Thread: Calderon to send troops to border states

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4563563.html

Feb. 19, 2007, 12:48AM
Calderon to send troops to border states

Efforts to target major routes used by drug traffickers


By DANE SCHILLER
San Antonio Express-news

MEXICO CITY — Ratcheting up its fight against drug cartels, the Mexican government announced Sunday that it is deploying about 3,300 troops and police to two besieged states bordering Texas.

Some 2,035 soldiers, 750 sailors and 518 federal police were being dispatched to the states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, which hug the Texas border from the Gulf of Mexico to just west of Laredo.

Drug gangs have been fighting for months in the region, especially around Nuevo Laredo, for control of smuggling routes into the United States. Recently, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon's capital, has been plagued by drug violence, including the killings of as many as seven police officers.

The troops being sent to the two border states will focus on key points in the main trafficking routes, Defense Secretary Guillermo Galvan said. Soldiers on Sunday set up roadside checkpoints in and around Monterrey to stop vehicles and search for weapons and drugs.

Since taking office Dec. 1, President Felipe Calderon has ordered about 24,000 troops and federal police into Tijuana, Acapulco and Michoacan state to root out growing drug trafficking that is blamed for more than 2,000 killings last year.

Although the troops and police made dozens of arrests, burned drug crops, confiscated weapons and inspected tens of thousands of people, they have not made any major cocaine seizures or arrested major players.

Officials said the latest deployment was in response to requests from governors of the border states, who have been all but helpless.

The arrival of the troops "is a good thing," said Rosi Gallegos, 44, a civil servant in Monterrey. "You used to be able to sleep with the doors unlocked but not anymore. You did not used to see this kind of crime here before."

Last month, Calderon sent another type of warning to drug gangs by extraditing some of their imprisoned alleged leaders to the United States.

Among them were Osiel Cardenas Guillen, of the Gulf Cartel, and Hector "El Guero" Palma, of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Although he had been in a maximum-security prison in Mexico since 2003, Cardenas was believed to still be running his gang. Palma has been in prison much longer.


Long-running battle
The two cartels have been in a bloody and protracted turf war for several areas, including the Laredo-Nuevo Laredo corridor, which has seen a dramatic increase in the amount of commercial-truck traffic under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The State Department has cautioned Americans to be careful traveling anywhere in Mexico, especially in states such as Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon.

The Mexican government periodically has sent reinforcements to Nuevo Laredo, with limited success.


Previous maneuvers
In June 2005, then-President Vicente Fox deployed hundreds of Mexican soldiers, as well as state and federal police, to the city after a wave of gangland violence in which more than 100 people were killed, including the city's chief of police.

In March 2006, the Mexican government sent as many as 800 anti-drug agents to Nuevo Laredo as part of a new attempt to get the drug violence under control.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, 500 people marched Sunday to demand an end to a wave of violent crimes and executions there, many blamed on turf battles between drug gangs. There have been at least 250 homicides in Acapulco over the past 14 months.

Mostly dressed in white, families, businesspeople and community activists marched through Acapulco's hotel zone, 10 days after gunmen burst into two local police stations and shot to death five police officers and two secretaries.

So, Mexico can send armed troops to their side of the border to deal with drug runners and our National Guard can't "deal" with them on our side of the border? Ok, that sounds logical. NOT

BS
he's ratcheting up NOTHING!

This is the big push to prove mexico is serious so that this traitorous government can shmooze Americans into thinking that everyone is trying to secure the border!

Making way for OPEN BORDERS & AMNESTY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone who believes that the so-called mex army of thieves & cut throats is going to enforce squat needs an adjustment.

MEXICO CITY — Ratcheting up its fight against drug cartels, the Mexican government announced Sunday that it is deploying about 3,300 troops and police to two besieged states bordering Texas.

Some 2,035 soldiers, 750 sailors and 518 federal police were being dispatched to the states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, which hug the Texas border from the Gulf of Mexico to just west of Laredo.

The problem I have with this, is that most of Mexico's military, police, and the Mexican government can be bought real cheap by the drug cartels. What makes Calderon think this laughable plan would work. Does he really think Americans are idiots.