By: Lisa Coleman

Security is serious business… especially in a post 9/11 world. I was actually in Mexico on September 11th. I had been in Oaxaca for a week then had moved on to Cuernavaca to shoot some photos for an assignement I was writing. After watching the first plane hit the towers on a television in a bus station, I spent the evening in a hotel room in Mexico City watching our country endure the worst moment in our history.

Mexico, however, seemed somehow unscathed. The sun came up and the beaches still beckoned travelers. It was a place for us to go. A “drive to” destination (for those of us who live in the west) that was still somehow untouched by all that had happened.

Mexico and terrorism hardly go hand in hand, but maybe reality is catching up to our
southern friends. It was only a matter of time before Mexico had to adjust, and they are.
According to several articles, Mexican President Felipe Calderon has dispatched a new, 5,000-strong elite military unit to guard strategic sites, including oil refineries and hydroelectric dams, in the wake of guerrilla attacks on pipelines operated by the national oil and gas company, Pemex.
  
Business leaders said as many as 1,000 manufacturing plants and other businesses in the Guanajuato-Queretaro region of central Mexico have been forced to shut down or scale back operations this week because of fuel shortages caused by the July 5 and July 10 attacks.

The good news is, Mexico is indeed answering the call and making a real effort to protect its people and its future. http://www.mercurynews.com/crime/ci_6366075