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5,000 soldiers aren't enough protection, Ciudad Juarez business owners say
The area in and around Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, has become a war zone between soldiers and drug traffickers. Here, Mexican soldiers outside the city burn seized cocaine and marijuana on Nov. 5.
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getCSS("3053751") Interactive: Mexican drug cartels
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Mexico under siege
The death toll is spiraling throughout Mexico as a war between the country's government and the drug cartels intensifies.
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NBC News correspondents and producers around the globe share their insight on news events.
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MEXICO CITY - Business groups in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez said Wednesday they are calling for United Nations
peacekeepers to quell the drug-related violence that has given their city one of the highest homicide rates in the world.
Groups representing assembly plants, retailers and other businesses said they will submit a request to the Mexican government and the Inter American Human Rights Commission to ask the U.N. to send help.
"This is a proposal ... for international forces to come here to help out the domestic (security) forces," said Daniel Murguia, president of the Ciudad Juarez chapter of the National Chamber of Commerce, Services and Tourism. "There is a lot of extortions and robberies of businesses. Many businesses are closing."
Story continues below ↓
The government has sent more than 5,000 soldiers to the city across the border from El Paso, Texas, but killings, extortions and kidnappings continue.
7 homicides a day
Ciudad Juarez has had 1,986 homicides through mid-October this year — averaging seven a day in the city of 1.5 million people.
"We have seen the U.N. peacekeepers enter other countries that have a lot fewer problems than we have," Murguia said.
The groups appeared to be motivated by a sense of desperation and deep disappointment with the government's efforts to control crime in the city.
Soledad Maynez, president of the Ciudad Juarez Association of Maquiladoras, said the joint police-army operation to quell killings and crime have yielded no results.
Maynez said business and civic groups want U.N. peacekeepers or advisers in Ciudad Juarez.
"What we are asking for with the blue helmets (U.N. peacekeepers) is that we know they are the army of peace, so we could use not only the strategies they have developed in other countries ... but they also have technology," Maynez said.
Mexican troops have both helped train new local police recruits and taken on some patrolling tasks in the city.
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Read more news from around the world
Thousands of businesses said to leave
But a turf battle between rival drug gangs has not yielded, and extortionists and thieves — some probably related to the drug cartels — have taken advantage of the situation to target businesses. Maynez said thousands of shops, stores and other firms have closed or moved out of the city because of the situation.
Maynez said the United States could also contribute to the solution, adding that the U.S. might be forced to in its own interests.
"We know that sooner or later, the violence will spill over into our sister city of El Paso, Texas," he said.
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Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The area in and around Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, has become a war zone between soldiers and drug traffickers. Here, Mexican soldiers outside the city burn seized cocaine and marijuana on Nov. 5. View related photosvar hasRelatedPhotos = 'true';if (hasRelatedPhotos=='true'){var vRPL = document.getElementById("viewRelatedPhotosLink");i f (vRPL!=undefined) vRPL.style.display = "";var vLRPG = document.getElementById("linkRelatedPhotos");var vLIRPG = document.getElementById("linkImgRelatedPhotos");if (vLRPG) {if(vLIRPG) vLIRPG.href=vLRPG.href;}}Jesus Alcazar / AFP-Getty Images
getCSS("3053751") Interactive: Mexican drug cartels
Learn more about how Mexican drug cartels are extending their reach farther into the U.S. getCSS("3053751")
Slideshow The death toll is spiraling throughout Mexico as a war between the country's government and the drug cartels intensifies.
more photos
getCSS("3053751") NBC World Blog
NBC News correspondents and producers around the globe share their insight on news events. getCSS("3053751") Most popular
• Most viewed<IMG height=1 width=2 scr="/images/cleardot.gif">• Top rated<IMG height=1 width=2 scr="/images/cleardot.gif">• Most e-mailed Dad, sons in sex-abuse case appear in court
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if (pop_tabBoxes) pop_pushTabBox('boxB_3053751');
var tcdacmd="dt";
updated 10:34 a.m. ET, Thurs., Nov . 12, 2009 function UpdateTimeStamp(pdt) { var n = document.getElementById("udtD"); if(pdt != '' && n && window.DateTime) { var dt = new DateTime(); pdt = dt.T2D(pdt); if(dt.GetTZ(pdt)) {n.innerHTML = dt.D2S(pdt,((''.toLowerCase()=='false')?false:true ));} } } UpdateTimeStamp('633936368486770000'); MEXICO CITY - Business groups in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez said Wednesday they are calling for United Nations
peacekeepers to quell the drug-related violence that has given their city one of the highest homicide rates in the world.Groups representing assembly plants, retailers and other businesses said they will submit a request to the Mexican government and the Inter American Human Rights Commission to ask the U.N. to send help.
"This is a proposal ... for international forces to come here to help out the domestic (security) forces," said Daniel Murguia, president of the Ciudad Juarez chapter of the National Chamber of Commerce
, Services and Tourism. "There is a lot of extortions and robberies of businesses. Many businesses are closing."Story continues below ↓
The government has sent more than 5,000 soldiers to the city across the border from El Paso, Texas, but killings, extortions and kidnappings continue.
7 homicides a day
Ciudad Juarez has had 1,986 homicides through mid-October this year — averaging seven a day in the city of 1.5 million people.
"We have seen the U.N. peacekeepers enter other countries that have a lot fewer problems than we have," Murguia said.
The groups appeared to be motivated by a sense of desperation and deep disappointment with the government's efforts to control crime in the city.
Soledad Maynez, president of the Ciudad Juarez Association of Maquiladoras, said the joint police-army operation to quell killings and crime have yielded no results.
Maynez said business and civic groups want U.N. peacekeepers or advisers in Ciudad Juarez.
"What we are asking for with the blue helmets (U.N. peacekeepers) is that we know they are the army of peace, so we could use not only the strategies they have developed in other countries ... but they also have technology," Maynez said.
Mexican troops have both helped train new local police recruits and taken on some patrolling tasks in the city.
Click for related content
Read more news from around the world
Thousands of businesses said to leave
But a turf battle between rival drug gangs has not yielded, and extortionists and thieves — some probably related to the drug cartels — have taken advantage of the situation to target businesses. Maynez said thousands of shops, stores and other firms have closed or moved out of the city because of the situation.
Maynez said the United States
could also contribute to the solution, adding that the U.S. might be forced to in its own interests."We know that sooner or later, the violence will spill over into our sister city of El Paso, Texas," he said.
More on Cuidad Juarez
More from msnbc.com
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On Twitter: Breaking news updates | Weird and wild
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.