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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>From
the Aggie Hotline:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>Mexican Violence Poses
Threat To Spring Breakers </span></b><br>
<span style='font-size:10.0pt'>- </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Mexico’s rising violence and
drug-related crimes represent a very serious security challenge to the United
States and students going there on spring break should take special
precautions, says a homeland security expert at Texas A&M University.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Dave McIntyre, who heads the
Integrative Center for Homeland Security at Texas A&M and is an expert on
security and terrorism matters, explains that Mexican drug cartels have
established networks in almost every major U.S. city. “They fight among
themselves for the trade routes into the U.S.,” McIntyre says. “In recent
years, the Mexican government has tightened down on the leadership of drug
gangs, but the result has been that the violence has increased dramatically.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Because thousands of college
students head to numerous Mexican locations for spring break, McIntyre says
there are some do’s and don’ts about traveling there in light of the recent
violence.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>“While tourists do not appear to be
specific targets, all visitors should take heed to the recent State
Department warnings concerning violence in Mexico,” he says.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>“Students should travel only in
groups, stay near the habited areas and avoid any activity that would make
them an easy target. They should especially avoid too much drinking of
alcohol that would affect their awareness and their ability to respond, and
they should never flash large amounts of money.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>McIntyre notes that the drug cartels
are ruthless – they kill to make a point and to strike fear into anyone that
presents a threat to them. “They not only kill policemen, they kill their
entire families, including children,” he adds, noting that the police chief
of Cancun recently came out of military retirement to help and was killed
within a week.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>“They are lawless and they make
their own rules. And they also are extremely well-armed – many times, the
drug gangs have superior firepower over local police. The sophistication of
their weapons has greatly increased, such as using anti-tank weapons and
.50-caliber sniper rifles as well as foreign-made grenades. You didn’t see
those types of weapons in the past, but now they are common.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>One U.S. agency report estimates
that at least 1,000 guns are smuggled into Mexico every day, with most of
them winding up in the hands of the drug gangs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>“The violence along the border towns
between the U.S. and Mexico has steadily increased, but now you are seeing it
move farther inland into the U.S.,” McIntyre adds, pointing to the more than
350 kidnappings that have occurred in Phoenix in the past year.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>“In Phoenix, gangs crossed the
border and were dressed as Phoenix SWAT members and attacked a home, and that
incident was not unique. Uniformed guards have crossed the U.S. border
hundreds of times in the past to secure drug shipments onto U.S. soil.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>At least 6,000 people have died in
Mexico in the past year because of the widespread drug violence, “and that
estimate may be low,” McIntyre says. “It’s a problem that could easily get
worse and it’s one story that has probably been under-reported. America’s
drug problem fuels these gangs. People here don’t realize that every time
they use a recreational drug, they are contributing to thousands of rapes,
kidnappings and murders in Mexico.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'> <span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Contact: Dave McIntyre at (979)
862-2432 or <a href="mailto:mcintyredh@tamu.edu">mcintyredh@tamu.edu</a> or <a
href="http://homelandsecurity.tamu.edu/">http://homelandsecurity.tamu.edu</a>
or Keith Randall at (979) 845-4644 or <a href="mailto:keith-randall@tamu.edu">keith-randall@tamu.edu</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Texas A&M University<br>
http://tamunews.tamu.edu/ </span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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