government are a result of 'terror' within the communities that are being used to propagate instability through senseless murders. By protesting, the people of these towns are attempting to save their own lives by allowing the cartels the anarchy they need to carry out organized crime.
It is a nearly impossible set of circumstances for the Mexican government that needs to prove to its citizens it can win against these criminals. It hasn't done well yet, but, the Mexican government is decidedly dedicated to their purpose. I can't help believe the USA isn't offering support. The battles in Ciudad Juarez can't be any more tactically different than those in Baghdad. The question is 'should it be treated as same?'
Violence in Mexican Border Towns Impedes Missing Persons Search (click here)
By Greg Flakus El Paso, Texas19 February 2009
Mexican President Felipe Calderon's fight against drug trafficking cartels in his country has produced an unprecedented wave of violence, especially in Mexican border cities like Juarez, where more than 1,600 people were murdered last year. There are also many cases of people who have disappeared and, their friends and relatives fear they may never be found.The violence in Juarez continues, despite government efforts to curb the power of the drug cartels. In recent days headless bodies have turned up on the streets and signs have been posted around town threatening local police who try to interfere with drug smuggling....
Protesters block US border crossings demanding that Mexican soldiers leave their cities (click here)
The Associated Press Tuesday, February 17, 2009
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Protesters block US border crossings demanding that Mexican soldiers leave their cities.
Mexico: Army will stay, despite recent protests (click here)
By MARK WALSH – Feb 19, 2009
MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) — Mexico's president said Thursday the army will continue to battle the country's drug cartels, despite recent protests asking for the soldiers' withdrawal.
Hundreds of people blocked bridges to the United States in three border cities Tuesday, demanding the army leave and accusing soldiers of abuse. Both state and federal officials have alleged the protests are organized by drug gangs, noting that some of the protesters masked their faces.
In an Army Day speech in the northern city of Monterrey, President Felipe Calderon defended his decision to send some 45,000 troops nationwide to take on the drug gangs. He also called on all Mexicans to "stand behind our army's fight against this common enemy."
"When we've recovered the rule of law in areas vulnerable to organized crime, and local authorities are capable of fighting this scourge, then the army will have completed its mission," he said.
Calderon vowed "to continue fighting organized crime, without pause or mercy."...
Travel Alert
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of Consular Affairs
This information is current as of today (click here)
Fri Feb 27 08:36:30 2009.
Mexico
February 20, 2009
This Travel Alert updates security information for U.S. citizens traveling and living in Mexico. It supersedes the Travel Alert for Mexico dated October 15, 2008, and expires on August 20, 2009.While millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year (including thousands who cross the land border every day for study, tourism or business), violence in the country has increased recently. It is imperative that travelers understand the risks of travel to Mexico, how best to avoid dangerous situations, and whom to contact if one becomes a crime victim. Common-sense precautions such as visiting only legitimate business and tourist areas during daylight hours, and avoiding areas where prostitution and drug dealing might occur, can help ensure that travel to Mexico is safe and enjoyable....
Roberto Orduña Cruz, left, is escorted by a police officer after resigning his post. He says he doesn’t want any more officers to die.
Ciudad Juarez police chief quits after killings of officers, threats (click here)
Posted signs say a policeman would be killed every 48 hours unless Roberto Orduña Cruz resigned.
By Ken Ellingwood February 21, 2009
Reporting from Mexico City -- The police chief in violence-torn Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, quit Friday after several officers were slain this week and the killers posted threats that more would die unless he resigned.Roberto Orduña Cruz, the city's public safety secretary, said he didn't want to risk more lives. An officer and a jail guard were shot to death earlier Friday, two days after handwritten signs were posted saying a policeman would be killed every 48 hours unless Orduña resigned....
Mexico is sending up to 5,000 new troops (click title to entry - thank you) and federal police to the country's most violent city, where law and order is on the brink of collapse in a war between gangs supplying drugs to the United States.
The army said on Thursday the deployment could take the number of soldiers and federal police to over 7,000 in Ciudad Juarez, which is across the U.S. border from El Paso, Texas.
This month alone, drug hitmen killed 250 people in Juarez, where a meeting of cabinet members on Wednesday was rattled by three bomb scares, forcing soldiers to briefly shut the city's international airport.
"In yesterday's meeting (government officials) talked about sending 5,000 troops and police to Ciudad Juarez," said army spokesman Enrique Torres. "They are expected to arrive in the next few weeks."
At the heavily guarded meeting on Wednesday, Interior Minister Fernando Gomez Mont had said the troop reinforcements would be "notable" but declined to give more details.
Torres said there were 2,020 troops and 425 federal police in Ciudad Juarez, a city of around 1.6 million people.
Drug trade analysts say Mexico's most-wanted fugitive, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, who leads a cartel from the Pacific state of Sinaloa, wants control of Ciudad Juarez, currently in the hands of local drug lord Vicente Carrillo Fuentes....
Home-made bomb clears Ciudad Juarez airport (click here)
1 day ago
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AFP) — An unexploded home-made bomb forced the evacuation of the airport in Mexico's Ciudad Juarez while a bomb threat cleared the violence-plagued city's courthouse, security officials said.
Airport personnel and travelers returned to the airport three hours after the explosive device was found by police, an airport official said.
Also Wednesday, a bomb threat led to the evacuation of the Ciudad Juarez courthouse. No explosives were found on the premises, said the security officials who asked not to be identified.
At a hotel three blocks from the courthouse, four government ministers were holding a security meeting about the unprecedented violence in the city and efforts to control drug-related violence along the border with the United States, sources told AFP.
Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, is considered Mexico's murder capital, with more than 1,650 drug-related killings in 2008. Most of the violence is attributed to a turf war between the Ciudad Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels....
