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 News from Around the Americas | June 2007 
Residents Worry Cartel Violence Will Spill Across Border Into Arizona
 Arthur H. Rotstein - Associated Press
| | National Guardsmen weld a section of wall being erected along the international border that separates San Luis, Mexico, and San Luis, Ariz., Wednesday, May 30, 2007. The troops are part of Operation Jump Start, President Bush's initiative to have guardsmen work in support of Border Patrol efforts in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California. (AP/Matt York) |
A deadly spasm of drug-provoked violence in northern Mexico has some border residents worried that it is only a matter of time before it spills over the international line into Arizona.
Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever said law enforcement officials share a common belief that the violence spawned between drug cartels operating south of the border inevitably will end up in the state.
"These criminal syndicates know no borders and use the border to their advantage as a curtain or veil to cover their activities," Dever said. "But in no way is it a barrier to them."
Ranchers and merchants in Arizona border towns say they've seen the fallout from the violence and worry about more to come, either in Mexico or in Arizona.
About 50 drug hit men convoyed into Cananea in northern Sonora state on May 16 and killed seven people, including five police officers whom officials believe were targeted for betraying an agreement with a drug cartel.
Army troops and police pursued the gunmen, identified as Zetas, former Mexican army elite soldiers, through rugged mountains and, according to Mexican authorities, killed 16 of them.
The raid on Cananea, southeast of Nogales, followed a spate of shootings in southern Arizona in which gunmen trying to get to drug loads killed illegal immigrants in the vehicles they had attempted to stop.
The Cananea shootings were felt quickly in the towns and remote ranches straddling the Arizona-Mexico border.
About 35 miles west of Douglas, near the twin border cities of Naco, a hundred or more illegal immigrants daily cut across the San Jose Ranch owned by Jack Ladd and his son John.
The men said the violence around Cananea put a quick stop to the immigrant foot traffic on the ranch, which stretches along more than 10 miles of the Mexican border.
Jack Ladd said immigrants apparently stayed holed up in staging areas in and around Naco for about a week, and John Ladd said he is convinced drug cartel-associated criminal activity has been ongoing in the area since July and has engulfed the immigrants.
"They're running the people (illegal immigrants) now too," he said. "Instead of the mom-and-pop taxi service out of Naco, Son., it's the cartel that's doing it," he said.
"They're associated with the drugs and the people, and it's big business," he added. "The thievery has escalated. They're stealing everything that isn't bolted down on the ranch."
John Ladd said a Mexican rancher friend told him that cartel operators were behind the thefts and warned, "Don't mess with them."
John Ladd predicted a major incident along the border was just a matter of time.
Others said Arizonans shouldn't worry that the violence will move north.
"It's ridiculous to think that there would be any spillover," said Douglas Mayor Ray Borane. "There's no necessity for it."
As Borane sees it, the only way drug enforcers would venture into Arizona to take out a target would be if they were pursuing rival drug operatives or if they thought a hit would be easier on the American side.
Douglas police Chief Charles Austin said he has no intelligence to show that there is an immediate risk of the violence spreading.
He conceded that there is always that chance.
"It would be foolish not to acknowledge that it's a remote possibility," Austin said.
"At a time like this," he added, "you remain sensitive to the added possibilities, but we've not gone to any kind of added staffing."
Several Douglas businessmen and merchants said there is no doubt that the shootings adversely affected commerce, which is heavily reliant upon consumers from Mexico.
And there's genuine concern that the violence will become an integral part of life in Agua Prieta, Mexico, Douglas' sister city, which many locals consider part of the same community.
"They're worried about the violence becoming endemic in Agua Prieta," said Douglas native Gerry Bohmfalk.
He has a ranch on the border and owns Marlin's, a saddle shop and outfitters store on the city's main shopping street.
"I've been over there since all this happened, and I can tell you it's different," Bohmfalk said of being in Agua Prieta.
"It's changed; it's quieter. There's not as much hustle and bustle, and there's a lot of people looking over their shoulder," he said. "It's something that is so palpable you can see it."
"It's almost like there's a storm coming or something. People are just not moving around."
His business plunged 50 percent in the days after the Cananea shootings.
Connie Whelan owns Paul's Jewelers in town and doesn't believe most Douglas residents are worried about a violence spillover.
"But people in Mexico who have lived there for years are afraid," she said.
The shootings have been what most customers who venture north from Mexico talk about, she said; many of them live in Cananea. "We usually do a good graduation business, and we just haven't seen that business" this year because of the shootings, Whelan said.
For the Ladds, the problem is the huge amount of cash the cartels net from the drug trade. No honest police officer can stand up to them, Jack Ladd said. |
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