Drug Lords Overrun Border Town

[GoodOlBoy]

Blood and Glass Everywhere
by Steve Harrigan

We had security concerns in Nuevo Laredo. We set up a live shot outside the closed U.S. consulate, where there was a heavy police presence, but staying in one place too long is never a good idea. People know where you are and they tell other people. Towards the end of the day we got some drive-by comments, and I did not feel comfortable when cars with tinted glass slowed down.

As we were leaving, a frantic convoy of SUVs with sirens and lights passed us. A block away there was machine gun fire. What we had been hearing about was now happening before our eyes. In a town where the last two police chiefs have been murdered, another city official, this time the councilman in charge of public security, was gunned down....at 9 am, one block from city hall.

Two others were also killed. Our cameraman Alfredo drove on the sidewalk to get close, and I walked under the tape until the police pushed me back. Alfredo eventually managed to put the small camera on a monopod and stick it inside the vehicle where the official was slain. There was blood and glass everywhere and a big crowd.

What really got me was what the crowd said to the police officers. When the policemen tried to hold them back so they could work, the crowd shouted back at them with scorn, "You do no work. You do nothing."

This is clearly a town where the people have lost confidence in their police force, and where anyone who tries to stand up to the drug cartels gets killed.

One man in the crowd said, "Of course we're scared. This is getting ugly."

GoodOlBoy