Murder City_ Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields - Charles Bowden [134]
Dallas Morning News, March 29, 2008
DRUG CARTELS OPERATE TRAINING CAMPS NEAR TEXAS BORDER JUST INSIDE MEXICO
CAMARGO, Mexico—Mexican drug cartels have conducted military-style training camps in at least six such locations in northern Tamaulipas and Nuevo León states, some within a few miles of the Texas border, according to U.S. and Mexican authorities and the printed testimony of five protected witnesses who were trained in the camps.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 29, 2008
A patrol car from the Cuauhtemoc district was found abandoned in the Rincones de San Marcos neighborhood, just a few meters from the house on Plateros Street searched by the army yesterday. The officers assigned to the patrol car are missing.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 29, 2008
In two days, four cases of young children—aged 6, 11 and 13—raped by family members or teenaged acquaintances have been reported. In two of the cases, the accused rapists were 17 and 16 years old and were friends of the victims.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 30, 2008
Elements of the Mexican army detained 5 persons and confiscated more than a half ton of marijuana, 17 late-model vehicles, and two firearms in the Rincones de San Marcos and Colonia Ampliacion Aeropuerto after an anonymous tip. Those arrested are members of the criminal organization of Pedro Sanchez, operator for the Carrillo Fuentes cartel in the town of Villa Ahumada.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 30, 2008
A municipal policeman with 16 years of service joined another four agents who resigned on Friday after the inauguration of the Joint Operation Chihuahua. Forty-six agents have resigned for various reasons in the last month.
Las Cruces Sun-News, March 30, 2008
PALOMAS, Mexico—It’s nothing compared to the violence a month ago, says American expatriate Georgie Flores, who gave this strange tour Saturday. “There’s a cooling down, big time.” The afternoon of Feb. 27, Javier Perez Mendiola, 41, also known as “El Indio,” and Adrián Juárez Mendoza, 28, were shot to death at the Pemex gas station on Avenida 5 de Mayo, four blocks from the border. Just weeks earlier, Feb. 18, four men were shot in Palomas—two died. On March 18, Palomas’ chief of police fled to Columbus [N.Mex.] after his two deputies left the department. Two days later, two bodies wrapped in blankets were found, dumped along a road near Palomas. This week, four burned bodies were found at a ranch south of town. Flores said he saw the Pemex shooting—for three solid minutes, the street was full of automatic-weapons fire—and the bodies: “There were 3(00), 400 shots. This guy didn’t have no face no more.”
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 30, 2008
Despite the military presence, a man was shot to death yesterday outside of his recycling business in Loma Blanca in the Juárez Valley. The victim’s body, not identified by the authorities, was found thrown into a parking lot.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 30, 2008
A man and woman were found murdered yesterday in adjacent houses in the Colonia Zaragoza, apparently beaten to death. . . . With these crimes, the total assassinations during March rises to 107. There were 48 in January and 45 in February, and in addition the discovery of 45 bodies in hidden graves, according to journalistic records based on official statistics.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, March 31, 2008
Four more municipal policemen were detained by elements of the Mexican army, causing the police assigned to the Babicora district to refuse to go out on patrol for fear of being arrested by the military. For more than 3 hours, officers coming on duty abstained from going out on patrol and demanded to speak to their superiors to express their fears. An agent with 17 years of service who has been recognized for heroism said, “If there are bad elements, they should pursue them but those of us who are doing a good job and trying to do the best we can for the citizens, we do not deserve to be detained or charged with crimes. It is not fair to us or to our families that we fear being arrested