Border violence causing church to postpone mission trips

Hilda Beck would love to travel to the Mexican border city of Juarez right now, a city where she walked the streets as a child, grocery shopping and visiting her family members. 

Never mind the organized crime that has affected the city’s police force. Never mind several hundreds of thousands of drug-related murders that have occurred in just several years. Never mind the children who fear attending school because their buses will be hijacked. 

“But I know I can’t,” says Beck, director of missions at Independence’s St. Mark’s Catholic Church. “I just pray that the situation will end, and that we’re able to go down and start our construction ministry again.”

St. Mark’s Catholic Church usually travels twice yearly to its permanent mission site, Casa de la Cruz, in Colonia de Anapra. Anapra is a suburb on the outskirts of Juarez. During the summer mission trips, volunteers usually build about four houses, in accordance with different groups across the United States, Beck says.

But not this year.

Because of continued violence and drug trafficking in Juarez, Beck says US Customs and Border Protection notified St. Mark’s that it should place its missions on hold until the drug crimes let up.

The requests are still pouring in, though, Beck says. Families contact her on a weekly basis, asking for placement on the waiting list for a house. At any given time, St. Mark’s has about 50 families requesting a home – and those request must be prioritized.

“Single moms are going to receive the next house first, and then the elderly – we have criteria that we follow to determine who is going to get the next build,” Beck says. “These families who are on our waiting list are now going to have to wait another year. I can’t predict the future because the drug problem is very rapid there, and I’m just hoping that we can go back in 2010 and start building some homes.”

Meanwhile, Olga Cortez, the main mission volunteer at Casa de la Cruz, provides Beck with updates. About 10 local volunteers in Anapra continue the mission ministries, passing out food, sorting the donated clothing and cleaning St. Mark’s mission house, Beck says.

Beck, who grew up in El Paso, Texas, says the drug war has plagued all of Mexico, with its cartels predominately concentrated in border cities and Mexico City.

“It’s not just a drug problem anymore. It’s the economy that’s suffering because of the drug problem,” she says. “People aren’t able to come out and walk the streets like they used to be able to. They are secluded to their homes because of fear of being shot. The killings aren’t aimed at just a particular drug person; it’s whomever is in the area.”

Josef Walker, an Independence resident who has traveled with St. Mark’s on its missions in Anapra, says aspects like illnesses, epidemics, violence and political instability often deter one- or two-week mission trips.

“Whereas, someone who is going to make a year or two commitment anticipates that the hazard comes with the territory of the mission. I think they are less likely to cancel or come back,” Walker says. “Sometimes that’s a good decision, and sometimes it’s not. Sometimes, we look at this like the Americans or the Europeans can go home; it’s a rare and beautiful sacrifice that people are willing to stay for the people they love.”

In March, President Barack Obama expressed concern about the increased level of violence in Juarez and Tijuana and its effect on the communities on both sides of the border. Under the Merida Initiative (a security cooperation between the United States and the government of Mexico aimed at combating threats of drug trafficking), the Obama administration is investing $700 million in 2009 to work with Mexico on law enforcement and judicial capacity.