Oblivious Canadians Romp on the Beach As Thousands Executed in Vile Drug War What conflict has resulted in more than four times the deaths of allied casualties of Iraq and Afghanistan combined? Would it help to know it's a country where more than one million Canadians vacation every year? Would you be surprised to know it's right here in North America? It's Mexico. As we contentedly sip margaritas on the beach from behind protected resort walls, more than 28,000 Mexicans have lost their lives in a vicious drug war. [continues 602 words]
Oblivious Canadians Romp on the Beach As Thousands Executed in Vile Drug War What conflict has resulted in more than four times the deaths of allied casualties of Iraq and Afghanistan combined? Would it help to know it's a country where more than one million Canadians vacation every year? Would you be surprised to know it's right here in North America? It's Mexico. As we contentedly sip margaritas on the beach from behind protected resort walls, more than 28,000 Mexicans have lost their lives in a vicious drug war. [continues 604 words]
MEXICO CITY-Mexico's war on powerful drug cartels suffered a series of setbacks on Friday, including the disappearance of a prosecutor charged with investigating this week's massacre of 72 migrants, and twin explosions that suggested cartels are trying to become proficient in car bombs. On the same day, the U.S. State Department said it will pull out all children of its diplomatic personnel in Mexico's business capital of Monterrey. Coming after a gunbattle last week in front of an elite school that killed two private security guards, the move is a sign the U.S. believes the local government has lost control of the city to warring criminal forces. [continues 1027 words]
Most Mexicans continue to endorse President Felipe Calderon's war against the drug cartels, even as violence has wracked their country since he launched the offensive in 2006, according to a study released last week. Fully 80 percent of Mexicans said they back the use of the army to fight drug traffickers -- compared with 83 percent in 2009, according to a survey conducted by the Global Attitudes Project of the Pew Research Center. Opposition to Calderon's use of the army increased slightly from last year, from 12 percent to 17 percent. [continues 781 words]
Massacre of 72 at Remote Ranch Reveals Dangers Many Central and South Americans Face During Their Journeys to U.S. MEXICO CITY-This week's massacre of 72 Central and South American migrants in Mexico highlights a paradox the government here doesn't like to talk about: While it complains about the treatment of its own undocumented workers in the U.S., Mexico can be a far worse place to be an illegal migrant. Mexican soldiers on Thursday fanned out near a remote ranch about 90 miles from the U.S. border where 58 men and 14 women from Honduras, El Salvador, Ecuador and Brazil were bound, blindfolded, lined up against a wall and executed. [continues 957 words]
MEXICO CITY-Gunmen from a drug cartel appear to have massacred 72 migrants from Central and South America who were on their way to the U.S., a grisly event that marks the single biggest killing in Mexico's war on organized crime. Mexican marines discovered the 72 bodies-58 men and 14 women -on Tuesday after the lone survivor of the massacre, a wounded migrant from Ecuador, stumbled into a Navy checkpoint the previous day and told of being shot on Monday at a nearby ranch, Mexican officials said on Wednesday. [continues 834 words]
MEXICO CITY-Two security guards working for Mexican beverage giant Femsa SAB de CV were buried Sunday after their deaths at the hands of presumed drug gunmen. The men had been involved in a shootout in front of a prestigious school in Monterrey, further stoking fears among Mexico's elite that no area of the country is safe. The gunfight occurred early Friday afternoon in front of the American School Foundation, the school of choice for the children of many of Monterrey's top businessmen as well as the children of Americans working in the city. [continues 773 words]
Business Heads Plead as Drug Gangs Terrorize Wealthy City MONTERREY, Mexico-A surge of drug violence in Mexico's business capital and richest city has prompted an outcry from business leaders who on Wednesday took out full-page ads asking President Felipe Calderon to send in more soldiers to stem the violence. The growing violence in Monterrey, long one of Mexico's most modern and safe cities, is a sign that the country's war against drug gangs is spreading ever further from poorer battlegrounds along the border and into the country's wealthiest enclaves. [continues 1339 words]
MEXICO CITY -- The drug war in Mexico is at a crossroads. As the death toll climbs above 28,000, President Felipe Calderon confronts growing pressure to try a different strategy -- perhaps radically different -- to quell the violence unleashed by major drug syndicates. Even an elder from his own party, former President Vicente Fox, is taking potshots at Calderon, telling him that his policy is seriously off-track. Many Mexicans don't know whether their country is winning or losing the war against drug traffickers, but they know they're fatigued by the brutality that's sweeping parts of their nation. [continues 973 words]
Nearly four years after President Felipe Calderon launched a military-led crackdown against drug traffickers, the cartels are smuggling more narcotics into the United States, amassing bigger fortunes and extending their dominion at home with such savagery that swaths of Mexico are now in effect without authority. The groups also are expanding their ambitions far beyond the drug trade, transforming themselves into broad criminal empires deeply involved in migrant smuggling, extortion, kidnapping and trafficking in contraband such as pirated DVDs. [continues 1692 words]
Six months ago, in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, a convoy of SUVs and trucks pulled up in front of a house party. Masked gunmen stormed the premises then rounded up and executed a group-teenagers as well as several adults who attempted to intervene. Sixteen people were killed -- five adults and 11 children -- and dozens more left wounded. Initially, both state and federal authorities claimed the violence was drug-related. Then evidence emerged that a local drugs cartel had in fact mistaken the party for a gathering of rival gang members close by. [continues 968 words]
More than 28,000 people have been killed in Mexico's drug wars. It could get bloodier. "The grenades, the car bombings in Mexico is just a preview of the worse to come. The collateral damage is nothing now in what can happen to the future," said Phil Jordan, former director of the federal anti-drug El Paso Intelligence Center, or EPIC. Grenades have been increasingly used in attacks in Juarez and other parts of Chihuahua. Last month, Mexican federal police and rescuers were ambushed with a car bomb on a downtown Juarez street. [continues 577 words]
Northern Mexico continues its descent into chaos. If any doubt remains about which side is winning the country's drug war, go ask a Mexican journalist in Nuevo Laredo to explain it. Can't find one? That's probably because they're hiding and refuse to receive visitors at their newspaper and television offices. Cartel informants are interspersed among their staffs, so nobody dares speak openly about what they know. Another possibility is to pick up a newspaper and read all the articles about rampant drug violence in Nuevo Laredo. [continues 474 words]
About 28,000 people have been killed in Mexico's drug wars since the government's crackdown began, the country's top intelligence chief said. Guillermo Valdes, director of the Centro de Investigacion y Seguridad Nacional (CISEN), or National Security and Investigation Center, said at a news conference Tuesday that drug abuse also is on the rise in Mexico. CISEN, which provides information to various Mexican government agencies, is similar to the CIA and DEA's El Paso Intelligence Center. CISEN's death toll is higher than the national figure of 24,826 that the federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) released in July. [continues 89 words]
MEXICO CITY-Mexican police rescued two journalists from a safe house operated by members of the country's most powerful drug cartel who held the men for six days in an attempt to pressure the country's television networks to broadcast the cartel's video messages. Their liberation brought to an apparent end a two-week saga that illustrates the terror that warring drug gangs are bringing to cities along the U.S. border. "You can say that we were reborn," said Javier Canales, a cameraman for Milenio Television, a unit of Grupo Multimedios, at a news conference in Mexico City. His fellow captive, Alejandro Hernandez, showed injuries to his bandaged head and arm where he said the kidnappers had beaten him with a board. "They intimidated us all day and all night...they mistreated us badly," said Mr. Hernandez, a cameraman for Televisa, Mexico's largest television network. [continues 685 words]
MEXICO CITY-The killing of one of Mexico's top drug lords Thursday gave a much-needed boost to Mexico's embattled President Felipe Calderon, who has staked his presidency on wrestling back control of the country from powerful criminal syndicates and proving his military is up to the task. But experts warned Friday that the killing of Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel, 56 years old, considered to be the third most important leader in the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico's most powerful organized-crime organization, could lead to more bloodshed as other drug traffickers fight to fill his shoes. [continues 702 words]
REYNOSA, Mexico - The disappearance of four more Mexican journalists this week deepens a disturbing silence in northern Mexico, leaving a prosperous region void of reliable media coverage or freedom of expression, media advocates say. The four journalists, including two from the powerful Televisa network, were kidnapped Monday in the northern city of Gsmez Palacio after videotaping and photographing a penitentiary where prisoners allegedly were allowed to leave the jail to carry out killings, including a massacre of 17 people. One journalist from Televisa was reportedly released Thursday, but the information couldn't be confirmed. [continues 494 words]
EL PASO -- The Sinaloa drug cartel may undergo a bloody power struggle after the death Thursday of one of its key leaders, U.S. officials said Friday. But the cartel, which has been entangled in a war with the Juarez drug cartel since 2008, will continue to traffic cocaine and methamphetamine into the U.S., they said. The Mexican army shot and killed Ignacio "El Nacho" Coronel Villareal, 56, during a raid Thursday in a suburb of Guadalajara, Mexico. Coronel, who was indicted on drug-dealing charges in El Paso, is one of the two associates close to Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the alleged leader of Sinaloa drug cartel. Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada Garcia is the other alleged drug boss. Guzman and Zambada are both at large. [continues 497 words]
EL PASO - One of the four Mexican journalists who are being held hostage formerly worked in Juarez. Hector Gordoa, a TV cameraman for the Televisa network in Mexico, was abducted Monday in the Laguna region, which straddles the states of Durango and Coahuila. He used to be a news director for Televisa's Channel 2 in Juarez. Carlos Lauria, senior program coordinator the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) in New York, called on Mexican authorities to investigate. Lauria said the Laguna region has been troubled by violence between Los Zetas criminal group and the Sinaloa cartel. [continues 173 words]
MEXICO CITY - Four reporters, including two from Televisa, Mexico's most powerful television network, have apparently been held since Monday by drug traffickers unhappy with coverage of last week's arrest of a prison director who allegedly armed prisoners, provided them with cars and then allowed them to leave the penitentiary to commit mass murders. It is the latest development in a violent drama that surged almost two weeks ago when gunmen killed 17 people at a party in the northern Mexican city of Torreon. On Sunday, federal police arrested Margarita Rojas, the head of a prison in the nearby city of Gomez Palacio, in the state of Durango, and charged that she and prison guards had armed and allowed the gunmen to leave the prison and carry out the killings. At least 35 people have been gunned down in three such mass killings this year in nearby Torreon. [continues 869 words]
Experts with the FBI and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are helping Mexican authorities with their investigation of the July 15 car bombing in Juarez that killed three people. "The FBI sent a small team to the crime scene to consult with our Mexican counterparts and we have offered them technical assistance with the car bombing," El Paso FBI Special Agent Andrea Simmons said Sunday. "We would only be involved if the Mexican government asked for our assistance in some way." [continues 419 words]
Gunmen opened fire early Sunday on a gathering in the northern Mexican city of Torreon, killing at least 17 people, government officials said. The attack occurred about 1:30 a.m. at a venue called Italia Inn when the gunmen arrived armed with assault rifles and opened fire, they said. An additional 18 people were wounded in the attack. Photos from the local press showed pools of blood in a walled garden patio. Upturned chairs and musical instruments were scattered under an outdoor tent where the party had been taking place. [continues 369 words]
MEXICO CITY -- Grenades made in the United States and sent to Central America during the Cold War have resurfaced as terrifying new weapons in almost weekly attacks by Mexican drug cartels. Sent a generation ago to battle communist revolutionaries in the jungles of Central America, U.S. grenades are being diverted from dusty old armories and sold to criminal mafias, who are using them to destabilize the Mexican government and terrorize civilians, according to U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials. [continues 1401 words]
Political parties and drug cartels have stakes in today's Mexico elections, experts say. "The attacks against politicians could be coincidental," said Jorge Bravo, a Mexico politics expert at Rutgers University of New Jersey. "However, a lot of things are up for grabs, and a lot of the violence stems from the disequilibrium in the drug cartels. There is no other industry in the world that generates such huge profits." George Grayson, a government professor at William & Mary College in Williamsburg, Va., alleges that the drug cartels have infiltrated Mexico's political process. [continues 649 words]
MEXICO CITY-Voters in 14 Mexican states are scheduled to go to the polls Sunday, a test of the electorate's resolve after this week's assassination of a leading national candidate and other drug-cartel linked violence. The election stands to shift the power balance in Mexico. The Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled Mexico under a virtual one-party system for much of the past century, is a favorite in many of the races for local representatives and mayors in 14 states. [continues 1084 words]
Facing widespread dismay over the assassination of a leading gubernatorial candidate, President Felipe Calderon on Tuesday urged fellow Mexicans to join hands against the forces of organized crime that he said were to blame. The killing of Rodolfo Torre on Monday in northern Mexico has added to Calderon's political headaches as voters are to head to the polls Sunday in 14 states to pick a dozen governors and hundreds of mayors and lawmakers. [continues 460 words]
In April 2007 Ciudad Juarez-the sprawling Mexican border city girding El Paso, Texas-won a Foreign Direct Investment magazine award for "North American large cities of the future." With an automotive workforce rivaling Detroit's and hundreds of export-processing plants, businesses in Juarez employed 250,000 factory workers, and were responsible for nearly one-fifth of the value of U.S.-Mexican trade. The trans-border region of 2.4 million people had one of the hemisphere's highest growth rates. [continues 5058 words]
MEXICO CITY-A leading Mexican gubernatorial candidate was killed early Monday in a state bordering Texas, in the highest-level assassination of a politician here since President Felipe Calderon declared war on drug cartels in 2006. The killing of Rodolfo Torre, who was seen as a shoo-in for governor in Tamaulipas, represents an escalation of the drug traffickers' war against the Mexican state. "This is an attack not only against one citizen, but against all society; an attack not just on one politician, but against all politicians and our political institutions," Mr. Calderon said in a televised address. [continues 1052 words]
MEXICO CITY -- A popular candidate for governor who had made increased security his prime campaign pledge was killed along with at least four others Monday morning in a brazen attack, rattling a nation already alarmed by surging drug violence. Despite years of atrocities tied to drug gangs, the killing of a candidate who was widely considered the front-runner just days before voters go to the polls drew unusually wide condemnation, and it drove election-related violence to a level not seen in Mexico in years. [continues 1034 words]
Legalize them. Regulate them. Tax them. Those steps are what I refer to as the "Tripod of Victory in the War on Drugs." It is time for both the U.S. government and the American people to admit our so called "War on Drugs" is an abject failure. It is time for the U.S. government and the American people to admit it is both the demand for drugs in the United States, coupled with our lax gun laws and easy access to military style weaponry, that is then shipped south of the border by U.S. arms traffickers in pursuit of big profits fueling the bloodshed in Mexico and in other countries further south in Central America, including Costa Rica. [continues 584 words]
ACAYUCAN, Mexico - On a balmy evening in April, five sport-utility vehicles full of gunmen roared up to the gates of the immigration detention center here. The gunmen pointed assault rifles at the guardhouse but entered without firing a shot. They loaded up 13 Guatemalan detainees. Then, they sped off into the night. The raid is evidence of a disturbing new trend in the U.S.-backed war against Mexico's drug cartels. The gunmen were apparently drug-cartel henchmen, and the people they freed were Central Americans who had been on their way to a cartel training camp. [continues 652 words]
Mexico Is Descending into Violent Chaos; We Have Ourselves to Blame Back in June, after a particularly deadly day in his country's current drug war, Mexican President Felipe Calderon addressed his nation to soothe nerves, predict success and apportion blame. And blame he did. He notified his countrymen that their plight stems from the fact that they live next door to the biggest drug user on the planet. This astonishing claim was confirmed by Josepha Califano in an NPR interview shortly thereafter. Mexico's former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare explained that though the U.S. comprises only 5 percent of the world's population, it uses fully two thirds of the world's illegal drugs. Mexican drug cartels rake in $30-40 billion annually from our national drug habit. [continues 633 words]
Driving on a cold desert night to a small farming community along the Rio Grande where hit men had gunned down a man who stopped to buy a beer, the convoy of local crime photographers snapped away at a soldier manning a checkpoint. He was wearing a skeleton mask, a "mask of death," as he pulled over drivers deemed suspicious and who could be carrying drugs or guns. The soldiers were guarding a main highway outside Ciudad Juarez that leads to communal farming communities that mostly grow cotton and alfalfa along the river. [continues 5354 words]
AGUASCALIENTES, Mexico -- Just before noon on February 15, 2007, four municipal police officers in Aguascalientes, the picturesque capital of the central Mexican state bearing the same name, were called to a mundane road accident. An overturned, black Chevy Suburban with out-of-state license plates was blocking traffic on the quiet Boulevard John Paul II that runs through the city's sleepy western suburbs. When local police commander Juan Jose Navarro Rincon and his three colleagues arrived, they saw two men who did not appear to be hurt, removing AK-47 assault rifles and police uniforms from the crashed vehicle to a white Nissan sport utility vehicle (SUV) parked nearby. Navarro Rincon called for reinforcements. He was about to arrest the pair when two other cars came to an abrupt stop just up the road. Three gunmen climbed out and opened fire with automatic weapons. Navarro Rincon was killed instantly. Three other officers also died. [continues 4598 words]
The drug violence in Mexico, which has escalated into a full-fledged war, has caused over 10,000 casualties since January 2007, according to the LA Times. Others estimate the number of dead at up to 18,000. What is even more shocking than the death toll is the brutality and ruthlessness of the drug gang members and their morbid methods. There are many horror stories, such as that of the murder of the police chief of Veracruz who was killed by the cartel known as Los Zetas last year. [continues 492 words]
BROWNSVILLE - A middle-aged woman was driving along a busy street in Matamoros on her way to visit family, when she passed a Soriana grocery store barricaded by a throng of Mexican soldiers and vehicles. Gunshots cracked in the distance. She kept her eyes on the road and pressed on the gas, following what many Mexican citizens consider unspoken policy: Look away. Mind your own business. Keep your mouth shut. "These things don't come out in the newspapers," said the woman, who works as a housemaid in Brownsville and asked her name not be used out of concern for her family's safety. [continues 1140 words]
EL PASO - Texas law enforcement officials are bracing for a bloody weekend along the border, advising farmers to arm themselves as signs across northern Mexico point to a new escalation of violence after coordinated drug cartel attacks against the military this week. In the northern Mexican states of Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, both bordering Texas, drug cartel gunmen used trucks and buses Tuesday to block approaches to military bases in Reynosa and Matamoros, apparently in an attempt to trap the troops inside. In all, gunmen attacked military targets in a half-dozen towns in the two states. [continues 928 words]
EL PASO -- In the mid-1990s, the United States began training Mexico's soldiers in hopes of stopping the flow of drugs through Mexico and ending corruption. Some of those trained by U.S. forces formed the Zetas, a criminal organization that works as assassins for one of the drug cartels fighting in Juarez, Mexican law enforcement officials said. Today, the United States is again trying to help Mexico with its drug-cartel problem, and part of the solution could include training Mexico's military and law enforcement officers. [continues 739 words]
So, should some of the $1.4 billion in funding from the Merida Initiative go toward training those being fingered as the enemy to the well-being of Mexico? We teach them, and we teach them well. But in Mexico, the feared Zetas are Mexican army deserters who are said to be behind many of the ongoing brutal killings. Some are believed to have been trained by the United States at the former military School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Ga. [continues 260 words]
Violent cartels that import drugs from Mexico could be looking to strengthen their presence in South Carolina as a crackdown drives them out of their distribution hub in Atlanta. The gangs could bring a whole new set of problems - including shootouts with police -- to a state plagued with the nation's second-highest violent crime rate. Their drugs are already flowing through Greenville by way of Interstate 85 and heading for destinations all over the East Coast, authorities said. As local, state and federal authorities seek to turn up the heat, it isn't unusual for them to make huge busts in the Atlanta area. [continues 293 words]
Cartels Ratche Up the War by Attacking Two Military Bases in Northern Mexico Drug traffickers fighting to control northern Mexico have turned their guns and grenades on the Mexican army, authorities said, in an apparent escalation of warfare that played out across multiple cities in two border states. In coordinated attacks, gunmen in armored cars and equipped with grenade launchers fought army troops this week and attempted to trap some of them in two military bases by cutting off access and blocking highways, a new tactic by Mexico's organized criminals. [continues 975 words]
The Students Were on Their Way to Pick Up Scholarships When They Came Under Fire at a Roadblock Ten students on their way to receive government scholarships were killed by gunmen at a checkpoint in the state of Durango, officials said Monday. Half of the victims were 16 or younger. The checkpoint appeared to be the ad hoc type of roadblock often set up by drug traffickers who control parts of Durango, not a military installation, state prosecutors said. [continues 353 words]
The war on drugs is so filled with failure that it's good to get some positive news. The Obama administration on Wednesday designated 54 suspected Mexican drug-cartel lieutenants and enforcers as drug kingpins. This designation allows the feds to freeze their bank accounts and penalize their business partners. Because money greases the wheels of the drug-cartel operations, freezing bank accounts could deprive gang members of the precious commodity of money and thus hamper their efforts and make them less useful in the eyes of other cartel or gang members. [continues 186 words]
Turning to the Gringos for Help As Drug-Related Violence Continues to Rise, Mexican and American Officials Unveil Plans for Unprecedented Security CO-Operation. but Will They Work? LAST March, after Mexican officials took offence at warnings from their American counterparts about security south of the border, Hillary Clinton travelled to Mexico City to repair the diplomatic damage. The secretary of state accepted blame for her country's demand for illegal drugs, recognised its need to control the southward flow of guns and cash, and vowed that the United States would be an equal partner in the "war" against drug gangs and organised crime declared by Mexico's president, Felipe Calderon. Some of those promises have been kept, in a modest way: over the past year, Barack Obama's administration has seized a little bit more drug money, begun to search southbound freight trains, examined its budget for trying to cut drug demand and raised it by 13%, and shared intelligence that led to the finding (and death) of a top drug trafficker. [continues 799 words]
Renewed Feuding Between Drug Gangs Spurs Old Fears Amid Dozens of Deaths Residents of this scruffy border town thought they had seen the worst of the violence five years ago, when rival drug gangs staged wild gunfights in the streets and a new police chief was slain just hours after being sworn in. The warfare gave way to an uneasy calm after one of the warring groups took de facto control. The number of deaths here ebbed, even as violence soared out of control in other border cities, such as Ciudad Juarez, about 500 miles to the northwest. [continues 1227 words]
MEXICO CITY-Drug-related violence erupted this weekend in several parts of Mexico, claiming both American and Mexican lives and undermining the efforts of both countries' governments to quell an escalating war among the region's powerful drug cartels. On Saturday, three people associated with the U.S. Consulate General office in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, were killed, prompting the evacuation of dependents of U.S. State Department personnel on Sunday. Among those killed were a couple driving in a car in broad daylight with their baby in the back seat. The baby was unharmed. In the tourist resort of Acapulco, at least 15 people were killed in gangland hits over the weekend, officials said, including six local policemen. Violence is on the rise at another key point of the U.S.-Mexico border-the city of Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas. Officials say the drug war there is entering a dangerous new phase, in which two formerly aligned drug gangs have fallen into open warfare. [continues 745 words]
REYNOSA, Mexico - In the days since a long-simmering dispute erupted into open warfare between the Gulf drug cartel and its former enforcers, the Zetas, censorship of news developments has reached unprecedented dimensions along much of Mexico's border with Texas. A virtual news blackout has been imposed, several sources said, enforced by threats, abductions and attacks against journalists. In the past 14 days, at least eight Mexican journalists have been abducted in the Reynosa area, which is across the border from McAllen. One died after a severe beating, according to reports that could not be independently verified. Two were released by their captors. The rest are missing. [continues 934 words]
NUEVO LAREDO - Longstanding tensions between the Zetas paramilitary group and their old employers, the Gulf drug cartel, have exploded into a full-blown war, worrying U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials that a likely protracted battle will further threaten this stretch of the Texas-Mexico border. Parts of it are already under heightened security. The resumption in violence shatters a three-year uneasy truce in this region and represents a potential menace to places such as North Texas where the Zetas and a rival drug trafficking organization known as La Familia are entrenched, according to a U.S. intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. [continues 958 words]
As drug violence continues in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, Brownsville law enforcement officials continue their work to prevent any spillover of the violence into the U.S. and to ensure a safe Charro Days. However, Brownsville Police Department Chief Carlos Garcia urged border residents to exercise prudence when visiting Mexico. "It is sad but, if you don't have any business in Mexico, it's best not to go," Garcia said. "We continue to monitor the situation and are prepared to act accordingly." [continues 584 words]
