The Moon Is Aglow

The U.S. consulate has closed in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, as the city's ongoing drug cartel war heats up. Meanwhile, the cops don't have enough guns to go around and are only patrolling part of the city. Here's a snapshot from the San Antonio Express-News:

By most accounts, the recent attack was particularly brazen. According to media reports, more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition were fired, turning quiet Mexicali Street in the tony Campestre neighborhood into a virtual war zone.

Using rocket-propelled grenades, assailants tore three big holes through the blue outer wall of a once-charming house. Windows a full block away were shattered. A 15-minute shootout ensued between those inside the house and the attackers.

No one was believed killed in the battle, and no one has been arrested, though [police commander Jesus Muro Garcia] said several people at the home may have been kidnapped. He did not know who lived there.

An enormous chunk of the old police force was fired en masse earlier this summer, following a corruption investigation and a shootout between local cops and the federales. Hundreds more were taken off the job temporarily:

In all, 460 city police officers have been cleared to return to work six weeks after 700 of them were yanked off the street in a massive anti-corruption probe….

But only those whose weapons have been delivered are back on patrol, Muro said. Others mill about the downtown substation in their pressed black and white new uniforms, filled with a restless nervousness.