Friday, January 9, 2009

U.S. Ready For Mexico Violence

A Border Patrol agent looked across the border Thursday on the levee between the Paso del Norte Bridge and the former Hacienda restaurant. (Victor Calzada / El Paso Times)

From El Paso Times:


EL PASO -- If Mexico's vicious drug war ever spills into El Paso, the United States has several response plans, one of which calls for a military surge along the U.S.-Mexico border, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said this week.

Chertoff has instructed the 22 federal agencies that fall under Homeland Security to develop border-violence response plans because the drug war in Mexico appears to be escalating, not ending. So far, more than 5,300 people have been killed across Mexico as rival drug cartels continue to fight over drug trafficking corridors.

One drug corridor at the center of the violence is the Juárez "plaza," where more than 1,600 people were killed last year. In Mexico, "plaza" refers to a drug cartel's territory.

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