Collateral Damage: Drug war takes toll on kids

San Antonio Express-News: "Legions of children ... — some say as many as 15,000 — have lost one parent or both to the drug-fed malevolence devouring Ciudad Juárez. Fragile seedlings, these children shoulder lives sullied by blood, blackened with loss, gnarled in rage. “Violent death is doubly bad,” said Silvia Aguirre, director of a volunteer group that provides grief counseling and support to victims' families. “In addition to the hurt of losing someone, the survivors are left with the shame and embarrassment of how and why they died.

“If you tend to them, you break the cycle of violence,” Aguirre said of the children. “If you don't, they can grow up to be their father's avengers.”" read more