Thread: Mexican federal police, military on front line of turf war

Mexican federal police, military on front line of turf war
By By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 06/14/2008 09:25:43 AM MDT


Mexico special forces soldiers carrying 50-caliber rifles and shouting cadance marched out of green C-130 Hercules transport planes when the army arrived in force in Juárez at the end of March.
When it comes to the war against the drug cartels, it is the Mexican military and federal police that are the front line but that will eventually have to change if Mexico wants to regain and maintain control of regions apparently overrun by organized crime, Mexico experts said.

Juárez city officials last week said that the military effort in Juárez and the surrounding region, dubbed Joint Operation Chihuahua, is expected to continue through the rest of the year and has no scheduled end date.

Mexico President Felipe Calderon said that it will take at least two years to take back control of Mexico from the cartels, which grew in power over decades, stated a report titled "Mexico's Drug Cartels" compiled last year for members of the U.S. Congress.

"If the question is the use of the military a long term sustainable strategy -- my answer is no," said Robert Donnelly, coordinator of the Justice in Mexico Project of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego.

"The military can't be relied on forever to maintain public order and prosecute and pursue criminal gangs," Donnelly said.

The outbreak of violence in Juárez has claimed more than 450 lives this year due in large part to what is believed to be a war between the Sinaloa and Juárez drug cartels for control

of the region's lucrative smuggling corridor into the United States.
Since more than 2,000 troops and 500 federal police officers arrived in Juárez, the deployment of federal forces has expanded to ranches, towns, and cities across the state of Chihuahua.

"Our data show us that so far this year, Chihuahua has the highest per capita rate of drug killings," said Donnelly of the Justice in Mexico Project, which studies criminal justice issues in Mexico.

The Justice in Mexico Project, using information from the Mexican newspaper Reforma, tracks drug-related homicides across Mexico. Through June 6, there have been 1,552 drug killings in Mexico with 448 in Chihuahua followed by Sinaloa with 162 homicides.

The term "drug killing" is subjective, Donnelly said. "It's imperfect but it is the best indicator for the magnitude of these killings."

Juárez is experiencing the extra-ordinary violence that flared-up then declined over the last two years in various parts of Mexico, such as the southern Pacific coast states of Guerrero and Michoacan.

"The violence can skip around from region to region," Donnelly said.

Mexico scholars and government officials say that municipal and state police do not have the resources or have been corrupted to the point that they are incapable of fighting drug traffickers.

"There are parts of Mexico where the rule of law are absent and the drug trafficking gangs virtually control (or) are the controlling force. It is definitely a threat to natural sovereignty," Donnelly said.

The military has the firepower and equipment and is believed to be less susceptible to the corruption that has infected law enforcement.

"The reason for the violence is clearly to intimidated the forces of law and order," said John P. Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. "There's three ways they do this, buy you, scare you or kill you. That's why they don't just kill people, they mutilate the bodies, they want to scare people."

"There is a period unfortunately of violence against each other when these hyperviolent criminal groups attack and against the forces of law," Walters said during a recent visit to El Paso.

Even as deadly shootings continue daily in the state of Chihuahua, the army has had some successes, including multi-ton marijuana seizures, the capture of suspected hit men and the arrest of reputed Juárez cartel lieutenant Pedro "El Tigre" Sanchez Arras.

Federal authorities are attemptint to weed out corruption. They are conducting polygraph, drug and psychological tests on Juárez police as well as ballistics tests on firearms in an attempt to remove bad officers.

At one point during the U.S. women's soccer team visit in April at a tourney in Juárez, the traffic officers escorting the team had empty pistol holsters because federal forces had taken their guns for ballistic tests, a U.S. diplomatic security official said at a forum regarding violence in Juárez.

The scrutiny by the federales has led to some complaints by police who feel they were mistreated. In April, officers in uniform but wearing masks protested with signs outside a police station.

Juárez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz addressed the challenge during the graduation of 92 cadets from the police academy last week.

"In the middle of a crisis of violence, you are the generation of hope for the municipal public safety" department, Reyes Ferriz told the new police officers. "You have arrived at a time when the citizenry needs you the most. When public opinion is at its highest levels with a lack of confidence in the police force."

Law enforcement agencies in El Paso are monitoring the situation in Juárez. Combating the cartels in the United States falls under a variety of jurisdictions and local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, who often work together on different task forces addressing gang and drug activity.

But the cartels are not limited to Mexico and have expanded their presence in the U.S. to as far north as North Dakota, Buffalo, N.Y. and Boston, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center.

"There is evidence that the Mexican cartels are also increasing their relationships with prison and street gangs in the United States in order to facilitate drug trafficking within the United States as well as wholesale and retail distribution of drugs," stated the drug cartel report by the Congressional Research Service. " ... The Mexican cartels reportedly work with multiple gangs and do not take sides in U.S. gang conflicts."

In El Paso, the Juárez cartel has an alliance with the Barrio Azteca gang, which is paid with drugs sold at low prices, federal prosecutors have said. The gang is the target of a current crackdown by the FBI.

Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com; 546-6102. El Paso Times reporter Chris Roberts contributed to this report.






http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_9586969

There are parts of Mexico where the rule of law are absent and the drug trafficking gangs virtually control (or) are the controlling force. It is definitely a threat to natural sovereignty," Donnelly said.


Sounds like LA

I wonder if the presents of the Mexican Army along the border,will discourage illegal border crossings

GO CELTICS....YEA