“I went down there to get some dental work done,” Espinoza said. “I was in the chair, the dentist was doing a root canal. A couple of guys came in and robbed the dentist (Felipe Salazar).” That was at about 9:30 A.M., Sunday.
“They’re getting brazen down there,” said Espinoza, whose dental work was not finished, for obvious reasons. “I didn’t have no fear about going to Palomas before. Now, I do.”
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 19, 2008
Juan Manuel Castro Ávila, 35, director of the transit police in Guadalupe, Bravos district, was wounded in an AK-47 attack at the entrance to his office in the Guadalupe Town Hall. The uniformed officer was shot by an armed commando from the inside of a vehicle as he arrived for his evening work shift at about 7:00 P.M. The armed attack caused terror among the residents of Guadalupe who at this hour were getting off work and walking around the central plaza. Castro Ávila was reported in serious but stable condition after being taken to the hospital in Juárez.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 20, 2008
A 30-year-old woman, identified by neighbors as Carolina, was killed by two gunshots when she opened the door to her house last night in the Hacienda de las Torres neighborhood. She was a housewife and mother of three small children, who were present when she was shot. Police report that a man knocked and then shot the woman at point-blank range when she opened the door. After hearing the shots, neighbors arrived to find the victim dead in the entrance to the house with two children crying beside her body. Minutes later, her husband returned from work to the tragic scene.
Also, last night police found an abandoned late-model Mercedes C-230 with broken front and rear windshields. Witnesses said that a woman and her daughter had been taken from the car after trying to escape from a violent situation in their home. Her husband pursued them in another vehicle, broke into the car and took them away to an unknown location.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 20, 2008
ASCENSIÓN—Three people have disappeared from this rural community in the last few hours, abducted by a group of heavily armed men. The identity of the missing is unknown. Another man is reported missing in the small town of Puerto Palomas.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 21, 2008
Two men were found dead last night in different areas of the city. Unofficial sources reveal that one of the dead men is a former agent of the Transit Police who resigned about a year ago. The body was found wrapped in a plaid blanket with a plastic bag over the head. Another man was found about 9:30 in the Colonia Cuauhtemoc. Neighbors reported seeing the body thrown from a car and that the man lived for several minutes. He had been severely beaten and his face completely disfigured.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 21, 2008
State Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez Rodriguez is avoiding public events. She was at her offices in Ciudad Juárez yesterday under heavy guard, but refused to be interviewed. Unofficial sources said that Gonzalez Rodriguez met with business leaders who expressed their concern about the wave of executions and abductions in the city. On several occasions, the official has received funeral wreaths and some of her aides have been murdered or injured in organized crime shootings.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 21, 2008
PUERTO PALOMAS DE VILLA—The recent execution of two persons and the abduction of six others in this border community has provoked the resignation of the entire preventive police force of the village. At 6:00 P.M. Wednesday, the police found out that armed groups had abducted several people, and an hour later, Police Commander Emilio Pérez and six of his subordinates received death threats. They abandoned their posts, and their whereabouts are unknown. Yesterday, only two officers were present at the jail. “We can’t do anything, we are alone here,” said one of the officers, who did not give his name. He said that yesterday two bodies wrapped in blankets and tied with adhesive tape were found in separate locations on the outskirts of the town. Afterward the bodies were identified as Sergio Pérez, 55, and Rigoberto Muñoz Acosta, 21.
As of yesterday afternoon, Palomas was left with no preventive police. State authorities asked that soldiers from the army post south of Palomas patrol the urban area.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 21, 2008
Three men were shot by two armed men inside a nightclub after being involved in a fight. The incident took place at 4:30 in the morning in the La Mentira bar in the Colonia La Cuesta. The victims were identified as Arnulfo Loma, 24, who was found on the street outside the bar; Saúl Bernal and Ignacio Bermúdez, whose bodies remained inside. The killers were said to be well-known clients at the bar who escaped without being detained.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 21, 2008
Transit policeman Jorge Osorio was shot in the back this morning as he patrolled in the area of Vicente Guerrero Avenue and Paseo Triunfo de la Republica.
Las Cruces Sun-News, March 21, 2008
The embattled city of Palomas, Mexico, is now literally lawless. The Luna County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Border Patrol reported Thursday that the Palomas Chief of Police came to the Columbus Port of Entry late Tuesday night, requesting political asylum. The chief, identified as Emilio Pérez, reportedly told Immigration and Customs Enforcement his department’s only two officers had fled and he had no idea where they are.
Dallas Morning News, March 21, 2008
CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico—The killers arrived at the motel in the predawn
gloom. Dressed in military-style uniforms and armed with automatic weapons, they forced the manager to hand over a guest list, then stormed from room to room, pointing their guns at the terrified occupants. In room 49 they opened fire on the man and woman inside. The woman’s body was on the floor next to the bed, and the man was in the bathroom. At least 100 bullet casings were found, police said. The killers escaped in three late-model SUVs.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 21, 2008
At 7:10 P.M., another transit policeman was attacked and seriously injured after being shot by an armed commando. Minutes later, his motorcycle exploded and crashed. He was transferred to a hospital and dozens of policemen arrived to guard the medical institution.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 22, 2008
Despite intensive security operations this week by state and municipal authorities, 11 murders took place in a recent 12-hour period. The toll for March now stands at 77, an unprecedented number of homicides in one month in the history of the city. The recent rash of killings began Thursday night at about 7:00, when the body of a man was found adjacent to the Colinas de Juárez cemetery. At 9:30, another body was found on the sidewalk in the Colonia Cuauhtemoc. At about midnight, an individual was killed in the Colonia Municipio Libre when a group of men confronted him [and] shot him in the head. At 1:00 in the morning, another man was found wrapped in a blanket in the Colonia Lucio Blanco. At 4:30, 3 men were shot in the La Mentira bar. Then at about 5:30, a couple was killed in a room at the Motel Rio by a group of armed commandos who broke into every room until they found their targets. At about 8:00 two more people were found assassinated in a house in the Colonia Monterrey. In addition a transit policeman was shot inside his patrol car [and] managed to drive himself to the hospital, where he is reported in serious but stable condition.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 22, 2008
This morning the body of an unidentified man was found on the sidewalk a few meters from the Delicias police station.
Las Cruces Sun-News, March 22, 2008
TENSION HIGH IN BORDER VILLAGES OF COLUMBUS AND PALOMAS
COLUMBUS [N.Mex.]—Residents on both sides of the border are nervous after a month of border shootings, disappearances and at least two confirmed murders allegedly sparked by drug-traffickers’ turf wars in the Mexican town of Palomas. On Thursday, after reporting his two police officers had disappeared, Palomas Chief of Police Emilio Pérez fled to Columbus requesting political asylum. . . . On the same day the police chief fled, the bodies of two people were found wrapped
in blankets and dumped along a road near Palomas. Several other people were seen taken hostage over the past few days by heavily armed men.
Norte de Ciudad Juárez, March 23, 2008
TEARFUL RELATIVES CONFIRM IDENTITY OF VICTIM KILLED IN THE MOTEL RIO
Who Was She? América Dayanara Maldonado Íñiguez, 27
The State Attorney General’s Office reported that América Dayanara Maldonado Íñiguez, 27, was identified by family members as the woman killed last Friday in the Motel Rio. At about 10:30 this morning, family and friends arrived at the morgue to officially identify América. At least 10 people accompanied a tearful young woman and helped to shield her from the press. The body had been found in room 49 of the Motel Rio on March 21 at 6:00 in the morning along with another body identified as Luis Martín Sánchez Loya, 35. Both died from multiple gunshot wounds to the neck and face. More than 90 bullets were recovered at the crime scene.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 23, 2008
Five men were shot to death yesterday and others were injured in three separate incidents. At a little after 9:00 P.M., the owner of the El Eje bar in the Colonia Constitución, his brother and an employee were killed; none have been identified but residents nearby said the proprietor was known as “Chuy.” They said that Chuy “had already been sentenced” since last Thursday when his pickup was burned outside the bar. “It’s a pity because you get to appreciate your neighbors, but who knows what they were up to, even though it doesn’t justify murder, but that’s how these things are done,” said another businessman.
In another incident, a man of about 50 was shot to death from a moving car as he walked along the street about 5:00 P.M. in the Colonia Melchior Ocampo. Others in the area hit the floor inside their houses to avoid being hit by stray bullets. The man who was dressed in cowboy-style clothes was left lying on the sidewalk with at least three bullet wounds visible. No one saw the killers’ vehicle. Later, at about 5:20, Saturnino Acosta, 45, owner of a small store in the Oasis Revolución neighborhood was shot and killed at point-blank range. An employee, Facundo Bautista Hernández, was also injured in the attack.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 23, 2008
Four men were burned to death beyond recognition at the “Los Lamentos” ranch about 50 kilometers from Palomas. The fire and the deaths were reported to the state police at about 6:00 P.M. Friday by the owner of the ranch. The bodies were transferred to the Forensic Medical Service and the case is being investigated. Last Wednesday, armed groups abducted several people in the border community and public servants received death threats.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 23, 2008
CHIHUAHUA—Sergio Granados Pineda, secretary of government, rejected the idea that the state is ungovernable due to the wave of executions in Ciudad Juárez and the flight of the Palomas police force under death threats from narco-traffickers. He said that the state would not ever “throw in the towel” when it comes to public security.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 23, 2008
NUEVO CASAS GRANDES—The two men killed Friday night while driving in a Jeep Grand Cherokee with no plates were identified yesterday by the authorities as Hugo Rene Clemente Monarrez, 29, and José Martín Burgos García, 19. Police recovered a large quantity of AK-47 cartridges at the scene.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 23, 2008
A sergeant with the Technical Preventive Group (formerly Delta Group) was shot to death today at about 5:00 P.M. The victim, who was off-duty, was driving a dark green Dodge Neon when a commando attacked him several times.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 23, 2008
Three people were murdered yesterday in a two-hour period. José Uribe Roldán, 19, was shot in front of his house in the Infonavit Solidaridad neighborhood by members of the Sunside Park 04D gang. Neighbors reported that the victim belonged to the Los Cheros gang and that the killers had been chasing him. Minutes later, at about 1:30 P.M., a body was found in the Granjas Unidas neighborhood, lying face down with two bullet wounds in the back. He has not been identified. At 3:00 P.M., Nicolás Olivares García, 50, was killed outside of his house by a group of four armed men shooting from a late-model vehicle. His body was left where he fell in the patio of his house, where he made bricks. Unofficial sources said that the victim was a retail drug dealer.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 23, 2008
CHIHUAHUA—Two men from Juárez were shot to death yesterday when they left the El Cubo disco in the “Golden Zone” in Chihuahua City at about 2:00 A.M. Héctor García Pérez, 40, was dead at the scene, while José Luis Araiza Galindo, 22, died later at the regional hospital. The victims had apparently argued with their attacker inside the club and when they left, he shot them at point-blank range and then escaped in a black Jeep Cherokee.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 23, 2008
Two high-ranking municipal police officials were assassinated yesterday in separate incidents. Juan Manuel Ruiz Flores, operational commander of Delta Group, was killed by an armed commando around 5:15 P.M. as he drove on El Centenario Street. He was off work and driving a Dodge Neon when he was pursued by at least two other vehicles, but he was unable to outrun them. After Ruiz Flores was hit by the initial hail of gunfire, one of his attackers returned to finish him off with several shots at close range. The killers remained at the scene even as the ambulance and paramedics arrived and they were warned via their dispatcher to stay away from the scene until it was safe to approach.
Meanwhile, in Parral, Carlos Gómez Sáenz, subdirector of the municipal police of that city, was executed by a group of armed men as he left his home at 9:21 P.M., accompanied by his 10-year-old daughter, Karla Verónica Gómez Villa, who was shot in the back. She was reported in stable condition at the hospital, under heavy police guard.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 23, 2008
An unidentified man’s partially nude body was found yesterday in Colonia Hidalgo near a pile of garbage bags. The body appeared to have multiple injuries caused by beating. He appeared to be between 40 and 45 years old and had a bulldog tattooed on his right arm.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 23, 2008
EL PASO—Javier Emilio Pérez Ortega, municipal police chief of Palomas, is in El Paso under the protection of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), after crossing the border at Columbus, New Mexico, to seek asylum in the United States.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 23, 2008
Secretary of Public Security, Guillermo Prieto Quintana, said that 180 new cadets will begin police training this Monday. The SSPM has offered the cadets a $750 monthly training stipend, and as new police officers, they will receive a salary of $980 per month. The secretary urged citizens to apply to join the new police force.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 23, 2008
The growing psychosis among security forces due to the recent assassinations of police officers is reflected in the collapse of vigilance in the city. Javier Aguirre Reyes, head of a small business association, said that uniformed police are more worried about watching their backs than protecting the citizens.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 24, 2008
The bodies of five men, strangled and showing signs of torture, were found discarded in different areas of the city during the past 10 hours. Unofficial sources indicate that the men were abducted, beaten and tortured with sharp objects, strangled and then dumped in open areas. The first victim was identified as Manuel Carranza Montoya, about 30-35. The second murdered man was found along the Juárez-Porvenir highway. He was about 35 and had several tattoos: the name “Herrera” on his upper back, “Mi Madre Alicia” and a heart pierced by a sword on his chest and the word “Juaritos” on his neck. Another victim, 20-30 years old, was found in another place along the Juárez-Porvenir road thrown into a vacant lot. Later, another body was found in the Colonia La Cuesta, his face partially covered by a black plastic bag. He was 45-50 years old with a partially gray beard. The fifth strangled body of a man 25-27 was
found yesterday morning with a white electric cord tied around his neck. The bodies were all taken to the Forensic Medical Service, and it is hoped that their families will come to identify them and claim their remains.
El Paso Times, March 24, 2008
JUÁREZ COURTS TAKE HISTORIC LEAP IN ADOPTING LEGAL REFORM
For the first time, the prosecutor, the defense lawyer, the judge and the accused are in the same room and proceedings are open to the public. The parties take turns presenting their case to the judge in the back-and-forth familiar to anyone watching televised courtroom dramas. Lorenzo Villar, a former lawyer and one of 12 newly minted judges, is an enthusiastic believer in the new way. “The biggest difference is the judge doesn’t stay in his office and his assistants do all the work,” he said. “Now the judge decides everything in a public manner. The prosecutor has to tell me about the case, then the defense lawyers and you get to know the victim and the suspect personally. All gets resolved in an hour.”
There are no juries in Mexico. “There is more guarantee (against corruption) in this system. Before, there could be pressures,” said defense lawyer Ulises Soteno Torres.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 24, 2008
Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields Page 29