The deadly cartel war responsible for dozens of deaths a week in Juarez is liable to go on for another two years, the El Paso’s Border Patrol Chief Victor Manjarrez said at Saturday’s El Paso Press Club Meet the Press forum.
UTEP Professor Tony Payan blamed the former governor of the state of Chihuahua and former mayor of Juarez for allowing the lawless atmosphere that led to the armed struggle between the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels for control of the Juarez drug trade and corridor in to the north.
“The political authorites are definitely responsible for what is going on,” Payan said, adding that former Gov. Patricio Martinez could have and should have demanded federal assistance.
Payan also said the inability of Juarez police to solve murders may be leading to a new series of women’s murders.
“Last week, a few young women’s bodies were found in the same condition as the murders that took place from 1993 to 2003,” Payan said, referring to a killing spree that took more than 300 lives.
About 45 people attended the press club event at Kinley’s House Coffee & Tea.
The FBI’s Special Agent in Charge in El Paso David Cuthbertson said when the Juarez cartel war started, it was largely confined to those directly involved in the drug trade, but it now is spreading into new areas of crime, such as kidnapping and Mafia-style extortion, in which innocent citizens are the victims.
Payan said the reason may be that the conflict has reduced drug trafficking and income for the criminals, so they are turning to other forms of crime.
The panelists agreed that the main reason the violence has not spilled across the border into El Paso is because of the strong law enforcement presence here that makes capture, conviction and imprisonment far more likely that in Mexico.
But Manjarrez said Mexico's federal police agency is becoming another story because it is attracting the best and brightest new officers.
JMonteros
June 30, 2008
Forty-five attendees? What the heck is wrong with that picture? The topic of the violence in the sister city and the spill over into the US should be on the front burner for the U.S. and not a subject of academic explanation!! The U.S. needs to belly up to the bar on this one, the consumers of the narc filth are in this country, the well-to-do of the business community, the legal and medical community, their sons and daughters, the Maytag Banks and realtors who help wash the narco money...this is a national issue, not a local one!
SYLVIA
June 30, 2008
J Monteros, what do you know about these family members that the rest of us don't? Do you know persons who are related to these "Narcos" personally? You accuse many persons in your "Consumers of the narc filth" categorization. Are the families of the "narc filth" really the consumers, or are the "consumers" the persons addicted to the illegal narcotics, such as inner city, uneducated, youths and suburban youths? So Realtors are washing the narco money, and you know these people personally? Please assist with this outrageous crime epidemic and name all those persons, so that they may be brought to justice. Oh wait, or were you just assuming that you know who's doing what? Sigh.....Oh, were you an attendee at the meeting of the few 45, if so, please feel free to enlighten the rest of us who were not invited about what was discussed at that meeting.
Jesus
July 1, 2008
Although I support what Professor Payan said about how the government did nothing to stop the wave of violence that has been spreading through Juarez, and that the cartel has been spreading to other areas of crime (because I have friends that have experienced that) I believe that the "narcotrafico" has become the infrastructure of the government of Juarez, unless a "political revolution" starts in Juarez, in other words if the political world of Juarez doesn't change, the atmosphere of Juarez will be the same.
Lola James
July 14, 2008
Oh what a surprise to us!