As the drug war’s bloodiest month ever in this border city
ended, the administration of President Felipe Calderon defended its
strategy for battling powerful drug cartels but signaled that it
will make adjustments as needed.
By Alfredo Corchado, McClatchy News Service
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico
As the drug war’s bloodiest month ever in this border city ended, the administration of President Felipe Calderon defended its strategy for battling powerful drug cartels but signaled that it will make adjustments as needed.
In a visit to Ciudad Juarez last week, Interior Secretary Fernando Gomez Mont said the administration is considering adjustments to the strategy – which relies on the deployment of thousands of soldiers and federal police agents – but insisted that any shift would come in response to a change in tactics by the cartels.
“This is not the moment for being complacent or for anticipating defeat,” Gomez Mont said. “The operation is going well, and it’s constantly being evaluated to make it more efficient. The operation will continue.”
Critics have said that the government’s approach relies too much on the military and not enough on local institutions such as local law enforcement authorities.
At least 244 people were killed in July in Ciudad Juarez, the highest monthly death toll since 1911 – during the Mexican revolution – and a 100 percent increase from a year ago, according to Norte de Ciudad Juarez newspaper, which keeps a daily tally.
In all, more than 2,800 people have been killed in the city since the battle for control of one of the most lucrative smuggling routes into the United States began in January 2008.
Nationwide, more than 4,000 people have been killed in organized-crime violence this year.
Although Gomez Mont did not elaborate on his comments, other Mexican and U.S. officials said the Calderon administration may begin withdrawing troops from Juarez and other trouble spots this fall, provided the situation has stabilized. The troops would be replaced by newly trained and better-paid police officers.
One senior Mexican official, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that the military does not have the training or intelligence capabilities to effectively take on the cartels.
“The truth is we miscalculated,” the official said. “The corruption is deeper than we ever imagined, and our human intelligence is weak.”
Ivan Martinez, 20, a street vendor selling refreshments outside the heavily guarded hotel where Gomez Mont spoke, shook his head in disgust when asked about the current government strategy.
“They need a different strategy because the current one is only good for killing everything and anything,” he said.
Alfredo Quijano, editor of El Norte de Ciudad Juarez, said the government needs to enlist the help of civilians to be more effective against the criminals.
“The strategy needs to be revised to allow the participation of society, because in the end it’s society that can tell the government ‘where,’ ‘how many’ and ‘who,'” he said. “Right now there is no trust because the system is infiltrated by organized crime, so society has nowhere to go ask for help, or to flee.”
Often described as “gritty,” Juarez is now downright scary and dangerous. Since April, daily news reports typically speak of eight to 10 more people killed. Juarez residents and business leaders continue to flee to the Texas side of the border.
Adding to the fear is a heavily armed group known as Los Linces (The Lynxes), reportedly working for the Juarez cartel. Like the Zetas, armed enforcers for the rival Gulf cartel, Los Linces includes well-trained army deserters, including former members of Mexico’s special forces, according to published reports in the Mexico City newspaper El Universal and confirmed by a Mexican intelligence official.
The result is that the Mexican military now faces urban warfare with small bands of rival hitmen roaming the streets, shooting in crowded areas, then disappearing into the city of 1.5 million people.
“Paramilitary groups like Los Linces or Zetas represent the fact that the cartels are better strategists than the Mexican military,” said Howard Campbell, a drug trafficking expert at the University of Texas at El Paso. “The cartels use small, smart, mobile guerrilla forces. In the history of warfare, standing state-controlled armies have fared poorly against such guerrilla forces, as in Vietnam and Afghanistan.”
And with unemployment rampant in the current economic recession, teens like Manuel and Gabriel, both 16, are vulnerable to cartel recruiters. Manuel and Gabriel sell pirated CDs and “other goodies” in downtown Juarez.
The best-selling CD is a rap song call “Delinquent,” followed by a corrido, or folk song, glorifying hitmen for the Juarez cartel, they said.
Easy money is tempting in a country that’s expected to lose more than 750,000 formal jobs this year. In Juarez alone, more than 30,000 factory jobs have been lost so far.
According to Mexican authorities, at least 500,000 people are now employed by drug cartels in Mexico.
Cartels “pay good money,” said Gabriel, “10,000 pesos up front, instant.”
But there can be a high price: death.
“Yeah, but in case of death, the family gets something like 50,000 to 100,000 pesos,” added Manuel. “At least that’s what I read and have been told.”
During his news conference, Gomez Mont called on citizens to restore their confidence in law enforcement authorities and to be less tolerant of organized crime.
The words sound empty here, where traffickers often pose as soldiers or federal police and no one knows whom to trust.
Authorities here recently discovered a small clandestine factory making uniforms that match those worn by soldiers, along with bulletproof vests and other gear. The factory operators were detained.
