Just when it seemed that the town of Nuevo Laredo, on the Mexican/Texas border, was mercifully dropping out of the media radar due to a relatively quiet period of violent activity, this past week has blown it back into the headlines.
Five teenagers were shot execution-style this Friday, with one survivor, Rene Amador Ramirez, being found at the scene by police. In a statement to police he recounted how they were seemingly set up. Apparently two unnamed friends of his came over to tell him that another friend had been in some kind of accident and needed help. Jumping into a Ford Explorer, in which were sitting some other young men, they travelled along a nearby highyway and stopped at the site of the supposed accident. It was here where they were met by a group of armed men, who forced them on their knees, put their shirts over their heads and shot all six of them, leaving them for dead.
The murders bring the death toll to 157 dead in the area this year. About a week ago a 24-year-old mother was shot and killed as she walked her son to preschool last week, with a 36-year-old waitress also found hanged in her home.
As we’ve discussed here before, Nuevo Laredo is a particularly notorious town for violent murders related to the drug trade, and is currently the battleground between two rival cartels for drug smuggling routes, namely the Gulf Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel.
All eyes are on what Mexican president-elect Felipe Calderon, who takes on the job on the first of December, can do about the problem.