Colllateral Damage: Mexico plan to save violent border city is lacking

A close look, by the Associated Press Mexico team, at the realities behind Calderon's plan to save Ciudad Juarez, "Todos Somos Juarez."

Mexico plan to save violent border city is lacking - BostonHerald.com "Todos Somos Juarez (We Are All Juarez) was launched as a joint federal, state and local effort to reduce violence and boost the quality of life with 160 "concrete actions," everything from secure police radios to increasing credit for local businesses to giving middle-schoolers classes on respecting the law.

The ... successes of Todos Somos Juarez  (are) precarious. The program (has been) promoted at every turn by President Felipe Calderon ... as proof that Mexico is fighting a vicious drug war with more than guns and troops. Investments designed to counter the poverty and disenchantment that supply cartels with foot soldiers are injected throughout the city — parks and new high schools in some of the poorest neighborhoods, new hospitals and clinics and more police patrols in commercial districts to stop the extortion that has devastated Juarez’s local economy. ...

Even its critics say there have been successes. Besides five new high schools and a new middle school, the government has given thousands of scholarships to keep students in school and has extended the school day to 5 p.m. in 32 schools, keeping kids off the streets and giving working parents more flexibility. ...

Community members on the Todos Somos Juarez roundtables say the social investments won’t make a difference as long and the crime and impunity continue. Less than 5 percent of crimes in Juarez are investigated. Twenty doctors have been kidnapped since 2008 and three have been murdered just in the last year — one in a car bomb attack and another even after his family paid a ransom to his kidnappers. There have been no arrests in any of the cases." Dec. 29, 2010, AP