War is coming to Tucson

Lionel Waxman

May 25, 2007 - 02:19:33 pm MDT

Inside Tucson Business

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You are not going to like what I have to say today. But it must be said, out loud.

People are whispering about it now, but if we don’t face up to it, it will only get worse.

The violent incident in Cananea, Sonora, has hit the consciousness of Tucson squarely between the eyes.

Northern Mexico is in a state of war.

Who is fighting? That’s hard to say.

Officially, it is the drug- and people-traffickers against each other and the government. But in Mexico, you can’t tell the players even with a program. You cannot assume the police or the Army are loyal to their commands. Many are working on their own.

In case you were out of town two weeks ago, about 50 armed men drove into Cananea and killed five policemen and two other residents. The men fled into the hills with police and soldiers in pursuit. In subsequent gunfights, 16 more were killed.

The U.S. State Department has issued a travel announcement saying narcotics-related “violence by criminal elements affects many parts of the country.”

It is not too much to say there is a war going on right across the border. It’s not a hot war with firefights all the time. It is not a cold war, either, with posturing and press releases. Let’s call it a warm war. Violence breaks out from time to time for reasons unknown to us, but completely unpredictable.
And here’s the part you don’t want to hear. Violence has spread across the border and has resulted in several deaths of Americans residents and visitors. Most such crimes are reported as isolated incidents. But the violence in northern Mexico is not stopping at the border. It’s headed this way and a lot of Tucsonans know it...

http://azbiz.com/articles/2007/05/25/lionel_waxman/lionel.txt