JUAREZ VIOLENCE: U.S. ASSISTANCE IS CONSIDERED, WARRING CARTELS MAY
TRY FOR TRUCE

EL PASO -- The deadly street shootings, decapitations and other
killings in Juarez are taking place at a higher pace than at the same
time last year even as talk of a drug cartel truce has increased
along with the U.S. role on Mexican soil.

The number of homicides in the Juarez area has surged past 130
already this month, according to an El Paso Times tally, an increase
over the 37 homicides recorded by Chihuahua state investigators in
January 2008. Last year, 1,609 homicides occurred.

Juarez is considered the current murder capital of Mexico, but
killings have also flared across the state of Chihuahua and in other
parts of Mexico.

The Dallas Morning News, citing anonymous sources, reported that if
the bloodbath escalates, U.S. officials are contemplating the
possibility of an enhanced U.S. role in battling Mexican drug
cartels, including joint operations with Mexican forces and the
involvement of U.S. contractors, military and intelligence personnel.
Mexico historically has resisted any type of interference by the U.S.
on its territory, but it has allowed U.S. law enforcement agencies to
have offices in Mexican cities. Mexico has also recently cooperated
with the U.S. and has extradited drug traffickers to the U.S.

The U.S. has had agents in Mexico for several decades, including the
U.S. Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the
FBI, which share intelligence with Mexican authorities.

The FBI has offices in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Hermosillo and
Tijuana and a suboffice in Monterrey, according to the bureau's Web
site. The DEA has offices in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Hermosillo,
Mazatlan, Merida, Monterrey, Tijuana and Juarez.

U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, chairman of the House Permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence, said that the U.S. is trying to
help Mexico fight the violence and that Mexican President Felipe
Calderon told the U.S. during a meeting recently in Washington, D.C.,
that 93 percent of the people killed in the crime wave are connected
to drug cartels.

"The only thing I want to say is that the situation is very serious
and very critical," Reyes said. "It is a danger because the cartels
are fighting among each other, and the Calderon administration has
decided to take on this issue of the cartels and criminal gangs.

"It is not helpful when people talk about this potential agreement
that may or may not be taking place with Mexico. Obviously, the less
that is said about that the better. I regret people speculating like
they were in that story in the Dallas Morning News -- that doesn't
help the effort. That continues to stir up the concerns (and) the
mistrust that exist in that situation."

The violence among the drug cartels may eventually be settled by the
cartels themselves.

On Dec. 11, representatives of several drug cartels met at a seafood
restaurant in Culiacan, Sinaloa, to form a truce because the fighting
is interfering with the regular business of narco-trafficking, the
Rio Doce weekly in Sinaloa reported earlier this month.

The Rio Doce report stated that the gathering included
representatives of reputed drug lords Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman,
Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, the Beltran Leyva brothers, Vicente
Carrillo Fuentes of the Juarez cartel and the Arrellano Felix family
of Tijuana.

The deal among cartels reportedly is supposed to be reviewed Friday.

Meanwhile, the slayings continue in Juarez.

Eleven homicides occurred in Juarez on Sunday, seven on Monday, six
on Tuesday and nine on Wednesday. And on Thursday, at least six men
had been killed by the evening, including an unidentified man found
tied up and stabbed to death not far from the new U.S. Consulate,
state police said.

Murders spurred by drug cartel war, along with a rise in extortion,
kidnappings, bank robberies and auto thefts across the state of
Chihuahua, were the topic of a meeting Thursday among law enforcement
and government officials in Chihuahua City.

Chihuahua Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza said in a statement that authorities
have to come up with "extraordinary resources" to find a way to
safeguard banks and industrial and commercial sites.

"We have to set a goal for ourselves in the year 2009 to a
substantial decrease in bank robberies, for example," Reyes Baeza
said. "We cannot have another year like 2008."

The violence in Juarez has continued for more than a year despite
additions to the local police force and the deployment of an
estimated 2,000 soldiers and federal police to the city.

In Chihuahua City on Tuesday night, two police officers were shot and
killed a few blocks apart in the state capital city's downtown. State
police said Gerardo Olivas Almanza, 26, was killed when gunmen fired
at his patrol vehicle, and officer Luis Aguilar Larrazolo, 39, was
shot to death a few blocks away.

The police shootings were in addition to six men killed in various
slayings that same day in the Chihuahua City area.