Every cop on the force has been ordered to leave his or her home and move into well-defended hotels.

A drug cartel has been carrying out its threat to kill one policemen a day.

Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Angela Kocherga who has been reporting the story for Belo, the Texas-based news corporation.

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Marco Werman: The police force is also under siege in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez. Every cop on the force has been ordered to leave his or her home and move into well-defended hotels. A drug cartel has threatened to kill one policeman a day in Juarez, and at least eight have been killed so far this year. Angela Kocherga has been reporting the story for the Texas-based new organization Belo. She’s now back in El Paso. So, the cops are the ones who are supposed to protect people. Now, they’re getting protected. What’s going on, Angela, why have the cops been targeted?

Angela Kocherga: Yeah, they’re really working double duty. They’re protecting the city and each other around the clock. Basically, you have a drug cartel calling itself the New Juarez Cartel, according to the police chief, that’s targeting the officers in an effort to force the police chief to step down, saying they’ll kill an officer a day. And they have until recently pretty much carried out that threat. They’ve been killing officers, mostly off duty, which is why they’ve decided when these officers are trying to sleep or get some rest they’re gonna put them in these guarded hotels.

Werman: So how is this working? How many hotels are being used and how crowded are the rooms?

Kocherga: Well, they’re being very secretive about how many hotels, but it’s pretty easy to tell as you drive around which ones. We went to one called Del Rio, which is housing a majority, a big chunk of the police force, not all of them. And the officers you know, they’ve got heavily guarded officers standing outside, so you can pretty much tell where they are. The officers told me, and they were reluctant to speak openly about this, that they’re being crowded into as many as seven per room. And of course, these are officers that have homes and families, so they’re unhappy about being stuck in hotels.

Werman: Well, I was gonna say, presumably it’s not hard for the cartels to find out where these police officers homes are, what about the families of the police men and women? They must be as concerned, maybe even more so than the police who are in the hotels.

Kocherga: Yeah, definitely, some of the police officers that I spoke to said they were dealing with just the day to day childcare, which they’re also worried about their families; that the cartels have great intelligence. They can certainly track down the family members. They also seem to think that some of the killings are targeted. One police officer I talked to had been stopped on the way home; her path had been blocked. She had been hit with the butt of an AK47, had a big bruise on her forehead, but she said when she explained who she was the hit man seemed to understand she wasn’t their target and they moved on to another person.

Werman: You know, the drug cartels are not known for being timid, is there a concern they’d actually try and attack any of these hotels if they found out where they were?

Kocherga: They probably know where they are. They seem to have been kind of a hit you know, kind of surprise attacks, so it would be hard to come upon one of these hotels with all the guards outside and attack. They tend to attack when they cops’ guards are down. They look for opportunities. The other morning we had some police officers at a gas station filling up right near a substation and that’s when they came under fire. And actually, the gunman tossed a grenade at the officers. It failed to detonate, so you didn’t have a big explosion, but you did have a firefight; three gunmen killed and three officers injured, and a suspect taken into custody.

Werman: Angela, I was reading that the cartel gets it messages out using giant banners. What do they look like and where do they hang them?

Kocherga: This is very common throughout Mexico and utilized by different cartels. It’s been a very effective way to send out a message to the government, to law enforcement, to their rival cartels and to the general public. And these are just big banners they unfurl, handwritten with messages, usually very targeted, very directed. The most recent ones, there were allegedly 10 banners out there throughout Juarez hung in public places, directed at the police chief, saying they’re pretty much gonna kill an officer a day until he steps down. Now, just so you know, that technique, that threat did work on the previous police chief. He did leave. He left and it took a while to get this new police chief and he has vowed he will not leave his job, he will not bow down to threats.

Werman: Angela Kocherga, border bureau chief for Belo News, just back from Cuidad Juarez, thank you very much for your time.

Kocherga: Thank you.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

Business leaders and many residents there think that’s not the whole story, though. And they hope to “take back” their city by organizing a big arts and culture festival.

The guest list includes a couple of seasoned crisis managers: former Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev and former New York mayor Rudy Guliani.

So, name this Chihuahuan city trying to overcome its past.

The answer is Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. Monica Ortiz Uribe reports on the huge business, cultural and arts festival called Juárez Competitiva.

Lopez has been an agent with Grupo Beta for two decades. It’s a Mexican government agency with a mission to protect northbound migrants from smugglers. The agents had the authority to conduct investigations and make arrests.

Carlos Diaz de Leon walks up to Lopez and extends his hand, showing him a folded US deportation slip. The Sonora migrant has just been sent back to Mexico and he asks Lopez for help.

Diaz de Leon said he’s crossed illegally many times over the years, and Grupo Beta was always there for him.

“They have fed me when I was hungry,” Diaz de Leon said. “They’ve given me change when I needed to call home. I think they’re the only ones out there looking out for undocumented migrants.”

There used to be dozens of local smuggling operations here, charging migrants up to $2,000 a head. Beta agent Mario Lopez said with tightened border security, it’s more difficult to smuggle people across.

“Smuggling has decreased through this part of the border by almost 90 percent,” he said. “Now there’s more surveillance, there’s a second border wall, there are guards patrolling by horse, motorcycle, and cars. And there are cameras and sensors.”

Grupo Beta agent Mario Lopez gets into his signature orange Jeep, during his patrol. (Photo: R. Guidi)

On a typical day, Lopez still patrols along the Mexico side of the border. But he no longer conducts investigations and he’s no longer armed. It’s too dangerous. Now he and his fellow agents focus on handing out food and providing first aid to migrants. Grupo Beta has become a force without much power or much of a mission.

It’s not just Grupo Beta that’s pulled back from investigating. Victor Clark Alfaro, director of the Binational Center for Human Rights in Tijuana, said that the violence and insecurity have pushed his group to curtail their work.

“It’s too risky to really research the smuggling business of today,” he said. “It was hard enough in the 1980s and 90s.”

In the past year alone, the bodies of more than 150 migrants were discovered in the state of Tamaulipas, 80 miles south of the Texas border. It was one of the worst mass killings in Mexico in the past decade, and it sparked new concerns about the vulnerability of migrants.

Grupo Beta agent, Mario Lopez, stands near the point where the San Diego-Tijuana border fence meet the Pacific Ocean. (Photo: R. Guidi)

Rafael Hernandez heads the volunteer-run Desert Angels, a 14-year old civilian rescue group on the US side. Hernandez fields calls from family members of migrants lost in the desert. He said crossings here may have fallen to a 40-year low. But those who do make the attempt face greater peril.

“Along the way, they are mugged, kidnapped, raped,” he said. “But groups like ours, we can’t point it out. It’s very compromising to say that we know illegal activity is happening somewhere along the border.”

By compromising, he means dangerous. Hernandez said the consequences of speaking out about smuggling or the violence against migrants would be terrible.

The billions spent on border infrastructure and law enforcement over the past decade have dramatically changed the smuggling business. And in many ways, it’s become a much more dangerous game for everyone involved.

Ruxandra Guidi is a reporter at KPBS

When a mass movement emerged in Mexico this spring calling for a change of strategy in the drug war, a single image consistently appeared in the protests; the word “no” with a plus sign and a blood stain. It reads No Mas Sangre or No More Blood.

The emblem comes from a graphic campaign launched in January by a group of Mexican political cartoonists.

Cartoonist José Hernández says the campaign was the idea of Rius – the pen name of Eduardo del Rio – who urged his cartoonist colleagues to focus their criticism on the bloodshed. Hernandez says an immediate goal of the campaign was to change the media discourse on the issue of drug war violence.

For years, the dominant narrative – supported by official statements – was that 90 percent of the dead were linked to organized crime. Innocent murder victims were often downplayed as “collateral damage”.

But a major shift in public perception of just who the victims are came in March after the massacre of seven youths in Cuernavaca. One of the young men was the son of recognized poet Javier Sicilia. Within a week , the poet was helping to lead a nationwide protest movement that criticized both cartel violence and the government’s militarized strategy.

The critical groundwork laid by the cartoonists was evident, not only in the presence of the “no more blood” logo, but also in the views of some of the protestors.

At one rally, a retired woman named Winny carried a protest sign critical of mass media coverage in Mexico. She named the bimonthly political cartoon magazine “El Chamuco” as her preferred media. She says she feels avenged in the cartoons and that the information given in them is clear, concise, and precise – as well as a historical documentation.

As a hybrid of journalism and art, political cartoons rely on symbols and exaggeration to get their point across. This is perhaps why cartoonists are able to communicate certain ideas that print journalists either avoid or only touch on with subtleties.

“In Mexico, the language of politics and journalism is very cryptic,” says cartoonist Antonio Helguera. “If you don’t already have a background in the given subject, it’s very difficult to understand what’s happening. I think, that’s why so many people distance themselves from politics. In my own experience, I found that when I opened newspapers, the key to unlocking the messages were the cartoons. If you go by what the newspapers tell you directly, the messages are empty. Cartoons provide the keys to decode these messages.”

The drug war in Mexico has claimed well over 40,000 lives. Some estimates now put the toll at 50,000. Using a humorous medium like cartoons to address such a deadly issue can seem like walking a fine line, but Helguera says the limits are clear.

“We don’t direct our work against the victims of this war. We’re not laughing at them at all – quite the opposite. We focus our ridicule on the creators and promoters of this war. I’m referring to (President) Calderón and the secretaries of the armed forces and marines, the chief of the federal police and all those people. It’s against them. Therefore, there’s no risk of it turning into ridicule of victims because we never direct our criticisms against them – not even in the cases in which the victims were probably criminals – because, in the end, they’re dead. It’s just something you don’t do.”

Aside from covering current events, Mexican cartoonists have also assumed the role of popular educators. Mexico’s most influential cartoonist, Rius, has authored and illustrated more than a hundred books on topics that include philosophy, political theory and history – with a knack for making dense subject matter easily digestible.

In his 50-plus-year-career, Rius has earned a certain celebrity status within Mexico. A recent book signing in Mexico City drew a crowd of close to a thousand readers who lined up around the block.

Laura Flores – who stood in line for an hour and a half to have her book signed – says three generations of her family read and enjoy the works of Rius. She describes his books on Mexico in particular as excellent alternatives to the views and information available on television.

It’s precisely this type of education and self-awareness that cartoonist José Hernández says he hopes for as a larger outcome of the “No More Blood” campaign “because a society that’s informed and organized is less susceptible to manipulation and abuse.”

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MARCO WERMAN: In Mexico, authorities today announced the arrest of five people suspected in the deadly arson attack on a Monterrey casino last week. As we reported Friday, the attack left 52 people dead and shocked a nation already used to grizzly drug-related violence. We’re going to get a quick update now on the story from reporter Franc Contreras in Mexico City. Frank, first, what do we know about who it was that set fire to the casino and why they did it?

FRANC CONTRERAS: Well, at this stage, Marco, the governor of the state of Nuevo Leon where the attack took place is telling us that these men are believed to belong to the Cintas drug trafficking organization. They were part of the gulf cartel years ago, broke away. they were elite forces with the Mexican army and now have their own drug trafficking and criminal organization.

WERMAN: Mexicans have reacted with greater indignation than usual over this attack. There was a big protest in Monterrey over the weekend. What were the protestors actually demanding?

CONTRERAS: Well, they’re actually demanding that that governor himself and the mayor of Monterrey step down from their offices. They say that the state, in particular that very important northern industrial city, has been essentially under attack by two drug trafficking cartels battling each other for control of that very big market, a place where a lot of people are starting to use cocaine and other illegal drugs, but it’s also a very important drug shipping route to the United States into the southern part of Texas to the highways heading north. So the people are very angry. They want to see something done. The first thing they want to see is that these two major politicians resign their posts.

WERMAN: Right. Those protestors want the Monterrey mayor and the governor of Nuevo Leon out. What about President Felipe Calderon? How does this effect him?

CONTRERAS: Well, one year away from presidential elections 2012, he knows that his government is being seriously criticized for this ongoing policy of using the force of the state to fight drug cartels. We now have more than 40,000 drug-related deaths since Calderon took office in December of 2006, Marco. He’s doing everything he can to try to convince the population here that the government will protect them, but people seriously have their doubts.

WERMAN: Correspondent Franc Contreras in Mexico City. Thanks very much, Frank.

CONTRERAS: Thank you Marco.

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The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Marco Werman: I am Marco Werman, this is The World. Mexico is in mourning for the next three days. President Felipe Calderon made the official proclamation today. He did so in a speech condemning the killing of 52 people in a fire at a casino in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey. The fire was no accident. Suspected drug cartel gunmen stormed the casino then poured gasoline and set the building ablaze. Correspondent Franc Contreras is in Monterrey. He was outside the casino today when President Calderon paid a visit.

Franc Contreras: The Mexican President showed up in a helicopter, got out in a very solemn black-colored suit. The President came with the First Lady and set out a wreath right in front of the building that I am looking at now. You can see it’s completely charred and destroyed.

Werman: Now, in a televised nationwide address President Calderon said, “We are not confronting common criminals, we are facing true terrorists.” Apparently, the use of the word terrorist there is a highly charged word and one that Mr. Calderon doesn’t use. That must be pretty significant.

Contreras: That’s right. That is a new, sort of, language style from the President now who has been fighting this drugs war since his presidency began in late December 2006. You really have never heard him use that kind of language – “terrorism,” “acts of terrorism” – up until this point. And so, now the President is starting to edge toward that sort of political rhetoric on the situation. The President is clearly concerned about the kind of attacks that are starting to take place on more of a common basis now, a more widespread basis. Locations where citizens…civilians were not directly involved with the drugs war are now becoming the victims of it. And so, the President wants to avoid that; he knows that that could actually create political problems for his campaign to fight the drug traffickers.

Werman: Now from his vacation at Martha’s Vineyard, President Obama offered condolences and said America’s thoughts and prayers were with the victims and their families. But President Calderon, in his comments today, lashed out at the U.S. What is the source of his anger?

Contreras: Well President Felipe Calderon, in a very indignant speech also made on national television, said that, essentially, those who share a part of the blame are illegal drug users in the United States. He said people there who are using drugs and don’t make the connection to the use of drugs and then this kind of violence, they are just not getting it. He says that until those people really start to understand it – by using illegal substances and by purchasing them in the United States, they’re actually fueling the violence. So you could hear the Mexican President quite upset and aiming that directly at drug users in the United States.

Werman: We should remind listeners too Franc, that Monterrey isn’t some sleepy town. It’s a modern metropolis and has been enjoying a kind of renaissance in recent years. A $2.5 million reward is being offered for the capture of those behind the attack. Any idea who the authorities think might be involved?

Contreras: The authorities are investigating the possibility of one of two major drug cartels that might be involved in this, Marco. The Gulf Cartel has been battling for control of this major city, as you point out. This is the third largest city in Mexico and one of the largest in Latin America. It’s a location where major companies are based and it’s a place where a lot of money exists, and so, they’ve been battling for control of this location here. Because it’s close to the U.S./Mexico border, it’s an important shipping route. But it’s also a place where a great number of people are starting to use illegal drugs here as well, and so, it’s a lucrative market. So, it’s the Gulf Cartel battling its arch rivals the Zetas Cartel – those are a group of elite soldiers who broke away from the Mexican government and joined the ranks of criminal organizations.

Werman: Reporter Franc Contreras in Monterrey, Mexico. Thank you very much indeed, Franc.

Contreras: Thank you, Marco.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

This state is caught up in Mexico’s drug war. In fact, during a raid a few days ago, police there seized two homemade tanks. These armored tanks are used by drug cartels to protect their trafficking routes to the US.

The answer is the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas. As the BBC’s Julian Miglierini tells anchor Marco Werman, it’s where Mexican police have seized a number of homemade tanks being used by drug cartels to protect trafficking routes into the US.

By Ruxandra Guidi

Tijuana crossing (Photo: Ruxandra Guidi)

This port of entry is the busiest in the United States. There are 24 lanes at this crossing. Every day, officers stationed here see up to 40,000 vehicles and inspect close to 90,000 people. De Cima said she spends about half her day inspecting people as they come into the country.

On this day, De Cima zigzags on foot through the traffic arriving from Tijuana. It’s 11 a.m., no longer rush hour, but the rows of cars extend as far as the eye can see.

Suddenly, another agent calls out “915”; that’s code for human smuggling. De Cima rushes past the booths to see if the agents handling the smuggler need backup.

“They got people in the trunk on this one,” De Cima said.

They take the driver out and handcuff him. Then the officers move the beige Honda Accord to an area right under the pedestrian bridge, where they handle drug and human smuggling cases.

“We have four adults in the trunk of this Honda Accord,” De Cima said, “two males and two females. We’ll give them water, we’ll make sure they’re okay.” If not, they’ll call for medical help.

The four Mexicans get out of the trunk, covered in sweat. They’re visibly upset; they look like they might cry, but otherwise they seem to be fine. The four, who are shoeless, sit next to each other on the curb, staring at the ground until the Honda is fully checked.

“You see this everyday,” said De Cima, “people trying to come into the country hidden in the trunks.”

Sometimes they are found hidden deeper in the vehicles, in specially built compartments. “We call them coffin compartments,” she said. “People can’t get out of them.”

Later, the four men and women will be processed and charged, and then sent back to Tijuana. The driver will likely face a human smuggling charge in the US.

De Cima said the work is tiring and challenging, but never boring. “You never know what you’re going to run into. You could run into a person who is armed and dangerous; you could find somebody, a missing person or child who was kidnapped.”

De Cima said she loves her job.

“I do it with a sense of pride for my country,” she said, “and it’s not against anybody. I have family in Mexico, I love the Mexican culture — so that doesn’t take away from the job I do everyday to secure this nation.”

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Soldiers from Guatemala’s 6th Battalion on patrol near Coban (Photo: Lorne Matalon)

Mexico’s war against the drug cartels is spilling south into Guatemala. The cartels are threatening to take over parts of northern Guatemala near the Mexican border.

In response, the Guatemalan government has taken a page from its larger neighbor — and deployed the army to try and push the traffickers out. The government has declared a “state of siege” in one province, called Alta Verapaz, that it said has been overrun by one of Mexico’s most feared cartels.

As he shows a reporter a rural farm seized from alleged drug traffickers, Guatemalan Army Col. Marco Tulio Diaz points an unfinished barn for thoroughbreds and abandoned fields that stretch beyond the horizon. Diaz said Mexican traffickers used the farm as a place to slaughter enemies, rape local women and bury weapons. “A lot of evil took place here,” he added.

That was before Guatemala’s President Alvaro Colom declared a state of siege and ordered the military into Alta Verapaz.

Former Mexican soldiers

The main enemies here are members of Los Zetas, former Mexican soldiers turned drug traffickers, known for their brutality. Los Zetas aren’t just picking up and leaving, though. Responding to the military campaign, the group recently forced radio stations in the area to broadcast a warning to the government.

The message was addressed to President Colom, and threatened a full scale insurgency. It also claimed that Los Zetas gave Colom’s political party $11 million to fund his election campaign.

And it claimed that he’s now reneging on a deal to leave the cartel alone. Colom denies all the claims made by Los Zetas.

Guatemala’s state of siege means freedom of assembly and the press are suspended. Also, it allows police and military forces to detain people without arrest warrants.

’They are narcoterrorists’

Guatemalan officials, including Defense Minister Abraham Valenzuela, say the restrictions are justified. “These are no longer simple narcotraffickers,” said Valenzuela. “They are narcoterrorists.”

He called this a historic moment for Guatemala, and vows that the military campaign will continue until “we finish the job.”

No one disputes the corrupting influence or violence perpetrated by Los Zetas. But some Guatemalans view the army’s deployment against the cartels with skepticism.

The army is widely distrusted following decades of human rights abuses and Mexican traffickers enjoy enthusiastic support in parts of Guatemala.

Writer Julie Lopez, author of “The Narco Wars,” said the cartels have won over many locals by providing security and services that the Guatemalan government hasn’t been providing.

“It’s logical that they feel they owe loyalty to these people who give them employment, who pay for the local clinic, who if they don’t have money to bury a relative pay for the funeral,” said Lopez.

Land ownership

And then there’s the issue of land ownership. In farming villages in Alta Verapaz, some say the military campaign is a cover for the repression of peasants lobbying for land reform. Alta Verapaz has a history of land disputes between the oligarchy and the landless poor, and two indigenous leaders working for land reform have been arrested since the siege began.

“The siege is serving other interests,” said Carlos Morales, head the Union of Peasant Organizations.

But despite such skepticism, many Guatemalans back their government’s unprecedented move against the drug cartels. One popular saying goes: “Our neighbor is cleaning his house, and the cockroaches are fleeing here.”

And the stakes for the United States are high. A weak border on Mexico’s southern flank further destabilizes Mexico just as Washington is sending millions of dollars to fight the drug traffickers there.

Guatemala is asking for more help, too, saying the US must expand its anti-cartel efforts beyond Mexico to include Central America.

• Video: Guatemala takes on the drugs gangs from Mexico
• Lorne Matalon’s coverage of the drug war in Mexico

Neighborhood kids of Villas de Salvarcar (Photo: Monica Ortiz Uribe)

Monica Ortiz Uribe on The World:
• Disappearances in Juárez
• Juan Gabriel’s music school
• More of Moncia Oritiz Uribe’s stories

Mexican Special Forces in Sinaloa (2008 photo: Lorne Matalon)

Federal police in Mexico believe that several members of La Familia, one of the country’s most notoriously violent drug gangs, have been killed in a shootout in Morelia, the capital of Michoacan State, after the gang blockaded the city. Anchor Lisa Mullins gets an update on Mexico’s drug wars from Vanda Felbab-Brown of the Brookings Institution.
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• Mexico police break Morelia drug gang blockade
• BBC video: Inside a drug smuggling tunnel on the US-Mexico border
• FAQ Mexico’s drug-related violence
• Lorne Matalon’s Mexico stories

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The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Lisa Mullins: Mexico’s government says it’s security forces have killed a top drug cartel leader.  Nazario Moreno is known as the craziest one.  He was the head of La Familia.  La Familia is one of Mexico’s most dangerous cartels.  It handles much as of the methamphetamine, heroine, and cocaine that comes north here to the United States. Officials say that Morena was gunned down yesterday during a government crackdown in the cartel’s home state of Michoacán.  The crackdown lead to a shootout between police and cartel gunmen.  Later the cartel retaliated by blocking roads throughout the state.  Gunmen fired on cars and trucks passing by.  They pulled drivers out of the vehicles, burned the vehicles, then used them to stop traffic in and out of the state capital, Morelia.  At least five people died in the violence, including an eight month old baby. Despite all that, Mexican officials are claiming the operation was a success.  Vanda Felbab-Brown studies counter narcotics policy at the Brookings Institution.  She’s not ready to call it a victory for the government.

Vanda Felbab-Brown: This is difficult to gauge.  Certainly the government of Mexico has portrayed hits against important cartels as important indicators for victory.  The consequence however of this interdiction policy has been a very dramatic increase in violence because the remnants of the organizations fight among each other over control of territory at work, and they also fight within the organization over who will take over the leadership. So it is very difficult to know after any particular such interdiction operation whether this will in fact be the crippling blow to the organizations, or whether the organization will be able to regenerate itself.

Mullins: Can you tell us a little bit more, you know much about this organization, La Familia.  Can you tell us about them and how they operate?

Felbab-Brown: Yes, one of the newest drug trafficking organizations in Mexico, and one of the most brutal and violent ones, became notorious for its rituals, beheadings, that is very focused on intimidating the society as much as driving the drug trafficking organizations in the state.

Mullins: If the fight against La Familia of Michoacán, this Mexican state, if this has been a hallmark of President Calderon’s presidency, he’s from that area, how do you engage how well he’s done and how successful he’s been?

Felbab-Brown: Well, again, the effective metrics is often difficult.  And the Mexican government has pointed to the number of captures of prominent drug cartels as an indication of success, and it’s similar indication at some level of [inaudible 2:44], but the consequence has been this very dramatic violence that we see in Mexico.  And it’s clearly in my view a measure of failure.

Mullins: What do you make of the fact that this group, La Familia, is said to be on the decline in some reports.  But there’s a report the cartel has actually sent out a letter saying it wants to disband and negotiate a truce with authorities.  Is this for real?

Felbab-Brown: There have been several similar overtures from La Familia to the Calderon administration.  And in my view it is a sign the group is under pressure.  But it doesn’t mean necessarily that the fact that they are under pressure that they are anywhere close to being defeated.

Mullins: All right, thank you very much Vanda Felbab-Brown, the author of the book, Shooting Up: Counter Insurgency in the War on Drugs.  She teaches at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.  Thank you very much.

Felbab-Brown: My pleasure.

Mullins: Mexico’s cartels are constantly looking for ways to move their drugs north.  Authorities recently discovered one of the most sophisticated tunnels dug by the cartels underneath the U.S.-Mexico border.  A BBC correspondent was given a tour.  You can see the video of the tunnel for yourself at theworld.org.

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This ring with an 18 carat gold band and diamonds is among the star items. (Photo courtesy of Carasa)

Call it narco bling, or simply the ill-gotten spoils of a brutal drug trade. The stuff is expected to fetch 80 million pesos or more than 6 million dollars. That still represents just a fraction of the 40 billion dollars that Mexican drug cartels are estimated to earn from drug smuggling.

The auction wraps up on Friday in the biggest city in the Americas. It’s a mega city known for – among other things – a downtown landmark called El Angel or the Angel of Independence.

The answer is Mexico City, where an unusual auction is underway. Mexico’s Customs Department is auctioning off luxury goods and property seized from drug cartels. The World’s David Leveille has the story.
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Struggling to store drug evidence in Colombia

Tijuana Pa Bailar dance (Photo: Ruxandra Guidi)

Tijuana can’t catch a break. The Mexican border city has been plagued by drug-related murders and kidnappings but things were calming down. Then the violence started up again and now some in Tijuana want to show the rest of the world their city is more than a murder capital. They hope to demonstrate that on Thursday with a mass street performance on both sides of the border. It’s called Pa Bailar, or To Dance, Tijuana. Ruxandra Guidi of KPBS has the story. Download MP3

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LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH in Boston. Looks like Tijuana just can’t catch a break. The Mexican border city’s been plagued by drug-related murders and kidnappings. Things were calming down. President Felipe Calderon even praised Tijuana as a success story in Mexico’s war on drugs. But then the violence started again, not to mention a massive seizure of marijuana at the border this week. Well, now some in Tijuana want to show the rest of the world that their city is more than just a crime headline. Tomorrow, they’ll have a mass street performance on the US-Mexican border. It’s called “Pa Bailar,” or “To Dance, Tijuana.” Ruxandra Guidi of station KPBS has the story.

RUXANDRA GUIDI:  About a dozen women in their forties are gathered in Playas de Tijuana, a place where the border wall meets the westernmost corner of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. Renato Lopez stands in front of them. He’s a 21-year-old college student and one of the organizers of Pa’ Bailar Tijuana. Music blares from a pair of speakers, as Lopez demonstrates some dance steps. The women trail behind, a little off the beat. The song they’re dancing to is by Julieta Venegas, a Tijuana-born pop star, and the steps were choreographed by the Tijuana-based dance troupe, Lux Boreal.

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GUIDI: Lopez says the dance moves shouldn’t be hard to learn, a simple four-step and hand motions that say “I love Tijuana.” Gloria Ledon is also practicing her moves at Playas de Tijuana. She’s a 75-year-old dance instructor. She’s one of hundreds of people in the city who say they’ll come out tomorrow, for three and a half minutes, to dance to this song in parks, shopping malls, and plazas. The idea is simple, to celebrate Tijuana.

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GUIDI: Ledon says she would love to have Americans who regularly cross into Tijuana join in on the dance on their side of the border. And Norma Pennock agrees.

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GUIDI: Pennock says it’s important that people keep coming to Tijuana, because the city has another side to it, a noble city, she says, that provides work, housing and food to anyone who works hard. That’s probably not the image that many Americans have of Tijuana these days. Even though Mexican officials say security is improving here, drug-related killings and kidnappings have captured attention. Speaking at a conference a couple of weeks ago, Mexican president Felipe Calderon championed the current push to clean up the city’s reputation.

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FELIPE CALDERON: Tijuana’s efforts at self-improvement are especially important right now, at a time when the country faces a major security problem. Until recently, Tijuana had an image that was almost exclusively linked to crime.

GUIDI:  But that image is hard to shake. Just this week, Mexican authorities seized more than a 100 tons of marijuana at the Tijuana border crossing. And last week came word of seven drug-related killings in three separate incidents. College professor and human rights advocate Victor Clark Alfaro spends his time on both sides of the border. He says Tijuana could use some positive press. But he views a public performance like Pa’ Bailar Tijuana as part of a homegrown effort to take back the streets.

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VICTOR CLARK ALFARO: Tijuana residents have seen the worst violence, the most outrageous killings, diminish in the last six months. That doesn’t mean the violence has gone away. But there are important efforts by artists, both as individuals and collectively, to look beyond that and reflect a broader reality.

GUIDI: The dancers in Playas de Tijuana are starting to get the hang of the steps. Elsewhere in the city, hundreds of others are practicing and getting ready for their public performance on October 21^st. In San Diego, people will be dancing at Plaza las Americas, an outlet mall right next to the Tijuana border crossing. No one really knows how many people will participate on either side of the border. The organizers say they’re just hoping to bring people together to celebrate something positive in Tijuana. For The World, I’m Ruxandra Guidi, Tijuana.

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