Pubdate: Mon, 19 Feb 2007
Source: San Antonio Express-News (TX)
Copyright: 2007 San Antonio Express-News
Contact:  http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/384
Author: Dane Schiller, Express-News Mexico Bureau Chief
Note: Correspondent Sean Mattson contributed to this report from Monterrey.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Mexico (Mexico)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Felipe+Calderon
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

TEXAS BORDER IS NEXT IN WAR AGAINST CARTELS

MEXICO CITY -- Ratcheting up its fight against drug cartels, the 
federal government announced Sunday that about 3,300 military 
personnel and police will be deployed to two besieged states 
bordering South Texas.

The push comes as part of President Felipe Calderon's continued use 
of the military to take on gangs he contends threaten to destabilize 
the nation.

"The Mexican nation is stronger than the criminals operating in our 
country," Interior Minister Francisco Javier Ramirez Acunasaid.

"We have started an all-out fight, unlike any in history, against 
organized crime," said Ramirez, whose duties include domestic security.

The operation will include 2,035 soldiers, 750 sailors and 516 
police, according to the Calderon administration.

They are to be backed by trucks, patrol boats, airplanes and helicopters.

It will focus on the states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, which hug 
the Texas border from the Gulf of Mexico to just west of Laredo, at 
the end of Interstate 35.

Monterrey, Nuevo Leon's state capital, has long been a relatively 
safe city, where residents pride themselves on prosperity.

But this year has been plagued by violence, including the slayings of 
seven police officers, including a commander.

Last week, a 2-year-old girl was critically injured in a daylight 
shooting attributed to organized crime.

Soldiers have already set up roadside checkpoints in and around 
Monterrey as they search for weapons and drugs.

The federal government said it was responding to a call for help by 
state governors, who have been helpless to stop the violence.

Calderon, who took office Dec. 1, promised that the government will 
use all of its resources to take on the cartels, which primarily 
traffic in cocaine and marijuana.

He's already deployed thousands of troops to other parts of the 
country, including Tijuana, Acapulco and his home state of Michoacan.

Although they made dozens of arrests, burned drug crops, confiscated 
weapons and inspected tens of thousands of people, authorities 
working for Calderon have not made any major cocaine seizures or 
arrested major players.

Last month, Calderon sent another type of warning to battling drug 
gangs by extraditing some of their imprisoned leaders to the United 
States to face justice.

Among them were Osiel Cardenas Guillen of the Gulf cartel and Hector 
"El Guero" Palma of the Sinaloa cartel.

The two syndicates are in a bloody and protracted turf war for 
several areas, including the Laredo-Nuevo Laredo corridor, which has 
seen a dramatic increase in the amount of commercial-truck traffic.

The State Department cautioned Americans to be careful traveling 
anywhere in Mexico, especially in places such as Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake