GOV. PERRY WANTS U.S. TROOPS GUARDING BORDER

EL PASO - Gov. Rick Perry said he wants 1,000 troops to help guard
the Texas-Mexico border, and for the U.S. to fund strong security
measures to fight the Mexican drug cartels that have spread violence
and fear in Mexico, including Juarez.

"We're (also) asking the (Texas) Legislature for $135 million for
border security - to go after transnational gangs, for technology and
aviation assets, and for 1,000 troops," said Perry at a news
conference Tuesday at the Chamizal National Memorial.

"I don't care if they are military, National Guard or customs agents.
We're very concerned that the federal government is not funding
border security adequately. We must be ready for any contingency."

Other officials at the news conference included Mayor John Cook,
state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, Texas Homeland Security
Director Steve McCraw, El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen and former
U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey.

Shapleigh, who called his own news conference later, said he agreed
with some of Perry's proposals but not with using the military to
guard the border.

"No one in El Paso supports militarization of the border," Shapleigh
said. "I support 1,000 new effectively trained Border Patrol or
customs agents, but not the use of the military."

McCaffrey said the U.S. government spends $12 billion on Iraq and $2
billion on Afghanistan each month, "without taking into account what
is happening in Mexico."

Perry said the federal government needs to pay more attention
to security threats closer to home than either of those
two countries.

The federal Mexican National Commission of Human Rights reported that
organized crime had killed more than 10,000 people in Mexico since
2007. In Juarez, authorities said, drug violence was to blame for
taking nearly 1,900 lives since 2008.

"It is very likely that the levels of violence in Mexico will
worsen," McCaffrey said in a Feb. 19 report. "We in the United States
must be prepared to provide whatever assistance the government of
Mexico requires to defeat these criminal organizations."

McCaffrey, who teaches at West Point, is president of BR McCaffrey
Associates LLC, a consultant for government and private sector clients.

He, Perry and Shapleigh agreed that the $1.3 billion Merida
Initiative for Mexico and Central America does not include sufficient
resources for Mexico to take on the powerful drug organizations.

Given the right infusion of money to battle the cartels, Perry said,
"I believe this can be put to bed rather quickly."

Shapleigh said the state should create Texas Department of Public
Safety corridor teams to work with local and federal law enforcement
to combat the cartels, and should develop a center to evaluate and
create intelligence on kingpins, cartel assets, prison gang members
and smuggling routes.

"In the 1980s, the FBI and New York City together deployed a
successful model to fight transnational gangs operating from Sicily
to Brooklyn through coordinated, targeted police work aimed at
kingpins," Shapleigh said.

Perry said his presence in El Paso also was meant to send a message
that Texas is willing to protect Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz, who
received death threats from a Mexican drug cartel and moved his
family to El Paso.

On Tuesday, Reyes' staff said that the mayor carried out his normal
duties in Juarez, including a Mexican Flag Day ceremony, and that he
would continue to remove corrupt officers from the city's police force.

And the violence has continued with multiple killings daily. A total
of eight homicides occurred Monday in Juarez.

In one incident, 9-month-old Alexa Gutierrez Medrano was wounded in a
shooting that killed two people and wounded another man in front of a
home in the 700 block of Pino Seco street, police said.

On Wednesday, members of the Mexican federal government's Security
Cabinet will meet in Juarez with local and state officials to discuss
what to do about the violence.

Mexican authorities also continued their investigation into the
attack Sunday against Chihuahua Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza Terrazas'
bodyguards, in which one agent was killed. One of the gunmen
suspected in the attack, a former Mexican soldier, was wounded.