MEXICO: Calderon Hikes Military Pay; Creates 4 New Border Battalions.

LAHT/

    To cement the military's support in the ongoing fight against the narco terrorists, President Felipe Calderon announced new pay increases.
    “With this new increase, the soldier with the lowest pay in the armed forces will have seen his compensation rise by nearly 120 percent, compared to what he received at the start of my administration (in December 2006)."
    Also Army and air force second lieutenants and lieutenants will receive the additional pay for the first time.
    Lifetime pensions no less than 10,000 pesos ($833) monthly for the widows of soldiers killed in action will also be provided.

AND:   4 new army battalions will be created for the northeast border region to combat the surge in drug-related violence there. “We know the difficult situation that people in the northeast border of the country are dealing with,” Calderon said in Reynosa.
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=387557&CategoryId=14091

MEXICO: Reynosa, A City Under Seige And In Fear, Where Narco Terrorists Rule.

LATIMES/ Tracy Wilkinson/ Long Feature/
    Wilkinson describes the pain of living in Reynosa, a border city of 700,000 that is a virtual "prison camp" controlled by drug thugs.
   There the Gulf cartel fights the Zetas and the Mexican army fights them both.
   There drug traffickers patrol its streets, set-up roadblocks, harass citizens, gun down enemies and even censor the news.       
   Many have fled there, but others stay and cope.

MEXICO: UPDATE: 18 Attackers Die Trying To Blockade 2 Army Bases.

AP/MIAMIHERALD/  02 ABRIL/ DETAILED UPDATE/   Truckloads of gunmen tried to blockade soldiers on two army bases, in Reynosa and Matamoros, that resulted in the death of 18 attackers, two wounded and seven detained. One soldier suffered slight injuries. The gunmen staged seven separate attacks on the army, including three blockades. A general called the attacks "desperate reactions by criminal gangs to the progress being made by federal authorities" against Mexico's drug cartels.

MEXICO: Border Violence Spreads Eastward To Reynosa

AP/ MIAMI HERALD/    A crumbling alliance between two drug gangs is plunging a 200-mile stretch of Mexico's Eastern border with the U.S. into new violence. From Matamoros to Nuevo Laredo at least 49 people have been killed in less than six weeks. It started in January when an alliance between the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas was broken after a Zetas was murdered in Reynosa.

MEXICO: 8 Journalists Kidnapped In Reynosa; One Dead, 5 Still Missing.

AP/ MIAMI HERALD/    Eight journalists have been kidnapped in the state of Tamaulipas during the past two weeks. Only three of the journalists abducted between Feb. 18 and March 3 in Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas, have reappeared: Two were released alive and one was found dead with signs of torture. Five are still missing. The intimidation by drug gangs has been so heavy that most Mexican news media did not even report on the Reynosa kidnappings.