Pubdate: Sat, 17 Mar 2012
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2012 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Myles Estey

MEXICAN DRUG WARS DEVASTATE SLEEPY FARM VALLEY

VALLE DE JUAREZ, MEXICO-Driving slowly down the empty streets of 
Guadalupe, former resident Marycarmen Madrid points to scorched and 
crumbling houses, scattered with the personal effects of former residents.

She identifies some of the hundreds killed, terrorized or forced into 
leaving this town on the U.S. border. Her family's home was burned 
down last year, along with dozens of others, in the campaign of 
extreme violence and terror that has gripped the region.

Known locally as the Valle de Juarez, this was once a sleepy 
agricultural hub an hour east of Ciudad Juarez. Then, in 2008, the 
valley exploded as it became a battlefield in Mexico's drug wars, 
which have claimed more than 50,000 lives.

It's estimated more than 60 per cent of the valley's 20,000 residents 
have now fled. Whole neighbourhoods are nothing but charred skeletons 
of houses. Of the 18 police officers who once worked in nearby 
Praxedis, 16 were killed between 2009 and 2010, a local official 
says. The severed heads of three officers were left outside 
Guadalupe's municipal office.

"There are no police in Guadalupe. There is no law in Guadalupe. It's 
an extreme situation," said Gustavo de la Rosa, human rights 
commissioner for the state of Chihuahua. "Almost everyone has left, 
and those who remain are in the hands of criminals."

Guadalupe was traditionally under the control of the Juarez drug 
cartel, a.k.a. "La Linea." But in 2008 men affiliated with Joaquin 
"Chapo" Guzman's Sinaloa Federation - the most powerful cartel in 
Mexico - began to contest control of the sparsely populated valley, 
strategically located along the U.S. border.

The Sinaloans started to wipe out anyone with ties to La Linea. La 
Linea initially fought back, exacting revenge on anyone supporting 
"El Chapo." But it was ultimately outgunned, its members killed or chased off.

"There's relative calm right now because one gang just took out the 
whole other group," said De la Rosa. "It's like the Wild West."

The Sinaloan mob, which has adopted the name La Nueva Gente ("The New 
People"), presides over the empty destroyed towns, controlling the 
valuable border turf. They are said to strictly regulate all 
outsiders. From 5 p.m. to 5 a.m., Sinaloan operatives stop any 
unrecognized cars or people for questioning at informal checkpoints. 
Street-corner lookouts and slow-moving trucks with tinted windows 
scout for outsiders at all times.

Soldiers from the Mexican Army, sent to combat the disorder, sleep in 
the Guadalupe and Praxedis town gyms, fortified with sandbags and 
armed sentries. They run infrequent patrols between the towns.

"Of course, I'm scared," a short soldier says quietly as his unit 
searches a line of cars at one of several armed checkpoints.

At the eastern end of the municipality, the paved road ends in 
Porvenir. Jose Luis Guerrero, the mayor of Praxedis, sits in his 
kitchen, typing on his laptop and fielding constant calls. Outside, 
white transport trucks can be seen flowing endlessly along U.S. 
Interstate 10, just across the border.

Guerrero believes the local woes have less to do with drug cartel 
feuds and more to do with economic downturn. Increased investment 
would make a vast improvement, he said.

"I'd like to see some of the maquiladoras come here," he said, 
referring to the Mexican-based factories that turn out U.S. goods at 
low cost, paying employees $5 a day, the country's minimum wage. "We 
are now ready to say to the maquila owners, 'We want you here. We are 
ready for you.' "

In 2011, contractors started work on a $133 million toll bridge that 
will cross from Tornillo, Texas, into the heart of the Valle de 
Juarez. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced the 
new six-lane bridge, intended to increase bilateral trade, "will 
provide a more rapid route between major commercial and industrial 
centres in the United States and Mexico."

But legal trade may not be all that would benefit from the new 
bridge. Rumours tie it to the arrival of La Nueva Gente. According to 
this speculation, the Sinaloans, having pushed out La Linea, will 
control a valuable entry point into the U.S. drug market, estimated 
at $40 billion.

Before the bridge can arrive, security on the Mexican side needs a 
giant overhaul. Mayor Guerrero, who now again has 10 unarmed, 
preventative police working for him in Praxedis, is optimistic this 
is already happening. But he's one of a few.

The local priest, Father Eliseo Ramirez Soto, is much more cautious. 
"As long as there is corruption here, things aren't going to change."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom