Mexico Stems Juarez Violence with Federal Intervention
Patrick Burns | 30 Mar 2009
World Politics Review

JUAREZ, Mexico -- In the past few months, the U.S. Army, attorney general, and various politicians have issued grave warnings about the atrocities taking place south of the Mexican border. They tend to describe a war that Mexico, because of deeply ingrained corruption, is incapable of containing on its own. But in one of Mexico's deadliest cities the murder rate has recently plummeted, largely due to federal military intervention and an ambitious anti-corruption campaign.

Following a spate of brutal killings early this year, media reports depicted Juarez as a war zone, a city on the verge of a humanitarian crisis. But while gun battles were all too frequent in 2008 and in early 2009, the violence has now subsided dramatically. In January and February, the city averaged 10 murders per day. The total so far for all of March is less than 10.

One reason for the decrease is the federal security forces that have poured into the city. Today in Juarez, 5,000 army troops and 2,000 federal police patrol the streets, together constituting more than five times the size of the city police force. Additionally, the newly inducted police chief is an army general, as are many of the top decision makers.

"We're very optimistic at what's happening in the city," Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said in a recent interview at his downtown office. Since coming to power in 2007, Reyes has turned the municipal police force inside out. Last fall, he initiated strenuous confidence testing for the city police, probing the officers with polygraph tests for any affiliations with drug traffickers. The results led to the force being slashed almost in half, from 1,600 to 900, with nearly 700 cops who were deemed suspicious fired.

Reyes estimates that before he began going after tainted cops, more than 40 percent of the force was heavily corrupted. Indeed, even the police chief was involved: After he was dismissed, he resurfaced several months later in the U.S., smuggling drugs for the cartels.

As for how the corruption became so entrenched, Reyes explained straightforwardly, "It was just too easy." Prior to federal intervention, the ruling Juarez cartel had enjoyed 15 years of unchallenged hegemony over the lucrative border crossings to El Paso, Texas.

In 2006, Mexican President Felipe Calderón vowed to uproot corruption and slash the cartels' control of local police and politicians. He subsequently unleashed 40,000 federal police for the effort. Soon after, the murder rate in Mexico skyrocketed, with more than 6,000 homocides registered in 2008. But many experts argue that as disastrous as the bloodshed is, it may be a sign that the federal intervention is working, and that the networks are being dismantled.

Juarez could be an example of the beginnings of such a scenario. The city recorded over 1,600 killings in 2008, a spike triggered by a power struggle between rival cartels. The nearby Sinaloa cartel -- whose leader "Shorty" Guzman is on Forbes magazine's most wealthy list -- saw an opportunity to take control of the Juarez market after the federal police had weakened its rival.

During the ensuing conflict, most deaths involved individuals somehow connected to the traffickers. In this way, having two cartels fighting each other in the city has inadvertently assisted Juarez officials. Now that "there are two groups fighting, it helps us keep the police officers honest," since cartels will punish any police officer who cooperates with the other side, said Reyes.

Mexican federal and local authorities have made great progress, but they're still coming up short in one crucial area. In February, the New York Times reported that the majority of guns used in Mexican drug crimes are purchased from the roughly 6,000 U.S. gun dealers along the border. The firearms are then easily transported across the porous bridge crossings into Mexico. Federal authorities can stop this flow of weapons by bolstering security on the Mexican side.

Of course, the turnaround in Juarez could be temporary. And since the cartels seem to have an insatiable appetite for killing, an endless supply of cash and, by some estimates, more firepower than the Mexican army, the war could continue indefinitely. But if, on the other hand, Juarez is any indication of what the Mexican federal authorities are capable of, the drug war could soon reach a turning point.

Patrick Burns is a journalist based in New York. He covers international relations, with an emphasis on Latin American issues.

Photo: $205 Million drug money seized by the Mexican Police and the Drug Enforcement Administration in Mexico City, 2007 (DEA photo).
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