Word: mexicans
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Jose Reyes Ferriz, mayor of the Mexican border city of Juarez, presides over what may be the western hemisphere's most dangerous town, certainly the hardest hit by Mexico's drug-war terror. Since the start of last year, Juarez has seen almost 2,000 drug-related murders. Reyes this month requested thousands of federal army soldiers to rein in the violence, which has subsided for the moment - giving him a chance to rebuild Juarez's corrupt police force. He talked with TIME's Tim Padgett this week about his police reform, drug-cartel death threats against him and comparisons...
TIME: Why have the cartels issued death threats against you? REYES: Organized crime here had infiltrated our police so deeply, and it was clear they didn't want a clean-up of the force. But it had to be done, and no other Mexican city has done such a widespread clean-up. And that caused the threats. Four weeks ago on a Sunday came the first public threat against me; but it was something we knew had been brewing for a while so I wasn't completely surprised or upset. I knew the consequences of the decisions I'd made...
...violence is a consequence of the Mexican political class's utter neglect of law enforcement, especially when the country was ruled by your party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Will that finally change now? That's a key issue. As a country we really underestimated the value of police and looked down on police. That forced the issues we have now, particularly in Juarez. Our police department barely grew the past 15 years: we should have a force of 4,000 officers, but we have only 1,600. We knew about police corruption but as a society did nothing...
...equally important that U.S. border police be better able to stop the flow of illegal weapons into Mexico. The U.S. also needs to be able to share more information with Mexico - like intelligence about [U.S.-based] gangs like Barrio Azteca, whose members are used by the Mexican drug cartels to commit so much of the violence here. (See pictures of Mexico's drug wars...
...clearly wrong, and President Obama recognizes that. His efforts are directed at the proper solutions for Mexico's problems - which at the end of the day become problems for the U.S. If we don't attack those problems now, the violence will escalate and go into the U.S. And [Mexican] President [Felipe] Calderon, of course, has been very involved in the effort to find solutions to Juarez's problems. (See pictures of the border fence between the U.S. and Mexico...