Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico
Grandfather
2,303 Posts
As some of you may know I live in El Paso, Texas right now. The city is connected to Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico.My front door is literally 10 miles away from downtown Juarez. All my extended family on my Mother's side lives there. My mom was the only one of her siblings to move to the states.Shit is getting beyond crazy in Juarez and I could imagine in all of Mexico right now too.In Juarez alone, there have been over 1600 drug war related murders this year alone.The Mexican army has troops all over the city and people still getting killed like crazy. That doesnt matter much though. There are even army deserters that have joined the cartels as mercenaries. Los zetas where a special ops military group with training from the US army.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_ZetasMy aunt saw a dead body hanging over a street bridge with a note attached just last weekend.There was at one point 40 murders in 48 hours
Comments
Keep your head up.
It's real ugly over here too. I live about 45 minutes from the border (Nogales) and the city has pretty much been shot down by shootouts and murders. It used to be nothing to drive over and spend the day walking around, hitting up all the local merchants and restaurants. Of course a lot of older folks would head over to buy discounted meds. Now all those businesses are struggling to survive. It's just too risky to visit.
Bottomfeeder is right, it HAS been going on for years, but it's always stayed far enough from the border (and border patrol) that it wasn't an issue for casual visitors. Now shit is just ugly and depressing.
the Chagra place used to be by my grandparents house too...
This is a major reason, besides health, that I don't do coke. How many people have died along the way for that 8-ball?
My Dad's from Parral Chihuahua. I've never been there. How far is it from all this?
(My Dad's only been back once since he left there 40-some years ago.)
Ju??rez vigilantes vow to kill 1 criminal a day
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_11466731
me and whitelily were in elpaso in '02 so we dedcided to cross the bridge into ciudad juarez. we had some beers and insisted to walk around looking for less touristy parts of town (clueless gringos,we). we bought some flautas, and started to get a little uneasy as dusk settled in. we headed back. i remember it being semi creepy. i only heard of all the murders (most news used to be about females getting raped/killed) after the fact.
man,ihope shit can get sorted out down there...but what would need to happen for that???
El Paso was trying to go that route but it was vetoed
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6209705.html
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/feb/06/22174112132-radio-threats/?zIndex=49133
Drug gangs threaten Tijuana cops on radio, then kill them
By Lizbeth Diaz, Reuters
11:21 a.m. February 6, 2009
TIJUANA ??? Mexican drug gangs are breaking into Tijuana police radio frequencies to issue chilling death threats to cops which they then carry out, demoralizing security forces in a worsening drug war.
???You're next, bastard ... We're going to get you,??? an unidentified drug gang member said over the police radio in the city of Tijuana after naming a policeman.
The man also threatened a second cop by name and played foot-stomping ???narcocorrido??? music, popular with drug cartels, over the airwaves.
???No one can help them,??? an officer named Jorge said of his threatened colleagues as he heard the threats in his patrol car.
Sure enough, two hours later the dead bodies of the two named policemen were found dumped on the edge of the city, their hands tied and bullet wounds in their heads.
Cartels killed some 530 police in Mexico last year, some of them corrupt officers who were working for rival gangs. Others were killed in shoot-outs or murdered for working against the gangs or refusing to turn a blind eye to drug shipments.
Violence has hit shocking levels in Tijuana, over the border from San Diego, since President Felipe Calderon launched an army crackdown on traffickers in late 2006, stirring up new wars between rival cartels over smuggling routes.
The drug war is scaring tourists and investors away from northern Mexico, forcing some businesses to shutter just as the country heads into recession this year.
Badly-paid Tijuana municipal police, often accused of collaborating with rival wings of the local Arellano Felix cartel, are badly demoralized, senior officers say.
???These death threats are part of the psychological warfare that organized crime is using against officers,??? said Tijuana police chief Gustavo Huerta.
???Before, the gangs began infiltrating the radio after a police execution, which was bad enough, but now they are doing it beforehand and the force feels terrorized,??? he said.
WORN-OUT BODY ARMOR
Officers in threadbare uniforms and worn-out body armor say they are no match for drug gangs with powerful weapons and state-of-the art technology. Some police cling to religious trinkets and pray for protection, but many others have taken early retirement.
???I and many of my colleagues are thinking our time in the force is over,??? said Olivia Vidal, a Tijuana policewoman with 15 years in the force. ???I have three kids. Two are at university. I would never let them follow in my footsteps.???
Drug hitmen are brazenly using pirate radio decoders to flag police murders in advance on the airwave, often playing the brassy accordion-led ???narcocorrido??? ballads that lionize the escapades of heavily armed, womanizing traffickers.
The gangsters use the decoder to access the radio frequency and then use a transmitter linked to a CD player and a microphone to transmit the narcocorrido music and the threats.
In one recent attack, hitmen killed two officers in their vehicle in Tijuana and then blasted drug ballads over police radio while naming their next targets, just as officers were reaching the first crime scene.
Some gangs sarcastically offer their ???condolences??? over the air after an execution, broadcasting messages like: ???We are so sorry.???
latino connection
and yeah man, it's been a blimp on the radar. GQ actually did a really well written article last year.