{"id":617348,"date":"2018-08-22T15:00:07","date_gmt":"2018-08-22T21:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=617348"},"modified":"2018-08-22T15:20:12","modified_gmt":"2018-08-22T21:20:12","slug":"just-a-shot-away-ciudad-juarez-residents-fear-new-cartel-war-may-be-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/08\/just-a-shot-away-ciudad-juarez-residents-fear-new-cartel-war-may-be-coming\/","title":{"rendered":"Just a shot away? Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez residents fear new cartel war may be coming"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_114577\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ivangm\/8569585702\/in\/photolist-e4gngC-4PHKxs-fSNgoV-eUPiz-4QbSjo-4nCMJn-4nH3fW-qBz9wJ-nxwdA-rvvoND-qVhv7k-4PHHGG-5hBVkQ-qz72fT-Aad1eD-bZo8D-Ak1FM1-5jnUK1-tQyD6L-4YchjH-4Yc9Hx-5hBRME-s7ainq-4bKyaz-pkCWXF-qzmPVW-4nCy6X-4nD4wB-4nH8W3-opJtA5-83YtHS-p56nbj-4nCAQH-4nCWSz-4Yd6FB-5jiLGH-pEDkMy-7xKtZQ-4S4NY4-iKXasM-dazxs3-5hFAWg-pkCWEr-4PDuc8-7xKtV5-5hFBqP-5hKYno-q5YhqX-4Ycuhk-4YjpCj\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-114577 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Mexican-flag-771x490.jpg\" alt=\"Mexican flag\" width=\"771\" height=\"490\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Mexican-flag-771x490.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Mexican-flag-336x214.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Mexican-flag-768x488.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Mexican-flag-1170x744.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Mexican-flag.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">iivangm \/ flickr<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Mexican flag<\/p><\/div>\n<p>CIUDAD JU\u00c1REZ, Mexico \u2014 Teresa Rodriguez might have found comfort inside this border city\u2019s famous downtown cathedral Tuesday afternoon when she stopped in for a midday mass after running errands. But after leaving Our Lady of Guadalupe church, she was back on guard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s close enough,\u201d she told a reporter just a dozen or so paces from the church\u2019s main entrance. She shielded her eyes from the sun with one hand and raised the other in a \u201chalt\u201d gesture before adding. \u201cYou know, because of everything that\u2019s been going on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rodriguez survived the war between rival drug cartels that raged in this industrial border city from 2008 to 2011 \u2014 and with <a href=\"https:\/\/diario.mx\/Local\/2018-08-21_cdda0fdd\/muere-nina-baleada-van-29-casos-similares-\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">violence on the upswing again<\/a>, she&#8217;s taking extra precautions.<\/p>\n<p>From January through last Sunday, there were 829 reported homicides here, including 114 in August, according to local media reports. The monthly average stands at six per day, though it\u2019s unclear if the latest surge means the beginning of another turf war like the one that began in 2008 and resulted in more than 10,000 killings here.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article originally appeared in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/08\/22\/ciudad-juarez-residents-fear-new-cartel-war-may-be-coming\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Texas Tribune<\/a>,\u00a0a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans and engages with them about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Experts say the latest bout of fighting is between former cartel allies \u2014 the Ju\u00e1rez Cartel and the Barrio Aztecas \u2014 vying to claim the downtown area as their own. But the how or why seems less important to the people whose main concern is instead how long this new surge in killings will last.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are innocent people that are there when they get to a business and the hitmen show up,\u201d said Rodriguez, 69. \u201cAnd they don\u2019t just kill [the target] \u2014 they kill all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The homicide total includes 29 children, the most recent of whom died Sunday after getting caught in a crossfire the week before, the Diario de Ju\u00e1rez reported.<\/p>\n<p>Howard Campbell, an anthropology professor at the University of Texas at El Paso whose research focuses on the U.S-Mexico border, sees the current wave as unique because most of the violence is concentrated in downtown Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s different about this is it\u2019s just over and over and over again that people are getting murdered in these areas where the Aztecas live, which is right in the heart of the downtown area,\u201d he said. \u201cSo a lot of these killings have been in broad daylight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insightcrime.org\/mexico-organized-crime-news\/barrio-azteca-profile\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Barrio Aztecas<\/a> in Ju\u00e1rez are affiliated with Aztecas in El Paso, but Campbell said the Ju\u00e1rez Aztecas operate independently. And while the organization was once aligned with the Ju\u00e1rez cartel, it has since split and is fighting to keep a foothold in the city.<\/p>\n<p>Campbell said the end could come when one gang ousts the other, but what he sees as perplexing in this situation is that it&#8217;s the hometown gang that&#8217;s being squeezed out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt looks to me the Aztecas are losing, and that\u2019s pretty shocking,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s like going on somebody\u2019s home court and kicking their ass.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>There is the added element of the prevalence of methamphetamine dealers trying to find a niche in the Ju\u00e1rez market. While cocaine, pot and heroin have historically been the illicit goods of choice for street peddlers, methamphetamine has been making its way into the traditional markets largely because of the increased presence of another major cartel: the C\u00e1rtel de Jalisco Nueva Generaci\u00f3n.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[The Aztecas] see meth as a threat to their business, and it\u2019s only recently that meth has made an appearance in Juarez,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cThe influx of meth and the people that sell it are contributing to this conflict. And the Jalisco people are the biggest meth producers and meth controllers, so they have a lot to do with this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The city government has acknowledged the surge in killings, but leaders there say it\u2019s not going to rise to past levels. During a Mexico-U.S. border summit in El Paso last week, Roberto Renter\u00eda Manqueros, Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez\u2019s secretario del ayuntamiento, a high-ranking position on the city council that serves as the administration\u2019s second in command, conceded his city is having issues due to \u201cdisgraceful\u201d acts by criminal elements. But he said he didn\u2019t see what&#8217;s happening today as comparable to the war a decade ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat caused the great worry for Juarenses 10 years ago was that the crimes affected common people. That was the impact,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen currently is that the crime that\u2019s increased are murders are between the [warring groups].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Just north of the Rio Grande in El Paso, city leaders still see the need to remind outsiders that their city is one of the safest in the country despite what happens in Mexico. A decade ago, lawmakers and tourism officials were engaged in a nonstop public relations effort to convince potential visitors and business investors that El Paso wasn\u2019t affected by what was happening south of the river.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, El Paso Mayor Dee Margo said the violence in Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez has always affected El Paso but that it was up to people to see for themselves what the reality of the situation actually is.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has an impact. It always has,\u201d he said. \u201cDuring [times of high violence], people said, \u2018How can you come down to El Paso?\u2019 The point is, we got to get people here to understand the uniqueness of our region. Everyone keeps talking about the border, but no one has been down here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As the situation plays out, there will be people like Leonardo Cortez, a maintenance worker at the El Paso Museum of Art who lives in Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez \u2014 and asks himself every day how far things will escalate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe mayor is preoccupied with things other than security, and everyday people are getting killed,\u201d the 54-year-old said. \u201cThe gangs don\u2019t respect the citizens, they don\u2019t respect God. There is no respect for life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Disclosure: The University of Texas at El Paso has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune&#8217;s journalism. Find a complete list of them <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/support-us\/corporate-sponsors\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/em><script src=\"https:\/\/cdn.texastribune.org\/pixel\/dot.min.29c708b3d0da5d17a725.js\" integrity=\"sha384-8Xwf\/TlQnmHiajg1t3dn8w4qlF1rmV33o5NAQVXYu0T2q3rHV5579zrSmRjh+XnM\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\" data-tt-canonical=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/08\/22\/ciudad-juarez-residents-fear-new-cartel-war-may-be-coming\/\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For residents of this gritty border city who survived the drug cartel war that raged here just seven years ago, headlines about an upswing in violence are getting harder to ignore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":114577,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3681,142,236],"class_list":["post-617348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-ciudad-juarez","tag-crime","tag-mexico"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}