Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields
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ArrobaJuárez.com, Ciudad Juárez, April 10, 2008
More than 80 civil society organizations across Mexico protested today against persecution, torture and impunity in Juárez. In a declaration entitled “Respect for Human Dignity,” addressed to the President of the Republic and to the Commander in Chief of the armed forces and other government leaders, dozens of individuals joined with organizations to protest the murder of campesino leader Armando Villareal Martha and the subsequent arrests of activists Carlos Chávez and Cipriana Jurado, and the federal arrests warrants issued against leaders of social organizations who participated in different protest events.
El Paso Times, April 10, 2008
JUÁREZ—Two men were found shot to death Wednesday evening next to a pickup with Texas plates at a ranch about nine miles from the village of Guadalupe Distrito Bravos across the border from Tornillo [Texas]. The men were identified as Javier Trejo, who was found on the ground, and Alejandro Peña Trejo, who was in the bed of the older-model Chevrolet truck at the Trejo’s ranch.
In Juárez, a man was fatally shot while sitting at home, and pieces of a skull and other human remains were found in the desert near kilometer 28 of the Panamerican Highway.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, April 12, 2008
In a ceremony yesterday at the headquarters of the 20th Motorized Calvary, the Secretary of National Defense and the Federal Attorney General yesterday incinerated 8.4 tons of marijuana and 4.4 kilograms of cocaine confiscated in recent raids by Joint Operation Chihuahua. Two elementary school students set fire to the drugs using an electronic device.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, April 12, 2008
95.5% of Juárez residents believe that the majority of the police are involved in organized crime, according to a poll contracted by El Diario. In addition, 8 out of 10 polled think that the police arrested recently by the army were involved in suspicious activities and not framed by the army.
Excelsior, Special to El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, April 14, 2008
In 10 days, narco-traffickers paid more than $336,000 to operate and obtain protection in Juárez, according to a payroll ledger found in a house belonging to a cartel leader.
El Paso Times, April 14, 2008
The State Department updated its travel alert for Mexico to warn U.S. tourists of ongoing border violence, including the current drug war in Juárez. “Violent criminal activity fueled by a war between criminal organizations struggling for control of the lucrative narcotics trade continues along the U.S.-Mexico border,” the alert reads. “Attacks are aimed primarily at members of drug trafficking organizations, Mexican police forces, criminal justice officials, and journalists. However, foreign visitors and residents, including Americans, have been among the victims of homicides and kidnappings in the border region.”
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, April 15, 2008
A payroll ledger found in the search of a Juárez cartel leader that confirmed municipal police collected $8,000 per month has spurred a federal investigation. The ledger used code names for those who received payment from the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes organization. Municipal police spokesman Jaime Torres said that
“We know that there are good and bad elements in every group and the police are no exception. We are in the process of detecting these bad elements. . . . ”
New York Times, April 16, 2008
DRUG WAR CAUSES WILD WEST BLOOD BATH, KILLING 210 IN A MEXICAN BORDER TOWN
CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico—One sign of the desperation to end organized crime in this border town is that the good guy on the police recruitment posters is not a clean-cut youth in a smart police cap, but a menacing soldier in a black mask and helmet carrying a heavy machine gun. “The mortuary is full of more than 50 unclaimed and unidentified bodies, proof that the soldiers in the underworld war come from other states,” the mayor said.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, April 16, 2008
Juárez residents’ greatest fear is to get caught in the crossfire during a gun battle in the streets, according to a recent poll. Two out of three residents say that it is “very easy” to get a marijuana cigarette, a dose of cocaine or ecstasy.
La Jornada, Mexico City, April 17, 2008
NUEVO LAREDO, Tamaulipas—Offering salaries in dollars, life insurance, houses and late-model cars, the Gulf Cartel is recruiting ex-soldiers, according to an announcement posted Thursday on the streets of Tampico. “Stop your suffering, ex-soldiers, federal police . . . join the ranks of the Gulf Cartel . . . here we pay in dollars, we offer benefits, life insurance, a house for your family in a good neighborhood, and pick your own new car or truck every year . . . What more could you ask for? Tamaulipas, Mexico and the United States—all Gulf Cartel territory!”
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, April 18, 2008
Víctor Jesús Jiménez Soto, Benjamín Verdugo Villalobos and Alfonso Leyva Carrasco showed the marks of torture and violence on their bodies and said that the drugs and guns were planted by the Mexican army.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, April 18, 2008
The State Attorney General reported 21 homicides in the city during the first 18 days of April. Official statistics indicate 231 murders so far in 2008; 12 are women. In January there were 48 murders, 45 in February, and 117 in March.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, April 19, 2008
POLICEMAN AND 8-YEAR-OLD SON SHOT AND KILLED
Four people were shot and killed last night in separate organized-crime-style incidents. Municipal police captain Alejandro Martínez Casas and his 8-year-old son died at the medical center where they were taken after the attack. Martínez Casas’s name had appeared in the list of targeted officers on the Police Monument on January 26. The attack occurred at about 9:15 P.M. while Martínez drove his late-model, double cabin Nissan Titan pickup with Mexican plates, number DS57696, registered in the State of Chihuahua. A group of masked, armed men opened fire with AK-47s. Numerous bullet holes could be seen in the front and on the passenger side of the pickup. The child, whose name was not released, received various bullet wounds and witnesses reported that one of his arms was nearly destroyed.
The other double homicide occurred when the still unidentified occupants of a 2002 Honda were shot after being chased by four men in two other vehicles. Another man was shot and wounded on the sidewalk in Colonia Galeana. As neighbors gave first aid, 6 men got out of a black pickup and threw the wounded man in the truck. The victim was not identified as the armed commando unit took him away.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, April 19, 2008
Four presumed Federal Police officers were arrested yesterday for public drunkenness, causing a scandal, molesting a woman and assaulting Preventive Police agents.
Frontera Norte Sur, Las Cruces (N.Mex.), April 19, 2008
MEXICAN JOURNALISTS STILL UNDER SIEGE IN 2008
Two young radio announcers from the southern state of Oaxaca are the latest journalists to suffer violent deaths. Felicitas Martínez, 22, and Teresa Bautista, 24, were shot to death in an ambush April 7 while on their way to cover a state meeting of indigenous peoples. Four others were wounded in the attack, including two children aged 2 and 3. As of April 19, no suspects had been arrested for the crimes. Martínez and Bautista allegedly suffered threats before their murders. “Some people think we are very young to know, but they should know we are very young to die,” Martínez and Bautista reportedly said on the air shortly before their deaths.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, April 19, 2008
The death of young Alejandro Martínez Cruz, son of the municipal police officer executed Friday night, has caused pain and shock. Neighbors commented that although they barely knew the family, they regretted both deaths, especially that of the 8-year-old boy. “We don’t know if the father was bad or if he deserved to die that way or not, but there was no reason to kill the boy, he was an innocent victim. He hardly ever went out to play but when he did he ran around a lot, like all kids, he was a healthy boy and good at sports.”
El Diario, Ciudad
Juárez, April 19, 2008
More than 250 bullets were fired at the municipal police captain and his son who died in the hospital minutes after the attack in the Colonia Margaritas. The victims were identified as Alejandro Martínez Casas, 32, and his son, Alejandro Martínez Cruz, 8. The officer’s wife and mother of the child drove the wounded to the hospital in a private vehicle. State authorities reported that the officer received multiple bullet wounds on his left side, thorax, abdomen and legs. The boy was hit in the head and chest. At least 6 Mexican army tanks and dozens of soldiers disturbed the crime scene, kicking around the spent cartridges in the area.
Rockford (Ill.) Register Star, April 19, 2008
Norma Trosper doesn’t remember growing up with machine guns, burgeoning gangs or drug wars sprawling through the streets of her native town, Ciudad Juárez. That was then, in the late 1970s and early ’80s. Today, it’s a different story in the Mexican border town. “It’s like a war zone,” Trosper said of a recent visit. “I was so scared. I mean, you can feel it. It’s in the air. You just don’t know how many dead there will be for that day. You can almost smell death.”
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, April 20, 2008
Mexican army personnel yesterday rescued a man who had been held captive. When found, he was gagged and bound with brown-colored adhesive tape and had been tortured. The soldiers also confiscated an unknown quantity of drugs in the rear of a recent model Hummer H2 parked in the garage of the house where the victim was held. After being freed, the unidentified man said that he had been held for 3 days after being abducted by a group of men in green uniforms, similar to those worn by soldiers. After spending several hours at the house, the soldiers left with the rescued man. At press time, no official information had been released. In another incident, a motorcyclist was presumably abducted after being chased and shot by a group of men. Witnesses who asked for anonymity said that the motorcyclist had tried to hide in a nearby Dumpster but he was found and taken away by an unknown group of men.
Washington Post, April 20, 2008
PUERTO PALOMAS, Mexico—Javier Emilio Pérez Ortega, a workaholic Mexican police chief, showed up at the sleepy, two-lane border crossing here last month and asked U.S. authorities for political asylum. In the past year, at least 10 gunshot victims have been dumped at the border checkpoint—taken there by friends or colleagues who believed their only hope of survival lay across the border. In the calculus of U.S.-Mexican border relations, the living were rushed to medical treatment—sometimes with law enforcement escorts—but the dead were not allowed across.
Arizona Republic, April 21, 2008
MEXICO CITY—One of Mexico’s biggest drug cartels has launched a bizarre recruiting campaign, putting up fliers and banners promising good pay, free cars and better chow to army soldiers who join the cartel’s elite band of hit men. . . . The Mexican military has long had a problem with desertion. Between January and September 2007 alone, some 4,956 army soldiers deserted, about 2.5 percent of the force, according to the National Defense Secretariat.
Soldiers are facing more incentives to switch sides because of Calderón’s decision to use troops against the drug traffickers. . . . An army private earns an average of $533 a month. . . . “ . . . what’s true is that there is enormous desertion in the Mexican army and police force. They should be worried about that and take action to offer better working conditions.”
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, April 21, 2008
A nine-year-old child appears to have committed suicide by hanging himself in his house yesterday afternoon. His mother, Maria Isabel Tello Cofi, 28, had gone to a nearby store. When she returned from shopping, she found her son hanging from a clothesline rope. In addition to police and forensic personnel, state investigators and Mexican army soldiers came to the scene causing great disturbance to the family and neighbors, who considered their presence excessive considering the nature of the tragedy.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, April 21, 2008
Algae Amaya Núñez, 29, a schoolteacher, was shot to death Sunday night in the Juárez Valley while traveling with her 3-year-old son who was uninjured and a man who has disappeared. She was the sister of the ex-mayor of Guadalupe, Omar Alberto Amaya Núñez, killed by an armed commando in this town on September 24, 2006. Her father, Apolonio Amaya Fierro, also a former mayor, was killed in February 2007. State police found Amaya Núñez’s body inside a red 2007 Fusion with Texas plates. At the time of the shooting, her husband was driving the car and stopped to help the wounded woman, but he was apparently abducted by an armed commando, leaving the three-year-old boy in the car. Police rescued the boy, who was turned over to relatives who fled across the international bridge to the town of Fabens, where the dead woman had lived. The hit men chased the family along the Juárez-Porvenir highway, shooting at their car. Algae Amaya Núñez was a founder of a branch of the Cobach High School in Guadalupe. School director Adolfo Risser Ramos said, “She was an excellent teacher. . . . ” Family members said that she had been living for several years in the U.S. but that she visited regularly.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, April 22, 2008
Andrés Barraza López, 43, rescued by the Mexican army, was the owner of the drugs and weapons found in the house. He had apparently been kidnapped to settle accounts between members of organized crime.
El Paso Times, April 22, 2008
Margarita Crispin, the Customs and Border Protection officer arrested for allowing loads of marijuana to pass through her bridge lanes unchecked for four years, pleaded guilty to drug charges Monday morning and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Crispin, 32, also agreed to forfeit a 2002 GMC Denali, $16,000 in cash, jewelry and any other assets up to $5 million.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, April 22, 2008
Richard Raymond Medina Torres, identified as a member of the U.S. military, was detained yesterday on the Mexican side of the Free Bridge while driving a car with weapons and ammunition in his possession. Inside the car, police found an R-15 assault rifle with 13 clips and a .45-caliber pistol with 70 cartridges.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, April 22, 2008
“We are experiencing a spectacular lack of values and principles; the criminals no longer care if they kill children or if they are present at the scene of the crimes; our society is disintegrating around us,” declared the PRI leader in the Chihuahua state legislature, Fernando Rodríguez Moreno.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, April 22, 2008
Three municipal police officers traveling in a gray Lincoln were shot at about 7:30 P.M. today in the parking lot of an auto parts store on Avenida 16 de Septiembre. Abraham Carrillo Carrillo, 25, died at the scene. Felipe Galindo Reyes, 36, and José Nabor Alarcón were injured. According to news archives, Captain Galindo “Z-5 Galindo” was on the list of police officers to be executed as “those who continue not believing.”
Dallas Morning News, April 24, 2008
Mexican president Felipe Calderón said that it is vital that his country receives a $1.4 billion U.S. anti-drug assistance package. “I’m not asking the United States for a favor. I’m asking for responsibility. . . . This is a shared problem that requires a shared solution.”
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, April 25, 2008
In Ciudad Juárez, reported cases of domestic violence increased to 6 per day compared to last year, when there was one complaint every 3 days, according to Municipal Public Security Statistics.
MAY
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, May 1, 2008
Roberto Velasco Bravo, the organized-crime-fighting chief of the Federal Police, was shot and critically wounded in Mexico City. It has not been established if the police chief resisted a robbery while driving his Ford Explorer or if it was an execution.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, May 1, 2008
MAZATLAN, Sinaloa—Three confrontations on Wednesday in Culiacán apparently between members of the Sinaloa and Juárez cartels, the Federal Police and the Mexican army left 5 dead, including State police agents Salvador Cast
ellano Rivera and Jesús Martín Muñoz Cota.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, May 3, 2008
Even though murders in April decreased considerably compared to March, not a single perpetrator has been arrested. According to official statistics, there were 52 murders in April, 55% fewer than the 117 in March. In total, there have been 262 murders in the first four months of 2008. January—48 homicides, February—45, March—117, April 52.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, May 3, 2008
Ex-police captain, Sergio Lagarde Félix, 44, who served as bodyguard for the ex-municipal police director, Saulo Reyes, was shot to death yesterday in the Avenida Valle de Juárez. The victim had worked in several other state and Federal Police posts, most recently as chief warden of the local prison. He had resigned in January to administer a funeral business. Lagarde Félix was the second homicide in May. On May 1, Salvador Martínez Espinoza, 20, died after being shot six times near the Yáñez bridge on the Juárez-Porvenir highway.