The killing of a U.S. citizen working for the consulate in Ciudad Juárez and of a further two individuals linked to the consulate could prove another point of inflection in the Mexican government’s fight against drug-trafficking.
IHS
Global Insight Perspective
Significance: Demonstrating how seriously the Mexican government
is taking the recent killing of three people linked to the U.S. consulate in
Ciudad Juárez, President Felipe Calderón yesterday returned to the crime-ridden
border town to discuss the progress of the administration’s new anti-crime
strategy.
Implications: Although the reason why the two U.S. citizens, one
of whom worked for the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juárez, were targeted remains
unclear at present, the incident has intensified brewing U.S. concerns over a
potential spillover of drug-related violence and triggered new demands for the
strengthening of border controls. The high-profile killings also put new
question marks in front of the government’s anti-crime strategy.
Outlook: The impact of the incident on bilateral relations with
the United States will hinge on the outcome of investigations into the
killings; in the meanwhile, domestic pressure for another re-jig of the
government’s public security strategy will grow as public sympathy is starting
to wear thin and prospects for badly needed tangible short-term successes are
slim.
Ciudad Juárez Again in
the Spotlight
Accompanied by Foreign
Minister Patricia Espinosa and the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual,
President Felipe Calderón yesterday returned to the northern border town of
Ciudad Juárez. The visit—the president’s third in the last 45 days—was officially
aimed at monitoring the implementation of the government’s new anti-crime
strategy for the country’s most violent city. But the talks over the progress
of the "Everybody for Juárez" strategy were eclipsed by the recent
attacks, which led to the death of three people linked to the U.S. consulate in
the city. Foreign Minister Espinosa yesterday met with consulate staff to
express the condolences of the Mexican government. One of the people killed,
Lesley Enriquez, was an employee of the consulate. She was killed alongside her
husband, Arthur Redelfs, as they travelled back from a social event being
hosted by other consulate staff. The third victim, Mexican national Jorge
Alberto Salcido Ceniceros, was the husband of another consulate employee, who
was following her family in a separate car, returning from the same social
event as the other two victims. Preliminary investigations suggest that hit-men
linked to the "Aztecas" gang were responsible for the killings. The
Aztecas group is thought to be working for the local Juárez cartel, which is
fighting a bitter war for control over the strategically situated border town
with the Sinaloa cartel, led by Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.
The incident has
brought Ciudad Juárez under the spotlight once more. The border city hit the
international headlines in late January when a group of hit-men burst into a
party and cold-bloodedly killed 13 teenagers and two adults. Relatives claim
that none of the victims had links to organised crime gangs, a hypothesis
originally floated by the government . The incident prompted the government to
re-jig its security strategy for the crime-ridden city, but evidence that the
violence has slowed is hard to come by. So far, some 500 persons have been
killed in the city this year; during 2009, more than 2,600 homicides were
registered. According to unofficial statistics, Chihuahua, the state in which
Ciudad Juárez is located, accounted for almost a quarter of all killings
committed nationwide so far this year. The total number of drug-related murders
is currently estimated to run at just over 2,000 for this year.
Tourism Worries
Ciudad Juárez may be
the focal point of concerns over accelerating drug-related violence, but the
problems are by no means restricted to the city or, more broadly, the northern
border region. Violence has recently been accelerating in southern Guerrero
state, where the notorious La Familia Michoacana cartel is operating. According
to press reports, there were some 45 murders only last weekend including at
least 13 in the resort of Acapulco, an important tourist destination. While
Mexican tourism officials remain upbeat that visitors will continue to pour in
despite the uptick in violence, the U.S. and Canada have already upgraded their
travel warning for Mexico, even though the warnings are currently concentrated
on the (relatively tourist-free) northern border regions. There is a risk,
however, that continuing media reports on soaring drug violence might dissuade
international tourists from travelling to Mexico, thus possibly inflicting
further damage on an important economic sector that has already been badly hurt
by the outbreak of swine flu last year.
Outlook and
Implications
U.S. concerns over
soaring drug-related violence in Mexico have been growing strongly over the
last few weeks and the latest incident in Ciudad Juárez has intensified those
concerns. The immediate reaction of both sides has been to re-affirm the shared
commitment to security co-operation, but how exactly the incident will affect
bilateral relations will hinge on the outcome of the investigations into the killings.
Officials from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who have been
dispatched to the city to help investigations, have reportedly found no
evidence that the victims were targeted for either their nationality or their
links to the consulate. American officials have also ruled out the possibility
that U.S. security personnel could be conducting operations within the country.
But the incident is set to bring back to the table proposals to massively
strengthen border control. Only yesterday, Texan governor Rick Perry, who has a
pending request with the federal government to deploy 1,000 National Guardsmen
along the border, announced tougher border control measures. More broadly, a
growing discussion on the potential domestic dangers posed by Mexican
drug-cartels could further complicate the U.S. administration’s tepid moves
towards immigration reform in the country.
Following the January
killings, the incident could become the second event in Ciudad Juárez that
marks a turning point in the government’s fight against drug-cartels and
organised crime, blowing a further hole in its central argument that most
victims of the violent crime-wave are law enforcement officials or gangsters.
The government yesterday attempted to send an upbeat message, claiming that
violence in Ciudad Juárez has actually been sinking since January, but local
civil society organisations immediately expressed their doubts about the
government’s numbers. Pressure to withdraw the troops from the fight against
drug-trafficking is also increasing. Janet Napolitano, the U.S. secretary of
homeland security, yesterday joined the growing group of critics when she
suggested that the presence of the military has not been helpful in the fight
against crime. Facing strengthening headwinds, the government yesterday pledged
that its strategy will bear fruit within the next 100 days. This is a risky
promise. While the government’s new strategy for Ciudad Juárez moves,
principally, in the right direction, there is little evidence to suggest that
the city’s protracted problems can be successfully tackled within such a short
timeframe.
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30/07/2006| |
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27/07/2006| |
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27/07/2006| |
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21/07/2006| |
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20/07/2006| |
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20/07/2006| |
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18/07/2006| |
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16/07/2006| |
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13/07/2006| |
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12/07/2006| |
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12/07/2006| |
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07/07/2006| |
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07/07/2006| |
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06/07/2006| |
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29/06/2006| |
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29/06/2006| |
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29/06/2006| |
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29/06/2006| |
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28/06/2006| |
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26/06/2006| |
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26/06/2006| |
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21/06/2006| |
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21/06/2006| |
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20/06/2006| |
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20/06/2006| |
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04/06/2006| |
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09/05/2006| |
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03/05/2006| |
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03/05/2006| |
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03/05/2006| |
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03/05/2006| |
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18/02/2006| |
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04/02/2006| |
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04/02/2006| |
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29/01/2006| |
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23/09/2005| |
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