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Border towns in Mexico terrorized by drug traffickers

by ANGELA KOCHERGA / KVUE News

Posted on March 31, 2010 at 7:52 PM

Updated today at 10:35 PM
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The latest hotspot along the Texas border is a rural area that stretches from Fabens to Fort Hancock. Drug traffickers battling for smuggling routes are terrorizing towns on the Mexican side and warning residents to get out.

This tranquil valley known for its pecans and local honey borders one of the most vilent places in Mexico.

Gun battles in the streets, homes burned to the ground, entire towns terrorized. Many of those who shared their firsthand accounts with KVUE still don't feel safe, even though now they live here on the Texas side of the border.

One woman said several homes were torched this week. Many are fleeing the violence in Mexico, but some cannot leave.

"Right now we're working on my wife's paperwork to get done at the American Consulate so I can bring her legally into the United States." said Alfredo Escalante, a Texas resident whose wife is in Mexico. Their two-year-old son spends time on both sides of the border. "He can hear a noise, or something like that, because he'll tell me, 'Oh, Dad it's bullet shots.'

"I try to bring him with me as much as I can so he can be as safe as he can."

But the time had come once again to meet at the border and him over to his mother. She worries there are now shootouts in nearly every small town in this valley.

"The next time I'll see him is about five or six days when I have another day off," said Escalante.

A day after his wife drove back to Mexico, she had to flee with the toddler. A banner posted in her hometown of Guadalupe warned residents they had 24 hours to get out.


www.kvue.com