No End Soon to Violence

CARTELS OUT TO CONTROL SOCIETY, ICE EXPERT SAYS

EL PASO -- No region has felt the devastation caused by the Mexican
drug cartel wars more than El Paso and Juarez, and the violence is
not about to end, a federal agent said Thursday during a conference
on border security.

The cartels now want to dominate society, said Alonzo R. Pena, the
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deputy assistant secretary
for operations.

"We believe it (the violence) is going to continue to climb," said
Pena. "What the cartels are doing is no different than what we are
seeing in other parts of world. It is barbaric and extreme, and it
will continue."

Pena was one of the speakers at the 7th Annual Border Security
Conference at the University of Texas at El Paso.

The conference began Thursday and ends today.

Pena was on a panel that focused on disrupting the operational
capacity of organized crime.

During the past three years, about 6,000 people have been killed in
Juarez and thousands of businesses have been shuttered. The two
cities no longer look the way they did 10 years ago when tourists
routinely crossed the Rio Grande and families gathered without
concern at night.

And as the drug war rages, Pena said, the cartels are beginning to
intensify their tactics. For one, they are using their firepower on
the authorities that are trying to stop them. And they are becoming
more brazen.

He showed a video of the cartels overpowering a port of entry in Mexico.

"Their business is now to dominate," he said.

The key to combating them, Pena and other speakers said, is to go
after their money -- money used to corrupt officials and to buy weapons.

"Their money isn't stuffed in their mattresses at home," he said.
"Their money is in banks in the U.S. and in Mexico and in businesses
such as hotels that operate on both sides of the border."

William J. Hoover, executive director of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said his agency is working with
Mexico to stop the flow of guns into Mexico by going after the money.

"We can go after the individuals buying the guns," he said, "but that
will only cause others to step in. We have to get to the source of
the money. To stop the organized crime, you have to work your way to
the front."

Hoover said a new major concern is the cartels' use of explosives,
something that has been increasing for the past 15 months. The
grenades are flowing into Mexico from other countries, he said.

"We have much to do," he said, "but I can promise you that we are not
going to give up the fight."

Mexico's director of national security, Alejandro Hope Pinson, said
that Mexico is entering a crucial point in its fight against the cartels.

The Mexican government has been trying to rid itself of the cartels
since 2007, when Mexican President Felipe Calderon took office.

Since then, more than 28,220 people have been killed in Mexico.

The challenge for Mexico, Hope Pinson said, is that the country must
battle the cartels while it tries to reform its judicial system and
to retrain its law enforcement agencies.

"It's like trying to change the tires on a car while the car is
moving," he said.

When the national initiative against the cartels began, there were
four basic cartels in Mexico.

Now there are two large cartels and several smaller ones, and that is
making it tougher on officials, Hope Pinson said.

"For now, the priority is to lower the level of violence," he said.
"And we will make an effort to better target their financial capabilities."

Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz also spoke at the conference. He said
Mexico must make one major change as it continues to battle the drug cartels.

"City police officers should not be used to go after organized crime
or to do those investigations," he said.

"It should be the federal government, not the city officers. The city
officers have a name, a face, an address and family in Juarez. They
are getting killed, and they can be corrupted."

The conference will continue today with several panel discussions,
including one on reducing the demand for and consumption of narcotics.