NPT Drug War: Time Mag: “One of the world’s most militarized borders.”

From Time Magazine:

Behind the Troop Surge at the U.S.-Mexico Border

The ebbing stretch of Rio Grande that divides the Texas city of El Paso from the Mexican city of Juarez may soon become one of the world’s most militarized borders. This week, as Texas Governor Rick Perry went to El Paso to announce that has asked Washington for 1,000 more “boots on the ground” to enforce the border, Mexico’s government ordered 5,000 extra soldiers to Juarez. The armies massing on both sides of the border are marching against a common foe — drug cartels — and the coming months will be a crucial test as to whether they can effectively work together to fight it.

NPT Drug War: NY Times: ‘We could still rescue ourselves.’

From the NY Times the story starts with Juarez Mayor José Reyes Ferriz talking tough about the cartels, even as they force the resignation of the city’s police chief, but ends on a hopeful note):

With Deadly Persistence, Mexican Drug Cartels Get Their Way

“There’s no square inch of the city that has been untouched by the violence,” said Lucinda Vargas, an economist who works by day to remake the city as executive director of Juárez Strategic Plan, but retreats to El Paso at night. “There’s a lot of evidence that Juárez, in a micro sense, is becoming a failed state. But I still think we haven’t failed yet and that we could still rescue ourselves.”

NPT Drug War: LA Times: Columbus’ view on the ‘bloody brawl’

From the LA Times:

Border drug war is too close for comfort

Tiny Columbus, N.M., a haven for baby boomer retirees seeking cheap living, small-town values and solitude, can’t quite believe that a bloody brawl has broken out on its doorstep.

Columbus, a settlement of 1,800 people clinging to a wind-swept patch of high desert in southern New Mexico, was a picture of tranquillity.

But less than three miles south, in the once-quaint Mexican town of Palomas, a war is being waged. Over the last year, a drug feud that has killed more than 1,350 people in sprawling Ciudad Juarez has spread to tiny Palomas, 70 miles west, where more than 40 people have been gunned down, a dozen within a baseball toss of the border. More — no one knows how many — have been kidnapped, and the Palomas police chief fled across the border last year and has asked for political asylum.

NPT Biz: Western ‘inherits’ $2.25 million fine for NM violations

A news release last week (Feb. 24, 2009) described a $2.25 million settlement with El Paso’s Western Refining over a ruling that Bloomfield and Gallup refineries violated federal and state air pollution rules in 2005. The release noted that Western acquired the refineries from Giant in 2007, leaving it unclear if Western was part of the 2005 ruling or whether it “inherited” the ruling when it acquired the refineries in 2007. A Western spokesman said it was the latter. For the news release, follow the jump.

NPT Capitol Round Up

Check out NPT’s new weekly feature, Capitol Round-up. This week, The feds fund, Dutton disses, Pollsters provoke and Berman’s bi-lingual, while everyone has something to say when it comes to Mexico. Here’s a sneak peak:

— Scene of the week: the live sonogram at the capitol: During a press conference in support of SB 182, which would require any woman seeking an abortion, to first have the opportunity to hear the heartbeat and see an ultrasound image of the fetus, organizers included a pregnant women undergoing a live sonogram, which was projected on a pull down screen adjacent to the speakers. [link]

— Busy week for: Gov. Perry. He was in Washington on Monday meeting with the President. He flew back to Austin in order to speak at a pro-life rally at the capitol on Tuesday, got on a plane and was speaking in El Paso by mid-afternoon, and was back in Austin to speak at two different events on Wednesday.

— Weird moment: Leo Berman. The Tyler state rep, when asked if there should be an amnesty for illegal immigrants in Texas, repeatedly punctured his response with the word “why” and even switched it up asking “por que.” Listen below.

— Question of the week: Will Dunnam’s Select Committee tour come to El Paso?