Violence in Border City Continues to Rise

USA Today reports that a police officer, whose photograph appeared in a USA TODAY and USATODAY.com report May 18 about the surging violence against police in the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo, was in critical condition Tuesday after he was shot five times outside his home.

This happened as Juan Pablo Elizondo had just completed guard duty at a hospital in Nuevo Laredo. This was where some of his colleagues were being treated for wounds suffered in past attacks.

The attack highlights the importance of sealing our borders to stop the unrelenting threat against Mexican police in a city where two major drug cartels are battling for control of routes into the USA for shipments of drugs and illegal immigrants.

Just two weeks ago, two Mexican state police officials were shot to death in their unmarked vehicle.

Previously, Elizondo’s colleagues were wounded when gunmen burst into a restaurant where the officers were eating.

More than 110 people have been slain in Nuevo Laredo this year in a killing spree authorities believe could surpass last year’s record of 176.

Earlier in the month, Elizondo, 31, said officers in his department were warned by superiors that drug cartel members had issued a threat against city police. Last summer, Nuevo Laredo’s police chief was assassinated just hours after taking office.

The article reports that friends and family have been telling him to leave the police force, but he refused.

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