Frontera NorteSur May 2000

"It is Time To End This Nightmare"

After months of security summits, Army patrols, mixed cells, more money, more federal agents, helicopters, airplanes, x-ray machines, increased checkpoints, and rhetoric all aimed at fighting drug trafficking violence, there has been no discernable effect on the activities of criminal organizations in and around Ciudad Juárez. After a month of little or no change, public opinion is beginning to turn sharply against authorities.

Critics from all quarters of Juárez and Chihuahua society denounced police and government officials throughout March and April for what El Diario called "the climate of insecurity all over the city." The verbal attacks, especially against police agencies, were the most intense and direct expression of dissent against authorities on the issue of drug trafficking violence since the 1997 public executions that followed the alleged death of drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes.

Newspapers displayed banner headlines proclaiming "The Anti-Crime Plan Is a Failure" and "Mafias Re-Take the Streets." Business leaders, activists, and even politicians joined in the chorus of voices enraged over the seeming inability of law enforcement to do anything about organized crime in Ciudad Juárez.

"The new [execution] victims are evidence of the impunity with which criminal organizations operate," said El Norte.

"It is time that Chihuahuan authorities . . . impose the necessary conditions to end this long, long nightmare," said an El Diario editorial.

Governor Patricio Martínez of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) made a dramatic break with the nation's federal police (PGR) March 30, saying the agency has "been worthless in combatting the problem" of drug-trafficking violence. Martinez' denunciation of  the PGR came only a week after the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) alleged that the PGR was "infiltrated by drug-traffickers" and that PGR head Jorge Madrazo Cuellar was "paralyzed by corruption" within the agency. On March 28, the PGR was rocked by the attempted assassination of one of its highest officials in Mexico City.

"As of today, [the PGR] has put up no battle, has done nothing to investigate and solve the crimes that we have here," the governor said. "Groups of drug traffickers have a situation of impunity that simply cannot continue."

Federal Police Checkpoints Denounced

Martínez was especially enraged by the PGR's Precos operations (bridge and highway police), which conduct checkpoint searches on Chihuahua highways. "The Precos arrest every one in the whole world except the drug traffickers," he said.

Martínez suggested that the PGR remove the Precos installation in Samalayuca which he said has committed "constant abuses." Within a span of a few days at the end of March, five citizens denounced checkpoint police whom they alleged maltreated them and extorted money from them.

"They make few seizures, but there are still many executions," said local activist Esther Chávez Cano, director of the Casa Amiga Crisis Center, in reference to the Precos agents.

Victoria Caraveo, leader of Mujeres Por Juárez, was even more direct: "We have more security units but less security. And more corruption inside these same agencies."

City councilors from all three major parties all attacked Precos in an April 6 meeting. Paolo Gómez said that "the militarization of the state has done nothing to stop crime and drug trafficking." Priista councilor José Seade said the Precos agents "molest the public" and that "they must be moved or asked to leave."  City business leaders also present at the meeting demanded that all checkpoint units be replaced.

The general secretary of the state government, Victor Emilio Anchondo, affirmed April 6 that the checkpoint police were "part of the public security program."

Security Summit Re-Evaluated, Criticized

The attacks on Precos came on the eve of the reunion to evaluate the effectiveness of the month-old Security Summit Anti-Crime Plan. However, even the co-authors of the plan did not show public support for it.

"It is going to be a brief reunion because there is nothing to evaluate," Martínez stated.

Juárez Mayor Gustavo Elizondo of the National Action Party (PAN) agreed that the plan--which calls for a combined municipal, state, and federal police effort--was not yet functioning according to the agreement.

"There is no coordination between authorities," he admitted. However, the mayor also said March 31 that "we believe we are on the right path." When asked about the necessity of Army patrols in the city, Elizondo replied that such work was "routine" for the military.

After the summit reunion, the mayor called for police officials to "intensify investigations" and asked the state for 60 to 80 million pesos ($6 to 8 million U.S.) to add to the existing 245 million pesos ($24.5 million U.S.) budgetted for the security plan. Part of the extra money would be spent to add 50 more municipal patrol units, he said.

Also, while in Washington, D.C. to defend the reputation of Ciudad Juárez, the mayor remarked that he believed his administration would facilitate a "30 percent reduction in violence" in the city.

Spokespersons for the PRI and the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) doubted Elizondo's claim. PRI spokesperson Joaquín Orozpe Enríquez asked "How? That is the question." He said he was especially concerned about the increasing number of cases of police corruption and abuse.

PRD leader Efrín David Gutíerrez Casas said that changing the name of the Juárez Cartel to the Cartel de Amado Carrillo "is not going the change to image of Ciudad Juárez."

The loan of a state helicopter to Ciudad Juárez--one of the outcomes of the original security summit plan--was also criticized by PAN and PRD leaders. PAN leaders said the helicopter was "useless" and a waste of money. One leader said it was simply "for show," something for which the Martínez administration could take credit. PRD leader Carlos Gutíerrez sarcastically referred to it as the "Patricóptero." He also asserted that not enough--less than fifty percent--of the 245 million pesos allocated for security measures was being spent in Ciudad Juárez. PAN leaders agreed that Juárez "is not receiving enough resources."

Also, during the summit reunion, El Diario ran an editorial sardonically entitled, "The Army: rah, rah, rah..."

PJF, Other Police Accused of Corruption

The increased police presence in Chihuahua and Juárez, part of the Security Summit plan, was an intense focus of public disaffection throughout March and April. In particular, the Federal Judicial Police (PJF), which operates under the supervision of the PGR, came in for heavy attack. An editorial in El Diario accused the PJF in Chihuahua of acting with "impunity."

"Limits must be imposed on the operation of the Federal Judicial Police in the state of Chihuahua," the editorial read.

While noting that corruption is not only within federal police corps, El Diario questioned the wisdom of placing more and more power within a centralized, federal police force. Instead, the paper said it would like to see true co-operation among city, state, and federal police agencies, and demanded that Chihuahua authorities "protest this model of centralization."

The PJF, whose agents and ex-agents have long been suspected of assisting in kidnappings and other drug trafficking crimes along the border, continued to attract negative publicity in Chihuahua as several PJF agents were arrested for various crimes. Five PJF agents were arrested between April 2 and April 13 for their alleged involvement in a February execution in Chihuahua City. Three more agents were arrested April 11 in the same city for alleged possession of cocaine.

PJF agents were also accused of assaulting two Chihuahua City transit agents between April 8 and 11. A transit agent stopped and detained a PGR commander who was allegedly driving while intoxicated in a car without plates, April 8. According to transit police, the officer who made the stop was assaulted by two PJF agents that night. Three days later, another transit officer was assaulted by PJF agents.

The PJF was not the only entity that made headlines for corruption. A state police (PJE) commander and three agents under his supervision were accused of stealing a half ton of seized marijuana in Guachochi, Chihuahua. In addition, several Juárez Municipal Police officers were detained by PJE agents in connection with a 1999 bank robbery.

Esther Chávez Cano told El Norte that many drugtraffickers and hit men are former police and government agents who began their "illicit actions" while in the public service.

Also, state senator Francisco Molina accused Army General Domiro García Reyes of knowingly allowing drugs to flow through through the border region to Onijaga. "It is well known that this zone of drug trafficking is flourishing," said Molina. A spokesman for the General refused to comment.

Finally, in the last month there were three reports of presumed drug traffickers who were allegedly--and in one case "inexplicably"--released from prison after serving only a few months of multi-year terms. In one of the cases, the state attorney general's office said the early release was approved by the state which sought to protect the convicted trafficker as a potential witness in other drug-related crimes. In another case, the trafficker was released early because of "good behavior." The third case, detailed in the related feature "State Turns Execution Investigations Over to Feds," could not be explained.

Business Community Blasts All Three Levels of Government

While some critics attacked specific police agencies and political parties for the recent public security failures, Juárez business leaders presented a more sweeping denunciation. On April 8, representatives of city corporations labelled all three levels of government "useless, ineffective, and incapable" of managing the anti-crime plan.

José Sigala Valero, president of Centro Empresarial, also criticized the corruption of the judicial system, and asked why local and state prosecutors are almost always ineffective.

The president of the National Chamber of Commerce, Héctor Armando Carréon León, said that the three-level security plan was "ineffective, inefficient, and insufficient."

While the intensity of the turn in public opinion in Ciudad Juárez is sudden, it is typical of public opinion all over México, according to writer Claudia Meléndez of California-based magazine El Andar.

"Most Mexicans . . . have very little trust in the system. Of all the crises México is suffering--poverty, substandard health care, substandard education, unemployment--the most worrisome may very well be the people's lack of trust," she wrote in an editorial published in the El Paso Times. "They don't trust their representatives; they don't trust the police; they barely trust their neighbors."

Meléndez said the levels of distrust were highest in México City and particularly in Tijuana, where she claimed there were 657 "Mafia-style killings" in 1999 and 578 "Mafia-style killings" in 1998.

The U.S. DEA, with its usual bluntness, said that the "México Mafia" is bigger than the Italian Mafia ever was. The DEA also said that Méxican authorities were "making no progress" against organized crime.

Sources: El Diario, El Norte, El Paso Times