Frontera NorteSur
March  2003

March 28, 2003
TB Arrives to Nuevo Laredo with Immigrants from the Mexican Interior

Nuevo Laredo has a high rate of tuberculosis due to continued immigration from the Mexican interior, said Víctor Javier Solalinde Silva, the coordinator for Nuevo Laredo's tuberculosis (TB) program. Despite the city's work to eradicate the disease, its presence will continue as ever more people bring the disease with them when they arrive to the border city, he stated.

A city of over 300,000 people according to a Tamaulipas government web site, Nuevo Laredo registered 226 cases of TB in 2002. Solalinde also stated that at least 200 cases are detected every year and the majority of TB patients are cured of their disease. A Nuevo Laredo health center detects 65% of TB in the city, while the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social system finds 30% of new cases and the Instituto del Seguro Social al Servicio de los Trabajadores del Estado (State Workers' Insurance System) discovers the remaining 5%. 

"So far this year, 35 cases of TB have been detected, a short way from our goal, and this is because detection efforts have been intensified. The problem is severe but to some degree the number of new cases is normal," Solalinde stated.  "The average age of carriers is between 18 and 50, and it's rarely found in children: of 200 cases only two would be found in children."

According to Solalinde, people with weak immune systems are more likely to carry the disease. At risk populations include diabetics, the malnourished and drug addicts. 

Solalinde also stated that the Mexican government has implemented a program to completely eradicate TB. Under this program, people that suffer from the disease receive free treatment. 

Source: El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), March 28, 2003. Article by Mónica Lobo. 

March 20, 2003
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. 

March 11, 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. 

February 21, 2003
Nuevo Laredo Follows Rest of Border in Preparing Itself for Possible Terrorist Acts

The possibility of war in Iraq and the US's move to a terror alert status of orange has impacted Mexican border society in numerous ways. Waits to cross into the US from Mexico are at their longest since the months following September 11 and, in Cd. Juárez, they have again reached three hours in duration. 

In Tijuana, immigration officials are paying extra attention to Iraqi Christian refugees who for years have used that city as a gateway to California and other parts of the US. All along the border, Mexican health and emergency officials in major cities are looking at plans to deal with weapons of mass destruction that might be targeted at cross-border US cities. Some cities are also seeing the return of Mexico's Federal Preventative Police, especially intelligence units, which were recalled to Mexico City in January 2003 for customs training. 

In Nuevo Laredo, health officials are working closely with US officials, taking daily samples of Rio Grande water, and making regular reports on the sorts of illnesses they encounter, said Bernardo Rodríguez Mante, director of the Jurisdicción Sanitaria V, a local health office. 

Rodríguez said that given the expectation of war between the US and Iraq, health officials are not ruling out a bioterrorist attack against the waters of the Rio Grande. Water quality is being monitored on a daily basis with help from the local water utility, the Comisión Municipal de Agua (Comapa). Their intent is to discover unusual bacteria in river water. 

Rodríguez acknowledged that the US is ahead of Mexico in preparing for an attack on the Rio Grande. While US water utilities could use other sources of water in case of an attack on the river, Mexico could not do so and would have to respond by treating sick people and turning off the water supply, he said.

At a recent Nuevo Laredo meeting attended by Rodríguez and the leaders of other city entities, city government was criticized for not looking for alternative sources of water in case of an emergency. 

Mexican Army General Harold Henry Rabling Torres said at the meeting that the Army would help supply needed goods to the Nuevo Laredo in case of a terrorist attack. However, he noted that the Army's current focus in the area is to stop drug trafficking. 

Besides the efforts being made to secure the Rio Grande water supply in case of terrorist attack, Nuevo Laredo health officials are making monthly, weekly and even daily reports of diseases they encounter, especially any strange diseases. This is being done in hopes of catching any terrorist released diseases before they can cause harm. 

Source: El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), February 21, 2003. Article by Javier Claudio. La Crónica (Mexicali), February 14, 2003. El Diario (Ciudad Juárez), February 21, 2003.