Hundreds of federal police, soldiers deployed to fight drug traffickers

By ALFREDO CORCHADO / The Dallas Morning News

MEXICO CITY – Hundreds of federal police and soldiers were patrolling the Mexican border cities of Reynosa and Matamoros on Monday, marking a new chapter in Mexico's deadly war against drug traffickers.

During the weekend, an estimated 600 federal officers and at least six military tanks assumed posts in the two cities. Reynosa and Matamoros are across the border from McAllen and Brownsville, respectively.

The deployments were in response to the abduction and execution of six prison employees last week in Matamoros by suspected drug smugglers, an apparent challenge to the government of President Vicente Fox.

"President Fox has reacted with courage, and we welcome the presence of the federal government," said Omehira López, a Reynosa councilwoman and member of the nongovernmental Center for Border Studies and the Promotion of Human Rights, based in Reynosa.

"The federal presence doesn't mean we're necessarily immune from drug violence, but I think we feel a lot safer knowing the federal government is now involved."

In 2004, Tamaulipas state registered about 70 drug-related killings and more than 120 kidnappings, according to the Center for Border Studies.

Tamaulipas state is the base of operations for the so-called Gulf cartel, which ships vast quantities of cocaine, marijuana and amphetamines earmarked for major U.S. cities from New York to Chicago and Dallas.

U.S. consuls have issued advisories against travel to Reynosa and nearby Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo. Twenty-six Americans have been kidnapped there in the last six months, and several have been killed.

There are also plans to place troops in Tampico and Nuevo Laredo, federal officials said. One Mexican official said operations could take place in other border towns, including Ciudad Juárez and Tijuana.

Ramón Martín Huerta, head of the federal police, said the government was prepared to take all the "necessary measures to fight organized crime, which is trying to challenge the Mexican state."

Last week, Mr. Fox called the killing of the six prison employees a direct challenge to the state and vowed to wage the "mother of all fights" against powerful drug traffickers. "We'll respond with all the might of the state," he said.

The Fox administration takes credit for making inroads against drug gangs, noting that more than 160,000 drug traffickers and other criminals have been jailed since Mr. Fox took office in 2000.

This has been a bloody new year for Mexico, particularly its border communities. For weeks, bodies have been turning up in the trunks of cars, soccer fields, abandoned lots and homes along the border, signs that the war between the Juárez and Gulf cartels, two of Mexico's most powerful drug gangs, is escalating.