More Refugees Head North
March 9, 2010
Business leaders in the south Texas borderland have noticed a surge in
Mexican nationals seeking homes and business opportunities since the
beginning of the year. According to a real estate broker in McAllen,
Texas, the new migrants are fleeing the narco-violence and criminality
that are shattering the peace in the Mexican border states of Tamaulipas
and Nuevo Leon.
“People from Mexico are looking for a house in this area because it is
more secure,” said Noe Lopez of the RE/Max real estate company. Of 30 or
40 loan applications received by his firm each week, 90 percent of the
requests are from Mexican nationals, Lopez said. Seventy percent of the
Mexican applicants are from Monterrey and the remainder from Reynosa,
Tamaulipas, he added.
Luis Cantu, vice president of international relations for the McAllen
Chamber of Commerce, said his city had seen a “great influx” of Mexican
business persons inquiring about investment opportunities in the US. “They
are looking at establishing their businesses. They are buying their
residences here in McAllen,” Cantu said. “This is something we began to
notice at the beginning of last year. So far this year, we’ve seen a great
number of people.”
The flight of middle and upper-class families to McAllen follows a pattern
in other areas of the Mexico-US border hit by rising insecurity. In recent
years, San Diego, Laredo and El Paso have been important refuges for an
undetermined number of new immigrants. Reportedly, families have also fled
violence-wracked rural Chihuahua for Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado.
The out migration is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
Chihuahua, Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon are key battlegrounds in the wars
between competing underworld syndicates for control of territory and
goods.
A key industrial center, the area in and around Monterrey is a prime hot
spot. Last weekend, three municipal policemen were killed and a police
cadet wounded in San Nicolas, Nuevo Leon, when gunmen surprised and
disarmed the officers. Before opening fire, the killers reportedly blurted
out to their victims: “May God Bless You.”
Earlier, on March 3, eight presumed cartel gunmen and two soldiers were
killed in a clash in Anahuac, Nuevo Leon, according to the Mexican Defense
Ministry.
To underscore the seriousness of the security situation, the US Consulate
in Monterrey has instructed its employees to avoid non-essential travel in
the metropolitan area of Mexico’s third largest city. The Consulate also
recommended that US citizens avoid travel if possible on the highways
between Monterrey and the border cities of Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo.
In a statement dated March 5, the Consulate noted “numerous confirmed
reports of deadly gun battles” in and around the cities of Nuevo Laredo
and Reynosa and in small towns north and east of Monterrey. The US
government agency also reported the setting up of cartel checkpoints on
main highways to the US border, grenade attacks in the Monterrey metro
area and an increase in carjackings.
Sources: El Universal/Notimex, March 9, 2010. El Sur/Agencia Reforma,
March 8, 2010. Article by Miguel Dominguez and Mauro de la Fuente. El
Diario de El Paso/EFE, March 6 and 7, 2010. Monterrey.usconsulate.gov/
Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
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