NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico (ABP) — Escalating violence in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, prompted the Texas Baptist River Ministry office to issue a safety advisory for the border city and led some volunteer church groups to cancel their planned trips.
At least 50 people have been killed in Nuevo Laredo this year. That includes Police Chief Alejandro Dominguez, who was gunned down just hours after he took office — reportedly by drug traffickers who wanted to send a message that they controlled the city. The Mexican government dispatched 1,000 federal troops and special forces to Nuevo Laredo to restore order.
“Nuevo Laredo is under martial law, for all intents and purposes,” said Ruben Harrison, River Ministry coordinator for the Laredo/Nuevo Laredo area.
But Dexton Shores, director of Baptist General Convention of Texas' River Ministry, stressed the advisory is limited to Nuevo Laredo, and even there, no mission volunteers have been harmed.
“We do not see any reason for groups serving in other border regions to panic or be alarmed, as our coordinators report no problems out of the ordinary,” Shores said. “This advisory is strictly for Nuevo Laredo, due to the current unrest.”
While some mission groups have noticed heightened security elsewhere along the border, volunteers have reported the increased presence of law enforcement officials made them feel even safer than usual, he added.
Most United States citizens who cross the border are in no danger, as long as they exercise “common-sense precautions,” such as visiting only legitimate business and tourist areas of border towns during the daytime, Shores said.
“But because violence in Nuevo Laredo had reached the point where it was occurring in public places in daylight hours — with one shootout even taking place on the Mexican side of the international bridge — the risk was that somebody could get caught in the middle in the crossfire,” he explained.
A group from North Pointe Baptist Church in Hurst, Texas, decided to cancel their mission trip to Nuevo Laredo after repeated conversations with a Southern Baptist missionary in the border city. The volunteer team regrouped and instead traveled to San Antonio to help lead an inner-city sports camp and backyard Bible clubs, he added.
Tommy Beard, missionary in Nuevo Laredo, said he has told some coordinators who were dealing with particularly anxious parents of teenaged mission volunteers, “Your safest option is to stay home.”
But Beard insisted he feels no danger personally and generally has encouraged volunteers to continue mission trips to his city.
“I live in this city with a wife and three daughters. If our lives were in a state of threat, I would get myself and my family out of here,” he said.
Operation Safe Mexico — the federal government's campaign to restore order — extends beyond Nuevo Laredo to include 13 other Mexican cities, including eight along the border.