Pubdate: Tue, 18 Oct 2005
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Contact:  2005 News World Communications, Inc.
Website: http://www.washingtontimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/492
Author: Jerry Seper, The Washington Times
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Nuevo+Laredo
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DRUG CARTELS' BATTLE KEEPS TOURISTS OUT OF BORDER CITY

LAREDO, Mexico -- A violent war between two powerful drug cartels 
over control of a lucrative trade route for Mexican cocaine and 
marijuana bound for the United States has turned many Americans away 
from Nuevo Laredo and nearly gutted the city's tourist economy.

Once a bustling shopping center for visitors to southern Texas, this 
Mexican border city of 300,000 on the edge of the Rio Grande has seen 
a wave of killings that has taken 135 lives this year -- including 
the police chief, a city council member and 13 police officers.

As a result, vendors and merchants on the city's violence-prone 
streets are stuck with street carts and stores filled with unsold 
food, watches, belts, wallets and jewelry.

"The people are afraid to come, and it has hurt us very badly," said 
Eduardo, a local store owner who asked that his last name not be 
used. "The Americans used to come here in great numbers and spend a 
lot of money. That no longer is happening."

Although Nuevo Laredo's Office of Tourism and Tamaulipas Gov. Eugenio 
Hernandez Flores have said the violence is declining and the city is 
again safe, brazen daylight killings continue -- including the death 
just last week of another Nuevo Laredo police officer, who was 
fatally shot at a city hospital while questioning a man suspected of 
being a cartel member.

In one recent 10-day period, eight fatal shootings were reported - 
four bullet-riddled bodies were discovered at a ranch 30 miles 
southeast of the city, two men were killed as they sat on their front 
porch in the city, and two others slain outside a store in the city center.

Just last week, U.S. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said the 
Justice Department was sending federal agents to Texas to combat 
violent crime along the Mexican border. The Violent Crime Impact Team 
will target Laredo, Texas, and focus on firearms violations, gang 
activity, illegal drug organizations and organized crime.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry also announced last week a new security plan 
for the Texas-Mexico border, saying the state would "increase the 
law-enforcement presence in the border region, provide new 
investigative tools, improve communications among law-enforcement 
officials and make our border region more secure."

"I offer this plan, not because it is the state's responsibility to 
control the federal border, but because the state of Texas cannot 
wait for the federal government to implement needed border security 
measures," he said.

Much of the violence has been attributed by U.S. and Mexican 
authorities to a renegade band of Mexican military deserters known as 
the Zetas. Trained in the U.S. as an elite force of anti-drug 
commandos, they have since signed on as mercenaries and recruiters 
for Mexican drug traffickers.

As many as 200 Zetas, including former Mexican police officers, are 
thought to be involved with the violence. Their hub, according to 
U.S. and Mexican law enforcement, is Nuevo Laredo -- the most active 
port of entry along the border. More than 6,000 trucks cross daily 
from here into Texas, carrying about 40 percent of Mexico's exports.

Authorities said the Zetas control the city despite efforts by 
Mexican President Vicente Fox to restore order. He sent hundreds of 
troops and federal agents to the city in March to set up checkpoints 
and raid suspected Zeta locations.

The Zetas operate over a wide area of the U.S.-Mexico border, and 
authorities suspect them in at least three drug-related slayings in 
the Dallas area. They said as many as 10 Zeta members operate in 
Texas as assassins, protecting a nearly $10 million-a-day drug trade.

The Justice Department said in a report that the organization was 
spreading from Texas to California and Florida and establishing 
drug-trafficking routes that it was willing to protect "at any cost." 
In July, the department warned law-enforcement authorities in Arizona 
and California to be on the lookout for Zeta members.

Meanwhile, Nuevo Laredo's economy continues to falter, and although 
the streets are full, few of those rushing up and down the city's 
pothole-filled streets and crumbling sidewalks are U.S. tourists 
looking to spend money.

"I cannot remember it being this bad," said Hector Gonzalez, who 
sells food from a stand just a block from the border. "I am very sad."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake