Pubdate: Thu, 19 Feb 2009
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2009 The Dallas Morning News, Inc.
Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/lettertoed.cgi
Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author: Laurence Iliff, The Dallas Morning News

CARTELS MAY BE PAYING PROTESTERS

Border Rallies Target Use of Arny in Drug Areas

MEXICO CITY - Drug cartels unleashed a new and potentially powerful 
weapon this week in their battle with the government, analysts say - 
the use of unarmed civilian protesters to demand the withdrawal of 
army soldiers in drug hot spots along the Mexico-Texas border.

Protesters paralyzed nine bridges linking Mexico to Texas on Tuesday, 
and local, state and federal authorities allege that the 
demonstrators were paid by drug-trafficking groups.

If true, it puts the government in a delicate position. The 
protesters have a constitutional right to demonstrate peacefully, and 
they face increasingly tough economic conditions, including growing 
unemployment and a $5-a-day minimum wage.

"It's an evolution of the strategy of groups fighting the government 
to demonstrate and to signal their areas of control," said Arturo 
Yanez, a commentator on security issues. "These are people without 
AK-47s, without grenades, who can take control of international 
bridges, and the government doesn't do anything about it."

Officials in Ciudad Juarez, where all U.S.-Mexico traffic was shut 
down Tuesday, said in a statement that they respected the right of 
people to protest "when it does not affect third parties." But they 
cited opinion polls showing that 80 percent of residents support the 
military presence.

President Felipe Calderon has sent tens of thousands of troops to 
drug hot spots to contain spreading cartel violence.

Alfredo Quijano, editor of the Norte newspaper in Ciudad Juarez, said 
some - but not all - of the taxi drivers and other protesters had 
apparently legitimate grievances. Many of them were women and children.

About 150 formal human rights complaints have been lodged against 
soldiers in and around Juarez since the army arrived there more than 
a year ago.

But, he added, the demonstrators were probably organized, paid and 
encouraged by trafficking groups in a coordinated effort not just 
along the border, but also in other cities, including Monterrey, 
where Calderon will visit this week to celebrate "Army Day."

Given massive border unemployment, he said, recruiting protesters is 
not difficult.

Media reports quoted some protesters who anonymously said that they 
had been paid to hold anti-army signs. But others said they had 
legitimate grievances against the army for illegal detentions of 
loved ones, who they say were taken away in military vehicles and 
have not been seen or heard from since.

Taxi drivers also said they were demanding the release of a colleague 
detained by soldiers.

The government said the detained taxi driver was monitoring army 
patrols and had drugs in his vehicle when soldiers searched it.

Quijano said that nearly everyone detained by the military seems to 
end up in possession of drugs, which raises the question of whether 
the drugs were being planted, a practice human rights investigators 
have documented in the past.

The Mexico-Texas international bridges have long been used for 
protests and are closely associated with the democracy movement of 
the 1980s and 1990s, when blockages were used to denounce vote fraud 
and to get the attention of the U.S. government.

What the cartels want, Quijano said, is respect for their traditional 
areas of influence and a level playing field when it comes to 
government law enforcement.

One of the recurring themes since Calderon declared war on the 
cartels more than two years ago is the accusation by some trafficking 
groups that the government and the army protect the Sinaloa cartel to 
the detriment of others.

Last summer and fall, a dozen top federal law enforcement officials, 
including the drug czar, were jailed and accused of helping the 
Sinaloa cartel and its allies.

Calderon has said the government fights all the cartels equally and 
will not be intimidated by them.

Mexican government officials attributed Tuesday's protests to the 
Gulf cartel and its paramilitary enforcement wing, the Zetas.

Those groups operate in the Texas-Mexico border states of Tamaulipas 
and Nuevo Leon, but have moved into Chihuahua to help the Juarez 
cartel hold off its Sinaloa rivals, analysts say.

Quijano said police are being targeted in Ciudad Juarez because the 
"local" Juarez cartel believes that law enforcement and soldiers have 
sold out to the "outsiders" - the Sinaloa cartel.

He also said it was noteworthy that all of Tuesday's protests were 
held in areas that the Juarez and Gulf cartels consider part of their 
traditional drug routes to the U.S.: Chihuahua, Tamaulipas, Nuevo 
Leon and Veracruz.

"It's a plan to pressure the government," he said.

On Wednesday, "narco-banners" appeared in Juarez threatening the head 
of public security, Roberto Orduna Cruz, and demanding his 
resignation. One of his top subordinates, police operational director 
Sacramento Perez Serrano, was gunned down Tuesday along with two 
other officers.

Quijano said some of the banners were signed by "La Linea," the 
enforcement arm of the Juarez cartel. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake