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  1. #1
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    Living 'in a state of fear'

    http://www.theeagle.com/stories/122305/ ... 223042.php

    Police buildup in border town fuels hopes of security

    By ABE LEVY
    Associated Press


    LAREDO - Alarmed that rival drug cartels in Mexico's Nuevo Laredo might spread violence into the United States, federal and Texas politicians in 2005 began sending money and resources in waves to this border town.

    Gov. Rick Perry pledged $10 million to sheriffs in border counties. A binational intelligence-sharing plan began as a way to weed out the region's violent offenders. Congress proposed spending $10 million annually to fund a Laredo-based police task force.

    How much of a threat Mexican border crime poses to the United States is a matter of debate. Yet leaders on both sides of the Rio Grande agree the problem is mounting and hope this year's initiatives will lead to a more stable region next year.

    "This year, I think, was a banner year to address this problem. Is the problem solved? Absolutely not, but we've got to keep pushing this forward," said U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat who represents the Laredo region.

    The law enforcement aid comes as Nuevo Laredo ends the year with more than 170 slayings, blamed mostly on the Gulf and Sinaloa drug cartels battling to control the busiest inland port on the Southwest border.

    Among those gunned down have been a Nuevo Laredo councilman and at least 20 municipal police officers, including the police chief, Alejandro Dominguez, hours after taking office.

    "You've always had crime on the border and some form of kidnapping and extortion, but the violence you had a year from today had the whole city of Nuevo Laredo in a state of fear," said Art Fontes, an agent and border liaison officer for Laredo's FBI office. "That's why you have this major stir-up of this special police presence."

    The cartels for the first half of the year enjoyed impunity as they opened fire at will in public places during the day, often with high-powered weapons, including .50-caliber rifles, rocket launchers and grenades in some skirmishes.

    The Mexican federal government began "Operation Safe Mexico" in June, sending military forces and federal agents to Nuevo Laredo, and overhauling the city's police department to remove corrupt officers.

    By fall, the Mexican crackdown moved the violence generally from the open streets and daylight to remote areas and nighttime. Recently, Mexico federal officials declared the enforcement arm of the Gulf Cartel had been wiped out in Nuevo Laredo.

    Addressing the crime

    Still, the periodic bloodshed continues, leaving some to wonder when it'll end. Five men were executed in a Nuevo Laredo mechanic's garage Monday, including a victim who was a former state and city police officer.

    "I feel the murder rate will most likely double because nothing is being done to address the crime," said Laredo resident William Slemaker, whose stepdaughter went missing in Nuevo Laredo more than a year ago.

    Lawmakers in Washington, D.C., are debating measures that seek to strengthen border safety, from an idea to start construction of a wall along the border in Laredo to commissioning thousands more border patrol agents and offering guest worker programs to manage illegal immigration.

    The urgency has reached a higher level because the border's drug industry and global terrorism are a dangerous mix, said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, chairman of the Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship Subcommittee.

    "After 9/11, our concerns about the porous border have grown," Cornyn said. "And we realize those same criminal organizations [at the border] - for the right price - would smuggle a terrorist just as easily as a construction worker."

    Lowering Nuevo Laredo's homicide rate next year depends on how well the two countries can focus on the shared concern of drug trafficking and not the unfounded threat of border terrorism, said Daniel Hernandez Joseph, Mexican consul in Laredo.

    "We can't have our drug-enforcement policy revolve around this anti-terrorism logic," he said. "We're not rejecting assistance, but it doesn't necessarily fit into our programs directed at combating organized crime."

    Throughout the year, Laredo police have said they are concerned about Nuevo Laredo violence but have seen little of it spread to their city. Of the 21 killings this year, two are connected to the drug cartels, they said.

    "There's going to be spillover, but we can deal with the threat," said Fructuoso San Miguel III, an assistant chief of police for Laredo. "There is no feeling that the sky is falling. This department is well able to handle anything that happens on this side of the border."
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  2. #2
    Senior Member JuniusJnr's Avatar
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    Gov. Rick Perry pledged $10 million to sheriffs in border counties.
    This was very recently that he pledged ten milllion dollars to law enforcement in border counties. And he has been in office for quite some time. He, too, is beginning to worry about the security of his seat in the governor's office. He announced yesterday, on the heels of this fake largesse, that he plans to run again. I wouldn't look for the money to ever materialize.
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

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