Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
As the rest of the nation reels from the shock of having American consulate employees and family members cut down in the Mexican drug war in Juarez, for former Dallas DEA chief Phil Jordan, it's almost déjà vu.
“My brother innocently was murdered in El Paso in a carjacking engineered by the Juarez cartel,” Jordan said.
That was in the 90s, when, he said, the cartels were trying to send a message. Now, he feels, they are doing it again.
“Ever since I was in the El Paso intelligence center, we predicted the violence would be on the increase, the corruption would be on the increase, and guess what? We are there,” Jordan said.
Last year, drug violence killed more than 2,600 in Juarez alone. In Acapulco this weekend, another 15 were murdered, including five police officers.
But killing American citizens and employees ups the ante, and the U.S. government is promising to help Mexico respond.
Mexico already has some 45,000 military troops on the border, trying to win the drug war. What they need now, Jordan said, is more help from America: weapons, intelligence and expertise.
“The problem is totally out of control,” he said. "Mexico has declared a war. They need our assistance; they need strike force-type assistance, and I don't think they are getting it."
E-mail greaves@wfaa.com
