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 directio...