Nuevo Laredo Fears Simmer

Nuevo Laredo Fears Simmer

By KIRSTEN CROW
LAREDO MORNING TIMES

Two days after the most recent gunbattle between suspected drug traffickers and Mexican military forces, an uneasy calm settled over this embattled border city.

Early Saturday, the pulga vendors gathered on the streets to spread their wares over the hoods of cars and wait for the bargain shoppers.

Families strolled the sidewalks, carrying bags laden with groceries.

Even areas of heavy fighting in recent weeks — including Unidad Deportiva Benito Juarez, and Fundadores Infonavit, a housing project — appeared to revive with the stirrings of daily life of the people who call it home.

Throughout the city, there was little visible military presence aside from soldiers at Bridge I and II. Police presence, too, was hard to find.

One police truck was parked near Parque Viveros, a site subject to flashpoints of violence, and another was parked outside the Televisa studios, the site of a grenade assault one week ago.

A green van with shattered windows remained in the parking lot.

But despite the seeming respite from the bloodshed that wracked the city throughout July, experts remain concerned about the escalation of the violence — its frequency, intensity and growing numbers of indiscriminate attacks.

Howard Campbell, Ph.D., an anthropology professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, said that while there was once a “sort of idea of a gentleman’s agreement, the old mafia code of ‘Don’t mess with women, children and bystanders,’” it has ceased to exist.

“They are not caring anymore. There’s a bitter vendetta aspect to these intercartel (battles),” he said.

“(It’s more than) immediate claims to territory; it’s a desire to exterminate the other cartel.”
















Rules of engagement

While the most recent catalyst of violence is unverifiable, the consensus among officials has been that the firefights are the product of clashes among members of the Gulf Cartel; its former enforcement arm, Los Zetas; and military forces, including the Army and the Mexican Navy.

Of the three, the Zetas, in particular, have distinguished themselves not only in their brutality, but in their innovation, Campbell said — and that goes for warfare, too.

“They’re not following any rules, but creating their own rules of engagement that other groups copy,” he said.

“The Zetas were, in many ways, innovators… in this experimental organized crime model. (It’s) not just about drugs, but extortion, kidnapping and smuggling illegal immigrants.”

But as the Zetas control has grown, and as its ranks seceded from their former employer, the Gulf Cartel, so, too, has the threat against not only other cartels who challenge the group’s power, but also the government.

“The Mexican government wants to exterminate the Zetas,” Campbell said.

“I think the Zetas are a nightmare, and for that reason, the situation in Tamaulipas is so serious. …This is an attempt to become a mini-narco state.

They want to control the (authorities), if possible, by force, not necessarily by bribery, and that is something very threatening to the state.”