The border between El Paso, Texas - population: 600,000 and Juarez, Mexico - population: 1.5 million - is the most dangerous border in America. This border is situated on the southwestern tip /edge of the United States and Mexico.
On one side of the border is the second-safest city of its size in the United States - after Honolulu - with only 18 murders in 2008. On the other side of the border is a lawless city ruled by drug lords where the death toll for the last 18 months is more than 2,500 and counting.
"I don't think the average American has any idea of what's going on immediately south of our border," says Kevin Kozak, acting special agent in charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's office of investigations in El Paso. "It's almost beyond belief."
Today, Juarez, Mexico looks a lot like a lawless Dodge City, Kansas did in 1850. Without any law enforcement entity capable of imposing order and an abundance of powerful drug cartels that kill and plunder at will, living on the border of this bad land is like living on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Fear dominates life in Juarez, Mexico's deadliest city
On October 30, 2009 the headline on one of Juarez’s leading newspaper proudly proclaimed, "Not one person murdered yesterday." This was big news for this border city, a city which many call ground zero in a drug war that threatens to spill across to El Paso, Texas.
It was the first time in 10 months that a day had passed without a murder.
However, by the end of that day, Oct. 30, the Grim Reaper would claim nine more people, their bodies riddled with bullet wounds.
Violence and death is a part of life in Juarez, a shady crime infested city that rests on the banks of the Rio Grande. Putting everyday life into perspective, at any given time of the day, lifeless bodies can be seen dangling from highway overpasses and bridges. In fact, it is not uncommon for little children walking to and from school to stumble across rotting corpses that liter landfills and ditches.
The flood of violence began in early 2008, when Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and Juarez Cartel boss Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, launched a deeply personal fight over drug routes their organizations had long shared. Both have lost family members in the fight, and have adopted increasingly brutal tactics as it drags on.
Thousands of troops and federal police rolled into the city by May 2008 to stop the violence, and this year President Felipe Calderon sent in even more help, with more than 7,000 soldiers in place by March.
With the increase of troops and soldiers, the killings subsided, but soon rebounded. As the drug seizures hurt traffickers' incomes, the drug traffickers turned to kidnapping, bank robberies and carjacking.
"For Rent" signs cover the doors of nightclubs that once drew thousands of partiers across the border from El Paso, Texas. The majority of Juarez’s youth, frightened by shootouts at malls, bars and discos, socialize only in the safety of friends' homes.
The only businesses that are thriving are the funeral homes. Mothers tell daughters to run stoplights at night rather than risk being carjacked. Even in daylight, drivers dare not glance over at the next car, especially if it's an SUV with tinted windows and no plates. Newspaper hawkers hold front-page photos of tortured bodies to their windshields as a reminder to mind their own business.
Concerns for a neighboring City
Violence that originates from Juarez’s drug cartels is now spilling over into El Paso, Texas. With the crack down on drug trafficking on both sides of the border, gangs are eyeing American citizens as potential kidnapping victims.
“For now, drug cartels prefer to abduct their victims in the United States and run them across the border before harming or killing them,” says special agent Kevin Kozak. Per Kozak, in the past year, over a half-dozen kidnappings tied to drug trafficking have taken place in El Paso.”
With raising violence and escalating fears, El Paso’s police department is currently working hand in hand with FBI and ICE agents in an attempt to prevent a tide of Mexican banditos from overflowing into their neighborhoods. It is the hope of El Paso’s police force that with an increase of local and federal police presence to include an increase in community assistance, the banditos from Juarez, will be kept at off the streets of El Paso, Texas and forced to plan and execute their anarchy on their side of the border.
As always Louisianans, the Examiner.Com is interested in what you think. Can the local El Paso police force and federal agents stop the Mexican drug cartels from committing murders and kidnappings in El Paso? Inquiring minds want to know.
Until next time Louisianans, Good Day, God Bless and Good Fishing.
http://reason.com/archives/2009/07/06/the-el-paso-miracle
http://projects.latimes.com/mexico-drug-war/#/its-a-war
Comments
What blame does the US Government has in the "Dangerous City". How the exploitation of mexican people has forced our brothers and sisters to take drastic measures in order to take care of their families? How much blame does the US government has in the drug trade? How quick they are to blame everyone but themselves...
To Jaime: That's some serious allegations. Can you make some references that will back that the US government is making money off of the drug trade? Now...are there individuals in high places that are involved? That could be. However, to suggest that the US government, in particular, this Administration, is involved in a Nino Brown New Jack City scenario is pretty deep. Remember what Nino said, "I don't have the planes to fly the drugs into the city". I don't think President Obama's administration is flying drugs into the country in order to make money from Mexican cartel drug lords. I respect your opinion, however, respectful debate allows more than one view without getting as we say back home, "ignant". :) Merry Christmas to you and yours sir. GB
Legalize = no violence. Drug tax = infinite revenue.
This is the area of the country I lived in as a child. It is heartbreaking to think what has happened there! We used to feel perfect
I was raised in this part of the country. We used to shop in Juarez and never worry. This is tragic!
To Gigi: It is a shame what is going on in that area of our country. My advice, "don't go to El Paso for vacation". Who want's to be kidnapped? Additionally, let's end the no win wars that have wasted most of our country's treasure (lives and money) and put armed troops on the border. You know that I know that Fort Bliss is up to the challenge. GB
Gregory...it has always been known that the US allows the drug trade when its convenient to them..Since the Iran-Contra this was exposed. Obama is not the problem, however he has shown not to be solution to all the obstacles the US has. But back to the drug trade...as you stated Nino Brown did say no drugs are made in Harlem or weapons either. How did they get here? Think about it for a minute - a country with the technology to guide missiles from a room to another part of the world, a country with so much advance technology to trace people no matter where they are, but cannot see drugs coming into the US....Just some food for thought.
"Third world countries" need to survive and if capitalism and mass production allows them to have a better chance, I cannot attack them. The coca leaf is not a drug, its what the british created by making cocaine that is the problem and the same as opium and heroine.
To Jaime: I hear you sir. Although Oliver North and President Reagan were knee deep in exchanging weapons for freeing the American hostages that were being held against their will at the U.S. Embassy in Iran, the connection to the government allowing drugs to enter the inner cities to purposely poison the minds and bodies of poor Americans may in actuality be more of an urban legend then reality. Besides Iran Contra, I don't know of any other drug conspiracies. I don't Jaime, I definitely do not profess to have ALL the answers, I could be wrong. Neither do I think that the drug cartels should get a pass on the violence that has erupted across the U.S. and Mexican borders. Yes, there is a demand for the product in the U.S., however, if Mexico's own government could create better opportunities for all it's citizens to make a good living, then, maybe there would be less gangsters who would take the coca leaf and turn it into cocaine and therefore decrease crime around the globe. GB
We must start looking at the problem of addiction in our nation... Without demand, there is no supply (economics)...
To RRod: You're absolutely right. GB
Mexico needs to be isolated and then the drug cartels beaten. If this doesn't happen, Mexico as a country, will be lost.
I love this type of thoughts exchange because it allows all of us to think outside the box. The IranContra mess began the CRACK epidemic in LA.Look at reports from the LA area for those years. Actually the American gangster series in bet talks about it.
We do not actually believe that the US Government really cares for poor, "uneducated", people of color. They sure showed the love & care of poor people of color in Katrina.
They Free Trade Acts that the US sponsors and pushes are not about people but created more "capita" for the government.How the free trade acts have attacked low income communities all over the Americas. That' how it pushes folks to go to underground market & create the havoc that comes from it.
I also agree that we need to start treating addiction as a disease and not criminalizing users/addicts.I do however believe that the violence is getting out of control not only in the drug cartels but also in our communities.But I am not shining out of the US blame in i
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