FNS provides on-line news coverage of the US-Mexico border

Located at the Ciudad Juárez base of the Santa Fe international bridge, this cross was erected in memory of the city's nearly 90 serial-killing victims that have died since 1993. Attached to each nail is the name of one of the victims. Photo courtesy of Patty Lamson

FNS Special Report: “Operation Chihuahua Plus”: A Textbook Case of Drug War Failure?

More than one year after Mexican soldiers were deployed in Ciudad Juarez to combat organized crime and drug trafficking, the Calderon administration’s military strategy is in crisis. Killings continue at the same or worse rate as last year, and drugs continue circulating on both sides of the border.......Continued..

The plaza in downtown Matamoros.
 

The Border's Agent Orange Controversy

In the Vietnam War, the United States sprayed vast tracts of land with the chemical defoliant Agent Orange as part of a counter-insurgency strategy aimed at removing forest cover for Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces. Although the toxic dioxin released by Agent Orange was later blamed by US veterans’ groups and Vietnamese officials for illnesses and diseases that struck thousands of former US soldiers and upwards of four million Vietnamese citizens, the US Supreme Court ecently refused to consider a case by pursued by Vietnamese plaintiffs

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La Rumorosa, a mountain range near Méxicali, where many migrants have died in harsh weather conditions.
 

Femicide in Baja California

One day in May, passerby spot a woman’s body in an irrigation ditch next to a wheat field on the outskirts of Mexicali, Baja California. Though no one seems to know the identity of the murdered woman, the half-clothed victim is quickly assumed to a prostitute because of the manner of her
dress............Continued . .

Downtown Tijuana viewed from Ecoparque, an alternative waste water treatment center.

Border “Colombianization” Expands

Baja California Attorney General Rommel Moreno Manjarrez has announced that Colombian specialists will provide anti-kidnapping training to state law enforcement officials. Members of the Colombian National Police were in Baja California this week to lay the groundwork for the training which will be offered to 35 personnel attached to the state attorney general’s office. Officers selected for the training will be vetted by the Colombians, Moreno said. .... Continued...

Editor's Note

The following article is the first in what is hoped will be a series of pieces exploring the history, culture, economy, and environment of the New Mexico-Mexico borderlands in the era after New Mexico gained statehood in 1912. The series is meant to be part of the Centennial commemoration that is gradually getting off the ground in New Mexico. Partial support for this article was provided by a grant from the Centennial of New Mexico Steering Committee. ...Continued...