Dysfunctional Juarez--The war to get to the US drug market

Houston Chronicle:

In this carnage-racked border city of 1.3 million, more than 80 murders have been clocked in the past three weeks, and kidnappings, extortions, robberies and rapes further bedevil an already rattled population.

So far, the new year looks to be bringing as much, if not more, havoc than the last.

“Walking in the streets of Juarez is an extreme sport,” said political scientist Tony Payan, an expert on border violence, repeating a grim quip making the rounds.

Though little more than 1 percent of Mexico’s 105 million population lives in Juarez, it accounted for almost one-third of the country’s nearly 5,400 gangland murders last year, according to the federal government. And with President Felipe Calderon’s war on the country’s powerful drug syndicates unlikely to abate, this city bordering El Paso looks to remain a prime battleground.

Some U.S. security experts warn that Mexico teeters on meltdown — of being a “failed state.” Mexican leaders shrug off the notion, but Juarez’s criminal chaos wails like a siren before an approaching storm.

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Mexico is far from a failed state, but Juarez is not far from being a failed city. It seems to be ground zero for the criminal insurgency that is plaguing Mexico. There are other hot spots such as Sinoloa and Tijuana.

While Mexico has used troops to try to get a handle on the violence so far they have not used enough and they have not executed the counterinsurgency strategy needed to protect the people and get the information they need to destroy the criminal insurgents. The police are overwhelmed and inadequate to the task of dealing with the insurgents. Those who are not on the take are killed and those who are on the take from rivals are killed.

Juarez used to be one of may favorite border cities. It had great restaurants and a competitive market. But, now it is not a place I would go for any reason.

One of the things the US needs to look at is why Juarez is so important to the drug insurgents. It appears to be seen as a key gateway into the US markets for narcotics. That suggest that on our side of the border with Juarez there are valuable contacts in the distribution network. We need to focus on who those people are and put them out of business. If we did that the fight in Juarez would go away.