Collateral Damage: Northern Mexico's State of Anarchy

This report places the abandonment of Ciudad Mier in the context of the over-all "collateral damage" in Tamaulipas State.

Northern Mexico's State of Anarchy - WSJ.com: "... some parts of Mexico are caught in the grip of violence so profound that government seems almost beside the point. This is especially true in northern places like Ciudad Mier and surrounding Tamaulipas state—a narrow, cleaver-shaped province that snakes along the Texas border and hugs Mexico's Gulf Coast.

"Public space has been taken over by criminals, and Tamaulipas society is at their mercy," says Carlos Flores, a visiting professor at the University of Connecticut who studies the state's crime groups." Nov. 20, 2010