Published: 05.20.2007

Cananea residents still on edge
Police, soldiers move in after drug shootout
By Brady McCombs
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
The story so far
On Wednesday, a group of about 50 armed men drove into the town of Cananea, near the Sonora border, and killed five policemen and two residents. The assailants then fled to the hills pursued by police and soldiers, and 16 assailants were killed in the ensuing gunbattles.
U.S. Department of State public announcement about narcotics-related violence in Mexico: http:// travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_3028.html
CANANEA, Sonora — With parents snapping pictures of little girls in first communion dresses outside the Catholic church, and customers buying soda and tortillas inside his corner store, Reginaldo Moreno said it felt almost like a normal Saturday afternoon.
Then, a Humvee full of armed Mexican Army soldiers rolled by and reminded him that this wasn't a normal day in this usually calm mining town of 30,000 located 95 miles southeast of Tucson.
Government officials have sent the Mexican Army and federal and state police following Wednesday's deadly shootout between armed drug cartels and Mexican police that started in Cananea and left five local policemen and 23 total dead.
No incidents have occurred since Wednesday's shootouts, but the police presence in town, on its outskirts and throughout northern Sonora — and reports of ongoing violence between drug cartels throughout Mexico — have residents on edge.
Music was playing, businesses were open and the streets were filled Saturday as relative calm returned to Cananea, but a sense of uncertainty remains following what residents call the worst moment in the city's history.
"It makes you feel uncomfortable, uncertain," said Moreno, 56, who owns Mini-Super La Loma. "That something terrible is going to happen."
The killings have cast an ominous cloud not only over Sonora but Southern Arizona as well.
Officials in the United States have no evidence to suggest the violence in Sonora will spill over to Arizona, but the unprecedented level of bloodshed in the neighboring state isn't a good thing, they say.
"We've seen this south of Texas, but we haven't seen it like this here," said Tony Coulson, Drug Enforcement Administration assistant special agent in charge of the Tucson District Office. "Should Southern Arizonans be concerned? Of course they should be concerned."
The U.S. State Department isn't discouraging travel to Mexico but is urging caution due to the increased levels of narcotics-related violence this year, said Cynthia Sharpe, U.S. consul in Nogales.
"We are certainly concerned about the increasing levels of not just violence but of serious violence, gratuitous violence," Sharpe said.
Cause of violence still unclear
Officials on both sides of the border agree that the violence is drug-related, but it remains unclear if it is due to warring cartels, drug smugglers trying to take over local police operations or something else.
DEA officials haven't yet determined the cause of the Cananea violence, but Coulson said one thing is clear: The smuggling corridor from Douglas to Yuma is prime real estate.
That stretch, the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, records more than double the marijuana seizures of any other sector on the southern border and has seized the most pounds every year since 2003. Agents have seized more than 600,000 pounds this fiscal year, about 2,600 pounds a day.
Being the only sector without permanent highway checkpoints only makes smuggling narcotics easier, Coulson said.
The agency is working to get a permanent inspection set up on Interstate 19, but community members are opposed to it.
About rumors that the Gulf Cartel from Texas is trying to take over a corridor that has been controlled by a de facto confederation of family-based drug-trafficking groups in Sinaloa, the Mexican coastal state south of Sonora, Coulson said:
"Why wouldn't they? We are inviting drug trafficking into this area."
Douglas Mayor Ray Borane believes this week's gunfights are the latest in ongoing drug-turf wars. He said it was no coincidence that they chose Cananea, a city that Sonora Gov. Eduardo Bours has been worried about for some time, he said.
"This whole thing stems from Tacho Verdugo," said Borane, referring to the Feb. 26 murder of Agua Prieta Police Chief Ramon Tacho Verdugo. "When he went to Cananea, obviously he got involved in things he shouldn't have."
People involved in drug trafficking are trying to show they aren't intimidated by an attempted crackdown by the Mexican government, Borane said.
"This took it to a much greater level because it shows their gumption, the extremes they'll go to," he said.
Gunmen linked to drug-trafficking gangs have been increasingly targeting police and soldiers as Mexico President Felipe Calderón wages a national offensive against drug cartels, who make billions of dollars smuggling cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine and heroin into the United States.
Sonora Gov. Bours said authorities have received information that the assault in Cananea was "some kind of retaliation by the hit men for their betrayal by local police, implying that they had had some kind of deal."
Mexican officers often face the choice of "plomo o plata," "silver or bullets," meaning they can either take bribes to allow traffickers to operate or risk retaliation. Drug cartels place special emphasis on killing officials who break such deals.
Effects felt in Southern Arizona
The violence has become so widespread and so far-reaching that Borane, who regularly spends time in Mexico and considers Agua Prieta and Douglas one community divided by a political line, has been forced to deliver a difficult message to people in Douglas: Go over, do your thing, and get back.
"You could be in harm's way even if you don't want to," said Borane, who is a lifelong resident of Douglas. "And the truth of the matter is that it's not getting any better. It's getting worse."
His immediate concern is the hit on the economy. When Agua Prieta suffers, so does Douglas, he said. And many people live in Agua Prieta or Cananea and work in Douglas, crossing back and forth every day.
"When you go over, you are going to see a very high presence of military and police, and that in itself is a little intimidating," Borane said.
The U.S. State Department issued an official warning April 19 about narcotic-related violence that Sharpe, the U.S. consul in Nogales, said remains the best advice, even taking into account Wednesday's events. The warning instructs people to be aware of their surroundings and obey military checkpoints.
No U.S. citizens have been hurt in the wave of drug violence throughout Mexico in the past six months, and officials see no evidence that residents from the United States would be targeted, said Sharpe.
"The bottom line is we were advising caution on April 19 and we continue to advise caution in travel, but we are not discouraging people from entering Mexico and doing reasonable, legitimate travel," Sharpe said.
Residents victims of violence
Cars were lined up three deep back to the street at the Centenario gas station Saturday morning in Cananea as people went about their normal activity, but owner Alan Flores Mejia was still thinking about Wednesday.
His brother, whose name he wouldn't give, is in a hospital in Hermosillo recovering from being beaten up and nearly killed by the gunmen on Wednesday.
His 35-year-old brother was working at the gas station when the convoy came through town, Flores said. Apparently, he looked at the armed men too long and they tied him up and kidnapped him. They cut a "Z" on his back, Flores said.
They stole Flores' car, too. Like many in this town, he admitted to being impacted by the events but said he's not scared because he's not involved in illicit activity. He thinks his brother was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"This is a calm town and the town will continue being the same," said Flores, who travels often to his hometown of Hermosillo. "It's ugly what happened, but that's life."
Mexican Army soldiers and federal and state police wearing bulletproof vests and carrying assault rifles are operating 24-hour highway checkpoints throughout northern Sonora and are conducting patrols in Cananea.
Saturday afternoon, east of Cananea on the side of Highway 2, officers came and went from an impromptu meeting site.
Officers wearing ski masks and clutching their rifles were stationed on each side of the highway while others waited in their trucks for instructions.
Four trucks sped east at one point, and later in the afternoon a helicopter took off from the site and headed northeast with federal agents in ski masks aboard. They say they are making sure order is maintained in the region.
Yet their presence only provides so much comfort to residents.
"You feel a little more confident but not totally," said Javier Valdez, a teacher from Agua Prieta who was in Cananea on Saturday for his nephew's baptism. "What happened occurred with police presence."
"I'm scared, it's not calm like before," said Luis Rios, a 48-year-old lifelong resident of Cananea, in Spanish. "It's going to be hard to return to normal with everything that has happened."
Moreno, the store owner, said he and his wife used to walk home every night after closing their small supermarket. Since Wednesday, they've been driving home. He doesn't know when, if ever, they will resume their nightly ritual.
They, like other residents and authorities on both sides of the border, know that more violence is a real possibility.
"We dedicate ourselves to our work and then this wave of murder and persecution comes," said Moreno, 56. "It is the worst thing that has ever happened here."
The story so far
On Wednesday, a group of about 50 armed men drove into the town of Cananea, near the Sonora border, and killed five policemen and two residents. The assailants then fled to the hills pursued by police and soldiers, and 16 assailants were killed in the ensuing gunbattles.

http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/183911