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Police return to Mexico frontier town
>By John Authers in Nuevo Laredo
>Published: July 29 2005 18:38 | Last updated: July 29 2005 18:38
>>
The municipal police returned to the streets of the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo this week after an enforced six-week break. During that break, forced by the federal government's México Seguro (Secure Mexico) plan, federal forces took over the policing of the city, while the municipal police were subjected to polygraph tests and their houses were searched.

As the result of that purge, 305 of the city's 765 police officers were fired. Among those police not returning, 41 were arrested for alleged involvement in an attack on federal police as they arrived in the city. The remainder returned to the city's streets on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, wearing new white-shirted uniforms to demonstrate that they were a trustworthy new entity.

President Vicente Fox's government took the local police off the streets after a war between drugs gangs in Nuevo Laredo spiralled, damaging relations with the US and raising fears for the local economy. The final straw came on June 8 when Nuevo Laredo's new police chief was shot dead, only seven hours after accepting the job.

That outrage stood out as a direct challenge to authority, even in a region that had become grimly accustomed to outrages committed by drugs cartels.

The situation in Nuevo Laredo has deteriorated this year, largely as a side-effect of the federal government's success in attacking the heads of the main drugs cartels. The city is the most important land crossing between the US and Mexico and has the biggest customs point in the Americas, making it strategically important for drug traffickers.

Violence was kept in check while the turf of the different cartels was clear. But with Nuevo Laredo put “in play� by the government's crackdown, the Juárez cartel, which controls routes through the centre of the border, and the Gulf cartel, which normally controls routes up the east coast, are now in a battle for ascendancy.

The murder count this year has reached at least 103, higher than the figure for all of last year.

The federal clampdown was also intended to improve relations with the US. In January this year Tony Garza, the US ambassador to Mexico, took the unusual step of publishing a letter to the Mexican attorney-general complaining: “I am worried that the inability of the local forces of order to form a strong battle front against drug crimes, kidnappings and violence in general will have a negative impact on exchanges, tourism and trade between our frontiers, and these are vital for the region.�

That met an initially hostile response. The interior minister at the time, Santiago Creel, described the letter as “erroneous�. But federal and local authorities now accept that there was a problem with the local police force. Daniel Peña Treviño, who took over as mayor at the beginning of this year, said: “We consider it a grave problem because at this moment the groups believe that the local police belong to them. That makes them feel more powerful. And it also adds to the conflict, because of the perception that one group [of police] works for the other guy, and therefore they've got to be killed.�

Mr Peña says that the first phase of México Seguro was a success, as it showed that local and federal authorities could work together, even though the murder rate actually increased, with 38 murders during the six weeks of federal control.

Local politicians are angered by the publicity surrounding the killings, pointing out that almost all the victims are members of drugs gangs and that the problem has roots that go far beyond the city itself. “This is a shared problem of the two countries,� says Jorge Viñals, a city councillor. “There's a lack of decision by politicians in Mexico and the US, and we pay the price of that because we are unlucky enough to be at the point where demand meets supply.�

Customs volumes have not been affected so far this year. Industry has also been relatively unaffected, with Transpro, a Connecticut-based manufacturer of radiators and heaters for cars, investing in a new assembly line earlier this year.

But Texans are not crossing the border for a margarita and some cheap shopping as they once did. Aldo Ochoa, the head of Canacintra, the local employers' organisation, said: “It's definitely affecting tourism. And investors definitely now want to ask all the time about the climate of insecurity in Nuevo Laredo. It hasn't affected our operations until now but we are taking more precautions.�

He added that he had faith in the Mexican authorities to deal with the problem. However, early signs are that the return of the municipal police has not stanched the violence. On Thursday night masked men attacked a “safe house� for one of the drugs cartels, using bazookas, machine guns, grenades and a rocket launcher. According to witnesses they left behind pools of blood in the street.