Thread: Feds renew border travel warning

Just saw on the fox channel, that US has closed it's Consulate office in Nuevo Laredo, because of the extreme violence There.

I thought that NAFTA was supposed to make everything wonderful in Mexico. Did this ever happen before NAFTA?

We'll just have to wait for CAFTA to fix things up, I guess.

I wonder how many people in this country are getting rich off of the drug trade coming up through Mexico? We'll never know who they are, of course, but I suspect that there would be some familiar names involved.

All the pressure to keep the southern border wide open can't just be from those who want cheap labor. There's some big money involved here.

Glad they renewed the travel warning. I hope they renew it and renew it and renew it.

Now isn't that just like Vicente Fox to be mad because the U.S. is looking out for her own, FOR A CHANGE. He doesn't care one iota about the safety and well-being of the American people. To my knowledge he has never issued a word of concern about the LEGAL citizens of the U.S..

Jorge closed the U.S. Consolate's office and issued a travel warning because he cannot afford to have too many bad reports about Americans being harmed....it would make a guest worker program more impossible for him to get through. This action under the guise of caring for the American people is just another self-serving move.

Oh I think they should and i am going to demand that Sanctions be placed on Mexico and I hope everyone of my fellow Patriot cry out to there elected officals. The same message.

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http://www.alipac.us/article-576-thread-1-0.html

www.tylerpaper.com


FAMILIES OF MISSING LAREDOANS
LOSING FAITH IN MEXICO

ASSOCIATED PRESS July 29, 2005

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - With almost daily reports of violence in their sister city across the Mexican border, Laredo families with missing relatives in Nuevo Laredo are losing faith in Mexico's ability to stop the killings and resolve their missing-persons cases.

"I know they send a lot of troops and (federal) agents, but it's the same, continuing story: Nobody gets arrested. It's just a show," said William Slemaker, whose stepdaughter and her friend went missing nearly a year ago in Nuevo Laredo. Slemaker has become the spokesman for eight Laredo families in similar straits.

Since August, 41 U.S. citizens have been reported kidnapped along the Mexican border, according to U.S. authorities. Nineteen have been returned, two have been confirmed killed, and 20 remain missing.

The families noted this week that the murder total surpassed 100 for 2005 in Nuevo Laredo, a city of about 350,000 people where two heavily armed drug cartels are locked in a bloody turf war for control of this region's drug trade.

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza issued the second advisory of the year this week for U.S. citizens entering Mexico's border region.

The Laredo families partially blame the situation on their own city leaders for not issuing a warning about Nuevo Laredo regardless of its potential impact on the shared economies of the cities.

The complaint minimizes the work by diplomats from local, state and federal governments - often behind the scenes - from both sides of the border, Laredo Mayor Betty Flores said.

"It's not the city (of Laredo) that's going to do anything," Flores said. "It's the state and federal government. Everyone knows that. We've been doing things like this for a long time before (the families) realized they could organize."

The biggest misunderstanding, she said, is how large the drug problem is, especially since U.S. residents remain lucrative customers.

"How do you get to the bottom of this without the help of every influential government official?" Flores said. "I don't know that we haven't gotten that help, but we haven't made any progress. Why? I don't know. Nobody knows."

Phone calls to Daniel Hernandez Joseph, the Mexican consulate in Laredo, were not immediately returned, but he has said the missing-persons cases are hard to investigate because of the insecure atmosphere created by mafia groups.

To help the families' concerns, a small delegation of congressmen on the House Homeland Security committee will include a meeting with them during a visit to Laredo in late August, said U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo.

Cuellar said the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms is finalizing a plan for weapon checks along the border. And the U.S. Attorney's Office is studying whether crimes in Mexico involving U.S. citizens can be moved to the United States for prosecution in certain cases.

"Even though (Mexico) is doing a lot of new endeavors to try to stop this, the bottom line is there are still people being killed there," Cuellar said. "We just have to keep the pressure on them. We cannot let that situation spill over to the United States."

Mexican federal forces came to Nuevo Laredo in early June to fight the drug-related violence in a three-state border region as part of an initiative called "Operation Safe Mexico."

Since then, Nuevo Laredo appointed a new police chief after his predecessor was gunned down hours after taking office in early June. The federal government also overhauled the city's police department, weeding out corrupt officers and sending some back to patrol duty.

Yet violence continues, including a massive shootout Thursday at a Nuevo Laredo home involving a rocket launcher, grenade and machine guns. There were no injuries reported and no arrests made.

"This is happening all too often," said Pablo Cisneros, the father of a missing Laredoan. "Police come and then leave with no one. I don't see a quick solution, but we need more support from Mexico and the U.S."