Anarchy Reigns In Mexico

April 1, 2010

by Al Doyle

Mexico spirals faster and more deeply into chaos with each passing day. Between the wholesale corruption, non-stop murders and power struggles among rival drug cartels, the situation is worse than what took place during the Mexican Revolution of 1910 to 1920. It wouldn't be a stretch to say the nation is well down the path to collapse and ruin.

MIA has warned that the effects of violence and wanton killing in Mexico would spill over to the American side of the border, and that is exactly what is happening. Southern Arizona rancher Rob Krentz was found murdered on March 30.His 34,000-acre ranch has been in the family since 1907.

Krentz has been interviewed by media outlets on a regular basis since 1999 about how his property has been overrun with illegal aliens and drug smugglers. His cattle have been killed, pipes and other fixtures are repeatedly damaged, and the family home has been burglarized. Despite the publicity, the federal government continued to allow the criminal invasion on American soil, and it cost Krentz his life.

The isolated border town of Fort Hancock, Texas (population 1,713) is feeling the full force of the chaos in Mexico. The neighboring town of El Pornevir, Mexico has turned into a battleground for rival cartels, and the combatants are threatening the town's 10,000 residents. Signs warn locals to "get out or pay with blood".

A steady stream of escapees are crossing the border to seek asylum in Fort Hancock. Those who remain in El Pornevir have been told to pay 5000 pesos ($405 U.S.) to prevent their children from being murdered. The attempts at extortion were confirmed by Hudspeth County chief deputy Mike Doyle.

New students from Mexico enroll each week in the Fort Hancock school system. Superintendent Jose Franco spoke about contingency plans that include the possibility of most of the population of El Pornevir crossing the border to escape the drug war. Fort Hancock is ill prepared for such an invasion. The town's average annual income of $17,525 makes it one of the poorest places in America.

Despite the very obvious and growing troubles on the border, the government hasn't made the slightest effort to keep the traffickers and smugglers from invading.

A law enforcement official who spoke on condition on anonymity said, "It [Fort Hancock] is one of the key staging areas for the cartel and has no fences. All they do is wait for the shift to change at the border posts and walk across. There is no obstruction to crossing the border here." Maria Aguilar spoke of how her fourth-grade daughter and other children often discuss "how so and so was killed in Mexico last weekend."

Two Mexican Army bases in the northern border states of Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas were attacked by cartel forces April 1. There were five other attacks on Mexican soldiers elsewhere in what was obviously a coordinated effort. Eighteen of the assailants were killed.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that at least 100,000 residents of Ciudad Juarez have moved from the violence-plagued border city during the past year. An American missionary in Juarez reports that a member of his church who was employed at a local factory was killed when he refused to place drugs into shipping crates headed for America. How cheap is life in Mexico? The missionary says the price of a contract killing in Juarez is as little as $100.