OFFICIALS: VIGILANTES WILL WORSEN VIOLENCE

More On The Violence In Juarez

A potential rise in vigilante justice in Juarez would escalate an
already dangerous situation, elected officials and researchers said
Friday, the day after the so-called Juarez Citizens Command issued a
threat to kill one criminal every 24 hours.

As of Friday evening, no deaths had been linked to the previously
unheard of organization, which stated in an e-mail news release on
Thursday that it would issue a manifesto in a few days with its goals
for restoring order in Juarez.

"There is a call for the public to remain calm," said Andres Andreu, a
Juarez representative in the Chihuahua state congress.

"In anger, this could start an uncontrollable wave of unjust deaths,"
Andreu said in a statement condemning vigilantism and urging
authorities to do more to stop the violence. "Movements of this nature
are directed more by a sense of vengeance than of justice."

Frustration in Juarez has been growing over a year long crime wave
spurred by a drug cartel war that left more than 1,600 dead last year,
and over kidnappings for ransom, extortion and robberies that continue
despite efforts by the police and military.

It was still unknown whether the group, named Comando Ciudadano por
Juarez, is legitimate but it would be a logical evolution in a
community bludgeoned by crime, said Howard Campbell, an anthropology
professor at the University of Texas at El Paso.

"What (vigilantism) says is people do not think the government can fix
the violence," Campbell said. "You have to remember, there is the
whole history -- the killing of the women and the drug killings. The
common person feels there is no one to protect them."

The CCJ claimed it is not linked to any political party and that it is
financed by business people tired of being victimized.

The environment exists for the creation for a group such as the CCJ,
Campbell said. However, he added, "this could be three college kids
playing around on a computer."

If the CCJ is real, Howard said, it could be reminiscent of Los Pepes,
assassins who in the early 1990s targeted relatives and associates of
drug lord Pablo Escobar in Colombia.

It was rumored that Los Pepes might have had links to rival drug
traffickers or government special forces, including those in the
United States.

Lynchings, mob beatings and other forms of vigilante justice are not
unheard of in Mexico and other parts of Latin America, often because
of lack of trust in government and law enforcement
authorities.

University of Washington sociologist Angelina S. Godoy, who has
researched lynchings in Latin America, said that she wasn't familiar
with the situation in Juarez but that vigilantes can be moved by a
variety of factors.

"There are cases were people are motivated by sheer desperation by
high crime rates. There are other cases of death squads doing the
bidding of political and financial interests," Godoy said.

Vigilantism is "extremely dangerous," Godoy said. "It represents a
total breakdown of order and due process."