Posted on 06/16/2005 8:38:51 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — Only one of the tables was occupied inside the historic El Dorado Bar & Grill in the tourist district of this border city Tuesday afternoon.
The bar's owner and brother were finishing up a late lunch. A waiter stood nearby, the bartender fidgeted and the hostess read a local daily paper, its headlines screaming of more violence.
Like most tourist-driven businesses here, El Dorado — formerly the Cadillac Bar — has seen better days.
Publicity about narcotraficante violence has scared off U.S. tourists, said the bar's operator, Pablo Longoria.
"Normally, we would have four or five tables full around this time. Now, it's only us."
Already, the slump has closed one of the town's more popular weekend hangouts for American teenagers. Señor Frog's shut its doors this weekend after more than 10 years in business.
On the main tourist drag, venders were hard-pressed to find tourists. The few that stood out weren't from Texas, but from states where news of Nuevo Laredo's problems isn't so prevalent.
Kim Collins, 44, of Okmulgee, Okla., said she wasn't aware of the increased violence until she arrived in Laredo.
A Border Patrol agent there gave her an ominous warning: Don't go into Nuevo Laredo.
"We drove so far that I couldn't let that stop me from coming over," Collins said.
At the main tourist market, Pat and Nancy Lashley of Stapleton, Neb., were unaware of the latest series of incidents, among them the shooting death last week of the city's new police chief.
Pat Lashley, a truck driver, said he has visited without any problems and that people had been nice.
Laredo international bridge statistics show fewer pedestrians and noncommercial vehicles crossed into Mexico in May, while the flow of trade cargo remained nearly the same.
The largest dip was among those who walked across, with about 20,400 fewer going to Nuevo Laredo, compared to the same month last year, a drop of almost 6 percent.
The numbers of noncommercial vehicles crossing to Mexico were down by about 28,000, almost a 5 percent drop.
Tourism has been hurting for months, but there are indications the chill now includes locals and Texans with family in the area.
"We've got relatives down there who have said it's not worth going," said Andy Sanchez of San Antonio.
Martha Ojeda, another San Antonio resident, used to visit her family here every weekend, but she hasn't been to Nuevo Laredo in about a year because of the violence. "I don't want to die there," Ojeda said.
And although Laredo resident Laura Molina isn't discouraged from coming here during weekdays, she said she wouldn't let her teenagers make the same trip.
"I'm just afraid for them going by themselves," Molina said. "You could just be in the wrong place at the wrong time."
She also said that if she does come to Nuevo Laredo, it's not in her black Escalade, because SUVs are preferred by drug traffickers.
Laredo officials here continue to downplay the violence, and said Laredo, too, remains a safe city to visit, despite last week's fatal shootings of three young men.
One of the victims, Cornelio Molina, 27, of Laredo, is believed to have been shot in Nuevo Laredo, his body dumped on this side of the border, according to Laredo police.
Another victim, Bruno Alberto Orozco Juarez, 24, of Laredo, was a former Nuevo Laredo police officer, said officer Juan Rivera, a police spokesman.
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jzarazua@express-news.net Staff Writer Brian Chasnoff in San Antonio contributed to this report.
NL ping!
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.
Americans should boycott ever visiting there. If you want nice beaches in a foreign land, go to the Bahamas.
The border has "tourists"???
It's like a 3rd world country! I prefer the interior like Cuernavaca and San Miguel de Allende.
Shoot, drive 5 mins in truck and can be in "Nuevo Laredo" with all its charms...
I wasn't [planning on visiting that pit anyway!
That works for me.
ol' hoghead
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On an archway, the last governor's bold exhortation to fight corruption was displayed in 2-foot-high letters.
But few among the hundreds of blue-uniformed city police officers gathered in an open-air courtyard felt much like battling crime Tuesday. They seemed angry, resentful and bored. Their weapons had been taken away, their patrol cars locked up. Many were wondering whether they still had jobs.
Their new chief was assassinated June 8, hours after he took the oath of office. And 41 of their fellow officers were detained Saturday and flown to Mexico City for questioning after they had stopped a convoy of plainclothes federal investigators and wounded an agent.
A presidential spokesman accused the police force of being in the pocket of two powerful drug cartels fighting to control the smuggling routes that run from this city of 500,000 into Dallas and beyond.
"Why have all the bad things been attributed to us?" asked a burly officer named Alberto, a 28-year-old and a member of a SWAT team who declined to give his last name. His superiors ordered him to say nothing to reporters, he said. "We are public servants, we carry arms, we are law officials, too."
Since the Saturday confrontation with the agents of the Federal Investigative Agency, or AFI, the city's 750-member police force has been disarmed, forced to undergo drug tests and ordered to remain at headquarters. State police, federal agents and army troops performed law enforcement duties in Nuevo Laredo on Tuesday.
While their personnel files were examined and drug-testing samples analyzed at headquarters, many of the officers spent the day reading newspapers, consuming cold drinks and waiting for the word to go back to work.
"Only those who are doing right will remain," said the 32-year veteran, attired on this day in his full dress uniform. "The just are paying the price for the sinners. For the errors by a few, all of us are paying."
Officer Martha Evelia Rivera, who was standing next to Flores, agreed.
Salaries of police average just $600 a month, a wage that has not increased in several years, she said.
"The pay is very low, and it should be higher," she said. "That's the reason police ask for money — the salary."
Still, she thinks the federal investigation is necessary "so the bad ones will go." And how many of the 750 police are bad? "Five hundred," she replied.
As the police officers remained inside headquarters or at smaller satellite stations around town, state police investigated two new homicides, including a 29-year-old bus driver shot five times.
The body of another man was found in a car that had been set afire.
Local newspapers reported that the two homicides were the latest of the nearly 70 reported since the beginning of the year. The violence was sparked by a turf war between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Gulf Cartel.
At Bridge No. 1 in downtown Laredo, all U.S. Customs officers on duty wore blue body armor over their uniforms. One agent said they had been ordered to wear the bulletproof vests until the situation in Nuevo Laredo stabilizes.
james.pinkerton@chron.com
June 15, 2005, 7:40AM
"Border violence killing tourism (Mexico)"
Good. Once it's in a "persistent vegetative state" we can pull it's feeding tube.
I do boycott mexico. I live in s. Calif. and won't go to mexico, both the illegal immigration and them not returning murderers for trial.
Mexico is a narco-terrorist state. Has been for twenty years. You have to be an idiot to go there. So far I have known, personally, two families who have had a member kidnapped for ransom in Mexico.
I won't say you deserve whatever happens if you are stupid enough to go down there but it's tempting.
"I suggest we boycot Mexico until they decide to start helping stop the illegal crossings."
That might do a lot of good. I'm already engaged in a life time boycott of Mexico (though I've been tempted to go to Mexico city to see the shrine of Guadalupe), but if NO Americans went there, that might really get our point across. And our beloved W couldn't do a thing to stop us from not going there. There is also produce that could be boycotted.
Let's get this party started. No more Mexican produce for me. We already didn't by a car that was 45% Mexican parts, assembled in Mexico.
"Gracias, no."
I hung out at beach pubs instead, which are pretty jungle-like as it is.. :-)
Beach??
You don't have a clue.
alll in all larado is safe now we had a great time and we should go back! be sure to let people know that cause larado is a great place
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