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March 26, 2009

The streets of Juarez

Posted: 10:45 AM ET

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Anderson Cooper
AC360° Anchor

Driving through the streets of Juarez. It was once a bustling city, but now seems largely deserted. Boarded up nightclubs. Empty stores.

The American visitors are mostly gone, scared off by the escalating drug war which has turned Juarez into a battleground. A handful of factions have been fighting for control of lucrative drug routes into the US. There have been gun battles in the streets, bodies left in gutters.

The drug cartels pay off police, kill those they can’t corrupt. Now 9,500 Mexican military personnel have flooded into Juarez.

“Our deployment here’s open-ended,” the captain of the unit says,”no one’s told us how long we’ll be here or how long this will take.”

One of the more shocking aspects of this battle is the number of unknown victims. There are hundreds of people likely working for the cartels - low level runners or informants. Many are often found dead, their identities unknown. There are so many that they take their bodies to mass graves and simply dump them in. There simply isn’t enough time to do anything else.

A convoy of soldiers just passed me by. They are in full combat mode, helmets on, kevlar vests, rifles

locked and loaded. They have made a difference. The violence has dropped off dramatically the last couple of days, but the cartels are still here, the war goes on, and the drugs continue to cross.


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