Gov. Perry Warning Signs Along Border Must be Heeded by Washington

Rick Perry described the rapid escalation of drug cartel-related killings in northern Mexico, and said that absent federal action it was only a matter of time before communities on the Texas side of the border would be further swept up in the violence.

“Washington has been an abject failure at securing the border, leaving it vulnerable to exploitation, and our citizens exposed to grave danger,” Gov. Perry said. “An unsecured US-Mexico border is a serious national security threat, menacing the safety and security of our citizens, and the federal government is obligated to secure it. Our citizens deserve the best possible effort to protect them from this advancing network of criminal gangs.”

Gov. Perry spoke to the Texas Public Policy Foundation shortly after a brief meeting with President Obama on the tarmac at Austin Bergstrom Airport as the president exited Air Force One. The governor presented President Obama with a four-page letter outlining his concerns about the state of border security and the growing threats posed by drug cartels and transnational gangs.

“Drug cartels and related forces are waging war in Northern Mexico, their tactics including death threats, torture, car bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and beheadings. Since 2006, this war has taken 28,000 lives,” Gov. Perry wrote in the letter. “We cannot afford to allow these cartels to believe they’re free to extend their reach across the border onto American soil.”

A series of incidents in Texas indicate the violence has already begun reaching U.S. communities, Gov. Perry said, noting a midlevel member of the Juarez Cartel living in El Paso was shot eight times outside of his Texas residence in May 2009; Mexican pirate attacks occurred on Falcon Reservoir in May; and bullets from a gun battle in Juarez struck El Paso City Hall in June.

Gov. Perry also reiterated his request for 1,000 Title 32 National Guard troops to be deployed in Texas, along with an increase in other resources.

To view Gov. Perry’s letter to President Obama, please visit:
http://governor.state.tx.us/files/press-office/080910_PerryObamaletter.pdf

Just think how much border security we could afford if George Shrub Bush hadn't wasted two trillion dollars in Iraq. Oh well, some things are more important than others. Like political grandstanding, Trans Texas Toll road and vaccination of Texas children with untested drug manufactured by political contributors. Keep up the good work Perry.

Mexico City, Mexico (CNN) -- As one of the highest officials in the Mexican Catholic Church, Monsignor Victor Rene Rodriguez has been receiving the alarming reports from all over the nation.

His priests are telling him they are being constantly threatened, extorted and abused by drug traffickers.

"Sometimes threats don't materialize," Rodriguez said. "But in cases where priests haven't obeyed the drug traffickers' demands, churches have been damaged, priests attacked, and, in a few cases, even killed."

Monsignor Rodriguez is the secretary general of the Mexican Conference of Bishops and the Bishop of Texcoco. He says some fellow bishops have opted for canceling early evening masses to protect parishioners from the drug violence.

Rodriguez points to states like Chihuahua, the most violent in Mexico. Of the 28,000 drug-related deaths in the last four years, 40 percent have happened in this border state. In Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, more than 100 pastors

By NICHOLAS CASEY

MONTERREY, Mexico—A surge of drug violence in Mexico's business capital and richest city has prompted an outcry from business leaders who on Wednesday took out full-page ads asking President Felipe Calderón to send in more soldiers to stem the violence.

'Es momento de hacer un alto y decidir sobre la mejor forma de responder a las bandas de criminales que ... buscan establecer un nuevo parámetro de terror.'

'It's time to stop and decide the best way to respond to criminal bands ... looking to establish a new boundary of terror.'

– Excerpt from newspaper ad by Mexican business leaders

The growing violence in Monterrey, long one of Mexico's most modern and safe cities, is a sign that the country's war against drug gangs is spreading ever further from poorer battlegrounds along the border and into the country's wealthiest enclaves.

Residents opened their newspapers Wednesday morning to find the ads taken out by Mexican business leaders, begging the government to send more military into the city. "Enough already," said the notice that ran in national and local papers, criticizing what it said was a slow response of police against "criminal bands that in every act look to establish a new boundary of terror."

CUERNAVACA, Mexico (AP) — The decapitated bodies of four men were hung from a bridge Sunday in this central Mexican city besieged by fighting between two drug lords.

A gang led by kingpin Hector Beltran Leyva took responsibility for the killings in a message left with the bodies, the attorney general's office of Morelos state said in a statement.

The beheaded and mutilated bodies were hung by their feet early Sunday from the bridge in Cuernavaca, a popular weekend getaway for Mexico City residents.

Cuernavaca has become a battleground for control of the Beltran Leyva cartel since its leader, Arturo Beltran Leyva, was killed there in a December shootout with marines.

Mexican authorities say the cartel split between a faction led by Hector Beltran Leyva, brother of Arturo, and another led by Edgar Valdez Villarreal, a U.S.-born kingpin known as "the Barbie."

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The message left with the bodies threatened: "This is what will happen to all those who support the traitor Edgar Valdez Villarreal."

At least eight people were killed Tuesday when a group of men tossed Molotov cocktails into a bar in the tourist friendly Mexican town of Cancun, officials said.

Authorities said six to eight men entered the Castillo de Mar bar and threw homemade bombs, killing six women and two men who were inside.

Investigators said they do not know of a motive for the attack, but the bar was reportedly the victim of two extortion attempts, allegedly by the Zetas drug cartel.

"The death of eight people is confirmed. Six on site -- including four women -- and two others in hospital, also women," prosecutor Francisco Alor Quezada, from the southeastern state of Quintana Roo, told AFP.

Local media reports said the attack happened at around 1a.m. local time Tuesday. It set off a fire which destroyed the bar, which is in a residential area not frequented by tourists, officials said.

U.S. Border Patrol agents fired gunshots into Mexico over the weekend after being attacked during a marijuana seizure in Mission, Texas, the agency told CNN on Monday.

The incident between border patrol agents and alleged drug traffickers took place around 7:40 a.m. Saturday, Border Patrol spokeswoman Rosalinda Huey said.

"Our agents were being fired upon and they did respond with fire back into Mexico," she said. "I don't have the number of how many people were involved. But none of our agents were injured."

Agents seized over 1,000 pounds of marijuana during the incident, according to Huey. The incident is under investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and the Mexican government, Huey said.

"At this point we don't know what cartel it's tied to or if it's just an unaffiliated source. We're not attributing it to anybody right now," she said.

Although attacks against border patrol agents are not uncommon, assaults against agents have decreased in the last fiscal year, she said.

Mission is a small border town in the Rio Grande Valley near McAllen, Texas.