Mexico Border City Wants U.N. Peacekeepers

Business Groups in Ciudad Juarez Want to Quell Drug-Related Violence that has Fueled one of World's Highest Homicide Rates

(AP)  Business groups in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez said Wednesday they are calling for United Nations peacekeepers to quell the drug-related violence that has given their city one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

Groups representing maquiladora assembly plants, retailers and other businesses said they will submit a request to the Mexican government and the Inter American Human Rights Commission to ask the U.N. to send help.

"This is a proposal ... for international forces to come here to help out the domestic (security) forces," said Daniel Murguia, president of the Ciudad Juarez chapter of the National Chamber of Commerce, Services and Tourism. "There is a lot of extortions and robberies of businesses. Many businesses are closing."

The government has sent more than 5,000 soldiers to the city across the border from El Paso, Texas, but killings, extortions and kidnappings continue.

Ciudad Juarez has had 1,986 homicides through mid-October this year — averaging seven a day in the city of 1.5 million people.

"We have seen the U.N. peacekeepers enter other countries that have a lot fewer problems than we have," Murguia said.

The groups appeared to be motivated by a sense of desperation and deep disappointment with the government's efforts to control crime in the city.

Soledad Maynez, president of the Ciudad Juarez Association of Maquiladoras, said the joint police-army operation to quell killings and crime have yielded no results.

Maynez said business and civic groups want U.N. peacekeepers or advisers in Ciudad Juarez.

"What we are asking for with the blue helmets (U.N. peacekeepers) is that we know they are the army of peace, so we could use not only the strategies they have developed in other countries ... but they also have technology," Maynez said.

Mexican troops have both helped train new local police recruits and taken on some patrolling tasks in the city.

But a turf battle between rival drug gangs has not yielded, and extortionists and thieves — some probably related to the drug cartels — have taken advantage of the situation to target businesses. Maynez said thousands of shops, stores and other firms have closed or moved out of the city because of the situation.

Maynez said the United States could also contribute to the solution, adding that the U.S. might be forced to in its own interests.

"We know that sooner or later, the violence will spill over into our sister city of El Paso, Texas," he said.

[corinabyg]

Living in El Paso, Texas, its frustrating to see that our border Mexican city of Juarez, can not control the violence. Believe it or not, efforts are being made, but it is too dangerous out there. I believe that it is a good idea to bring in the blue helmets to settle the violence that is occuring.

[hideandseek15]

You people forget that Mexico is a country that human beings, yes many American human beings as well, inhabit & that turning our back on human beings is a violation of human laws, AKA Human Rights Laws. We need to stop turning our backs to the fact that thousands of people, innocent ones as well as guilty, are being murdered in broad daylight on a daily basis. Stop turning it into a political issue, selfishly involving your taxes and wake up and realize that the violence across the border affects everybody. The people being murdered are somebody's family. Yes, Americans have family in Mexico as well.
Enough with the selfish American attitude. We are a bigger part of the problem than we ever stop to give ourselves credit for.

[quapawsix]

we gave Mexico how many billions of dollars and they can't even control their own border I want my DAMN tax money back.

[Jayster3]

Do you realize what you are saying? Innocent people are loosing their lives and the little help us Americans contribute you want to take back just because it is not working? Your small tax contribution is not nearly enough help to these daily homicides.

[quapawsix]

If you let the UN in Mexico it won't be long and they will be in America, is this really what the American people want?

[Sloughfoot]

mexican politicians wanting media attention - they're getting as bad as ol' kim, the castros, chavez and the like. Next they'll be want the U.S. to pay them for not building a nuclear bomb.

[claydowner]

The ongoing violence in Ciudad Juarez only underscores the hardship that faces Mexican authorities. America bears a heavy burden because our demand for drugs have helped create the cesspool of violence that pollutes all of Mexican society. Automatic assault rifles and explosives, including hand grenades, and other weapons of war account for 80% of the weapons confiscated by Mexican authorities. We Americans need to be just as concerned about what we need to do to help the Mexican government. So far our response has been too meager. The article is correct violence from Mexico is finding its way across to the America side. There needs to be more solutions to this problem because Mexico's problems are our problems. Nearly 2,000 Mexicans killed in Ciudad Juarez is totally unacceptable. America bears a strong responsibility because of our demand for drugs and our ridiculous gun laws that allow weapons of war to be sold wholesale to gangs. President Obama must do more including National Guard troops all along the border to ensure that we protect America and keep the rule of law in place. The Mexican borders need deployments of Guard troops not Afghanistan or Iraq where our national interests are much less than with Mexico. We also need the assault weapons ban put back on the books.

[Sloughfoot]

America's fault - The same old retoric world wide. You live in the neighborhood of your making - Not someone elses fault - However, as long a sparasites continue to point and blame the U.S. for all their ills they will continue to flounder in their own sewage.

[bobbyduck1]

by BeachBuzz November 12, 2009 6:02 PM EST

I agree with everyting you said!

Further to the drug cartel problem though is the corruption within the government regarding Maquiladora recruitment, which amounts to slave labor. Taxes are raised by thousands of percent on rural property, then when the hereditary owners can't pay up, they take their land and tell them to go work in the Maquiladoras for peanuts and they live in cardboard shanty-towns with no benefits of any kind, not even police or fire trucks.

This is what we did with NAFTA, made a slave labor market appear out of essentially nothing, placed it right on our borders to build us our stuff for way less money than Americans would get to do the same job.

Capitalism is a wonderful thing...sometimes and for some people....

[BeachBuzz]

Prohibition = Black Market = Organized Crime = Corruption within Law Enforcement and Government. Governments were never meant to decide what a free individual could or should do with their own bodies as long as those idividuals do not hurt others and or infringe upon others rights as free citizens. As long as prohibition exist, gang violence will coexist. Remove prohibition of a product and you remove the money that organized crime can make from said product. Organized crime/gang violence and influence over governments and law officials will be minimal if any. Government and Law Enforcement can then again do what they were elected/hired to do. Serve and Protect.

[Ms_enza]

We need them in Texas too.

[ToolMangler1]

no we don't, Mexico is in the same position as Afghanistan, they are asking the UN to do the same job that we are doing in Afghanistan. This could be very interesting...