I live in a border town and have my whole life (south Texas). My sister lives in El Paso. The horror stories coming out of Ciudad Juarez seem like something out of a thriller movie. Children are getting slaughtered over there in some cases. The cartels show no mercy. Mr. Papic is definately wrong. The horrible thing is the violence is spreading like a wildfire all along the border, even to towns that used to have relative peaceful reputations. Just a week and half ago, my mother and I were planning to go over to Reynosa for some basic shopping (pharmaceuticals are definately cheaper over there, for the most part), but I was advised against it from fellow coworkers. I work at UPS, and we have drivers cross the border regularly between the maquilas in Mexico and the warehouses here in McAllen. He was detained in traffic on the bridge because there was a gunfight and bombings occuring in the outskirts of Reynosa between the soldiers and the carteles. The carteles had never pushed this far south, so close to the Gulf, but now they're in Reynosa and Matamoros, and our border towns are getting as bad as Juarez. No one wants to go over to Mexico anymore, but it doesn't seem to bother the carteles that the economies are suffering because the trade is freezing up between the two countries. Please, they've got enough money to buy off the cops, what makes anyone think they won't muscle their way out of this economic crisis?