Effects of Mexico's drug war hit El Paso

11:15 PM CST on Sunday, January 11, 2009
By ALFREDO CORCHADO / The Dallas Morning News


EL PASO — Touted as one of the safest cities of its size in the nation, El Paso is awakening to its southern neighbor’s bloody nightmare.


City officials say that drug-related violence across the border in Ciudad Juárez is having a growing impact in El Paso. And the situation across Mexico is deteriorating so fast that retired five-star Gen. Barry McCaffrey warned, in a new assessment, of a refugee catastrophe that could devastate border cities.


“Mexico is on the edge of abyss,â€