Two Tales Of A City: Part II

Previously I told you about the Women of Juarez and how they are being slaughtered in numbers that should be too big to ignore.  I intimated that maybe the authorities aren’t as culpable as it would seem.  The reason for that goes beyond the corruption that has plagued Mexico for decades.  In recent years, it has less to do with corruption, and more to do with survival.  The Mexican Drug Cartels have recently engaged in violence on a scale not seen since the early 80′s when the Colombian Cartels ruled Southern Florida.  I will be giving you lots of links in this post, and I encourage you to click on them and learn the full story of what is going on both South AND North of the border.  The scope of the story is too vast for me to cover in a few posts; but I’ll try anyway.

Let me give you a number that you’ll have trouble wrapping your mind around.  In 2008, Juarez had almost as many murders as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia Combined.  NYC had 523 homicides, LA 303, Chicago 509 and Philly had 323.  That’s 1658 murders total.  Juarez had over 1600.  Here’s one that’s even more astounding; so far in 2009, over 300 murders have occurred in Juarez alone.  The year is only 61 days old as of today.  That’s more than 5 murders a day.  That’s only 14 less than American combat deaths in Iraq for ALL of last year.  Almost every single one is drug related.  The Mexican government just sent 3,200 additional troops to Juarez, bringing the total to 7,500.  The problem is, the residents don’t want them there.  They feel that the military presence is helping to ratchet up the violence; never mind the fact that many police officers and Mexican soldiers are on the payrolls of the Drug Cartels.  The people don’t know who to trust.  Two weeks ago the Chief of Police was executed along with 3 other officers.  Three days later the new Chief of Police resigned after 3 more officers were found executed.  They were found with signs on their bodies telling him to resign or else they (the cartels) would kill one officer a day.

It’s not just in Juarez anymore, either.  The violence is spilling over the border.  Gangs routinely go to hospitals to finish off rivals while they recover in their beds; prompting a SWAT team deployment to Thomason hospital in El Paso to protect a Mexican police commander.  The mayor of Juarez has moved his family to El Paso.  Residents in some of the upscale neighborhoods in El Paso are concerned about the amount of Mexican license plates they are seeing move into their neighborhoods.  Are the new neighbors well to do Juarez businessmen?  Drug Lords?  Who knows?  They bring their bodyguards, who can be seen in cars on the street keeping an eye out for anything “fishy”.  How would you feel?  Would you let your kids go outside and play if your neighbor had armed bodyguards waiting on the street to quell an assassination attempt?

Since 1996, the sovereignty of the United States has been breached at least 200 times as Mexican soldiers; or drug smugglers dressed as Mexican soldiers, have aided and abetted drug smugglers.  One incident in 2006 got a little bit of press, but then everyone forgot about it again.  This incident happened about 50 miles east of El Paso near Sierra Blanca, Texas.  My brother and I went duck hunting in that same area over Thanksgiving a few years ago.  It’s desolate, and prime smuggling territory.  The 2 Border Patrol agents who were imprisoned for doing their jobs, Ramos and Compean, saw their lives change forever not far from this very spot. Border Patrol agents, Texas State Troopers, County Sheriffs, Local Police Officers; all have been told to “avoid causing an International incident” and to be “delicate” while enforcing the laws of the United States.  Is it any wonder these brave men and women question who has their backs when they get thrown in jail for doing their jobs?  When they aren’t allowed to enforce the laws that they have sworn to uphold?  To have those same laws turned against them while rights are granted to the criminals?  I don’t think so.

The drugs that come across the border don’t stay in places like El Paso, Laredo, McAllen or San Diego; that is just the start of the journey.  The drugs travel throughout the United States to New York, Chicago, Denver, Phoenix, Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Miami and Memphis.  In those cities you have dealers; when those dealers don’t pay, the Cartels come looking for their money.  Phoenix is now the kidnapping capital of the United States, and is second only to Mexico City in number of kidnappings worldwide.  There were over 370 kidnappings in Phoenix last year.  In June of 2008 six men dressed in body armour and armed with automatic weapons invaded a home and killed the occupant; Andrew Williams.  They fired over 100 rounds of ammunition into the house during the assault.  They wanted to take on the police, but couldn’t because they ran out of ammo.  It could have been the LA bank robbery all over again.  There is suspicion that some of the assailants are or were members of the Mexican Military.  Perhaps you remember the story of the little boy who was kidnapped by Mexican drug dealers in Las Vegas because his grandfather had stolen from the cartel.  There are examples of this everywhere.  Check the papers in your city; have you been paying attention to some of the things that are going on around you?  I think it’s time we all pay a lot more attention.