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Reporter's Notebook: Don Henry Ford Jr.

Drug War Violence in Mexico

Posted by Don Henry Ford Jr. - June 10, 2005 at 12:19 pm
Violence has erupted in Mexico over that past few days as turf wars continue and druglords assert their authority. In Nuevo Laredo, a new chief of police was sworn in. Nine hours later he lay dead, riddled with bullet holes. This just hours after the new chief announced that border violence is exaggerated (in Spanish).

There are those that question the Mexican government’s ability to control the outbreak.

People I know in the area now verify the danger, but to this point all victims are associated with the drug trade in one way or another. Either they are involved in moving drugs or trying to stop them.

Thanks to Molly Molloy for the links.

About Don Henry Ford Jr.

Personal Website
http://unrepentantcowboy.com

Biography
I'm a writer, horseman, cattleman, former marijuana smuggler and an ex-con--fluent in three languages (English, Spanish and Texan).

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Nuevo Laredo police go against the feds

Submitted June 12, 2005 - 2:51 pm by Don Henry Ford Jr.
San Antonio Express-News

Jesse Bogan
Express-News Border Bureau

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — One federal agent was shot and 41 municipal cops were held under military guard Saturday after a shootout between city and federal police.

(Photos by Jesse Bogan/Express-News)

Above: Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, police officers dressed in blue are detained by the Mexican military. Forty-one of the officers were detained after a shootout with federal agents.

Below: Family members of detained municipal police officers protested at the Palacio Federal to have them released. The protest intensified when the officers were trucked out by the Mexican military.

Reports conflicted over what sparked the daylight battle between the law enforcement groups and the condition of the federal agent.

Mayor Dañiel Peña said Feliciano Campos González, an agent from the Agencia Federal de Investigación, Mexico's equivalent of the FBI, was shot to death in the melee about 10 a.m. on a road near this city's country club.

The national attorney general's office confirmed he'd been shot and taken to a hospital, but late Saturday it wouldn't release his condition.

The clash is just the latest to rock this city, which already was reeling from the shooting death Wednesday of its newly appointed police chief.

At least 60 people have been slain here this year, causing fear among locals and driving away tourists.

Most of the deaths were believed to be gang-related.

Drug trade a way of life in Culiacan

Submitted June 13, 2005 - 11:13 am by Don Henry Ford Jr.
Houston Chronicle

CULIACAN, MEXICO - Despite repeated crackdowns and the arrest of tens of thousands of suspected gangsters, narcotics-fueled violence continues to shake northern Mexico...

...With expectations for law enforcement low, Murrillo and other activists say the long-term answer lies in weaning society from its drug addiction.

End the political corruption and the public tolerance that shields the gangsters, they argue, and the violence will dissipate.

"If we don't return to the basics, we are lost," says Garcia, who is spearheading a Public Security Council initiative emphasizing education and public activism. "The protection should be in your values, in your beliefs."

"Our principal problem is ordinary corruption," Garcia says. "People don't trust in the institutions or in the prosecutors. No one believes in anything.

"If there is political will, this will start to end," he says of the violence. "The trafficking won't disappear completely. But this will end."

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