Mexican Citizens Groups Pressure Government to Act on Crime

Violent crime continues to plague Mexico in spite of government efforts to fight drug smugglers, kidnappers and other organized crime groups. As VOA's Greg Flakus reports from Houston, some border towns have become open battlegrounds and citizens in some areas are taking the law into their own hands. Shootings have become an almost daily occurrence in some Mexican cities along the U.S. border. In Ciudad Juarez, just across the Rio Grande River from El Paso, Texas, gunmen are now threatening the Red Cross workers who come to the aid of shooting victims. Red Cross spokesmen say they had to suspend emergency operations after someone called them on their own radio frequency and threatened to kill rescue workers who came to the scene of a shooting. Violence has claimed more than 780 people in the border city of about 1.3 million... [read full story]