Border violence prompts summit

By Jonathan Clark
Herald/Review
DOUGLAS — Community leaders from both sides of the Arizona-Sonora border gathered here Wednesday for a summit meeting hosted by U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords at which participants expressed concern for recent drug-related violence in Sonora, as well as a desire to maintain positive cross-border relationships.

Speaking to reporters outside the Douglas Visitor’s Center, the site of this first-of-its-kind gathering, Giffords said she wanted to explore ways that Mexican and U.S. officials could work together to address a recent wave of organized-crime-related violence in the area.

“We are a region, and (just as) violence in Mexico spills up north, the problems that we have here with drug and human smuggling also affect both sides of the border,â€