Corruption Hampers Mexican Police in Border Drug War

From the New York Times

By GINGER THOMPSON

Published: July 5, 2005

MATAMOROS, Mexico - A crooked cop is the oldest story in the book in Mexico. But this country has been forced to re-examine its police as it struggles against a devastating crime wave that in the last six months has taken more than 600 lives

At least half those killings have happened in the six Mexican states along the border with the United States, where drug traffickers fighting for control of lucrative drug routes empty their automatic weapons on busy streets in the light of day. Lawlessness has become so brazen, and impunity so complete, that experts on the illegal drug trade have begun comparing northern Mexico to Colombia, where powerful cartels took over large parts of the country by corrupting or killing police officers, politicians, journalists and judges.

Killings and kidnappings happen almost every day in the city of Nuevo Laredo, about 150 miles north of this small town. Matamoros is quiet in comparison. The most common crime here these days, the police say, is robbery. But as recently as three years ago, this, too, was a capital of the drug war. People on the street said they are afraid that it could become one again.

And here, like Colombia, society's first line of defense against the chaos - the municipal police - has proved to be its weakest.

Read the full article here.