Michael Ware

Journalist

AC: "This was yet another afternoon of killing in Juarez, with a night of murder yet to follow."


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Anderson Cooper hosts from San Diego; Michael reports on the latest escalation in violence in Juarez after a horrific attack on a drug rehab facility. Yesterday, Michael and his crew spent the day riding with law enforcement officials as the body count climbed higher and higher.



ANDERSON COOPER: And we're back at the Otay Mesa border crossing in San Diego.

Before the break, we took you inside that newly found tunnel, approximately 900 feet long. Authorities believe it was used to ferry narcotics from Mexico to the United States. The tunnel was discovered, but, frankly, there's no telling how many others there may be right now being used or being built by cartels and traffickers whose roots extend across America.

These cartels deal in drugs and in death. And we're about to show you that in very graphic images. Viewer discretion is strongly advised. This violence is happening in the border city of Juarez. It's next to El Paso, Texas, but, frankly, it is a world away.

Juarez is among the most dangerous places on Earth right now.

Michael Ware went on patrol with a Mexican joint operations task force through the streets, through the killing fields.

Again, a warning: His report does contain graphic and disturbing images.

Here is life and death in Juarez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This footage is difficult to watch, these anguished cries impossible to forget. Relatives entering this building seeking the bodies of their loved ones executed by a Mexican drug cartel.

You're witnessing the pain of the Mexican border town of Juarez, the front line in the war on drugs. And this, a crime scene I just had to see for myself.

(on camera): There's so much violence that occurs here in Juarez that the world just does not hear about.

And, now, it's disconcerting to see this fresh paint here on these walls as an old woman makes her home in this building, for, just two months ago, this literally was a corridor of blood.

This building had been a drug rehabilitation center. And one of the major cartels suspected that its rivals were recruiting foot soldiers from among the patients. So they came in this door and down this corridor, moving from room to room to room, executing everyone they found.

While they're now trying to build a home, this is where 17 people died in yet another day of Juarez violence.

(voice-over): Within two days of this attack, the death toll rose even higher, when two survivors died in hospital.

And there is no discrimination to the slaughter. Under these clothes lies a 7-year-old American boy, his father the target, but the hit man chose not to let the child live.

On this day, we're in Juarez to see the horrors for ourselves. It's just before dusk as I approach a fresh crime scene.

(on camera): In Juarez, 1,600 people died from drug-related violence last year. This year, the total's already well over 2,000. And today's total is already at 12.

The man in that car was hit by cartel gunmen, riddled with eight bullets. His passenger tried to flee, but only made it that far.

(voice-over): This was yet another afternoon of killing in Juarez, with a night of murder yet to follow.

(on camera): It's only 9:00. We're now going and joining this police patrol. Since the killings this afternoon that we saw, there's already been another homicide, bringing today's total to 13.

(voice-over): Every night, joint patrols like this one between local and federal police and Mexican soldiers crisscross the city, trying desperately to stem the flow of blood.

(on camera): Things were so bad that, earlier in the year, the Mexican president had to call in the military to help protect the city. For a short time, there was a lull in the violence, but it quickly returned. Now it's worse than it's ever been before.

(voice-over): By now, it's close to 10:00 p.m., and the reports of violence are streaming in over the police radio.

(on camera): The patrol has just received another call on the radio. there's some kind of incident. But those lights there, that's America. It's the U.S. border. This reminds you just how close this war on drugs is being fought to American soil.

(voice-over): But, before the night is over, there is even more carnage to come, all this in our one afternoon and evening visit to this deadly city.

(on camera): This time, it's almost too much to bear. It's just after 11:00. And where you see those policemen gathered at that door, there's just been four more slayings, this time all women.

The early reports are that a gunman walked in that door and executed all of them, one of them a 12-year-old girl, another one 14, and, in a gut-wrenching irony, all of this done with the American border crossing just here, 80 yards away.

There can be no more pertinent reminder of the Mexican blood that's being spilt in this war for the right to supply America's demand for illicit drugs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And Michael Ware joins us from El Paso, just across the border from Juarez -- El Paso, ironically, now one of the safest small cities in the United States.

Michael, in Juarez, does the public feel like the presence of all these security forces and the Mexican military, do they feel like it's making a difference?

WARE: No, absolutely not, Anderson. In fact, it's quite the opposite.

We spoke to so many people during our visit to Juarez -- indeed, that's Juarez, what you see behind us right now. I'm standing on American soil. There's a fence and a train line below. And that's the city itself. Indeed, our police patrol was up and down this area here. And some of the murder scenes are just behind me.

The people fear not just the cartels, but they watch the army and the police stand by as others are being killed. They know that many of the police are corrupt, that the military's doing nothing. Yet, on the other hand, we asked some of the soldiers, when you have an incident, do the local people help you?

And the soldiers are telling us, "They give us no help at all."

So, there's no respect from the people for the security forces. And the few honest police and military aren't getting any help from a terrified population -- Anderson.

COOPER: And the death toll is rising.

Michael Ware, appreciate it. Thank you, Michael.