CONCERNS IN JUAREZ CLIMB AS BOMBING THREAT GROWS

The threat of more deadly car bombings like the one earlier this month
has forced Juarez authorities to take measures to protect police
stations, and authorities reported finding more explosives in
Chihuahua on Wednesday.

The car bombing that killed three people apparently was ordered
because law-enforcement agencies are perceived to be siding with
either the Sinaloa and Juarez drug cartels, which have unleashed a
wave of violence in the city that has claimed the lives of nearly
6,000 people since 2008.

The July 15 bombing killed a Mexican federal police officer and a
paramedic responding to a call about a wounded police officer laying
on a sidewalk. The police officer, who also was killed, was a decoy
who lured agents to the scene before the blast.

The bomb, made from about 22 pounds of Tovex, a water gel explosive
commonly used as a replacement for dynamite in mining, was detonated
by remote control. Authorities on Wed nesday found 55 pounds of the
explosive in the mountains between Chi huahua and Sonora states
following a shootout with gunmen.

Officials did not say if the explosives were bound for
Juarez.

In response to the bombing, Juarez officials last week increased
security at police stations and prohibited parking next to the buildings.

A police spokesman said the identifications of people are checked and
vehicles are inspected when entering the parking lots of stations,
some of which have sandbags piled outside like bunkers.

"It is due to the situation in the city and the threats against
members of police agencies," police spokesman Jacinto Segura said.
"There is a brief revision (search) of the vehicle and the
identification of the person, including staff and workers."

Threats against police are no idle matter in Juarez.

Twenty-four city police officers have been slain this year, Segura
said. The latest victim was 20-year-veteran Jesus Hernandez
Talamantes, 57, who died at a hospital Wednesday after being shot in
the head during a gunfight with a pair of bank robbers.

Threats and other propaganda by the cartels are often made using
banners hung from bridges or other high-visibility locations and
graffiti, nicknamed "narco-pintas."

Graffiti from La Linea, or the Juarez drug cartel, claimed the car
bombing was because Mexican federal police are allegedly working for
the Sinaloa drug cartel reputedly led by Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman.

Mexican federal authorities have repeatedly denied federal police
favor one cartel over another. Earlier this year, federal police
replaced the Mexican army in running the anti-crime operation in Juarez.

Federal police said the car bombing was in retaliation for the arrest
of Jesus Armando Acosta Guerrero, alias "35," who is accused of being
an operations leader of La Linea.

Acosta, according to police, was key in the cartel hierarchy. Acosta
is suspected of not only overseeing drug deals and the elimination of
enemies, but he was also responsible for bribing authorities at the
local, state and national level. The bribe money was paid to a person
known as "La Leyenda," or the Legend, who would then pass the cash to
corrupt officials.

Police alleged Acosta received direct orders from Jose Antonio "El
Diego" Acosta Hernandez, who follows command in the cartel hierarchy
after Juan Pablo "El JL" Ledezma, who is the lieutenant of reputed
cartel boss Vicente Carrillo Fuentes.

The Juarez bombing follows the history of Colombian drug cartels,
which have been using car bombs and improvised explosive devices (IED)
for 30 years.

A report on IEDs in Colombia published last December in The Journal of
ERW and Mine Action stated that IEDs have been used in a variety of
forms besides vehicles, including donkey-drawn carts, bicycles and
ambulances. Bombs have also been set in buildings as booby traps for
police.

The report stated members of terrorist groups such as ETA from Spain
and the Irish Republican Army visited Colombia in the 1980s and 1990s
to train cartels, guerrillas and paramilitary groups how to make bombs.

"The car bombing indicates how extreme the conflict between the Juarez
cartel and their adversaries has become," said Howard Campbell, an
anthropology professor at the University of Texas at El Paso who
studies drug trafficking.

"The Juarez cartel believes -- and all evidence seems to indicate --
that federal forces have mainly targeted their organization in Juarez,
not the Chapo Guzman cartel," Campbell said. "Most Juarez residents
and the majority of analysts in the U.S. and Mexico feel that the
Chapo Guzman cartel has strong support within certain sectors of
federal law enforcement and the military in Mexico."

On July 18, graffiti in Juarez told the FBI and the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration they had 15 days to go after Mexican
federal police supporting the Sinaloa cartel or there will be another
car bombing.

Last week, the Sinaloa drug cartel hung a banner in Chihuahua City
telling Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza to get rid of Fernando Ornelas, who
heads the state police intelligence center known as Cipol.

The banner claimed Ornelas is "supporting the narcoterrorists from La
Linea" and that violence will follow if he isn't removed. "We don't
want to kill innocents," the banner said.

Earlier this month, the U.S. State Department re-issued a travel
warning for Mexico with specific caution for U.S. citizens visiting
Juarez, the Valley of Juarez and towns in the northwestern part of the
state of Chihuahua.

The document stated three times as many people have been killed in
Juarez since 2006 than in any other city in Mexico. The city with the
second-most homicides since 2006 is Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa
state and base for the Sinaloa cartel.

The State Department also warned travelers about violence in other
regions of the country. "It is imperative that U.S. citizens
understand the risks involved in travel to Mexico," the warning stated.

Campbell said the car bombing is another example of drug trafficking
organizations exceeding the power of the government in specific
regions. "Sadly, the future seems to hold no short-term end to the
violence," Campbell said. "Currently, the Mexican government appears
too weak, disorganized and corrupt to stop or significantly lessen the
violence."