Drug war in Ciudad Juarez- Warning: Graphic Content
Mexican soldiers looking for drug traffickers and drugs search passengers from a bus at a checkpoint on a highway on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez. There are nearly 10,000 soldiers and police in the border city, a test case of the Calderon administration’s war against drug traffickers.
Soldier Jeronimo Vargas Gomez, 26, watches TV at a former warehouse in Ciudad Juarez where troops are staying in tents. The government sent 5,000 troops and 1,900 federal police officers after appeals for help, adding to the 2,500 soldiers and police already there. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
Heavily armed soldiers patrol Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in an open pickup truck. Soldiers speed through the city in teams of two trucks assisting local law enforcement. They set up impromptu roadblocks to search for drugs and weapons, and tend to the nuisance calls that make up a cops life: robberies, street fights, fender benders. I am an army lieutenant colonel, said one officer. But now were all police. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
A Mexican soldier and officers from the Ciudad Juarez police cover the body of Daniel Chavez, one of six victims of violent crime found that day. Chavez is reported to have been with the Azetecas drug gang and was gunned down in a drive-by assault. The city used to average 10 deaths a day, but the number is now between four and eight. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
A Mexican soldier armed with an automatic rifle patrols the streets of Ciudad Juarez in the back of a pickup truck. Ciudad Juarez resembles a city under military occupation as Mexican President Felipe Calderon ratchets up his war against drug traffickers. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)