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From the Baltimore Sun

Federal agents fail to halt violence in border town

Associated Press

February 26, 2006

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico -- The weary residents of this border city at the center of an escalating drug war had hoped that hundreds of federal agents would end the violence that killed 181 people last year.
But drug-related crime has not let up since the federales arrived, and 31 people have been killed this year, more than during the corresponding period last year.

Eight months after President Vicente Fox sent soldiers and federal agents to take back the city from drug traffickers, the killings in Nuevo Laredo continue, and brazen attacks remain commonplace. Plans to gradually withdraw federal agents have been put on hold, and police are having trouble recruiting officers.

In the latest attacks, heavily armed men forced their way into a hospital last week and killed a teenager being treated after surviving an earlier attempt on his life.

A week before, two men wearing ski masks tossed grenades and opened fire inside the office of the El Manana newspaper, seriously wounding a reporter. Editor Ramon Cantu quickly announced that his paper would do even fewer stories on drug traffickers in an effort to protect its reporters.

The drug war heated up with the capture of the region's suspected drug lord, Osiel Cardenas, who was arrested in 2003 during a shootout in Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.

Investigators say another reputed drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, has been fighting smugglers loyal to Cardenas since then to gain access to Nuevo Laredo, the busiest commercial crossing along the 2,000-mile border and a popular drug route.

Government officials say they are making inroads against organized crime, but the relentless violence has intensified fears in this city of 300,000 across the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas.

Few U.S. tourists visit, and many businesses have closed along Guerrero Street, a thoroughfare once bustling with visitors. Few people venture out after dark.

Trying to bring back tourists, the city has held a three-day celebration that ended this weekend, including bands, folk dances and parades. But it attracted few visitors.

Tourists are not all the city needs. After firing about half of its 700 police officers to weed out corruption and links to organized crime, the city is having a hard time finding 275 replacements. The police academy is training 34 recruits.

Among them is Violeta Tobias, a 22-year-old mother of four who said she has grown tired of the violence in her hometown.

"When you hear about the killings, I do feel fear," Tobias said. "But here we lack authorities to uphold the law. I'm joining because I want there to be justice."

Federal agents armed with automatic weapons patrol most of the city in pickups and are responsible for going after drug traffickers, and officials want to train local police to replace them.

The local, state and federal police forces in Nuevo Laredo are led by Mexican Army Gen. Alvaro Moreno, who says the drug traffickers' grip is slowly loosening.

"Before, you would see gunmen toting their weapons and driving around in caravans of up to five cars. But that has ended," Moreno said.

The violence soared to previously unseen levels last year after the city's police chief, Alejandro Dominguez, was gunned down hours after taking office. Two months later, in a daylight attack outside city hall, gunmen killed the city councilman who oversaw public security.

This year's deaths are on pace to exceed last year's record toll.

"The violence hasn't stopped," said Jose Ramirez, who spends his afternoons waiting for the rare tourist to hire his horse-drawn buggy. "There's always news of people getting killed or burned bodies being dumped on dirt roads."