Mexican drug lord’s escape may mean more violence on border

Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman’s latest escape from a maximum-security prison in Mexico may eventually lead to renewed violence along the border, as U.S. officials and experts brace for the world’s billionaire drug trafficker to make another try to dominate one of the few regions he doesn’t control: Texas. “Texas is a huge gateway for illegal trafficking of drugs, weapons, people and money,” said Javier Garza, a veteran journalist in the state of Coahuila, which like four other Mexican states, borders Texas, and is long a haven for criminals, both from the underworld and public office. “The Mexican border states have a great economic, social and cultural integration, but not only for legal activities. … For years, we have learned about Mexican drug lords, politicians and businessmen laundering money, seeking shelter in Texas.” For years, Guzman has tried to control the Texas border between Ciudad Juarez-El Paso and Laredo-Nuevo Laredo, in some regions making more gains than others, but leaving a trail of bodies along the way. In Nuevo Laredo, he took on the paramilitary group known as the Zetas. In Ciudad Juarez he took the fight to his former associates, the Juarez cartel. The results: thousands killed...more