Mexican President Felipe Calderon faced public anger during a visit to his country's most violent city, Ciudad Juarez, on the border with the US.
There were scuffles between riot police and dozens of protesters outside the convention centre where Mr Calderon and his cabinet met community leaders.
The president promised new initiatives to tackle crime in the city, which is a major battleground for drug cartels.
But he refused to withdraw troops, who critics say have worsened the violence.
Calderon's afraid... We want justice, we want him to resign
Luz Davila, mother of two teenagers killed on 31 January
Q&A: Mexico's drug-fuelled violence
More than 15,000 people are believed to have been killed in drug-related incidents in Mexico in the last two years.
There were more than 2,600 murders in Ciudad Juarez last year.
On 31 January, 13 teenagers and two adults were shot dead at a high school party. Their families have said they had no gang ties.
'Not welcome'
"If those deaths... mean anything it is that we need to change after that absurd sacrifice," Mr Calderon told Ciudad Juarez residents.
The president promised improvements in health, education, welfare and infrastructure for the poverty-stricken northern city, but insisted he would not withdraw the 6,000 troops deployed there.
ANALYSIS
Julian Miglierini, BBC News, Mexico City
This was a highly unusual day in Mexican politics.
In a country where the institution of the president is deeply respected, Felipe Calderon exposed himself during several hours to direct accusations of inefficiency in his strategy to combat the drug cartels.
The people of Ciudad Juarez vented their frustration with the ongoing violence and the effect it is having on daily life in the border town where more than 5,000 people have been killed since 2006.
Mr Calderon said he was ready to readjust his policies and launched a series of social initiatives, but insisted he would not pull troops out, one of the popular demands.
His visit was aimed at opening a new chapter in the fight against drug trafficking, but as one of the local leaders told Mr Calderon to his face, it may have come too late.
"I've promised the parents of the victims that we'll find a new impetus for the fight against the violent gangs," he said. "We have to have better co-ordination between the different institutions of government and the police forces to take on this challenge - a fight that we have yet to win."
But as soon as he finished his speech and opened the floor to questions, the criticism started to flow, says the BBC's Julian Miglierini in Mexico City.
"You come here one or two years late," a local leader told Mr Calderon, while a woman shouted: "You are not welcome here."
All those who spoke expressed their frustration about the level of violence, our correspondent adds.
They also complained about the lack of a proper infrastructure and alleged human rights abuses by the security forces.
The federal government's perceived lack of efficiency in dealing with the crisis was another major grievance.
Army helicopters patrolled the skies above, as federal riot police tried to disperse the dozens of people staging a demonstration.
Many were holding signs saying "army and police, leave!" and "Calderon out".
"Calderon's afraid... We want justice, we want him to resign," Luz Davila, whose two teenaged children were killed in the January high school party shooting, told the Reuters news agency.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Mexico captures Sinaloa cartel cocaine trafficker
By ALEXANDRA OLSON / Associated Press Writer
Posted: 02/22/2010 08:51:13 PM MST
MEXICO IN FOCUS
Analysis on news out of Mexico
MEXICO CITY -- Federal police have captured a man described as a key operator of the powerful Sinaloa cartel who served briefly in the U.S. army before taking on the trafficking of 2 tons of cocaine a month into the United States.
Jose Vasquez Villagrana, 40, was arrested Sunday in his home town of Santa Ana, Sonora, which borders Arizona, authorities said Monday.
He joined the U.S. military in Arizona in 1990 and deserted a year after getting his U.S. citizenship, according to Mexico's federal Public Safety Department. He is believed to have returned to Mexico, where he began trafficking.
Vasquez is accused of smuggling Colombian cocaine through Panama and other countries to the northern Mexican state of Sonora. The drugs were stored at his ranch and then sent to the United States.
U.S. officials could not immediately confirm Vasquez's citizenship nor his role in the U.S. military.
Police described Vasquez as a key player in the Sinaloa cartel, although he does not appear on a list of Mexico's most-wanted traffickers.
Vasquez slowly built up his operation in Sonora, eventually buying planes that he put at the service of Sinaloa kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, police said.
He initially worked with the Beltran Leyva gang but sided with Guzman when the two organizations split, the police statement said.
Vasquez's capture comes amid accusations dogging President Felipe Calderon that his government has not pursued the Sinaloa cartel as aggressively as other gangs.
Sinaloa-a west-coast state where 14 people were killed Sunday-has not seen the benefits of Calderon's frontal assault on cartels, said Manuel Clouthier, a Sinaloa lawmaker from Calderon's National Action Party.
"The government of Felipe Calderon is 3 years old and in Sinaloa, we have not seen decisive action against the narcos," Clouthier said. "Nothing serious is being done."
The government has denied the allegations, and party leaders demanded that Clouthier retract his remarks. He has refused.
Sunday was a particularly bloody day in Sinaloa, said the state's Attorney General Martin Gastelum.
In the worst incident, six people-including two women and a minor-were found shot to death in a cemetery in the Juan Jose Rios. In the same town, two men were found strangled in a house, one with the cable of an iron and another with a wire hanger.
Investigators have not determined whether the 14 deaths were related.
Since taking office, Calderon has sent tens of thousands of troops to trafficking hotspots across Mexico, vowing to wrest back territory from brutal cartels, which have responded with record violence.
More than 15,000 people have been killed by drug violence since 2006, including the Sinaloa cartel's chief rival, Arturo Beltran Leyva, who died in a shootout with marines in December. Weeks later, troops captured Teodoro Garcia Simental, the alleged leader of a gang that broke with the Tijuana cartel and aligned itself with the Sinaloa organization.
Dozens of banners have appeared in the past week in seven Mexican states accusing government officials and police-some by name-of protecting the Sinaloa cartel. The banners were purportedly signed by the Zetas, a group of hit men tied to the Gulf cartel.
Such banners and speculation have been common since Sinaloa leader Guzman bribed his way out of a Mexican prison in 2001.
By ALEXANDRA OLSON / Associated Press Writer
Posted: 02/22/2010 08:51:13 PM MST
MEXICO IN FOCUS
Analysis on news out of Mexico
MEXICO CITY -- Federal police have captured a man described as a key operator of the powerful Sinaloa cartel who served briefly in the U.S. army before taking on the trafficking of 2 tons of cocaine a month into the United States.
Jose Vasquez Villagrana, 40, was arrested Sunday in his home town of Santa Ana, Sonora, which borders Arizona, authorities said Monday.
He joined the U.S. military in Arizona in 1990 and deserted a year after getting his U.S. citizenship, according to Mexico's federal Public Safety Department. He is believed to have returned to Mexico, where he began trafficking.
Vasquez is accused of smuggling Colombian cocaine through Panama and other countries to the northern Mexican state of Sonora. The drugs were stored at his ranch and then sent to the United States.
U.S. officials could not immediately confirm Vasquez's citizenship nor his role in the U.S. military.
Police described Vasquez as a key player in the Sinaloa cartel, although he does not appear on a list of Mexico's most-wanted traffickers.
Vasquez slowly built up his operation in Sonora, eventually buying planes that he put at the service of Sinaloa kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, police said.
He initially worked with the Beltran Leyva gang but sided with Guzman when the two organizations split, the police statement said.
Vasquez's capture comes amid accusations dogging President Felipe Calderon that his government has not pursued the Sinaloa cartel as aggressively as other gangs.
Sinaloa-a west-coast state where 14 people were killed Sunday-has not seen the benefits of Calderon's frontal assault on cartels, said Manuel Clouthier, a Sinaloa lawmaker from Calderon's National Action Party.
"The government of Felipe Calderon is 3 years old and in Sinaloa, we have not seen decisive action against the narcos," Clouthier said. "Nothing serious is being done."
The government has denied the allegations, and party leaders demanded that Clouthier retract his remarks. He has refused.
Sunday was a particularly bloody day in Sinaloa, said the state's Attorney General Martin Gastelum.
In the worst incident, six people-including two women and a minor-were found shot to death in a cemetery in the Juan Jose Rios. In the same town, two men were found strangled in a house, one with the cable of an iron and another with a wire hanger.
Investigators have not determined whether the 14 deaths were related.
Since taking office, Calderon has sent tens of thousands of troops to trafficking hotspots across Mexico, vowing to wrest back territory from brutal cartels, which have responded with record violence.
More than 15,000 people have been killed by drug violence since 2006, including the Sinaloa cartel's chief rival, Arturo Beltran Leyva, who died in a shootout with marines in December. Weeks later, troops captured Teodoro Garcia Simental, the alleged leader of a gang that broke with the Tijuana cartel and aligned itself with the Sinaloa organization.
Dozens of banners have appeared in the past week in seven Mexican states accusing government officials and police-some by name-of protecting the Sinaloa cartel. The banners were purportedly signed by the Zetas, a group of hit men tied to the Gulf cartel.
Such banners and speculation have been common since Sinaloa leader Guzman bribed his way out of a Mexican prison in 2001.
Fleeing Juarez: 420,000 residents
Fleeing Juárez: 420,000 residents, slew of businesses seek refuge from gunfire
By Adriana Gómez Licón / El Paso Times
Posted: 02/23/2010 12:00:00 AM MST
Click photo to enlargeThe former location of the Maria Chuchena... (Jesus Alcazar / Special to the El Paso Times)«12345»›› Photo gallery: Fleeing Juarez
EL PASO -- Hundreds of thousands of people from violence-torn Juárez are abandoning their homes, closing their businesses and moving elsewhere.
Although reliable numbers are hard to come by, El Paso police and real estate agents, and Juárez demographers, detect an increase in refugees from Mexico living in El Paso.
The city of Juárez's planning department said 110,000 houses have been abandoned from 2005 to the beginning of 2009. Which means that, based on average family size, about 420,000 people, or 30 percent of the city's residents, have moved out of Juárez, either to other parts of Mexico or to the United States.
In addition to the violence, more than 75,000 people have lost their jobs since December of 2007 in Juárez, according to numbers from the Instituto Mexicano Seguro Social. Most of the jobs have been lost in the maquiladora industry.
Restaurants, hairdressing salons, clinics and bakeries have closed. About 40 percent, or 10,678 businesses, were forced to close in Juárez because of the fear of extortions and assaults for not paying fees, or "cuotas," to criminal organizations, according to the Mexican chamber of commerce.
"Let people here tell how scared we are of even answering the phone," said Julia Monarrez Fragoso, professor at the Colegio de la Frontera in Juárez,
to Mexican President Felipe Calderón during his first visit to the city Feb. 11.
Many people in Juárez want to leave the city, where more than 4,600 people have been killed since 2008. María del Socorro Velázquez Vargas, a professor at the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez, UACJ, said the results of a survey conducted with 1,800 people last December showed that about 47 percent of Juárenses want to move to the United States because of the violence.
Even though brutal attacks have scared away many residents, the weak state of the maquiladora industry also has increased the migration.
"It is the first time that population will increase less than 1 percent," Velázquez Vargas said. "It's historic."
During World War II, the Bracero Program allowed farmworkers from Mexico to temporarily work in the United States. During those days, Juárez had huge growth because immigrants arrived in the area to work in the program. The population grew from 49,000 to 123,000 people.
When the program ended in the 1960s, the maquiladora industry skyrocketed and attracted Mexicans from different parts of the country. The growth in the sector continued throughout the 1990s. It peaked after 1994, when the North American Free Trade Agreement was implemented.
Just like the automotive industry, maquiladoras began to face competition from low-cost offshore plants in Central America and Asia. Many have shut down or laid off workers since 2000.
Maquiladoras offered jobs to 250,000 workers in Juárez at the beginning of 2008. The number dropped to 176,700 as 2009 concluded.
"It's always recurrent that every time there is a recession in the United States, we feel the impact," Velázquez Vargas said.
The growth from 2000 to 2008 was slow compared to the decades after 1940. The Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, the counterpart of the U.S. Census, reported 1.2 million living in Juárez in 2000, and 1.3 million in 2005. Estimates by UACJ demographers calculated that Juárez grew by 55,000 people in 2008, mostly led by births.
The natural growth, which is the difference between the number of people who are born and die, is still what drives population growth in El Paso's sister city. More couples are giving birth than the number of people who die.
On the other side of the border, El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said that, in the past two years, 30,000 people have moved to El Paso after fleeing Juárez. The county's population is about 750,000.
Allen was attempting to justify the purchase of 1,100 M4 rifles by saying his department needed to be ready for a possible spillover of violence from Juárez. He said he arrived at the 30,000 figure through comments he heard at intelligence brief-ings.
Sergio Ramirez, a real estate agent in El Paso, deals with clients who have come to Juárez in the past few years. He said most Mexicans fleeing Juárez are looking for rental homes and apartments.
"They are all renting because they cannot afford the expenses," he said. "For every 50 (people) who are renting, two or three are buying."
Century 21 APD reports the latest rental vacancy rate at 2 percent. The U.S. Census Bureau said the rate was 9.2 percent in 2008, and 10.5 in 2007.
Meanwhile, some southwest neighborhoods in Juárez are virtually deserted.
"That is a problem that is going off like a red light ... These are a lot of homes," Velázquez Vargas said.
Adriana Gómez Licón may be reached at agomez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6129.
By Adriana Gómez Licón / El Paso Times
Posted: 02/23/2010 12:00:00 AM MST
Click photo to enlargeThe former location of the Maria Chuchena... (Jesus Alcazar / Special to the El Paso Times)«12345»›› Photo gallery: Fleeing Juarez
EL PASO -- Hundreds of thousands of people from violence-torn Juárez are abandoning their homes, closing their businesses and moving elsewhere.
Although reliable numbers are hard to come by, El Paso police and real estate agents, and Juárez demographers, detect an increase in refugees from Mexico living in El Paso.
The city of Juárez's planning department said 110,000 houses have been abandoned from 2005 to the beginning of 2009. Which means that, based on average family size, about 420,000 people, or 30 percent of the city's residents, have moved out of Juárez, either to other parts of Mexico or to the United States.
In addition to the violence, more than 75,000 people have lost their jobs since December of 2007 in Juárez, according to numbers from the Instituto Mexicano Seguro Social. Most of the jobs have been lost in the maquiladora industry.
Restaurants, hairdressing salons, clinics and bakeries have closed. About 40 percent, or 10,678 businesses, were forced to close in Juárez because of the fear of extortions and assaults for not paying fees, or "cuotas," to criminal organizations, according to the Mexican chamber of commerce.
"Let people here tell how scared we are of even answering the phone," said Julia Monarrez Fragoso, professor at the Colegio de la Frontera in Juárez,
to Mexican President Felipe Calderón during his first visit to the city Feb. 11.
Many people in Juárez want to leave the city, where more than 4,600 people have been killed since 2008. María del Socorro Velázquez Vargas, a professor at the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez, UACJ, said the results of a survey conducted with 1,800 people last December showed that about 47 percent of Juárenses want to move to the United States because of the violence.
Even though brutal attacks have scared away many residents, the weak state of the maquiladora industry also has increased the migration.
"It is the first time that population will increase less than 1 percent," Velázquez Vargas said. "It's historic."
During World War II, the Bracero Program allowed farmworkers from Mexico to temporarily work in the United States. During those days, Juárez had huge growth because immigrants arrived in the area to work in the program. The population grew from 49,000 to 123,000 people.
When the program ended in the 1960s, the maquiladora industry skyrocketed and attracted Mexicans from different parts of the country. The growth in the sector continued throughout the 1990s. It peaked after 1994, when the North American Free Trade Agreement was implemented.
Just like the automotive industry, maquiladoras began to face competition from low-cost offshore plants in Central America and Asia. Many have shut down or laid off workers since 2000.
Maquiladoras offered jobs to 250,000 workers in Juárez at the beginning of 2008. The number dropped to 176,700 as 2009 concluded.
"It's always recurrent that every time there is a recession in the United States, we feel the impact," Velázquez Vargas said.
The growth from 2000 to 2008 was slow compared to the decades after 1940. The Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, the counterpart of the U.S. Census, reported 1.2 million living in Juárez in 2000, and 1.3 million in 2005. Estimates by UACJ demographers calculated that Juárez grew by 55,000 people in 2008, mostly led by births.
The natural growth, which is the difference between the number of people who are born and die, is still what drives population growth in El Paso's sister city. More couples are giving birth than the number of people who die.
On the other side of the border, El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said that, in the past two years, 30,000 people have moved to El Paso after fleeing Juárez. The county's population is about 750,000.
Allen was attempting to justify the purchase of 1,100 M4 rifles by saying his department needed to be ready for a possible spillover of violence from Juárez. He said he arrived at the 30,000 figure through comments he heard at intelligence brief-ings.
Sergio Ramirez, a real estate agent in El Paso, deals with clients who have come to Juárez in the past few years. He said most Mexicans fleeing Juárez are looking for rental homes and apartments.
"They are all renting because they cannot afford the expenses," he said. "For every 50 (people) who are renting, two or three are buying."
Century 21 APD reports the latest rental vacancy rate at 2 percent. The U.S. Census Bureau said the rate was 9.2 percent in 2008, and 10.5 in 2007.
Meanwhile, some southwest neighborhoods in Juárez are virtually deserted.
"That is a problem that is going off like a red light ... These are a lot of homes," Velázquez Vargas said.
Adriana Gómez Licón may be reached at agomez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6129.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Seven Ideas for Defeating Drug-Related Violence in Mexico
February 17, 2010
by Arjan ShahaniAs headlines continue to report a tale of horror, violence and massacre in what had seemed to be a peaceful country, a growing debate stirs on whether or not
The general consensus is that President Felipe Calderón has inherited a cancer that the Partido Revolucionario Institucional(PRI regime) had contained through institutionalization of corruption. This is a cancer that former President Vicente Fox was unable to effectively cope with when he took office, ending the PRI’s hold on power. Now Felipe Calderón is trying to get rid of this disease by beating it with a big stick and empowering the military to crack down on criminal organizations such as the Zetas and Beltrán Leyva’s group , but as Ana María Salazar has stated recently, “Mexicans are paying a huge price”
Calderón’s war on drugs seems limited if the goal is to effectively address the complex issue of drug-related violence. A recent conversation I had with a group of Thunderbird School of Global Management and Tec de Monterrey postgraduate students proves there are at least seven more ideas that the President should consider incorporating into his strategy:
1. A hard line political and militarily line is needed, but we should recognize this is not the path to a solution. This part of the strategy should be seen as mere containment. Just like the Planarian worms if you try to cut the head off a criminal organization, it will grow back and sometimes even multiply , but you need to keep doing so to prevent the worm from growing stronger.
2. Strengthen the rule of law. Don’t just prosecute dealing. Make possession and consumption outside of tolerance areas punishable by law. Help law enforcement not just by providing better salaries, but by providing the means for officials to get access to credit and health insurance. Bring the police back to your side. Work with
3. Accept that the problem is not going to go away entirely. Create drug-use and related industry tolerance zones (relocate casinos and gentleman’s clubs) and tax entry to these areas. Inject the funds allocated though taxation of unhealthy habits into the comprehensive strategy to combat drug-related violence.
4. Create an alliance with the media. Get the national media to understand that its sensationalism is hurting
5. A comprehensive strategy to strengthen education. This does not relate to the naïve idea that educated people don’t do drugs. However, better schools give children the tools to go out into the world and to have better possibilities of succeeding with an honest job. Investing in education does not just mean a “Don’t do drugs” campaign. It should be seen as a long-term strategy to make it harder for drug dealers to recruit “mules.”
6. Make the economy work for you. Drug consumption in
7. Make it easier for businesses to become your allies. Instead of overtaxing private enterprise, the government should provide incentives to grow. This creates more jobs. People with full-time jobs that are fairly paid have neither the time nor the need to engage in illicit activity. Help business by running an international public relations campaign. Just like he recently did in
Mr. President, you need to be more intelligent and creative than they are.
*Arjan Shahani is a contributing blogger to AmericasQuarterly.org. He lives in Monterrey, Mexico, and is an MBA graduate from Thunderbird University and Tecnológico de Monterrey and a member of the International Advisory Board of Global Majority—an international non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of non-violent conflict resolution.
Monday, February 15, 2010
$57.7-million fence added to an already grueling illegal immigration route
Reporting from San Diego - The border barrier dips and curves, zigs and zags, hugging the mountain's contours like a slimmed-down version of the Great Wall of China.
Among the costliest stretch of fencing ever built on the U.S.-Mexico border, the 3.6-mile wall of steel completed last fall is meant to block trafficking routes over Otay Mountain, just east of San Diego.
People seeking to enter the country illegally have hiked the scrub-covered, tarantula-infested peak for years, trying to get to roads leading to San Diego.
"We're no longer conceding this area to smugglers," said Jerome C. Conlin, a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman.
But critics are bewildered. Why, they ask, would people determined to scale a rugged, 3,500-foot peak be deterred by an 18-foot-high fence? They also point out that the Department of Homeland Security deemed it unnecessary in 2006.
"I think it's a Bush-era boondoggle that will have almost no consequence in terms of stemming the flow of immigration," said Char Miller, director of the environmental analysis program at Pomona College. "It was a political decision that took in no account of the environment itself, and in the process damages what was once a pretty remarkable landscape."
The $57.7-million project is one segment in the massive expansion of border infrastructure approved by Congress during George W. Bush's presidency. Homeland Security has erected fencing in small towns, remote valleys and high-desert mesas from the Pacific Ocean to Texas.
At about $16 million a mile, the Otay Mountain barrier cost about four times as much as similar border fencing built during this expansion, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
The Border Patrol's San Diego sector was already one of the country's most heavily fortified frontiers before the mountain fence was constructed, with about 40 of the sector's 60 miles lined with vehicle or pedestrian barriers.
The fencing shifted immigrant flows to remote areas in the backcountry east of San Diego. But some migrants decided to climb Otay Mountain because of its proximity to a warehouse district in San Diego and its easy access on the Mexican side, where the Tijuana-Tecate toll road lies only a few hundred yards away.
Immigrants dropped off at staging grounds off the toll road headed up steep trails into the U.S. Their hikes through canyons and over the arid peak could take up to three days. With limited road access on the mountain, agents simply waited for people to descend to make arrests.
The lack of fencing did not seem to be a problem, said then-U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Richard Kite, interviewed in a 2006 article in the Arizona Daily Star. At Otay Mountain, "you simply don't need a fence. It's such harsh terrain it's difficult to walk, let alone drive," Kite said. "There's no reason to disrupt the land when the land itself is a physical barrier."
The agency said it changed course after reevaluating conditions in the area. Daryl Reed, a current Border Patrol spokesman, said strategies are in constant flux depending on quickly shifting migrant flows and smuggler activity.
"As we continue in our mission, we're always reevaluating situations," Reed said. "We're always going to adapt and change."
One analyst suggested that pressure from Congress to complete about 700 miles of fence led federal officials to approve some questionable projects.
"There's no question that there's tactical justification for certain fencing, but when you set up a target like that, it inevitably means that they're going to build fencing where the tactical justification is weak, and this sounds like one of those places," said Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
But others doubted that border authorities would spend resources in an area that didn't need it.
"If there were other better places to build fencing, then I'm confident the Border Patrol would build it there," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
When the federal government broke ground last year, environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, said the project would damage the Otay Mountain Wilderness. Portions of the fence and the 5-mile access road lie in the federally protected area.
The federal government, trying to expedite construction of border fencing, waived more than 30 environmental laws in 2008, including the Wilderness Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and others that environmentalists said applied to the Otay area.
Contractors had to cut roads, remove boulders, bulldoze hillsides and remove about 530,000 cubic yards of rock to build the Otay fence, which consists of steel posts 4 inches apart topped with metal plates.
It's not clear whether the fence has been a deterrent.
Since the barrier's completion in October, illegal activity has declined and there have been few signs of people trying to cut or breach the fence, authorities say.
"Having this fence here is definitely going to slow them down. . . . It increases our probability of catching them," said Conlin, the Border Patrol spokesman.
But others say the fence's effectiveness hasn't been truly tested because fewer immigrants have been attempting to cross anywhere on the border due to the economic slowdown.
The funding, they said, could have been better spent hiring more agents or building infrastructure in other areas.
When the economy improves, the mountain will once again draw immigrants, fence or no fence, said Pedro Rios, director of the American Friends Service Committee in San Diego.
"It seems to me, if someone is able to climb the mountains in the Otay Wilderness, a 15-foot wall will not make a difference," he said.
richard.marosi@latimes.com
Among the costliest stretch of fencing ever built on the U.S.-Mexico border, the 3.6-mile wall of steel completed last fall is meant to block trafficking routes over Otay Mountain, just east of San Diego.
People seeking to enter the country illegally have hiked the scrub-covered, tarantula-infested peak for years, trying to get to roads leading to San Diego.
"We're no longer conceding this area to smugglers," said Jerome C. Conlin, a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman.
But critics are bewildered. Why, they ask, would people determined to scale a rugged, 3,500-foot peak be deterred by an 18-foot-high fence? They also point out that the Department of Homeland Security deemed it unnecessary in 2006.
"I think it's a Bush-era boondoggle that will have almost no consequence in terms of stemming the flow of immigration," said Char Miller, director of the environmental analysis program at Pomona College. "It was a political decision that took in no account of the environment itself, and in the process damages what was once a pretty remarkable landscape."
The $57.7-million project is one segment in the massive expansion of border infrastructure approved by Congress during George W. Bush's presidency. Homeland Security has erected fencing in small towns, remote valleys and high-desert mesas from the Pacific Ocean to Texas.
At about $16 million a mile, the Otay Mountain barrier cost about four times as much as similar border fencing built during this expansion, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
The Border Patrol's San Diego sector was already one of the country's most heavily fortified frontiers before the mountain fence was constructed, with about 40 of the sector's 60 miles lined with vehicle or pedestrian barriers.
The fencing shifted immigrant flows to remote areas in the backcountry east of San Diego. But some migrants decided to climb Otay Mountain because of its proximity to a warehouse district in San Diego and its easy access on the Mexican side, where the Tijuana-Tecate toll road lies only a few hundred yards away.
Immigrants dropped off at staging grounds off the toll road headed up steep trails into the U.S. Their hikes through canyons and over the arid peak could take up to three days. With limited road access on the mountain, agents simply waited for people to descend to make arrests.
The lack of fencing did not seem to be a problem, said then-U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Richard Kite, interviewed in a 2006 article in the Arizona Daily Star. At Otay Mountain, "you simply don't need a fence. It's such harsh terrain it's difficult to walk, let alone drive," Kite said. "There's no reason to disrupt the land when the land itself is a physical barrier."
The agency said it changed course after reevaluating conditions in the area. Daryl Reed, a current Border Patrol spokesman, said strategies are in constant flux depending on quickly shifting migrant flows and smuggler activity.
"As we continue in our mission, we're always reevaluating situations," Reed said. "We're always going to adapt and change."
One analyst suggested that pressure from Congress to complete about 700 miles of fence led federal officials to approve some questionable projects.
"There's no question that there's tactical justification for certain fencing, but when you set up a target like that, it inevitably means that they're going to build fencing where the tactical justification is weak, and this sounds like one of those places," said Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
But others doubted that border authorities would spend resources in an area that didn't need it.
"If there were other better places to build fencing, then I'm confident the Border Patrol would build it there," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
When the federal government broke ground last year, environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, said the project would damage the Otay Mountain Wilderness. Portions of the fence and the 5-mile access road lie in the federally protected area.
The federal government, trying to expedite construction of border fencing, waived more than 30 environmental laws in 2008, including the Wilderness Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and others that environmentalists said applied to the Otay area.
Contractors had to cut roads, remove boulders, bulldoze hillsides and remove about 530,000 cubic yards of rock to build the Otay fence, which consists of steel posts 4 inches apart topped with metal plates.
It's not clear whether the fence has been a deterrent.
Since the barrier's completion in October, illegal activity has declined and there have been few signs of people trying to cut or breach the fence, authorities say.
"Having this fence here is definitely going to slow them down. . . . It increases our probability of catching them," said Conlin, the Border Patrol spokesman.
But others say the fence's effectiveness hasn't been truly tested because fewer immigrants have been attempting to cross anywhere on the border due to the economic slowdown.
The funding, they said, could have been better spent hiring more agents or building infrastructure in other areas.
When the economy improves, the mountain will once again draw immigrants, fence or no fence, said Pedro Rios, director of the American Friends Service Committee in San Diego.
"It seems to me, if someone is able to climb the mountains in the Otay Wilderness, a 15-foot wall will not make a difference," he said.
richard.marosi@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Mexicans march against drug killings in border city
In class we talked about how many people wanted a 'deal cut' so things could go back to the way they were two years ago. In every conflict there comes a point where such deals can no longer be cut. With the esclation of violence in Juarez I wonder just how close we are to the point where deals could not longer but cut with the drug cartels to resolve the issue.
But whatever happens it needs to happen fast, if Juarez loses its skilled workforce that will only drive the poverty and poverty will provide power to the very people who are creating such an unstable city.
Your thoughts on the topic?
Mexicans march against drug killings in border city
Sun, Feb 14, 2010
Reuters
By Julian Cardona
CIUDAD JUAREZ - Residents of this border city caught in Mexico's bloody drug war staged a protest march on Saturday against President Felipe Calderon and an army crackdown that has failed to curb rampant killings.
Several hundred people chanted for the military to leave Ciudad Juarez, which has suffered more than 4,300 drug gang murders since troops were deployed in the city two years ago in a clampdown that has fanned turf wars between rival cartels.
Tempers flared in this manufacturing city on the U.S. border after gunmen burst into a teenage birthday party last month and killed 13 high school students and two adults.
"Go away, Calderon, resign," shouted Luz Davila, who lost both her sons in the shooting. Davila broke through security during a visit by the president this week to attack him verbally over the incident.
Calderon was in Ciudad Juarez on Thursday to pledge money for social programs as a way to stem a culture of violence that goes back years in the city. Critics see him looking increasingly weak against the ruthless trafficking cartels.
Students dressed in army-style garb holding mock cardboard rifles were among black-clad protesters at Saturday's march.
"We are not going to let them continue killing our sons, our youth, our daughters," said Paula Flores, whose son was abducted and murdered a decade ago.
Midway into his six-year term, Calderon is still popular in Mexico but opinion polls show that a drug war death toll of more than 18,000 since he took power in late 2006 is undermining confidence in his vow to beat the cartels.
As well as frightening local residents, Mexico's drug violence is worrying the U.S. government, tourists and foreign investors.
At a tense meeting with activists and church leaders on Thursday, Calderon promised more schools, parks, clinics and welfare in the city, surrounded by shantytowns and garbage dumps, where residents often witness open-air shootouts and murder victims hung from bridges.
Some U.S. companies are holding off increasing investment in Ciudad Juarez because of the violence, and middle-class residents are fleeing, threatening to leave the city of 1.2 million people without the skilled workforce it needs to operate its factories.
But whatever happens it needs to happen fast, if Juarez loses its skilled workforce that will only drive the poverty and poverty will provide power to the very people who are creating such an unstable city.
Your thoughts on the topic?
Mexicans march against drug killings in border city
Sun, Feb 14, 2010
Reuters
By Julian Cardona
CIUDAD JUAREZ - Residents of this border city caught in Mexico's bloody drug war staged a protest march on Saturday against President Felipe Calderon and an army crackdown that has failed to curb rampant killings.
Several hundred people chanted for the military to leave Ciudad Juarez, which has suffered more than 4,300 drug gang murders since troops were deployed in the city two years ago in a clampdown that has fanned turf wars between rival cartels.
Tempers flared in this manufacturing city on the U.S. border after gunmen burst into a teenage birthday party last month and killed 13 high school students and two adults.
"Go away, Calderon, resign," shouted Luz Davila, who lost both her sons in the shooting. Davila broke through security during a visit by the president this week to attack him verbally over the incident.
Calderon was in Ciudad Juarez on Thursday to pledge money for social programs as a way to stem a culture of violence that goes back years in the city. Critics see him looking increasingly weak against the ruthless trafficking cartels.
Students dressed in army-style garb holding mock cardboard rifles were among black-clad protesters at Saturday's march.
"We are not going to let them continue killing our sons, our youth, our daughters," said Paula Flores, whose son was abducted and murdered a decade ago.
Midway into his six-year term, Calderon is still popular in Mexico but opinion polls show that a drug war death toll of more than 18,000 since he took power in late 2006 is undermining confidence in his vow to beat the cartels.
As well as frightening local residents, Mexico's drug violence is worrying the U.S. government, tourists and foreign investors.
At a tense meeting with activists and church leaders on Thursday, Calderon promised more schools, parks, clinics and welfare in the city, surrounded by shantytowns and garbage dumps, where residents often witness open-air shootouts and murder victims hung from bridges.
Some U.S. companies are holding off increasing investment in Ciudad Juarez because of the violence, and middle-class residents are fleeing, threatening to leave the city of 1.2 million people without the skilled workforce it needs to operate its factories.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
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