According to those who deny that Mexico is a third-world slum and of great danger to America, the city of Monterrey is cited as an example of a modern, sophisticated city, hardly third-world in nature.
That wishful thinking has evaporated as a result of recent torment.
As reported at yahoo.com:
MONTERREY, Mexico – A 21-year-old university student lies dead from a gunshot to the head. Nearby, paramedics wrap the head of another woman in a blood-soaked shirt while her husband holds their cowering children.
They were shopping in a popular downtown promenade when gunmen chasing a security guard opened fire into the crowd. This wasn't supposed to happen in Monterrey, Mexico's modern northern city with gleaming glass towers that rise against the Sierra Madre, where students flock to world-class universities, including the country's equivalent of MIT.
But drug violence has painted Monterrey with the look and feel of the gritty border 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the north as two former allies, the Gulf and Zetas gangs, fight for control of Mexico's third-largest — and wealthiest — city.
The deterioration happened nearly overnight, laying bare issues that plague the entire country: a lack of credible policing and the Mexican habit of looking the other way at the drug trade as long as it was orderly and peaceful.
The Mexican government announced Wednesday it is ordering a significant boost in military troops and federal police in the northeastern border state of Tamaulipas and neighboring Nuevo Leon, home to Monterrey.
As in much of Mexico, there was no viable law enforcement to counter the onslaught. The Zetas control the local police. Other police forces aligned with the Gulf cartel in the fight against them.
About half of the 750 police officers in Monterrey have been fired on suspicion of links to organized crime.
“More than 500 people have died in drug violence in the first 10 months of the year, compared to 56 slayings for all of 2009, according to tallies kept by the city's El Norte newspaper.”
Monterrey: Very Mexican in both geography and status as a third-world junk pile.
