Thread: Editorial: Ending border chaos a must for Calderón

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Editorial: Ending border chaos a must for Calderón

Web Posted: 12/03/2006 03:13 PM CST


San Antonio Express-News

In some Mexican towns, the worst thing that can happen to a police officer is a promotion.
That's because the jubilance is often followed by mourning.

In Santa Catarina, a suburb of Monterrey, gunmen recently killed the police chief — less than a month after he had taken the position.

The law enforcement official was at least the fifth high-ranking law enforcement officer killed in the state of Nuevo León in 2006, according to the Express-News.

The slayings reflect a border in chaos, with Monterrey representing just one of several areas where criminal elements have struck fear in the very agencies sworn to hunt them down.

The violence continued last week, with the kidnappings of four U.S. citizens and one Mexican in the Nuevo Laredo area, two of whom have been released.

In Nuevo Laredo, the Police Department has 300 openings on a 600-member force, according to the Los Angeles Times, and few recruits are scurrying to fill the positions in a town where the police chief was murdered last year.

The killings — along with the other nefarious activities of the drug gangs — must be one of the top priorities of Felipe Calderón, who was inaugurated as president of Mexico on Friday.

When reforms are enacted, the new president must have the courage to follow through; legislation is irrelevant without the political will to carry it out.

A good start would be to ferret out the corrupt officials in law enforcement agencies throughout the country, an act that would help establish a clear delineation between the good guys and the bad buys.

In Mexico, that line has been blurred for too long.

Calderón can start by telling his citizens to get their wondering tails back home. He can start with the list of people who applied for Marticula cards at a counsulate in the US.

Dixie