Thread: Border Crossing is Now Death Zone

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/12320581.htm
Posted on Sun, Aug. 07, 2005

Border crossing is now death zone

At a key U.S.-Mexico border crossing, more than 100 people have been killed and hundreds more are missing between Laredo and Nuevo Laredo.

BY SUSANA HAYWARD
Knight Ridder News Service

ON THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER -- In September, Brenda Cisneros celebrated her 23rd birthday with her family at a restaurant in Laredo, Texas. She begged her father to let her go to a concert with a friend across the Mexico border in Nuevo Laredo.

''Please, Daddy, I'm a grown-up now,'' her father, Pablo Cisneros, remembers her pleading. Reluctantly, he said yes. ''I know you're legally an adult,'' he recalls telling her, ``but remember, you'll always be my baby.''

His daughter and her best friend, Yvette Martinez, set out for Nuevo Laredo and a concert featuring the popular ranchero singer Pepe Aguilar on Sept. 17. Cisneros hasn't seen them since.

The last he knows is that she and Martinez, a 27-year-old mother of two, called a friend at 4 a.m. to say they were heading back from the concert and were just five blocks from the U.S. border.

THE TOLL MOUNTS

Since January, at least 107 people have been killed in a fierce war that pits rival drug gangs in an increasingly violent struggle to control this key crossing point into the United States. Bodies are found in streets showing evidence of painful deaths: tortured, bound and gagged, handcuffed, with missing limbs. Some have been burned alive.

But the deaths are only part of the story. Since last fall, 23 Americans and at least 400 Mexicans have disappeared in Nuevo Laredo, and their relatives complain that little is being done to investigate the disappearances or stop the gangs who perpetrate them.

No one knows who is doing the kidnapping. Some residents and police blame the abductions on the same gangs that are battling for drug turf. They talk of ''safe houses,'' where victims are taken until ransoms are paid. Some say young women are housed there for drug lords ''to play with'' until they're used up, ending with death.

COPS TO BLAME?

Others, such as Martinez's stepfather, William Slemaker, blame the police. He says he spotted his stepdaughter's 2001 pearl-white Mitsubishi in a municipal police parking lot in Nuevo Laredo about a month after her disappearance but that when he pointed it out to police they denied it was hers. Later, the car turned up in the lot of a private towing company, which sought $2,500 for storage before it could be released. Slemaker said he didn't have the money, and the car remains in one of the company's lots.

''There [are] fingerprints, DNA, who knows what else inside that car,'' said Slemaker, who quit his job as a railroad worker to help Pablo Cisneros found a website called laredosmissing.com.

Mexican officials said they were concerned that the reports of kidnappings and violence were hurting Nuevo Laredo's reputation as a tourist destination. They said most of those who had disappeared had ties to drug traffickers and that others were safe.

''In my experience, most of the missing and murder victims are involved in organized crime,'' said Daniel Hernandez, Mexico's consul general in Laredo. ``Sometimes, it's involuntary; it can be a cousin of a cousin and they're at the wrong place at the wrong time.''

U.S. officials are less certain. The State Department, at the urging of U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza, has issued a travel advisory for Mexico, warning U.S. citizens to stay clear of Nuevo Laredo.

U.S. REACH LIMITED

The United States can do little to solve crimes in Mexico. U.S. authorities can't go into Mexico to investigate a crime against an American unless Mexican authorities invite them. So far, there's been no such invitation.

Cisneros said the months since his daughter disappeared had been hard. He said he could barely eat and that his chest burned.

''My heart and soul are broken,'' he said. ``All my energy is spent on finding our daughters. But I know what will cure me: Brenda.''

Knight Ridder special correspondent Janet Schwartz contributed to this report.

Where is Greta Van Susteren and Fox at on this one? Oh no, it's not important to them enough. I guess these poor people are just simply not pretty enough or rich enough to get the amount of coverage. It is sad, that Greta will spend so much time in Aruba, meddling in the Aruba government, but not one moment meddling in the Corrupt Mexican government.

I guess she just hasn't got the guts to address this issue, but maybe she is smart. They would if she covered the Mexican problem like she is the Aruba deal. They would probably Take her out.

What do you expect from a police force (Aruba) that wears shorts and polo shirts as an offical uniform? I have heard that the uniform says how professional that agency is and well polo shirts and shorts are not professional uniforms. Aruba should at least turn the Natalee Halloway case over to the Dutch National Police if they dont want the FBI.

As for Mexico and the missing Americans; how much do you want to bet that some corrupt Mexican cop locked them up or killed them while working for the drug lords? Seriously, lets just send in Delta Force and cut the throats of the drug lords in the middle of the night.

Well the number is now closer to five hundred, but you know who's counting?

And we are inviting this Third World chaos straight in the back door. Smart...

Originally Posted by Scubayons

Where is Greta Van Susteren and Fox at on this one? Oh no, it's not important to them enough. I guess these poor people are just simply not pretty enough or rich enough to get the amount of coverage. It is sad, that Greta will spend so much time in Aruba, meddling in the Aruba government, but not one moment meddling in the Corrupt Mexican government.
I guess she just hasn't got the guts to address this issue, but maybe she is smart. They would if she covered the Mexican problem like she is the Aruba deal. They would probably Take her out.

Greta has been doing the Aruba thing so long now, that they otta start calling her GRUBA. Fox wouldn't dare spend their time on Mexico, because it might OFFEND one of their employees. I'm starting to change my whole opinion of Fox News, and that includes Sean Hannity and Bill O'reilly. They are starting to get too whiney, and un-newsy.

Originally Posted by butterbean

Originally Posted by Scubayons

Where is Greta Van Susteren and Fox at on this one? Oh no, it's not important to them enough. I guess these poor people are just simply not pretty enough or rich enough to get the amount of coverage. It is sad, that Greta will spend so much time in Aruba, meddling in the Aruba government, but not one moment meddling in the Corrupt Mexican government.
I guess she just hasn't got the guts to address this issue, but maybe she is smart. They would if she covered the Mexican problem like she is the Aruba deal. They would probably Take her out.

Greta has been doing the Aruba thing so long now, that they otta start calling her GRUBA. Fox wouldn't dare spend their time on Mexico, because it might OFFEND one of their employees. I'm starting to change my whole opinion of Fox News, and that includes Sean Hannity and Bill O'reilly. They are starting to get too whiney, and un-newsy.

Well i tell you Butterbean, i am not going to give up on my Lou Dobbs. And if he ever starts doing the lazy way. I think i will send his book back to him

Greta is an idiot. Ever since her slobbering interview with double murderer OJ Simpson, I've hated her. With any luck the kidnapper of the Aruba girl will release her and take Greta hostage instead--anything to remove her annoying presence off the airwaves is okay by me.

Originally Posted by BobC

Greta is an idiot. Ever since her slobbering interview with double murderer OJ Simpson, I've hated her. With any luck the kidnapper of the Aruba girl will release her and take Greta hostage instead--anything to remove her annoying presence off the airwaves is okay by me.

Bob you must be the one that said that on her little blog site. LOL but there was several that said the same thing. LOL

Originally Posted by Scubayons

Originally Posted by butterbean

Originally Posted by Scubayons

Where is Greta Van Susteren and Fox at on this one? Oh no, it's not important to them enough. I guess these poor people are just simply not pretty enough or rich enough to get the amount of coverage. It is sad, that Greta will spend so much time in Aruba, meddling in the Aruba government, but not one moment meddling in the Corrupt Mexican government.
I guess she just hasn't got the guts to address this issue, but maybe she is smart. They would if she covered the Mexican problem like she is the Aruba deal. They would probably Take her out.

Greta has been doing the Aruba thing so long now, that they otta start calling her GRUBA. Fox wouldn't dare spend their time on Mexico, because it might OFFEND one of their employees. I'm starting to change my whole opinion of Fox News, and that includes Sean Hannity and Bill O'reilly. They are starting to get too whiney, and un-newsy.

Well i tell you Butterbean, i am not going to give up on my Lou Dobbs. And if he ever starts doing the lazy way. I think i will send his book back to him

LOU DOBBS is the Man!

I wouldn't step foot on that hag's website. I "know" Greta quite well from the Simpson case and the Jonbenet Ramsey case