Monday, March 15, 2010

More Mexican Refugees from Crime & Violence Head North

Frontera NorteSur

Business leaders in the south Texas borderland have noticed a surge in Mexican nationals seeking homes and business opportunities since the beginning of the year. According to a real estate broker in McAllen, Texas, the new migrants are fleeing the narco-violence and criminality that are shattering the peace in the Mexican border states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon.

"People from Mexico are looking for a house in this area because it is more secure," said Noe Lopez of the RE/Max real estate company. Of 30 or 40 loan applications received by his firm each week, 90 percent of the requests are from Mexican nationals, Lopez said. Seventy percent of the Mexican applicants are from Monterrey and the remainder from Reynosa, Tamaulipas, he added.

Luis Cantu, vice president of international relations for the McAllen Chamber of Commerce, said his city had seen a "great influx" of Mexican business persons inquiring about investment opportunities in the US. "They are looking at establishing their businesses. They are buying their residences here in McAllen," Cantu said. "This is something we began to notice at the beginning of last year. So far this year we've seen a great number of people."

The flight of middle and upper-class families to McAllen follows a pattern in other areas of the Mexico-US border hit by rising insecurity. In recent years San Diego, Laredo and El Paso have been important refuges for an undetermined number of new immigrants. Reportedly, families have also fled violence-wracked rural Chihuahua for Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado.

The out migration is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

Chihuahua, Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon are key battlegrounds in the wars between competing underworld syndicates for control of territory and goods.

A key industrial center, the area in and around Monterrey is a prime hot spot. Last weekend three municipal policemen were killed and a police cadet wounded in San Nicolas, Nuevo Leon, when gunmen surprised and disarmed the officers. Before opening fire, the killers reportedly blurted out to their victims: "May God Bless You."

Earlier, on March 3, eight presumed cartel gunmen and two soldiers were killed in a clash in Anahuac, Nuevo Leon, according to the Mexican Defense Ministry.

To underscore the seriousness of the security situation, the US Consulate in Monterrey has instructed its employees to avoid non-essential travel in the metropolitan area of Mexico's third largest city. The Consulate also recommended that US citizens avoid travel if possible on the highways between Monterrey and the border cities of Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo.

In a statement dated March 5, the Consulate noted "numerous confirmed reports of deadly gun battles" in and around the cities of Nuevo Laredo and Reynosa, and in small towns north and east of Monterrey.  The US government agency also reported the setting up of cartel checkpoints on main highways to the US border, grenade attacks in the Monterrey metro area, and an increase in carjacking.

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Sources: El Universal/Notimex, March 9, 2010. El Sur/Agencia Reforma, March 8, 2010. Article by Miguel Dominguez and Mauro de la Fuente. El Diario de El Paso/EFE, March 6 and 7, 2010. Monterrey.usconsulate.gov/

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Frontera NorteSur (FNS)
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico

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Reprinted with authorization from Frontera NorteSur, a free, on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news source; translation FNS