Right on the border between the U.S. and Mexico

This is old news of a continuing story.

September 4, 2009  Across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, is the city of Juarez. It's known as the murder capital of Mexico. During a 48-hour stretch this week, 37 people were killed — including residents at a drug rehab clinic.

Outside the Aliviane Rehabilitation Center there's yellow police tape, a pool of dried blood and half a dozen mismatched shoes strewn across the entry way. Some neighbors say the barrage of gunshots lasted 15 minutes. The gunmen lined up, and then killed 18 of the residents. They even shot the center's dog.

Looking north up their gritty street you can see the U.S. border fence.

They say the problem at the rehabilitation center was that rehab has become part of the whole drug cycle. People start using drugs, then they're selling drugs, then they're trying to get off drugs and then they're using again. So people in rehab often are right in the middle of the drug life.

This week's slaughter was the fifth mass shooting at a Juarez drug rehab facility in the last year. And this particular place, the men say, catered to Aztecas, one of the numerous street gangs fighting for a slice of the Juarez narcotics trade. ...this massacre occurred because some of the people inside the center crossed La Linea, the Juarez cartel, and thus everyone inside had to pay.

In March, the Mexican Army took over the police department in effort to stem the killings.  But by August there were 338 homicides — the highest number recorded in a single month.

The mass killing at the drug rehab has only added to a widespread sense of fear... despite the Mexican government sending thousands of soldiers and federal police into the streets. Military and police helicopters buzz in the sky.

President Felipe Calderon this week defended what's come to be known as his drug war. Calderon acknowledged that it's a bloody war and there have been setbacks, but he said it's one that Mexico has to fight.

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Police officials stand guard in front of the El Aliviane drug rehabilitation center in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Thursday. Gunmen broke into the drug rehabilitation center Wednesday night, lined people against a wall and shot 17 dead in a particularly bloody day in Mexico's relentless drug war.