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Mexico Drug Cartels Empty Border Towns
www.cbsnews.com...
(AP) The 14-year-old boy tied a few mattresses and a bedstead to the family pickup truck. He went back into his single-story yellow house for the cat, and chained up the gate. Then he drove off with his family, which was abandoning home, jobs, school and country.
All because the drug smugglers told them to.
Hundreds of families are fleeing the cotton-farming towns of the Juarez Valley, a stretch of border 50 miles east of Ciudad Juarez. In a new strategy, Mexican drug cartels seeking to minimize interference with their operations are using terror to empty the entire area.
They have burned down homes in Esperanza ("Hope") and torched a church on Good Friday in El Porvenir ("The Future"). Wherever they strike, they leave notes ordering residents to leave.
"They were typewritten, and they said, 'You have just a few hours to get out,"' Christian, the 14-year-old, said as he set off for a new life in Texas. Like others cited in this story, he would give only his first name for fear of reprisal. Some were so afraid they wouldn't even give that.
In El Porvenir, which normally has about 3,000 residents, only a couple hundred appear to remain. During Easter Week, when schools were closed and the plaza would normally bustle, the only things moving in the center of town were a few stray dogs.
The exodus appears to be the work of the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico's most powerful drug organization. The Associated Press, citing U.S. intelligence, reported last week that the group has seized control of smuggling corridors through the region after a bloody, two-year battle with the Juarez cartel.
Mexican Cartels Joining Forces To Battle Other Gangs
www.kfoxtv.com...
EL PASO, Texas -- Mexican federal police said the Gulf and La Familia Cartels are joining forces. Intelligence reports said the former bitter rivals are working together to fight the Zetas gang. Banners in the area warn people to stay in their homes, as the violence continues to escalate. Military leaders said armed men are also ambushing military patrols trying to get soldiers out of the way of the turf war.
Originally posted by Aggie Man
I have never in my life seen a government/military/police so corrupt and inept as Mexico's. How damn hard can it be to remedy this problem, seriously. Send in some heavy guns and a show of force. If this was the US, this would have ended faster than it started.
I almost hope this spills over the border so our military can go in and clean house.
Originally posted by Kandinsky
Originally posted by Aggie Man
I have never in my life seen a government/military/police so corrupt and inept as Mexico's. How damn hard can it be to remedy this problem, seriously. Send in some heavy guns and a show of force. If this was the US, this would have ended faster than it started.
I almost hope this spills over the border so our military can go in and clean house.
Aggie, I can't recall a post of yours I disagreed with. I disagree with this one.
The 'War on Drugs' is taking it's toll on the US and Mexico. Guns aren't the answer...bullets are flying and bodies are piling up. Drug Cartels are just the dirty edge of supply and demand. It's market forces and resistant to legislation and politics...
Seriously, how many henchmen can these cartels truly have?