Dear Tampa (LOL) LEO: A lesson from Monterrey
Sound familiar???
Sure does TO ME. How many university students killed??
Mexico's modern city succumbs to drug violence
By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ - Associated Press
MONTERREY, Mexico --
A 21-year-old university student lies dead from a gunshot to the head. Nearby, paramedics wrap the head of another woman in a blood-soaked shirt while her husband holds their cowering children.
They were shopping in a popular downtown promenade when gunmen chasing a security guard opened fire into the crowd. This wasn't supposed to happen in Monterrey, Mexico's modern northern city with gleaming glass towers that rise against the Sierra Madre, where students flock to world-class universities, including the country's equivalent of MIT.
But drug violence has painted Monterrey with the look and feel of the gritty border 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the north as two former allies, the Gulf and Zetas gangs, fight for control of Mexico's third-largest - and wealthiest - city.
Story: Poll: 49 pct of Mexicans think drug war a failure
Story: Refugees: no return to town hit by Mexico drug war
Story: Mexico sending more troops to violent border zone
");
//]]>-->
The deterioration happened nearly overnight, laying bare issues that plague the entire country: a lack of credible policing and the Mexican habit of looking the other way at the drug trade as long as it was orderly and peaceful.
"To a certain extent, we saw ourselves as a privileged city and very isolated from Mexico's problems," said Blanca Trevino, Monterrey-based president and CEO of Softtek, the largest information technology consulting firm in Latin America. "The violence hit us because we were not accustomed to having it and therefore to handling it. Now we live in a sort of psychosis."
The Mexican government announced Wednesday it is ordering a significant boost in military troops and federal police in the northeastern border state of Tamaulipas and neighboring Nuevo Leon, home to Monterrey.
The two states are under the heaviest attack since the cartel split earlier this year. Both have witnessed increasingly horrific violence spilling into daily life and claiming civilians, while politicians and journalists are either silenced or killed.
Earlier this month, residents fleeing gunbattles in Tamaulipas' once-picturesque town of Ciudad Mier ended up in Mexico's first drug-war refugee shelter in a nearby town, only to duck bullets from a gunbattle there.
Monterrey was used to being Mexico's definition of opportunity. The city of 4 million "regios" - a nickname for Monterrey residents that means "people of the regal mountains" - represented the future as money poured into northern Mexico from free trade and the opening of scores of assembly plants.
The city's many CEOs drove their own luxury cars unaccompanied to the trendiest Japanese restaurant or the top spot for roasted goat, the state's specialty, in the wealthy enclave of San Pedro Garza Garcia.
Some drug lords and their families retreated to the safety of Monterrey as well. In the home of the country's industrial heavyweights, including the world's third-largest cement maker, Cemex, and bottling giant Femsa, they could easily blend in with executives showing off their wealth.
Then-leader of the Gulf cartel, Juan Garcia Abrego, was arrested in the nearby town of Juarez in 1996. Two years later, a U.S. sting led to criminal charges of money laundering against employees at three Monterrey-based Mexican banks.
Despite sporadic violence and the known presence of drug traffickers, the city enjoyed a tranquility that gave it a provincial feel.
That started to change four years ago, when the Sinaloa cartel began battling the Gulf cartel for a piece of Monterrey's lucrative domestic drug market. The violence subsided after the cartels reportedly agreed to share the turf.
With the Gulf-Zeta split, the downfall was swift - "extremely so," in the words of U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual - for a city with huge American interests that in some ways identifies more closely with the U.S. than Mexico.
"It's part of the risk of accommodating or allowing criminal groups to be able to live and operate quote 'safely' in an area for the sake of peace," Pascual told The Associated Press. "But then this rupture occurs and turns into a massive battle."
As in much of Mexico, there was no viable law enforcement to counter the onslaught. The Zetas control the local police, Pascual said. Other police forces aligned with the Gulf cartel in the fight against them.
Associated Press writers Mark Walsh in Monterrey and Katherine Corcoran in Mexico City contributed to this report.
Next Page (ATTENTION ST PETE TIMES >> SEE HOW REAL NEWSPAPERS DO IT??? MAYBE THEIR REPORTERS AREN'T ALL MARRIED TO DEVELOPERS> NOT ALL BUT KAREN KNOWS WHO I AM TALKING ABOUT)
The Herald allows readers to comment on stories as a privilege; the views expressed in story comments are not those of The Herald or its staff. The more voices engaged in conversation, the better for us all, but do keep it civil. Please refrain from profanity, racist remarks, obscenity, spam, name-calling or attacking others for their views. Users in violation of The Herald's commenting policies can have their comments blocked, removed, and/or ultimately see their account banned from the site. Read more: http://www.heraldonline.com/2010/11/25/2642418/mexicos-modern-city-succumbs-to.html#ixzz16MRQSyVz
![[PDA - Progressive Democrats of America - Stand Up. Take Action. Vote.]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_toiTLKoXYf1qMh-UhaB4vXiTaGwFbugEuK6wMiEY-xlW4b5ckqHhZ-JzLmbljvpxnAOhZYmeLVPqRSdKDOg3liNNOhS5jCAcBNltd4GkQcakJNAdNh4g=s0-d)
