14 March 2011

MEXICO: Narcos Busting Monterrey's Boom.

WAPOST/ N. MIROFF, B.BOOTH

WAPO: "As Mexico’s wealthiest urban area, Monterrey is a symbol of the country’s aspirations, with a well-educated workforce, leading universities, thousands of U.S. and other foreign business executives, and a per capita income twice the national average. But today the city is at the front of Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s U.S.-backed drug war, and its future is clouded by lawlessness. As one top executive here said, “If Monterrey is lost, all is lost.”
  "But the same qualities that made Monterrey appealing to investors — good schools, exclusive neighborhoods, upscale restaurants — made it attractive to bosses of the Gulf cartel and its main rival, Los Zetas."