By KIRSTEN CROW
LAREDO MORNING TIMES

Two days after the most recent gunbattle between suspected drug traffickers and Mexican military forces, an uneasy calm settled over this embattled border city.

But despite the seeming respite from the bloodshed that wracked the city throughout July, experts remain concerned about the escalation of the violence — its frequency, intensity and growing numbers of indiscriminate attacks.

Howard Campbell, Ph.D., an anthropology professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, said that while there was once a “sort of idea of a gentleman’s agreement, the old mafia code of ‘Don’t mess with women, children and bystanders,’” it has ceased to exist.

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/08/nuevo-laredo-fears-simmer.html