Rival cartels seeking control of drug-smuggling routes into the United States have left more than 4,000 people dead in two years in this city of 1.3 million, victims of a bloodbath

“I haven't seen an American this year,” said Pedro Orta, 64, who has been taking photos for tourists here for four decades.

cartels seeking control of drug-smuggling routes into the United States have left more than 4,000 people dead in two years in this city of 1.3 million, victims of a bloodbath that has claimed smugglers and the innocent, destroyed tourism, ruined businesses and spread chaos all along the Texas-Mexico border.From Ciudad Juarez to the north to Matamoros to the south, border cities are taking the brunt of a drug war that has claimed 18,000 lives in the past three years in Mexico.In Ciudad Juarez alone, some 100,000 residents have fled for safer locales, with about a third of them crossing the Rio Grande to live in El Paso. A surge of wealthy Mexicans also has moved to Houston, San Antonio and other parts of Texas to protect their families and relocate their businesses.With multiple warnings issued to avoid border cities, little commerce is going the other direction.At the height of spring break last week, the bars and shops of Matamoros — once a margarita- and mariachi-infused destination for thousands partying on nearby South Padre Island — were devoid of Americans.“The whole world thinks they're going to kill you if you cross to Mexico,” bemoaned Antonio Galvan, manager of the popular Garcia's restaurant, bar and shops in Matamoros. “It's hard for us. This is a tourist area.”But until Mexico solves the crisis and takes back city streets from the cartels, residents will continue to flee and more families will experience the pain of Ituarte's. “Help us get rid of these killers. They kill, they kill, they kill, and the police don't do anything. Why? Why? Why? We can't take anymore,” Ana Lozano, Ituarte's mother, said to American reporters.“He wasn't involved in anything. They were looking for someone else. He was killed by accident.”Never before have Mexican authorities, from the municipal police to the military, seemed as impotent and irrelevant, as well-armed gangs with exotic names like Zetas, La Linea and Aztecas act with impunity. In Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, the Gulf Cartel and its former allies the Zetas are at war, following the assassination of a Zeta leader in Reynosa in January.Mexican journalists have been kidnapped and beaten, police stations have been attacked with grenades, and civilians have had their cars commandeered.
Calderon has committed tens of thousands of troops and federal police to confront the cartels and drug gangs around the country, but the strategy has failed to stop the bloodshed.
Instead of restoring order, it is widely perceived that the soldiers and federal police have become part of the problem, committing human rights abuses as well as extortions and killings.

“When they came to Juarez, they got a good reception. We thought they'd improve the situation, but it proved to be the opposite. Now they are feared just like the criminals,” said one resident, who asked not to be named.

“I live here, and it's a nightmare. I have seen the bodies in the streets. I saw the headless bodies hanging from the bridges. We don't even watch television because then we dream of the dead,” he said.But until the recent execution-style murders of three people, including two U.S. citizens connected to the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juarez, the problem for many Americans was as abstract as bombings in Baghdad.As mayhem and anarchy worsen along the border, with drug gangs displacing Mexican police as the final authority, a nightmarish future may be seen here in Ciudad Juarez.The once-bustling city now has an eerie deserted feeling. Because of the heavy influx of soldiers, it is occupied territory.“When we were a ‘classic' narco city, it wasn't dangerous to go out for bread and beer at night. Now that we have all the troops here, no one goes out because anything can happen to anyone at anytime,” said Julian Cardona, a local journalist.A sightseeing tour last week featured burned-out restaurants and nightclubs, businesses that paid the penalty for not coming up with protection money, and countless other businesses for sale or rent.The violence has left residents who remain both numbed and fearful of spending time on the streets. El Pasoans who cross the Rio Grande bridges to work here wonder if they will be next. “A lot of my friends and almost all of my relatives have moved over here,” said an El Paso resident who lived 40 years in Juarez.“I have two nephews who are doctors. One was assaulted three times in his office. The last time it was people with guns. He's still practicing, but now he sees patients in a high-rise because it's safer,” said the woman, who like many locals interviewed, asked not to be named for fear of being targeted.
Born in Ciudad Juarez, Lucinda Vargas, the head of Plan Estrategico de Juarez, a private nonprofit group drafting a development plan for the city, still goes to work there every day.

“I live in Juarez, I sleep in El Paso,” she said.

She said the drug crisis is exposing societal and institutional flaws in Ciudad Juarez that for decades have been “patched over.“
“Juarez is a city that has been left in a state of almost complete neglect in terms of social investment by the city, state and federal government,” she said.
“Obviously there are tremendous flaws in the Mexican judicial system. ... The rule of law has to be restored,” she said.But Vargas said she remains hopeful.“What gives me confidence is that Calderon has a plan. He's on the right track. We can only hope that successive presidents will keep track of looking at the institutions,” she said.
In his visit to Ciudad Juarez last week, the Mexican president was received by a newspaper headline in El Diario, the city's largest daily, that said, “We are all Fed Up.”
He then endured hours of televised criticism by local officials but did not bend from his strategy of confronting the drug mafia with troops and federal police. Calderon has also launched an emergency federal program investing in social institutions.The Plaza de Las Armas remains one of the most popular public gathering places in Ciudad Juarez. Thus far, no one has been killed in the small downtown park, with a gazebo, fountains and benches directly in front of the city's landmark cathedral.But now the shoe-shine men, the ladies selling ice creams and the old men selling photos have a lot of time on their hands.