Thread: 2,000 more troops arrive in Mexican border city

2,000 more troops arrive in Mexican border city

The Associated Press 5:25 p.m. March 13, 2009

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Mexico deployed 2,000 troops to this embattled northern border city Friday to reinforce a crackdown against drug gangs.

Another 3,000 soldiers will arrived in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, by Sunday, said Enrique Torres, the spokesman for a joint military-police operation in Chihuahua state, where the city of 1.3 million people is located.

With the additional troops, the city will be patrolled by 8,500 soldiers and 2,300 federal agents, Torres said. He said that the troops and federal agents will take control of the local police department, the state prison and even the traffic division as part of a new strategy to combat spiking violence.

The deployment is part of a nationwide crackdown on drug cartels that has grown to include more than 45,000 troops since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006.

Drug violence has surged since the government launched the offensive, claiming 6,000 lives in 2008. About 1,600 of those killings were in Ciudad Juarez.

Also Friday, Chihuahua state prosecutors announced a 500,000 peso (US$34,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of two men accused of killing one of Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza's bodyguards.
Last month, gunmen in two cars fired high-powered weapons on a convoy carrying Reyes Baeza, killing the bodyguard and wounding two others. A gunman was also wounded.

Chihuahua state Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez said Sunday at least three gunmen working for the Juarez cartel opened fire on the governor's convoy.

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And our government still doesn't have enough sense to put our troops on the border to stop the invasion of our country by Mexico.

Police find 7 bodies in Mexican border city

By MARINA MONTEMAYOR, The Associated Press 12:48 p.m. March 14, 2009

JUAREZ, Mexico — Police acting on a tip have found seven bodies partially buried in the desert on the outskirts of the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez.

Investigators are searching the desert site south of the city to see whether there are any more bodies.

An official with the state prosecutor's office who declined to be named in line with department policy says a policeman's badge was found at the site. Authorities were working Saturday to identify the bodies.
Ciudad Juarez has been hit by a wave of drug-fueled violence that led federal authorities to dispatch thousands of army troops to patrol the city.

State security official Enrique Torres Valadez said that 1,500 more troops are expected to arrive Saturday, and 2,150 arrived Friday.

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