Pubdate: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 Source: El Paso Times (TX) Copyright: 2009 El Paso Times Contact: http://www.elpasotimes.com/formnewsroom Website: http://www.elpasotimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/829 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/mexico SUSPICIOUS PROTESTS: DID DRUG CARTELS CLOSE BRIDGES? We join officials in Juarez who are suspicious about the motives for blockage of three international ports of entry Tuesday. For about four hours, commerce did not flow, and border commerce is our economy, that along with the money generated here by Fort Bliss. Early word on Tuesday was that concerned Juarez citizens were protesting alleged mistreatment by Mexican soldiers sent to fight drug cartels. Such concerns had not been made public before. Why now? One answer could be that the protests were instigated by the drug cartels, themselves, as a way to discredit the Mexican Army. Juarez officials, along with several witnesses, charge that people were paid to protest. They were loaded on buses and taken to the bridges where they blocked traffic flow much of the work day. Meanwhile, the governor of Nuevo Leon says a drug cartel was behind anti-army protests in his area last week. Gov. Natividad Gonzalez Paras blamed the Gulf cartel Zetas for instigating protests in Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas and Veracruz. If it's true drug cartels can shut down commerce, that's another horror in the ongoing drug, kidnapping, theft and extortion violence that saw more than 5,000 persons killed in Mexico in 2008, some 1,600 of them in Juarez. So far this year, there have been more than 200 killings in Juarez. And just after Tuesday's bridge protest, four Juarez police officers were assassinated, including high-ranking police director Sacramento Perez Serrano. He had been recruited from the interior of Mexico to help reorganize the Juarez police force. Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz has fired hundreds of Juarez police officers in recent months, linking them to corruption and crime. Then on Wednesday, signs began to appear in Juarez warning that more police officers would be killed unless the police chief resigns. Shutting down our bridges doesn't look to have been a protest against the Mexican army. It looks to be another scary step by drug cartels to convince people that they control government in Mexico. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin