Pubdate: Sun, 26 Jun 2005
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2005 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Oscar Avila, and Howard Witt
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/mexico

MEXICAN DRUG GANGS DEFY LAW IN LAREDO, SISTER CITY

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico -- American tourists used to flock south across
the border to ride through the streets of this town in the back of
horse-drawn carriages. Now the more common sight is heavily armed
Mexican soldiers, riding through the streets in the back of pickup
trucks.

Mexican business people used to travel north across the border to
Laredo to buy homes on the Texas side. Now suspected Mexican drug
lords have joined the flow, commuting back to their dirty work like
ordinary office workers.

The twin border cities on either side of the fabled Rio Grande are
called los dos Laredos, two communities bound by history, culture,
language and, in recent years, a mammoth trading relationship that has
made this crossing point the largest inland port on the continent.

But an explosion of drug violence in Nuevo Laredo in recent months,
capped by the audacious June 8 assassination of the city's new police
chief on his first day on the job, is threatening to tear apart the
two communities and rend a symbiotic relationship that has existed for
250 years.

Mexican President Vicente Fox rushed in federal troops to take over
from Nuevo Laredo's corrupt police force, part of a larger initiative
called Operation Safe Mexico that is targeting the entire border
region. But despite the presence of federal officers, gunmen still
shot up a hotel and opened fire on a protest near City Hall in the
last two weeks.

Turf war casualties

The unrest, fueled by a vicious turf war between two rival Mexican
drug cartels, has claimed more than 60 Mexican lives since the
beginning of the year; the U.S. State Department says 30 Americans
have been kidnapped or murdered in Nuevo Laredo in the past year.

The violence is raising security fears among American border officials
who had warily begun streamlining the passageways between the cities.
A new pedestrian walkway is under construction, augmenting recent
computer innovations that have smoothed vehicle traffic on a nearby
bridge.

More than 9,000 trucks cross the border here in either direction each
day, laden with thousands of tons of raw materials and manufactured
goods. But now it's not just auto parts and paper towels heading
northward but extortion, kidnapping and murder.

Webb County Sheriff Rick Flores, whose 30 deputies are responsible for
patrolling 3,500 square miles in and around Laredo, says several
Laredo business people have been threatened recently by thugs from
rival Mexican drug gangs who demanded protection payments.

"They tell the businessmen they would hate to see one of their kids
disappear one day," said Flores, who is lobbying state and federal
officials for more money to expand his force and arm his deputies with
heavier weapons.

A Laredo insurance company confirmed that it has begun offering
"kidnap and ransom" policies to Laredo business people, although
company officials would not provide details for fear of encouraging
more incidents.

Two homicides in Laredo this year involved suspected members of
Mexican drug gangs, Flores said. In one of the incidents, a deputy
sheriff giving chase was shot and wounded by a suspect firing an AK-47
assault rifle.

"We're seeing home invasions, kidnappings, ransom demands," Flores
added. "It's getting to the point now where it's really affecting our
side."

Border city under siege

Laredo Mayor Elizabeth Flores implored Texas Gov. Rick Perry this
month to deploy additional state troopers and helicopters.

"It is with great urgency that I write you this letter requesting
financial assistance from the state of Texas to help the city of
Laredo combat violence that is a direct result of the organized crime
and violence" in Nuevo Laredo, wrote Flores, who is not related to the
sheriff.

Laredo real estate agents report a surge of home buyers from Nuevo
Laredo. Many are ordinary citizens seeking refuge for their families
from the violence, but Flores said some are suspected drug criminals
who now are commuting back across the border to carry out their
illicit businesses.

That commute, and the ability of Mexican criminal suspects to blend
in, is made easier by the fact that Spanish is the predominant
language on both sides of the border and the nationalities of many
local residents are indistinguishable without scrutinizing their
identification.

Even officials of the Laredo Convention and Visitors Bureau, who work
closely with their counterparts in Nuevo Laredo to promote the sister
cities, say they no longer feel safe strolling across the river for
casual visits.

"We don't go over for dinner like we used to," said Ramon Hernandez,
marketing manager for the visitors bureau. "We go over for meetings
and then we come right back."

Laredo authorities are trying to walk a fine line as they beseech
state and federal authorities for more resources while simultaneously
insisting that the city is a secure place to do business.

Laredo officials boast of their city's rapid population growth, from
133,000 to 215,000 since 1990, and a local construction boom that has
accompanied an explosion in cross-border cargo that last year was
valued at nearly $90 billion.

"It's a very unfortunate turf battle going on over there in Nuevo
Laredo," said John Adams, executive director of the Laredo Development
Foundation, which promotes cross-border trade. "But as of right now,
we have not had any disruptions on this side of the border."

Last week, in an extended display of civic normalcy, scores of beauty
queens from across the state converged at venues around Laredo in
preparation for this weekend's scheduled Miss Texas USA pageant at a
local auditorium.

`They never came back'

Yet the placidity of Laredo's historic downtown central plaza was
abruptly shattered Wednesday evening by a group of parents bearing
posters depicting their missing children--American citizens they say
were kidnapped while visiting Nuevo Laredo in recent months.

"They went to a concert and they never came back," William Slemaker
said of his 28-year-old daughter, Yvette Martinez, who disappeared
with a friend in September. "No one on either side has helped us. But
we are here to say that this crime explosion is a problem that exists
for both countries."

Nuevo Laredo officials need no reminding. The economy of the city of
500,000, heavily dependent on American tourists, has shriveled amid
the mounting violence.

Beto Lara, who runs a souvenir stall in the Juarez Market, said his
livelihood depends on U.S. shoppers. He refers to his first sale of
the day as the cruzito, or little cross, because afterward he makes a
blessing to thank God.

Last Tuesday afternoon, he hadn't made the sign of the cross in two
days.

Alfredo Ferreira, who guides a horse-drawn carriage, said he believed
the extent of the violence in Nuevo Laredo had been exaggerated in the
United States. Sitting forlornly in his empty cart one afternoon last
week, he said he had ferried just one tourist the entire day.

Yet Ferreira conceded that he is afraid to continue his after-work
routine of a few drinks at the local watering hole.

"Not anymore," he said. "I put my horse away, go home and turn on the
television. That's all."

Traffic in the other direction, from Nuevo Laredo into Laredo, is
stronger than ever, Laredo officials note, as Mexican citizens make
daily shopping forays into the safer confines of Laredo's downtown
wholesale district.

Fueling corruption

The Nuevo Laredo violence had been bubbling for years, abetted by a
local police force allegedly corrupted by drug-money payoffs. But the
violence surged earlier this year after the arrests of several drug
kingpins left rivals scrambling for the valuable territory in the
area, which serves as a principal conduit for cocaine and other drugs
shipped north along U.S. Interstate Highway 35 into the American heartland.

The most brazen attack occurred when suspected drug traffickers gunned
down the police chief, Alejandro Dominguez, just hours after he
assumed his post.

The government responded by relieving the Nuevo Laredo police of their
duties and sending in federal police and soldiers to patrol the city.

"The presence of the federal forces has given the city a level of
peace which wouldn't have been possible," said Rafael Garcia, a top
official in Nuevo Laredo with the Mexican attorney general's office.

But the benefit of the federal presence may be short-lived. Garcia
said the federal forces would be withdrawn as soon as this week if
local officials finish culling the police ranks of corrupted officers.

"It's of great importance that this restructuring take place," Garcia
added. "We have some local police who are actually aiding the
organized crime elements."

But while they welcome a wholesale reform of the local police
department, residents like Ferreira are frightened at the thought of
the federal forces leaving.

"They can't go," he said quietly. "If they do, the city would be in
the hands of a lot of bad people."
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin