Drug War: It's U.S. Problem, Too

TOO MANY GUNS FUEL VIOLENCE, JUAREZ MAYOR JOSE REYES FERRIZ SAYS

JUAREZ -- Most big-city mayors live in a pressure cooker, but none faces
the duress of Juarez's elected leader, Jose Reyes Ferriz.

Runaway violence has damaged Juarez's once-thriving economy. Its
neighborhoods have turned from vibrant to mournful. And its streets have
been stained with the blood of 2,580 people, all of them homicide victims
of 2009. In contrast, El Paso, half the size of Juarez, has had 12
homicides this year.

Reyes, 48, a man of medium height with a soft voice, stands at the
forefront of the government's attempt to stop the violence and save the
city.

Once a trade attorney, Reyes studied international law at the University
of Notre Dame. He had been in office for two months when crime rampages
became the norm in his city of 1.5 million.

Killers armed with assault rifles started attacking their victims in
daylight. Messages threatening the lives of police officers and public
officials were left scattered throughout Juarez.

Chihuahua police Cmdr. Fernando Lozano Sandoval was one of the first
high-ranking officers to be wounded in the war between rival gangs --
reportedly the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels. Gunmen ambushed him as he drove
along a Juarez street in January 2008.

Sandoval survived the attack. Others haven't been so fortunate.

Police began to log the deaths -- sometimes a dozen a day -- until the
toll reached more than 1,600 people in 2008. In 2009, against the
conventional thinking that the worst was over, Juarez became even
bloodier.

In an interview this week in his spacious, wood-paneled office at City
Hall, Reyes called the gangland violence a problem for both Mexico and the
United States.

"The U.S. needs to get involved. But they need to get involved on the U.S.
side," said Reyes, who speaks flawless English.

The American government, he said, should enforce existing gun laws to help
Mexico, especially Juarez.

At the start of President Barack Obama's term, he sent agents of the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to El Paso to
investigate the type of people purchasing weapons, Reyes said. Reyes
called the findings a shock and said they should have been a wake-up call.

"They found a woman who was receiving food stamps. She bought 10 AR-15s
and AK-47s. What is a woman who gets food stamps doing buying 10 AR-15s
and AK-47s, except participating in a conspiracy to send firearms
illegally into Mexico," he said. "The U.S. needs to prosecute those cases.
It's not a matter of going against the Second Amendment. It's a matter of
prosecuting those who are conspiring to send arms into Mexico."

Reyes, whose office overlooks Downtown El Paso and downtown Juarez, said
the United States needs to stop the flow of drug money from crossing into
Mexico. And, he said, the annual 100,000 undocumented immigrants --
including 7,000 deported felons -- should be sent directly to Mexico City
instead of being left at border towns.

"That (deportation) policy by the U.S. government is fueling the violence
in Juarez," Reyes said. "They can't send them to Juarez and not expect us
to have a problem."

Reyes, accompanied by bodyguards when he walked from council chambers to
his office, acknowledged that Juarez is one of the cities with the most
murders in the world. But, he said, that does not mean it's a dangerous
place for people who steer clear of drug smuggling and other crimes.

The daily news of people being killed execution-style is hard for Reyes to
take.

"It's very difficult. We try to stop it. We try to find a way to solve
it," Reyes said. "Every time I see or get the police report -- I get the
police report immediately after something happens -- it's extremely
difficult. The fact that the numbers are so large doesn't make it any
easier."

Reyes said one of the steps his administration took to help quell the
bloodshed was to clean up a corrupt police force.

In the past two years, Juarez has fired 800 people from its police
department. Of those, a little more than 330 were ousted for lack of
trust.

Now the city is patrolled by 3,000 municipal police officers, 200 state
officers, 1,800 federal officers and 6,200 Mexican soldiers, Reyes said.

The Mexican army, he said, was sent to Juarez to help contain crime while
the police force was rebuilt with trustworthy officers. Until recently,
the military's role was never to stop the homicides, he said. "We knew we
needed to do a cleanup. ... We needed a force to help us, not as police
officers but as a containment for us. ... I think they (soldiers) have
been successful because we were able to do that."

Now, four of every five officers on the streets were hired by Reyes'
administration. They were trained at the Mexican Army's headquarters in
Delicias, Chihuahua, which is about six hours from Juarez. They are the
only officers in the country authorized to carry automatic weapons.

Because the police force is stronger, Reyes said, the role of the military
can now become to help lower crime rates. Once that happens, he plans to
start withdrawing soldiers.

Reyes said his administration has also been getting advice from
Inter-American Development Bank experts about social programs. The
experts, he said, are based in Washington, D.C., and help design programs
to enhance opportunities in education and employment.

Overall, Reyes said, he is optimistic about 2010. He said he foresees a
decline in murders and other crime.

"We have the help of the federal government, the help of the state
government," he said. "We have gotten past the problems of 2009. I think
we're at a turning point. In 2010, we'll see much better things."