Slayings' origins, effects are far-reaching
El Paso Times staff
Article Launched: 06/01/2008 09:54:04 AM MDT


If judged solely by its brutal and brazen killing spree, Juárez has become a cauldron of death that is now stirring unaccustomed fear on the U.S. side of the border.
As is the case with many U.S.-Mexico issues, the story is not as simple as life and death. Instead, it is as complex as the Rio Grande is starved for water.

It is a story that has its roots in the dangerous combination of poverty and the lure of easy money. The story has been sensationalized by warring drug cartels, stoked by revenge and facing a crackdown from a Mexican government that promises to reduce the cartels' power. The story then escapes close inspection at the U.S. border before winding more than 1,500 miles to Chicago or Indianapolis or any corner along Main Street USA where the appetite for illegal drugs seems unending.

They are all chapters in the same story, and in a six-part series beginning today, the El Paso Times will begin connecting the dots in a way that will explain why the story is important to all of us and what can be done about it.

Articles today and tomorrow will focus on how the drug war has impacted life in Juárez, who is to blame and what Mexican and U.S. authorities think should be done about the drugs and the violence. Other stories will examine how what's happening in Juárez will impact El Paso and what is and isn't being done to stem the flow of illegal drugs to the U.S.





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