| | |  Technology News | December 2008 
Web Offers Murky Messages on Juárez Violence
 Daniel Borunda - El Paso Times
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| | Pedestrians make their way to Juarez after passing the toll booth at the Stanton Street Bridge Friday. (Victor Calzada/El Paso Times) | |
El Paso - Fear, accusations and even requests for peace spread via cyberspace continue to play a prominent role as rumor blurs with reality while staggering violence strangles Juárez.
For years, Mexican drug traffickers have used the Internet to threaten rivals, boast and spread fear. In some instances traffickers have posted graphic videos of murders. But this year, El Paso-Juárez has seen a continuous flow of cyber-messages specific to the region.
The power of Internet messages was most evident in the anonymous e-mail warning that the weekend of May 24-25 would be the "bloodiest and deadliest" in Juárez's history.
The e-mail, which had elements of an urban legend, grabbed national headlines on both sides of the border.
Juárez police officials asked residents not to panic. Streets were empty at night that weekend. There was violence but it was comparable to other weekends. But Juárez tourism has yet to recover from the blow it has taken from the violence.
Law enforcement officials in El Paso have kept watch on Internet postings and chain e-mails because some refer to specific bars, nightclubs and other businesses in El Paso.
"The messages posted on the Internet, like on YouTube, some are real and some are more serious than others," said Deputy Jesse Tovar, spokesman for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. "Some are placed on there by pranksters wanting to create panic or some type of reaction."
Tovar said tracing those who post messages is difficult.
"They can hide on the Internet much like computer hackers and subjects who spread viruses through the Internet," Tovar said.
The practice is not limited to Mexico. Street gangs in the U.S., including El Paso, have been using the Internet for several years, Rob Gallardo, a local gang-prevention counselor, said.
El Paso gang members can be throwing hand signs or posing with firearms in photos on personal Web pages, such as MySpace.com and other sites. Videos of gang members bragging, fist fights and "jump-ins," beatings that are initiations into gangs, are also found online, Gallardo said.
U.S. law enforcement officials said that narco-traffickers use the Internet to spread propaganda, taunt rivals and spread misinformation. The Internet also offers a forum to those fighting against the corruption and violence.
Last May when the number of homicides in Juárez was at about 400, an anonymous video of text set to music named Juárez police supervisors who allegedly take bribes. The video, supposedly made by a small group of honest police, ended by stating Chihuahua residents should protect themselves. "La policia no existe." (The police doesn't exist.)
Since that posting, the violence across the state of Chihuahua has worsened and the death toll has surpassed 1,500 in Juárez.
Besides the Internet videos, anonymous chain e-mail popped up in the El Paso-Juárez region often following a pattern of warning not to go to certain locations because there would be a shooting. For example:
• In June, an e-mail warned of drug traffickers possibly targeting three specific nightclubs in El Paso but nothing happened. It came at a time that nightclubs, bars and other businesses were being torched in Juárez.
• On June 22, an e-mail and text message spread warning that a drug cartel hit would take place June 23 at Cielo Vista Mall. Nothing happened.
In more recent months, chain e-mails circulating in Juarez and El Paso have taken a different tune by condemning the violence.
One e-mail asked residents to stay home on the night of Nov. 30 as part of a "civil curfew" in protest. And a more recent letter asks for the shootings and killings to stop from Tuesday to Friday as a "truce for Christmas in Juárez."
Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda(at)elpasotimes.com |
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