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MEXICAN DRUG WAR HURTS BUSINESS ALONG TEXAS BORDER

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico - A Mexican government crackdown on violent drug gangs on the Texas border, where army and federal police have been deployed, is scaring away U.S.  visitors, business owners complained on Tuesday.

This week, Mexican President Vicente Fox sent more than 600 federal agents toting assault rifles to join army units in the northern state of Tamaulipas for what he called "the mother of all battles" against drug lords.

Business leaders and bar owners in the Mexican cities of Nuevo Laredo and Reynosa, south of the Rio Grande from Laredo and McAllen, Texas, said the convoys of flak jacket clad agents roaring through their streets were over the top.

"When they see the assault rifles, they think that they are going to get caught up in a gunfight," bartender Jaime Arrocha told Reuters at a taco and tequila stand three blocks from a bridge across the Rio Grande.

Nuevo Laredo Chamber of Commerce President Alejandro Dominguez said tourism has been on the decline for the past two years in the region, which serves as a key route for both legitimate trade and illegal drugs bound for the eastern United States.

Mexico's latest crackdown was prompted by the murders last week of six guards from a high-security prison in Matamoros, south of Brownsville, Texas.

The guards were found blindfolded, handcuffed and shot in the head.  The attack received widespread media attention on both sides of the border.

Bar owners and stall holders in Nuevo Laredo, which is popular with day-trippers from Texas, said visitors had all but stopped coming over the border to sip a margarita or buy souvenir T-shirts in recent days.

"The federal police and army patrols create the wrong impression and are driving away the few visitors that we have," business leader Dominguez said.  "We are not at war."

In Reynosa, south of McAllen, few tourists were visiting money changers and medical centers in shops near the border on Tuesday.

"The patients watch the news across the border and get scared," receptionist Rossy Gonzalez told Reuters.  "They think it's too dangerous to come over."