HOLIDAY ROAD TO PERIL

The annual Mexican Christmas pilgrimage, traditionally a joyous
journey culminating in pozole stew and Nativity re-enactments, is now
fraught with fear and foreboding.

About a million Mexican immigrants, including thousands from Northern
California, are expected to return to Mexico this month to share the
holidays with relatives they left behind years ago.

Most are driving. And many, including Sacramento State freshman Alex
Rodriguez, wonder if they'll make it to Christmas dinner without
being robbed, shot or kidnapped.

"My mom doesn't want me to drive down there," said Rodriguez, 18, who
was born in Mexico and raised in California. "My uncle was shot to
death at 11 a.m. at a carwash in Choix, Sinaloa, in August. My mom
said if you're in the business of drugs, that's your destiny."

But the menace reaches beyond the drug cartels. The violence that's
claimed more than 28,000 lives in the last four years has spread to
Mexico's highways, where bandits many posing as state or federal
police have robbed cars with U.S. plates.

It's also seeped into the lives of local immigrants and their
families. Some who planned to open businesses south of the border
gave up when ordered to pay protection. Others have seen their real
estate investments in Mexico plummet. Several say their relatives
have gotten phone calls threatening to kidnap their American cousins
for ransom.

And nearly everyone has heard stories of cars hijacked or stopped
unless the drivers pay bribes.

The Mexican government recognizes the challenges of navigating roads
through the drug wars and for the first time has created a network of
government escorts and way stations to help guide and protect
passengers traveling home for the holiday season.

Caravans of five or more vehicles heading into Mexico, particularly
the violence-torn states of Sinaloa and Tamaulipas, can receive an
escort if they register their routes with the Mexican government.

"Nearly everyone's somehow affected by the fight against drug
trafficking and organized crime they're trying to co-opt our
institutions and eroding our freedoms by intimidation," said Carlos
Gonzalez Gutierrez, Sacramento's Mexican consul general.

"We are urging people not to drive at night, to use federal highways
as much as possible instead of local roads, and not to travel with
cash; people can use credit cards on federal toll roads."

In some parts of Mexico, the drug-related violence now disrupts daily
life. Monthly pension checks are delivered by armed guards in Sonora
and Chihuahua. South of the Arizona and Texas borders, schools close
early and some ranchers and farmers have abandoned their land. Many
local police officers not on the take have quit and fled because it's
not worth the risk to stay.

Entire towns in drug war zones have picked up and migrated to different states.

From Acapulco to Ciudad Juarez, innocent people are dying. Last
October, 14 people many of them children were killed at a birthday
party in southeast Juarez. Housewives, young mothers and students
also have been slain there. Last month, the government captured the
leader of the Aztecas the most violent gang working for the cartels
who allegedly authorized 80 percent of all the killings in Juarez,
including those at the birthday party.

"Juarez has the highest murder rate in the world right now, close to
2,000 this year, as rival Juarez and Sinaloa cartels fight for
control," said Herbert Brown, the incoming special agent in charge of
the Sacramento FBI office.

Brown, who battled organized crime in Juarez, said that since Mexican
President Felipe Calderon went on the offensive against the cartels
in 2006, Mexico has faced a "perfect storm" as six cartels fight for
control and government troops battle both traffickers and corrupt cops.

Some Choose to Fly Home

For 24 years, Marco Rodriguez, president of Sacramento's Mexican
Cultural Center, has been driving 2,000 miles to his hometown in San
Luis Potosi for Christmas.

"I love to drive," he said. But this year his family will fly because
"you don't want to potentially endanger your family on the highways."

"When we fly we can only bring two pieces of luggage," he said. "But
when people drive, you see cars loaded with TVs, dishwashers, washing machines.

"It's an incredible thrill and joy to go back and see all our
relatives who have never been over here, along with family from North
Carolina, Texas and Florida. We all migrate back to our hometown."

But fewer people are making the trek back to his town, Rodriguez
said. "Last Christmas, only 50 percent went back and didn't come with
as many presents."

The Mexican government acknowledges vehicles driving into the country
laden with goods are often targeted. Last month, a convoy of three
trucks from Merced carrying clothes, furniture and electronics to
Michoacan was ambushed in Sinaloa.

When the caravan refused to stop, the bandits in two Jeep Cherokees
opened fire, hitting a 2-year-old girl.

Several of Alex Rodriguez's classmates in Sacramento State's College
Assistance Migrant Program for children of farmworkers also plan to
drive down this month.

"You can't a enjoy a vacation. I don't even know if I'm going to make
it to my little town in Michoacan," said Anabel Ruiz, 21.

"My parents won't let me go out anymore at night," added Anakarina
Pimentel, 22. "Where my sister lives in Michoacan, there's fighting.
They've found dead bodies, and people will call us and say, 'I know
you live in the U.S.' Some people are actually paying protection
money every month."

Local Families Feel Fear

In the first half of the year, car travel to Mexico was down by 20
percent, but it's too soon to tell whether fewer people will go over
Christmas, traditionally the busiest time, said Gonzalez Gutierrez.

Many of those killed in Mexico since December 2006 were drug dealers
who were victims of wars between rival cartels, Gonzalez Gutierrez
said. But 11 mayors also have been killed this year.

And about 10 percent of the victims are "law enforcement officials
who have died in the line of duty," he said. "The weakest link in the
chain is local police. The monumental task is to professionalize law
enforcement agencies throughout the country, and mayors are in a very
bad position because much of the time they have to rely on police
forces they don't trust."

As a result, crimes often go unreported. Elvira Leon, who runs a
Mexican restaurant near Franklin Boulevard, said her father-in-law,
who owned a grocery store in Michoacan, was kidnapped April 1.
"Nobody called the cops because they're the same ones we don't
trust," she said.

Even longtime U.S. residents can get caught up in the drug wars. "I
have property in Oaxaca and I need to pay property tax, but I'm
afraid to go," said Maritza Martinez, an engineer in Folsom. "I can't
pass for a local, and since I have property, I'm afraid they'll kidnap me."

But pride in the Mexican heritage still runs deep, and so do family
ties. Some local immigrants return to their villages to celebrate
their daughters' quinceaneras, or sweet-15 parties. Others have
cardboard cutouts on their walls depicting homes they plan to build
someday in Mexico for the family they left behind. Many of those
relatives helped scrape together the money to send them north.

Although he's had two family members killed in recent years, and
three others shot, Rodriguez, the Sacramento State student, will be
driving down anyway."That's a sure thing," he said. "I have to visit
my family. I'm not going to leave them behind and forget about them."