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Tourism falters in drug town

Jo Tuckman

FREE TRANSPORT and red carpet treatment when you get there may sound like a tourist junket few could turn down. But the sell is not quite so easy when the destination is Nuevo Laredo, the centre of Mexico's vicious drug war.

More than 100 people have been killed this year in this north-east border city, the majority in violence related to the battle for control of the territory between two of Mexico's biggest drug cartels. The victims include the city's police chief, assassinated on his first day of work, and the shootouts include one involving a rocket launcher, grenades and heavy automatic weapons that prompted the United States Consulate to close for a week.

As a result, Nuevo Laredo has developed an image problem with the American - primarily Texas -tourists who used to cross the border to buy souvenirs and cheaper prescription medicines, or to get drunk in bars where nobody asks their age.

Now, with some formerly bustling businesses closing and more on the brink of collapse, free bus tours are being introduced, designed to entice visitors back. Promoters complain about sensationalist media coverage and argue that traffickers killing each other should not affect tourists anyway.

There is enough government funding for 72 buses to travel from across Texas during the next two months. The first arrived on Tuesday from San Antonio. Eager guides pinned "distinguished visitor" labels on their guests' chests and took the largely elderly group on a complimentary tour of town, complete with drinks and serenades.

But five other busloads scheduled from San Antonio were scrapped at the last minute. The assassination of a prominent city councillor last week prompted a rush of cancellations. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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