HispanicVista Columnists

We in México do not have to look overseas for war news. We have our own war going on right here on our northern border. To bring you up to date, here are some of the latest reports.

Shortly after the last chief of police in Nuevo Laredo was assassinated within 7 hours of being sworn in there, President Fox dispatched federal police and army troops to various northern border trouble spots. Many asked why he waited so long (as did I). One of the hottest spots was and is Nuevo Laredo. All 700 local police were removed from service while the federals took over. After a "vetting" process in which about one-third of the force was fired for either corruption or failing drug testing, 460 officers began patrolling the streets in the first week of August. Shortly after that a city councilman and a police commander were shot down in broad daylight.

This leaves one to wonder what the fired cops will be doing now. If history is any guide, we should remember the 2,500 corrupt federal judicial police fired a number of years ago in the Mexican capital. It is reported that most of the fired cops simply changed sides and a good number of the kidnap rings are being run by those fired cops.

But after 228 murders in the state of Tamaulipas (where Nuevo Laredo is) and 106 in the city along with 20 police killed, the federal government finally acted. This situation led Tony Garza, US ambassador to México, to actually close the US conciliate for one week there to analyze the security situation. This, of course, sent many Mexican officials into an uproar about "needless extreme measures". One of the quieter responses was from Fox, who while not agreeing at least understood Garza's action.

Now, after deploying thousands of federals along the border to combat this situation one might think that something good has come about. Think again . . . at the end of the first week in August, President Fox, through his spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, concedes that the violence has actually risen despite the federal crackdowns! One thing of note was a battle at a Nuevo Laredo drug "safe house" that had not only automatic firearms used, but grenades and rockets also. And bodies of victims keep turning up as usual.

What we have, of course, is an active war going on between drug organizations for control of the vast US drug market distribution system. On top of this is an active smuggling operation from the US dealing in more high powered and sophisticated weapons for the drug armies. Now it's drugs going north and guns going south!

While the Fox administration contemplates their next move, and Tony Garza considers how to run a conciliate in a war zone, I think back of just a few years ago at what Nuevo Laredo used to be like. I can remember going there with my wife to Laredo, Texas, and walking across the bridge to do some shopping in México. We would show our passports at each end and would receive a cherry "welcome to México" or "welcome to the United States" and "have a nice visit". Those days at least for now are no more, and it is sad.

To look at this from the Mexican side, we are into something that we were never prepared for. Besides the fact that our laws and enforcement system is overdue for serious reform, this situation far exceeds anything that México could have ever anticipated. Keep in mind that the forces that we are fighting are financed better than our own army is.

The new police chief in Nuevo Laredo has stated flatly that as far as he is concerned, the drug problem is a matter for the federal authorities, not for the local law enforcement. This guy is smart . . . he wants to live a while.

It is also noteworthy that cross border law cooperation is now at an all time high. Note the number of drug people arrested and even extradited in México. Also note the arrests and returns of kidnapping victims and kidnappers from the US that have been found in México. Many thought that once a kidnapper went across the border, that would be the end of it. And a few high profile murderers fleeing the US have been picked up here. We have been nailing international sex perverts too. These are some of the good things that get lost in the bad news.

But as long as the drug market in the US is as strong as it is, neither México nor the US will be able to control the violence that it creates. It is time that the US really gets serious about their end of the problem. In the meantime, it is destroying México, if not the US.
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Richard N. Baldwin T., a HispanicVista.com (http://www.hispanicvista.com/) contributing columnist, lives in Tlalnepantla, Edo de México. E-mail at: R1041643422@aol.com