Thread: Bloodshed On the Border

Bloodshed On the Border
Life in Juárez, where drug violence has created the equivalent of a failed state on our doorstep.

Arian Campo-Flores and Monica Campbell
NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated Dec 8, 2008

Late one night in January, an ambulance escorted by five unmarked squad cars pulled up to Thomason Hospital in El Paso, Texas. Out leaped more than a dozen armed federal agents to protect the patient—Fernando Lozano Sandoval, a commander with the Chihuahua State Investigations Agency. He'd been pumped full of bullets just across the Mexican border in Ciudad Juárez by gunmen believed to have been hired by a drug cartel. Lozano Sandoval's sole hope of survival was the medical team at Thomason, the only level-one trauma center for nearly 300 miles. U.S. authorities took no chances; in Mexico, assassins regularly raid hospitals to finish off their prey. Throughout Lozano Sandoval's three-week treatment at Thomason (which proved successful), the Americans funneled visitors through metal detectors, posted guards outside the commander's room and deployed SWAT teams armed with assault rifles around the hospital's perimeter. Officers "were ready for war if it should go that route," says El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen.

Lozano Sandoval was the first in a string of victims of Mexico's spiraling violence to show up at Thomason this year. Twice more, authorities beefed up security at the hospital to the strictest level—in June, when a high-risk Mexican national was brought in anonymously, and in July, when two Mexican police officials were airlifted to the border and driven across. Beyond those cases, 43 additional patients wounded in Juárez have been treated at Thomason this year, including a 1-year-old girl who was pinned against a wall by a truck involved in a drug-related shooting. All the patients have been dual citizens of Mexico and the United States or have had the proper documentation to enter the country, says a Thomason spokeswoman. Yet legal issues are beside the point for many El Pasoans. A recent posting in an online forum on border violence summed up the fear of many: "It is only a matter of time before the Mexican drug dealers send assassination squads over to Thomason hospital." The traffickers already occasionally kidnap Mexicans who have fled north to escape threats of violence in Juárez.

The border between El Paso (population: 600,000) and Juárez (population: 1.5 million) is the most menacing spot along America's southern underbelly. On one side is the second-safest city of its size in the United States (after Honolulu), with only 15 murders so far in 2008. On the other is a slaughterhouse ruled by drug lords where the death toll this year is more than 1,300 and counting. "I don't think the average American has any idea of what's going on immediately south of our border," says Kevin Kozak, acting special agent in charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's office of investigations in El Paso. "It's almost beyond belief." Juárez looks a lot like a failed state, with no government entity capable of imposing order and a profusion of powerful organizations that kill and plunder at will. It's as if the United States faced another lawless Waziristan—except this one happens to be right at the nation's doorstep.

The drug war in Juárez escalated dramatically at the start of the year when the Sinaloa cartel—which originated in the Pacific state of the same name—began trying to muscle in on the Juárez cartel's turf. The focus of the fight, which has also drawn in the formidable Gulf cartel, is the city's prized "plaza," or drug-smuggling corridor. Mexican President Felipe Calderón responded to the turmoil by dispatching 3,000 balaclava-clad soldiers and federal police to the state of Chihuahua, where Juárez is located, earlier this year. Yet the narcotraffickers, with their vast arsenal of high-powered weaponry, haven't shied from taking them on. (Or trying to buy them off: the cartels have infiltrated virtually every law-enforcement institution in the country, from local police departments to the Mexican attorney general's office.) The result has been an orgy of violence, growing more public and more spectacular by the day. Beheadings, burnings, dismemberments and mutilations have become routine.

On a recent weekday night, reports of yet another execution in Juárez crackled over a police scanner. Two brothers had been shot in a squatter neighborhood called Mexico 68. At the crime scene, one of them lay dead on the sidewalk, his red T shirt pulled up to expose a chest riddled with 9mm bullets. The other, who had barely survived, was evacuated by ambulance. A group of teenage girls straining against the yellow police tape recounted what they'd seen. A silver GMC Yukon SUV roared up to the victims' home, one of the rear tinted windows was lowered and a gunman emptied his pistol. "It was the Aztecas," one of the girls whispered, referring to the Barrio Azteca gang, which got its start in El Paso and is reportedly allied with the Juárez cartel. The group "controls and terrifies" the neighborhood in its battle against affiliates of the Sinaloa cartel, the girl said. "Shhh!" one of her friends cautioned. "It's the truth," said the girl, who requested anonymity for safety reasons.

The cartels operate largely with impunity. Police who defy them are eliminated, as in the case of Oscar Campoya, a municipal cop who was shot dead by assassins in March as he left a local precinct. Despite the presence of several witnesses, including fellow officers, there have been no arrests (only 2 percent of violent murders in Mexico are solved, according to government figures). Mario Campoya, the victim's brother, says Oscar had been pressured relentlessly by other members of the force to cooperate with the drug gangs, but had refused.

To try to remedy things, Juárez Mayor José Reyes demanded that the city's police department clean house earlier this year. More than 400 cops have been dismissed, and every officer must now undergo drug tests and background checks. "Corruption is so strong within the force, there are so many inside deals, that the criminals hardly worry about getting caught," says Reyes. "I realize that firing cops and turning them out on the street is dangerous, but it's worse to have them within the police force." Next on his agenda: to acquire better equipment for law enforcement and redouble enlistment efforts. Large billboards around the city feature a black-masked, machine-gun-toting officer along with a boldface message: JUÃ

What is this so called war on terror I keep hearing about? 5,000 to 10,000 illegally cross the border weekly. On a good day for every illegal alien they capture four or five successfully evade arrest.
Border patrol tells us the "Cross Border Trucking Initiative is a farce as no Mexican trucks are inspected but given a 15 second electronic waive through. During times of long waits at land border crossing checkpoints they are just waived ritght through. Bush has been negotiating for ex[ress lanes at the Laredo crossing which would allow vehicles to proceed without identification checks and physical inspections. This just happens to be the most violent part of the border and the most active area for smuggling drugs, people and weapons. BP personnel have told us the border vehicle inspection bays are hardly ever used and the last time one agent recalled them being occupied was in the presence of the media right after implementation of the Mexican trucking initiative. BP and law enforcement constantly apprehend semi's miles north of the border loaded with illegal aliens, drugs and weapons.
Border patrol also tells us they constantly find evidence as prayer rugs, uniforms and clothing with Al Qaeda patches (one depicted an aircraft flying into a building found after 9-11) along with parts of IED's, bomb making equipment, and weapons including an abandoned cache of AK-47's where children were playing (one of them discovered the lot) along with Spanish for Dummies books used to blend in with the invading hordes from Mexico, Central and South America.
The much vaunted virtual fence is not working as cameras, sensors and other vital parts are out of service sometime for months at a time. BP personnel constantly apprehend hundreds of illegal aliens miles north of where the virtual fence is in place catching only those unable to evade bp agents. I speak from experience as a maintenance supervisor for ground to air communications and other equipment in a close air support role on the front lines in Desert Shield/Desert Storm that equipment will fail when subjected to the temperature extremes, sandstorms and other elements of the harsh desert environment.
In what will really scare the hell out of anyone who cares about the safety and security of the American people we also heard that an undercover government security team successfully sneaked enough simulated fissile material to make a nuclear device across an unguarded part of the southern border right to the steps of the Federal Building in Phoenix.
It constantly escapes me how the current Oval Office Occupant and his successor and the idiots in congress (Homeland Security Committee Chairman Benny the Clown Thompson) can stand in front of the American people with all I have found out above and tell us they are doing everything they can to secure the "Homeland".
There was another fatal accident today in my area involving another illegal alien who drove drunk (it seems to be a pastime for them as they are from countries where the rape and molestation of women and children is an acceptable part of manhood and driving drunk is considered a rite of manhood too). This one killed several people including an American couple. Well Mr Bush and Mr Obama, you must be awfully proud of your actions to leave our borders open which has resulted in the deaths of two more innocent Americans which you could give a horse's ass about. The body count has increased by two. The blood of those innocent Americans is on your hands Misters Bush, Obama and Congress. How many more Americans need die for open borders, cheap compliant labor and illegal alien votes? You should apologize to all the victims if they still are alive, their families and finally to the American people for the all the pain and suffering you have inflicted on them via open borders resulting in murder through drunk driving, manslaughter and other crimes by illegal aliens like the Marine home on leave from Iraq killed by an illegal alien drunk driver and another illegal alien who walked up to a military member in uniform and stabbed him while he working in his garden with his wife.
I can only assume the rape and molestation of women and children and the millions of other crimes as robbery, burglary, drug distribution and identity theft perpetrated on the American people means absolutely nothing to Misters Bush, Obama or Congress. They are considered acceptable consequences of open borders for cheap labor for their corporate masters and illegal alien votes to keep the thugs on Capital Hell in power to further the NAU agenda.
Misters Bush, Obama and Congress should also apologize to our veterans who sacrificed much while serving this country but whose pleas for help they ignored when unable to obtain care, treatment and disability payments like the Iraq War Vet facing financial devastation and the loss of his home because of traumatic brain injury forcing his wife to leave her job to take care of her family. Meanwhile an illegal alien with a subdural hematoma in a Chicago hospital received treatment costing tax payers 250,000 dollars.
Misters Bush, Obama and Congress should apologize for the abject misery and suffering they have inflicted on the American people
caused by the current financial disaster arising from avarice and corruption on the part of their corporate and financial institution masters supported by Congress' incompetence and corruption. However any apology which would show even a hint of compassion, care and concern for the plight of suffering Americans (are you listening too Mr Frank, Mr Dodd, Mr Reid and Ms Pelosi) would require a conscience unfortunately which none of these political self serving hacks have.

Welcome retiredairforce.

Informative interesting post....understand and feel your frustration.... sounds as if you have a lot of experience and knowledge to share.

Please don't be a stranger and glad you found us.

And thank you for your service to our country.