As cartels renew battle, violence in border city of Ciudad Juarez spikes again

After a few years of relative peace, the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez could be headed for the sort of violence that earned it the title of the world’s most violent city less than a decade ago. Speaking to the Mexican newspaper El Universal, a drug cartel enforcer identified only as Jorge said that the violence actually has never disappeared from the city – the killers only hid their victims better, he said. And, he added, as divisions continue to fracture the once-omnipotent Sinaloa Cartel, the levels of violent crime will continue to rise. "It is a lie that Juárez changed," Jorge told the newspaper. "Absolutely nothing has changed, just the order was that we be more discreet, that we don't shoot at people in the street, [because of that] there's a s---load of clandestine cemeteries ... Now one can burn them, bury them or throw them in the sewers." Jorge – who claimed to head up recruiting for the Juárez Cartel’s enforcement wing, La Línea – said that the root of the conflict is about what drugs move through the border city and who is in control of the transshipments. Ciudad Juárez sits directly across the border from El Paso, Texas, and is one of the main launching points for illegal drugs entering the U.S. "The war is because [the Sinaloa Cartel] wants [to sell] the crystal, and we aren't going to leave. There are orders to do whatever in order to not permit any of that," Jorge said...more