In the 1930s, owing to markets made available through Prohibition creating an illegal alcohol market, North American gangs waged regional gangland turf battles involving murder, extortion, kidnapings, robberies, arson... This continued through a period of consolidation until the battlefield was turned from a battle between rivals, to a unified battle against government and law enforcement authority. The local police were corrupted by the system and it took outsiders from the national government, indeed outsiders from the traditional law enforcement scene to identify, target, and round up the "public enemies." Such was the scene during the first Great Depression.Fast forward to today, when economic markets decline, those that have relied on their illegal drug market revenue search for new ways to keep revenues maintained; hence encroaching turf wars. The market itself has far more to do with issues impacting these rival gangs than any credit due law enforcement or government action. But just as the gang lords in the 1930s figured out that it was more prosperous to work together than fight each other, it should be expected that the criminal elements in Mexico will unite ultimately redirecting their deadly aim at authorities that seek to take them down. There appears to be a sea change in Mexican battleground -- a deliberate effort to go after law enforcement and authorities -- particularly with the first car bomb incident this past week in bordertown Mexico.
What was particularly noticeable in the Cuidad Juarez bombing incident was that the focus on the bomb was first responders, law enforcement, and investigators. Reportedly, the bombers called in a phony report that an officer was shot (and down), and this brought the calvary response, but when support arrived the bomb went off killing 3 people. This distraction bombing, or sometimes called secondary device bombing, is typical of terrorism type bombings and marks the milestone of increasing escalation in the Mexican border violence.
The violence is so extreme at the border that many have become numb to the violence and somehow excuse the violence as being related to some discomforting, disquieting, activities involving others and not related to themselves; this is false. The violence at the border is real, the consequences of fear palpable, and lasting peace and economic development of the border cannot occur until the violence stops and the rule of law established.
Travelers are advised to stay clear of the Mexican border and to be cautious on their business travel to the area.
