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  1. #1

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    Nuevo Laredo fears M'can Feds Will do More Harm than Good

    At border, police of little comfort
    Some in Nuevo Laredo fear Mexican feds will do more harm than good
    10:53 PM CST on Tuesday, March 8, 2005
    By TRACEY EATON and ALFREDO CORCHADO / The Dallas Morning News

    NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico – When the Mexican government last weekend sent 600 federal agents to help local police pursue the town's powerful drug lords, authorities didn't exactly roll out the welcome mat.

    These federales are just going to disrupt things, Police Chief Fructuoso Sanmiguel complained.

    The traffickers aren't going to stop selling drugs – they'll just hide or cross into South Texas until the federales leave, he told Nuevo Laredo's El Manana newspaper.

    "We know who they are, where they live and what they're doing," Chief Sanmiguel said, "but as long as they don't have warrants on the American side, we can't do anything."

    Francisco Chavira, a city official in Nuevo Laredo, was just as skeptical about the crackdown, saying that all the federal officers seemed to do the last time they were in town was "fall in love and get girls pregnant."

    The officials' reactions, ranging from lukewarm to indifferent, shouldn't surprise people, said Charles Bowden, an Arizona author who has written about the drug trade.

    The weekend arrival of the federal officers "upset the local ecology. It's another bunch of people looking for bribes," said Mr. Bowden, author of the 2005's A Shadow in the City: Confessions of an Undercover Drug Warrior.

    Mexican authorities deny that law enforcement is so saturated with corruption that almost everyone is looking for a payoff.

    But some U.S. drug agents have said for years that Mexican police do more to promote organized crime than stop it. And they say it's only natural that police officers in one part of Mexico would be made uneasy by the arrival of officers from elsewhere.

    U.S. officials say Mexican authorities deserve some credit.

    "These guys are in a very tough situation," one official said on condition of anonymity. "They're underarmed, underpaid and unappreciated, and yet they go all out fighting a war that they didn't sign up for."

    Robert Charles, assistant secretary for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, last week credited Mexican President Vicente Fox with helping U.S. agents achieve "previously unthinkable results" in the drug fight.

    "In Mexico, there has been a palpable increase in cooperation," he said, although "the challenges of border security, corruption ... and expanded extradition remain."

    Some Nuevo Laredo residents say they believe the Mexican government's efforts are just for show in advance of President Bush's expected meeting with Mr. Fox this month.

    "All this is politically motivated," said Francisco Tristan, 36, a cab driver. "They're doing this so everything goes well when Bush goes riding horses with Fox."

    Others say deep judicial and law enforcement reforms are needed to begin ridding Mexico of drug trafficking and related violence, which has claimed 21 lives this year in Nuevo Laredo alone.

    "I don't know that it makes any sense to go after these capos, when at the end of the day nothing happens," said Jorge Chabat, an organized crime expert at Mexico City's Center for Economic Development. "We should ask ourselves whether this is the right strategy."

    Police in Nuevo Laredo say they feel like they're fighting a losing battle against traffickers who are better armed and wealthier than they are.

    "The more you provoke these people, the more violent they become. We don't stand a chance against them. We're like sitting ducks here," said a policeman who identified himself as Octavio Reyes Morales, 28. "You cannot fight these guys when there is so much impunity in this country. The laws don't work."

    To be sure, it was business as usual in parts of Nuevo Laredo despite the presence of 600 federal agents.

    Police reporters in town were busy following several armed robberies, the rape of a 5-year-old girl and other crimes.

    Municipal police Officer David Martinez Hernandez didn't even bother taking off his uniform as he allegedly drove through town in a stolen Dodge Ram with Texas plates.

    State police agents spotted him Monday and followed him to a car repair shop. They say they arrested him because he couldn't explain what he was doing in a stolen truck.

    Said Mr. Bowden, "Why would anyone feel safer with more police in town?"


    [/img]
    "This country has lost control of its borders. And no country can sustain that kind of position." .... Ronald Reagan

  2. #2

    Join Date
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    Nuevo Laredo fears M'can Feds Will do More Harm than Good

    At border, police of little comfort
    Some in Nuevo Laredo fear Mexican feds will do more harm than good
    10:53 PM CST on Tuesday, March 8, 2005
    By TRACEY EATON and ALFREDO CORCHADO / The Dallas Morning News

    NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico – When the Mexican government last weekend sent 600 federal agents to help local police pursue the town's powerful drug lords, authorities didn't exactly roll out the welcome mat.

    These federales are just going to disrupt things, Police Chief Fructuoso Sanmiguel complained.

    The traffickers aren't going to stop selling drugs – they'll just hide or cross into South Texas until the federales leave, he told Nuevo Laredo's El Manana newspaper.

    "We know who they are, where they live and what they're doing," Chief Sanmiguel said, "but as long as they don't have warrants on the American side, we can't do anything."

    Francisco Chavira, a city official in Nuevo Laredo, was just as skeptical about the crackdown, saying that all the federal officers seemed to do the last time they were in town was "fall in love and get girls pregnant."

    The officials' reactions, ranging from lukewarm to indifferent, shouldn't surprise people, said Charles Bowden, an Arizona author who has written about the drug trade.

    The weekend arrival of the federal officers "upset the local ecology. It's another bunch of people looking for bribes," said Mr. Bowden, author of the 2005's A Shadow in the City: Confessions of an Undercover Drug Warrior.

    Mexican authorities deny that law enforcement is so saturated with corruption that almost everyone is looking for a payoff.

    But some U.S. drug agents have said for years that Mexican police do more to promote organized crime than stop it. And they say it's only natural that police officers in one part of Mexico would be made uneasy by the arrival of officers from elsewhere.

    U.S. officials say Mexican authorities deserve some credit.

    "These guys are in a very tough situation," one official said on condition of anonymity. "They're underarmed, underpaid and unappreciated, and yet they go all out fighting a war that they didn't sign up for."

    Robert Charles, assistant secretary for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, last week credited Mexican President Vicente Fox with helping U.S. agents achieve "previously unthinkable results" in the drug fight.

    "In Mexico, there has been a palpable increase in cooperation," he said, although "the challenges of border security, corruption ... and expanded extradition remain."

    Some Nuevo Laredo residents say they believe the Mexican government's efforts are just for show in advance of President Bush's expected meeting with Mr. Fox this month.

    "All this is politically motivated," said Francisco Tristan, 36, a cab driver. "They're doing this so everything goes well when Bush goes riding horses with Fox."

    Others say deep judicial and law enforcement reforms are needed to begin ridding Mexico of drug trafficking and related violence, which has claimed 21 lives this year in Nuevo Laredo alone.

    "I don't know that it makes any sense to go after these capos, when at the end of the day nothing happens," said Jorge Chabat, an organized crime expert at Mexico City's Center for Economic Development. "We should ask ourselves whether this is the right strategy."

    Police in Nuevo Laredo say they feel like they're fighting a losing battle against traffickers who are better armed and wealthier than they are.

    "The more you provoke these people, the more violent they become. We don't stand a chance against them. We're like sitting ducks here," said a policeman who identified himself as Octavio Reyes Morales, 28. "You cannot fight these guys when there is so much impunity in this country. The laws don't work."

    To be sure, it was business as usual in parts of Nuevo Laredo despite the presence of 600 federal agents.

    Police reporters in town were busy following several armed robberies, the rape of a 5-year-old girl and other crimes.

    Municipal police Officer David Martinez Hernandez didn't even bother taking off his uniform as he allegedly drove through town in a stolen Dodge Ram with Texas plates.

    State police agents spotted him Monday and followed him to a car repair shop. They say they arrested him because he couldn't explain what he was doing in a stolen truck.

    Said Mr. Bowden, "Why would anyone feel safer with more police in town?"


    [/img]
    "This country has lost control of its borders. And no country can sustain that kind of position." .... Ronald Reagan

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