Thread: Mexico bulks up border forces in drug war

Mexico bulks up border forces in drug war


CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Hundreds of heavily armed Mexican soldiers moved into this city on the Texas border to end a drug war that has left 2,000 people murdered over the past year.

The troops are among 7,500 soldiers and 1,700 federal officers President Felipe Calderon ordered into Ciudad Juarez, a major stop for drugs smuggled into the U.S.

"I'm relieved," said El Paso Mayor John Cook, whose city is just over the border. "It shows President Calderon is serious about winning this battle with the cartels."

Cook said he talked about the plan recently with Juarez's mayor, Jose Reyes Ferriz, whose family has lived in El Paso for years.

The troops will take over all the police precinct stations in Juarez, conduct neighborhood patrols, gather intelligence gathering and try "to ferret out illegal activity," Cook said.

Juarez is engulfed in the worst violence in Mexico as cartels, aided by corrupt police, fight each other over control of the trade in cocaine, heroin and marijuana. Several police officers were murdered last month. The city's police chief quit after threats from hit men. Catholic bishops pleaded in newspaper ads for an end to the killings "staining the state with blood."

Cook said the violence has not spilled into El Paso, but U.S. cities such as Phoenix have had cartel-linked murders and kidnappings.

Sirens blared as the Mexico army moved in. Troops rolled past shopping malls to set up checkpoints at bridges running over the border and at the city's airport.

"We've got to show we can achieve security in Juarez, for Mexico's sake, for its economy, for people's lives, for our international reputation," said Victor Valencia, the Chihuahua state governor's representative in Ciudad Juarez.

Ciudad Juarez bulges with factories making goods for export. But at night, the city once famed for its sex and tequila-fueled party life is ghostlike.

"The drug hit men are in control here," said textile salesman Valente Salazar as troops in Humvees sped through Juarez's main square. "At 6 o'clock I go home and I don't go out at all after that."

Contributing: Oren Dorell in McLean, Va
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I hope they can do this, but truthfully, they never have been able to before, nor have they had the wherewithal to either.

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