Pubdate: Sun, 12 Aug 2007
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2007 The Miami Herald
Contact:  http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262
Author: Manuel Roig-Franzia, Washington Post Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.)

DRUG WAR OVERRUNS PRAISED CITY

Mexico's Monterrey Was Considered The Safest City In Latin America, 
But Drug-Related Violence Has Spread Fear In The City

MONTERREY, Mexico -- Biti Rodriguez could have gone anywhere for her 
10-year-old's birthday party.

But Incredible Pizza, a mammoth restaurant and fun house tucked into 
the corner of a strip mall in Monterrey, offered her something that 
suddenly has become a consuming obsession: safety.

She herded her daughter, Alejandra, and a dozen other giggling girls 
through two metal detectors one recent afternoon at this pizza parlor 
that promises "incredible security for your children," then dumped 
bags of presents on a table to be probed by a guard. It took a while 
to actually get inside, but Rodriguez didn't care. She thinks all the 
extra security is super bien -- super good.

Not so long ago, metal detectors at a pizza place would have been 
unimaginable in Monterrey, Mexico's third-largest metropolitan area, 
with more than 3.6 million residents. The city once seemed as if it 
could do no wrong -- two years ago it was named the safest city in 
Latin America by an international consulting group, it boasted the 
region's wealthiest residential neighborhood, and it was a strong 
competitor for the Major League Baseball franchise that became the 
Washington Nationals.

But in the past year, the drug violence raging across Mexico has 
landed hard in Monterrey, jarring residents who once felt immune to 
the shootouts so common in other big Mexican cities.

In the first six months of 2007, Monterrey registered 162 killings, 
almost as many as were recorded in all of last year and about 50 more 
than in all of 2004. But it wasn't just the killings that shook up 
the Biti Rodriguezes of this city -- it was the brazenness of the killers.

A hit man walked calmly into the landmark Gran San Carlos restaurant, 
past rows of Monterrey's signature hanging roasted cabrito, or goat, 
and shot dead a man seated at a table beneath. Gunmen launched 
volleys of bullets into a popular seafood restaurant at the height of 
the lunch rush, and officers were mowed down in daylight.

A Scared City

The killings triggered tremors of fear. Newspapers now run daily 
tallies of slayings. A roadside hotel has advertised bulletproof 
rooms. Heavily armored cars have become a new status symbol, with 
corporate chieftains dishing out as much as $400,000 for 
Mercedes-Benz sedans that ward off not only bullets but also 
grenades. In the San Pedro Garza Garcia suburb, where hillside 
palaces rival the mansions of Beverly Hills, a new saying was born: 
"There are no Tuesdays without killings."

"I can't say Monterrey is the safest city in Mexico anymore -- that 
would be a lie," said Jesus Marcos Giacoman, president of the 
122-year-old Monterrey Chamber of Commerce and Tourism. "I can say 
we're going to make it the safest again."

Monterrey wraps around the stunning, rocky peaks of the Sierra Madre, 
130 miles southwest of McAllen, Texas. Gleaming towers form its 
skyline, and U.S.-style malls and upscale restaurants line its wide boulevards.

For the past five years, Monterrey stayed mostly peaceful while the 
rival Sinaloa and Gulf drug cartels fought over territory in other 
cities near the border, such as Nuevo Laredo. But something more 
complicated has happened in the past year, Aldo Fasci Zuazua, deputy 
attorney general of Nuevo Leon state, said in an interview at his 
Monterrey office.

For unknown reasons, the local drug lords who warehouse cocaine, 
methamphetamines and marijuana for the big cartels began fighting 
each other, Fasci said. Their bloody battles unnerved the national 
and transnational cartels that counted on Monterrey's small-time 
operators to funnel tons of drugs into the United States.

A business that had run smoothly was suddenly a mess, and the 
national cartels felt compelled to sweep into Monterrey to "restore 
order," Fasci said. In the vernacular of organized crime, that meant 
killing people.

By April, assassinations were so rampant that the U.S. Embassy issued 
a travel warning for Monterrey. The next month, the business magazine 
America Economia dropped Monterrey from the top of its list of best 
places to do business in Latin America.

Within days of America Economia's piece, Mexican President Felipe 
Calderon dispatched federal troops to patrol Monterrey's streets, one 
in a series of military assaults against cartel strongholds across the country.

Monterrey's wealthy -- the city is said to be home to more than a 
dozen of Mexico's most powerful families -- were well prepared to 
withstand the violence in their streets. Top corporations began 
hiring armed security forces. Executives and their families now 
travel in protective bubbles ringed by bodyguards and live behind 
high walls fitted with motion sensors and cameras.

But Monterrey's middle class, the pride of a state that boasts that 
its annual per-capita income of $14,000 is twice the national 
average, became frantic. Biti Rodriguez cringed each night when she 
watched the news. In her neighborhood, parents stopped letting their 
kids walk to school. School administrators tightened rules about who 
could pick up children.

With hundreds of millions of dollars flowing into the pockets of drug 
traffickers, authorities in Monterrey suspect that organized crime 
has diversified, investing in criminal enterprises such as kidnapping 
and the smuggling of illegal immigrants, as well as legitimate 
businesses such as real estate.

Corruption Concerns

The underworld has infiltrated state and municipal governments and 
police forces, damaging confidence in public institutions even though 
about 400 law enforcement officers suspected of corruption have been 
taken off the streets. Local politicians, especially in the many 
municipalities that abut Monterrey, say they feel like targets. One 
recent afternoon, a municipal councilman, speaking on condition of 
anonymity, said that he "feels threatened all the time" and that even 
the most minor decisions become complicating labyrinths that can 
paralyze local governments afraid of unknowingly angering drug lords.

Anna Calderon Garcia, 15, said that after never hearing a gunshot in 
her life, she has twice been startled by gunfire.

One night while leaving a Wal-Mart, she and friends saw the bodies of 
two slain policemen lying in the parking lot.

"It changed my life forever." she said.

She lives three blocks from a funeral home and cups her ears when she 
hears sirens. Each time, she said, she whispers to herself: "Another dead one."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom