THE BORDER REPORT

Couple things then I'm going straight back to work: Much has been about this recent carbomb in Juárez, the Colombianization of Mexico, the up-tick in violence, the changing game. None of which is true.

The Beltrán Leyvas used car bombs in Sinaloa when they were attacking the Sinaloa Federation's safe houses in Culiacán. Yes, this carbomb that killed two federal cops, a medic and wounded seven others was more sophisticated, bomb, battery series and cellphone, while those in Sinaloa were merely gasbombs, and those were meant to target specific people within the Sinaloa syndicate. In this case, the point seemed to be pure intimidation and the propagation of fear (and guess what, it worked). Who would have had the motive to set off the bombs?

I'm going to guess it was not Sinaloa because Sinaloa has appeared to have established a fairly neutral standpoint with the Calderón Administration. Possibly Juárez – because of the new cooperation between Calderón and Sinaloa. Possibly not a drug syndicate at all.

Years ago, I had the chance to sit down with Manuel Clouthier Carrillo, back when he was the publisher of Noroeste newspaper in Culiacán.

Pounding the table and roaring (his trademark), he said, "You Americans are always talking about the Colombianization of Mexico. No! In Colombia, the narcos tried to enter politics! In Mexico, they're already inside!"

Which was an excellent point. Except, Sinaloa is inside; is Juárez? Is Vicente? I don't know, yet.

As far as an increase in sophistication ... well, it's not as if these cats were running around with Molotovs and shovels before they hit upon the idea of an IED. They are armed with grenades, RPGs, 50-cal Barrett rifles and belt-fed M2 Brownings. The car bombing is different, in the way that an AR-15 is different from a drum magazine-equipped shotgun (yes, they've used those, too). What's different here is the meaning and the motive. Calderón backing Sinaloa may cause these sorts of retaliations by Juárez. It may also have been political groups; whackjob perredistas or EZLNers with an old bone to pick.

But Colombia? No. Pablo Escobar's Medellín Cartel set off enough car-bombs to kill more than one thousand people between 1989 and 1993 when he died. Some of those had so many hundreds of pounds of explosives that entire city blocks were leveled.

In Cd. Juárez, we're talking about one car-bomb. This is Mexico, not Colombia, Sinaloa is not Medellín and Calderón is not trying to eradicate Sinaloa.