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Putting a face on drug violence in Mexico

by ANGELA KOCHERGA

WFAA

Posted on June 4, 2010 at 12:54 AM

Updated today at 1:17 PM

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Even with thousands of federal police on the streets of Juarez, May was one of the most deadly months in Mexico's most violent city.

There were 264 murders.

Alejandro Ruiz, a student at UT-El Paso, was among those killed — a first for the university.

"He was so young; so full of life; so loving," said Melissa Gaytan, a friend of the victim. "It's just unfair."

Ruiz, 19, was gunned down on a highway outside Juarez. The nursing student was returning from a Boy Scout retreat.

"The thought he died violently is very, very hard because he didn't deserve that," said Margaret Zumr, one of Ruiz' teachers.

Ruiz is among three dozen U.S. citizens murdered in Juarez since rival drug cartels turned the border city across from El Paso into a battleground.

So many people been killed in Juarez over the past few years that the toll is higher than all the U.S. casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan — combined — since Washington sent troops to those countries in 2001.

In Juarez, more than 5,000 people have died in the past couple of years.

In june, the body count continues to climb, even as Mexican federal police struggle to restore order.

E-mail akocherga@belo.com

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