Frontera NorteSur April- May 2003

Roger Maier, El Paso spokesperson for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, told the El Paso Times that there are no plans to close the US-Mexico border in case of war between the US and Iraq. A rumor to the contrary has been circulating in recent days. More specifically, even if the US moved to the highest level of terror alert, which is red, the entire border would not be closed, according to Maier. 

"It would take an exceptional event, specific to one location to close the border at that location," Maier told the El Paso Times. "But the closing of the entire border is not even on the drawing board."

Maier is with the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection which was created on March 1, 2003 when the border inspection functions of the U.S. Customs Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and the U.S. Border Patrol, were transferred to the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection.

On September 11, 2001, in the immediate aftermath of the attacks on the US, it was also rumored that the entire US-Mexico border had been closed for security reasons. A number of border radio and television stations reported this even though it was false. 

In other security related news, the Ciudad Juárez police chief resigned on March 18, 2003. José Refugio Ruvalcaba Plascencia quit his position after just 43 days. While chief, he was criticized for traveling with an excessive number of armed guards and dressing flamboyantly. His support of a curfew for minors and the establishment of an investigative unit for the local police were both seen as unconstitutional by many Cd. Juárez observers. 

The new Cd. Juárez police chief is Ramón Domínguez Perea. Domínguez has a background in intelligence and in state and federal law enforcement. In 2001, Domínguez was city police chief for 16 days. 

In Cd. Juárez, the private sector has been very critical of the constant changes in law enforcement. Business leaders worry that the chiefs have not had time to implement new plans and evaluate them. 

Sources: El Paso Times, March 19, 2003. Articles by Louie Gilot. 
El Diario, March 19, 2003. Articles by Martín Orquiz and Rocío Gallegos. 

Tamaulipas On Alert Due to US-Iraq War

With the beginning of the US-Iraq war, Francisco Cayuela Villarreal, the Tamaulipas attorney general, has told all 600 Tamaulipas state police agents on the border with Texas that they are on call at all hours and will not receive vacation time, weekends or any other sort of leave.  

Cayuela also stated that the state police are concentrating their efforts on guaranteeing the safety of the international bridges that link Texas and Tamaulipas over the Rio Grande. Police are able to focus on the border crossings because the Mexican Army has sufficient personnel at Tamaulipas refineries, power stations and dams, he said. 

Cayuela told the Reynosa newspaper El Mañana that his office received a request from US officials a few days ago asking that the state police watch for Iraqis that my try and enter the US by way of Mexico. 

Health officials in Tamaulipas are also watching out for the well-being of the state. Héctor López, state secretary of health, told all Tamaulipas medical institutions and personnel to report any unusual illnesses to the health department. Vacation and leaves have also been cancelled for state health workers, according to an article in Nuevo Laredo's El Mañana newspaper. 

Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), March 20, 2003. El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), March 20, 2003. 

Border Prepared for Biochemical Attack? Nuevo Laredo Hit by Tear Gas

Even as the US tries to gain Mexico's support for its stance on Iraq, some Mexicans worry that their country is not sufficiently prepared for all the possible outcomes of a war or acts of terrorism that might expose Mexicans to biological or chemical agents. For example, Rafael Sandoval Hernández, the director of Civil Protection in Nuevo Laredo, said that his department has only ten chemical protection suits for its 50 employees. Tofic Salud Fares, Tamaulipas coordinator for Civil Protection, said that he and border safety directors are waiting for a manual to arrive from the US's Federal Emergency Management Agency that will instruct them how to respond to disasters. 

Rafael Sandoval stated that to further improve Nuevo Laredo's ability to respond to toxic substances, he has requested more equipment and will offer a three-day course to local safety and law enforcement officials about how to deal with biochemical attacks. Sandoval added that the March 24-26 course is also open to the public so that it can learn about how to properly respond to terror attacks. The course will be given by US and Mexican authorities, including people from the US's EPA, Sandoval told the Nuevo Laredo newspaper El Mañana. 

On March 28, city authorities will practice their newly learned skills when they respond to a simulated biochemical attack against international bridges One and Two. However, a recent event may be more telling about how the city reacts to chemical attack. 

At approximately 7:45 p.m. on Monday, March 10, people in a car drove through a number of Nuevo Laredo neighborhoods spraying tear gas. Approximately 49 people, mostly women and children, were hospitalized, 127 people were treated by doctors or firefighters and three hundred families were evacuated from their homes. Those affected experienced such things as eye, ear and nose irritation, vomiting and loss of consciousness. 

Besides police and firefighters, other organizations such as the Red Cross, Civil Protection, the National Emergency Commission, and volunteers responded. The Mexican Army did not implement its civil aid program but stood on alert until 11 p.m. 

Source: El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), March 11, 2003. Articles by Silvia Alvarez and Gabriela Hernandez. 

Ex-Mayor of Palermo Visits BC to Help Against Organized Crime

When organized-crime fighter Leoluca Orlando became mayor of Palermo, Sicily in 1985 there were 250 mafia-related murders in that city of approximately 700,000 people. Fifteen years later the city reported eight murders, none of which were related to organized crime. 

In Mexicali on Saturday, March 29, 2003 to talk about what Baja California can do to create a "culture of law," Orlando found himself in a state that has seen nearly 100 narco-related murders since the beginning of the year, according to the Mexicali newspaper La Crónica. However, Orlando said that Baja California's efforts to end organized-crime related murders show that the state is on the right path. 

In 1997, Orlando was in Tijuana for the first time, and had the impression that it was a city with characteristics similar to those of Palermo in the 1980s: that it was a city full of embarrassment and full of fear. Now, six years later, the former mayor of Palermo sees a city that is about more than just  insecurity and narcotrafficking. 

Orlando's strategy for Palermo, which he also suggests for BC, has three parts. Announce that change will take place, let people know that everyone has to change, and change some cultural characteristics and attitudes. 

As in many large Mexican cities, people often do not look at organized-crime related murders as "real" murders. Orlando says that this attitude has to change and that everyone has to begin denouncing narcotraffickers and killers. Once a substantial number of people begin blowing the whistle on crime, then it will be easier and much safer for others to do so. 

The full participation of the police is also necessary, according to Orlando. While police must be given the tools they need to arrest suspects, they also need to be monitored and integrated into the community because if they are left alone they will be corrupted, he said. 

Finally, cultural models have to be changed. Orlando states, ". . . you cannot have just legal punishment, there has to be also social, moral and cultural sentences . . .," against narcotraffickers. 

Orlando also believes that while wealth is important, it is not a value. To him, wealth founded on violence is not worth the price paid in fear and the resultant loss of freedom. 

Asked about former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who has been hired by Mexico City to help fight crime there, and about Giuliani's zero-tolerance style, Orlando said that zero-tolerance is just a tactic and can not alone win the war on crime. Laws, sentences and law-enforcement officers should be more humane, according to Orlando. Abuses of power by New York City police when Giulani was mayor show that zero tolerance can lead to another sort of violence: police violence. 

Source: La Crónica (Mexicali), March 31, 2003. Interview by Moisés Márquez.