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WASHINGTON: Local leaders in Ciudad Juarez have asked for UN peacekeepers to help stem the alarming bloodshed in their city that is chasing business across the border to Texas, their representatives have said.
Despite the deployment of 8,500 troops since February, more than 2,000 people have been killed so far this year in drug-related crimes, making Ciudad Juarez one of the world's most violent urban areas, business leaders told a press briefing on Wednesday.
The city's Association of Maquiladoras (assembly plants) said it had requested "the intervention of United Nations blue helmets (peacekeepers) to control" the crime wave, said association president Soledad Maynez.
She said the failure of federal and local authorities in staunching the bloodshed prompted local business leaders to approach the United Nations for help.
"We must allow military police from the United Nations and the United States to tackle crime here, since in addition to murders, there's also a lot of kidnapping and blackmail," which have led to some 6,000 business closings in the city, said National Chamber of Commerce regional president Daniel Murguia.
He said the violence has prompted business leaders to live and invest across the US border in El Paso, Texas, where they enjoy greater safety.
The northern state of Chihuahua, of which Ciudad Juarez is the largest city, is at the heart of wave of suspected drug-related violence that has left some 14,000 dead since the end of 2006.
President Felipe Calderon deployed some 50,000 security forces across the country after he took office in December 2006, in a controversial crackdown that has failed to stem violence from powerful drug cartels.
- AFP/so
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