First Dispatch from the war zone:

I live in a war zone. Not a metaphorical war zone, an actual one. Armed soldiers patrol my street daily in full combat gear with loaded weapons. The squads have fully automatic rifles and a fifty caliber machine gun mounted on one of their Hummers. There have been over 900 war-related deaths in this city alone this year, but I do not live in the Middle East. I live two miles from the U.S. Border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The war is the war on drugs.

Juarez is on the other side of the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. It has half the area of El Paso, but twice the population. Even though El Paso is the fourth poorest city in the U.S., Juarez workers (including the police) make about twenty five percent of what their counterparts north of the border make. The enormous profits from the drugs going north and the guns coming south are simply too much of a temptation for many of the law-enforcement officers and other otherwise honest people to resist.

The most recent surge in violence started about a year ago when Mexican President Felipe Calderon signed a deal with President Bush called the Merida Initiative (or Plan Mexico) to step up enforcement in the border area. Bush committed to provide 1.4 billion dollars in military aid to Mexico and Calderon started stepping up the pressure on the cartels and the corrupt local cops. There were early successes, but then all hell started to break loose.

The problem was that as the local group known as La Linea started to loose it's grip, another cartel from Sinaloa started moving in to fill the void. President Calderon's troops unintentionally were aiding one side in a war between two criminal organizations. Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, the local boss, hired a group of ex-military mercenaries–known as the Zetas–to help him maintain control. The Zetas brutally gunned down many police officers who were formerly on Carrillo's payroll for suspected disloyalty and defection to the Sinaloa cartel headed by Joaqun Guzman Loera, known as “el Chapo” (Shorty). The fact that many of them did not defect–but were rather just prevented from aiding Carrillo by the Army and the other Federales–made no difference. Most of the cops that weren't killed resigned or were fired for failing lie-detector and other “trustworthiness” tests. With almost no cops left, the streets started running red with blood.

Living in a war zone is not fun. The cost of living is low in terms of money but high in terms of risk. I am stuck here until I can get a visa for my wife, a Mexican national. The house across the street from us was raided by the cops a year ago, but no drugs were found. The owners fled, but the looters took everything, including the front door. It was a really nice house with trees and a pool. Now the place is abandoned and decaying. Gang signs are spray painted all over it.

The Mexican Army that was brought in has so far been relatively free from corruption although they have made no noticeable impact on the amount of violence or the quantity of drugs running through the area. There have been growing reports of human rights violations from soldiers, who are simply a poor substitute for civilian police. A scandal broke out when it was revealed that the U.S. military was teaching them torture techniques to obtain information. The random warrantless searches and checkpoints make me nervous. We are not allowed to photograph or film them. I don't think they are winning this war because they only operate during daylight hours (as far as I've seen) and they often look scared. How long they can resist being corrupted themselves on a $500/month salary is the question I wonder about.

Obviously, all this could be avoided if drugs were legalized in the U.S. and guns were legalized in Mexico. Sure, addictions may increase but that would be less of a problem if the drugs were more affordable. At least addicts wouldn't have to prostitute themselves, steal or rob to get high. The U.S. would have at least 1.4 billion more dollars to help addicts if we didn't have to give the aid to Mexico. Honest Mexicans could defend themselves rather than relying on the now almost non-existent police force.

One last thing before I sign out for the night. Many of the Zetas, the ex-military mercenaries responsible for many of the murders, were trained by the United States Drug Enforcement Agency before they switched sides to make more money. Your tax dollars at work, folks.