Thread: Fierce battle erupts in Mexican town

Fierce battle erupts in Mexican town
Rival drug gangs use bazookas

Susana Hayward
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Jul. 30, 2005 12:00 AM

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico - Warring Mexican gangs fought a pitched battle with bazookas and grenades late Thursday in a middle-class neighborhood of this border city, terrorizing citizens who say they live in a "Baghdad-like" war zone.
The battle was so fierce that the U.S. ambassador in Mexico City announced Friday that he was closing the consulate in Nuevo Laredo until at least Aug. 8. The announcement called the battle "an alarming incident" that involved "unusually advanced weaponry." U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza said U.S. officials will use the week to assess security.

For more than 30 minutes Thursday, the sharp report of automatic-weapons fire, punctuated by thumping explosions, could be heard throughout this city. After the fighting had ended, the street where the confrontation had taken place bore all the signs of combat. The house at the fighting's center was riddled with holes the size of melons. Part of it had collapsed. A building across the street was pocked with holes, indicating a fierce response with heavy weapons. advertisement

Hundreds of bullet casings from AK-47 assault rifles and other weapons littered the street. Cars, many with Texas plates, lay like victims, their windows shattered and their bodies scourged by bullet holes.

On Friday, there was no official police version of the events. Police said no one had been injured or killed, but splotches of blood stained the streets when a reporter and photographer arrived minutes after the shooting stopped.

The battle offered a glimpse of the challenge facing the Mexican police and army as they try to root out rival drug gangs battling for control of this critical border region south of Texas. Some 300 heavily armed soldiers in tanks, accompanied by state, city and judicial police and federal investigators, cordoned off the street while they inspected the devastated house and talked to neighbors. Most neighbors claimed they had heard nothing, even though the sound of explosions reverberated throughout this city of nearly half a million.

Those who did talk told a confusing tale of gunmen wearing the uniforms of the Federal Agency of Investigation, Mexico's FBI, arriving in front of the house at 2411 Mexicali St. in southern Nuevo Laredo, about two miles from the U.S. border, at about 8 p.m.

"Suddenly there were explosions; they launched bazookas and grenades and machine guns," said one man who witnessed the battle for about 20 minutes. Standing in a corner, the man pleaded that his name be withheld. "They'll kill me. It's become so dangerous," he said before rushing off.

A state policeman who asked not to be identified said investigators searching the house found photographs of 14 municipal police officers and a list of other officials "sentenced to death." He said the photos carried the men's names, nicknames, ranks and home addresses.

The fighting was the sort of violence outsiders rarely see, but soldiers and police at the scene said it was daily fare. The U.S. State Department has issued a warning urging U.S. citizens to stay clear of border areas.

"Obviously, but unofficially, gangs, mafias are trying to establish control of this city and that's why we have this wave of violence," Juan Antonio Jara, the interim chief state police investigator, said Thursday, hours before the violence.

Efforts to control the violence have had little effect. In January, President Vicente Fox sent at least 700 federal police officers, soldiers and special agents to Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros, the three most violent border cities in the state of Tamaulipas, to fight drug-cartel violence.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... der30.html

BUSH wanted CAFTA, yes free trade with this type of country. Is that free drug trade George ????? Open those Borders let the dope and crime and terrorist flood in. thanks george. Thanks for giving America away.

This is going to make George Bush drop even farther in the polls.

Well, those drugs moving north were duty free while drugs like American antibiotics moving south were being taxed.

This is a great deal for everyone and wil bolster Democracies.

W

Added to the homepage. Thank you COI.

http://www.alipac.us/article-574-thread-1-0.html