When you're lost in Juarez...

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - 7:06 PM Share

As Mexican troops drove by in Humvees in downtown Juarez, Mexico, a textile salesman told a reporter, "The drug hitmen are in control here. Things are out of control, there's so much death. At six o'clock I go home and I don't go out at all after that. There are so many killings."

What will the U.S. military do? The last time that the U.S. Army invaded Mexico, according to a study by Army historian Matt Matthews, was June 12, 1919, when "soldiers under the command of US Brigadier General James Erwin attacked [Pancho] Villa's base and drove him out of Juarez."

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EXPLORE:BORDERS, MEXICO
 

EYEOPENING

6:07 PM ET

April 2, 2009

Cost of Life

I'm very concerned about the state of affairs in Ciudad Juarez. I don't think that the United States can stand by and not do anything in the face of all this death. I saw this: http://www.newsy.com/videos/drug_cartels_the_cost_of_life/ and was very frightened by the fact that the going rate for a murder in Mexico is $100. What are we going to do?

 

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military for the Washington Post from 2000 through 2008.

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