THREATENED FORMER MEXICAN MAYOR HONORED AT LOCAL HISPANIC CONFERENCE

ELYRIA -- Jose Reyes Ferriz, the internationally heralded former mayor
of Juarez, Mexico, called "the most dangerous city in the world," told
a largely Hispanic Lorain County audience yesterday morning ,"We're
going to take Juarez back."

Reyes Ferriz brought his message to the 16th annual Hispanic
Leadership Conference at Lorain County Community College.

Reyes Ferriz, now living in Washington, D.C., travels the U.S. and
Latin America speaking and acting as a consultant informing
governments about what can be done to battle the drug trade and battle
cartels.

For the opening event of the conference, however, Reyes Ferriz was
simply honored with cultural performances of his native country and a
standing ovation.

Conference co-organizer and co-director Michael Ferrar invited the
former mayor onto the LCCC Stocker Center main stage to sit on a chair
on the left side the stage to watch a special performance by Ballet
Folklorico Imagenes Mexicanas (from the Toledo area), plus vocalist
Karen Paz Labra and the local mariachi group Son de Oberlin. Preceding
the performances was a special Power-Point presentation of the history
of the mayor and his city with music arranged by conference
co-director Dina Ferrer.

The entertainers and other VIPs (including keynote speaker Isabel
Framer, presidential appointee to the State Justice Institute Board),
joined more than 600 participants from a three-state area attending
the conference. Events were hosted at the Lorain County Community
College Spitzer Conference Center and Stocker Center, the Ramada
Elyria and DeLuca's Place in the Park for yesterday evening's gala.

"This annual event represents a celebration of Hispanic/Latino culture
with a very serious side, an examination of the most important issues
affecting the Hispanic/Latino and at-large community throughout the
United States," co-director Michael Ferrer said.

Ferrer said this is why it was important to invite Reyes Ferriz for
this year's conference, not only as a guest VIP, but as a special
presenter for a workshop on influence of drug cartels on immigration,
Mexican exploitation and American values.

"His work to drive the drug cartels out of Cuidad Juarez resulted in
the deaths of 150 of his police officers, numerous members of his
administration and multiple assassination attempts on both himself and
his family," Ferrer said.

Reyes Ferriz actually had two terms as mayor of Juarez, the first time
as interim mayor in 2001, when his city was thriving and enjoying a
close proximity to the United States.

Then, the city lost approximately 220,000 people from 2008 to 2010,
including an estimated 80,000 employed by the auto industry that
closed in the region.

But the bigger problem was the drug industry.

In an earlier interview with The Morning Journal, Reyes Ferriz said by
2006, things began to really go downhill for his city. He said because
of the success the U.S. had in closing off cocaine trafficking routes
coming into Florida, coupled with the Mexican president's expanded war
on drugs which displaced usual drug channels, Juarez became one of the
largest throughways for the drug cartels.

"Juarez became a battleground," Reyes Ferris said, noting that 80,000
criminals, 27,000 convicted of violent crimes, were deported into
Juarez between 2006 and 2008, with many of them staying in the area.
Killings rose to a dozen a day. He estimated the death toll of the
cartel wars claimed 7,000, including 150 city employees.

Making matters worse, policemen were so much a part of the cartels,
they even participated in executions.

But Reyes Ferris said he would not give up. He brought in police and
army reinforcements, fired corrupt officials and stood up to threats
on his life so severe, one time he was left a severed pig head saying
he had 15 days left to live.

Although crime and murder has gone down tremendously in Juarez, Reyes
Ferriz still cannot return because of threats on his life, and he
continues to carry the message about the war on drugs in the United
States.

"This problem does not begin in Mexico," he said. "Mexico and the U.S.
need to work together to solve the problem."