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The Drug War Next Door
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Immigration; Posted on: 2009-01-19 16:19:25 [ Printer friendly / Instant flyer ]
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"Don't even think about going into Juarez."
War on the Border
Civil War
Before you venture into Mexico's Ciudad Juarez, brace yourself to hear Texans tell you that you're crazy. Visiting friends in neighboring El Paso, Texas, a few days before Christmas, I was immediately warned, "Don't even think about going into Juarez."
Just across the shallow creek known as the Rio Grande from El Paso, one of the safest cities of its size in the nation, Juarez is a city under siege, the worst victim of Mexico's growing wars between drug cartels.
The tragedy is etched in daily news headlines. The day I arrived, two Mexican police officers were ambushed, shot to death while sitting in their patrol car. Just another bloody day in Juarez.
Hardly a day goes by without a new Juarez horror story in the El Paso Times:
"Man found dead with hands severed."
"Prominent Juarez lawyer, son among four found dead Tuesday."
"Man found shot to death in trash drum."
"El Paso charities afraid to cross border."
"Juarez area slayings top 20 in new year."
Murders across Mexico more than doubled last year to more than 5,600. That's more than the total number of Americans lost so far in the war in Iraq. Most of those murders have been happening in border towns. More than 1,600 were killed in Juarez, Mexico's fourth-largest city, with a population of 1.7 million. The bloodbath of unspeakable brutality includes kidnappings and decapitated bodies left in public places as a grisly form of advertising.
Continue...
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News Source: chicagotribune
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