Murder City_ Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields - Charles Bowden [145]
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, May 9, 2008
A shoot-out last night at about 10:30 on Av. Juárez 2 blocks from the Paso del Norte international bridge between municipal police and an armed commando left 2 dead and 4 wounded, including 3 bicycle cops. Armed men apparently tried to abduct several people from a nightclub. The victims were 2 taxi drivers, German and Oscar, known to the cigarette sellers and parking attendants in the area, their bodies left on the sidewalk and the pavement. A man waiting in his car to cross to El Paso was shot in the abdomen. The shoot-out caused panic along the Av. Juárez.
In another incident, a man between 30 and 35 was shot to death in his car, a 1988 Grand Marquis, in the San Lorenzo neighborhood.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, May 9, 2008
Three uniformed municipal police officers were shot this morning by an armed commando. They were traveling to Babicora station in patrol car No. 137. Fellow cops rescued them from the car that crashed into a post. The injured officers were treated at the Star Medica hospital, which was soon surrounded by dozens of police to protect against another confrontation.
El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, May 9, 2008
Sixteen police officers have been assassinated so far this year in Ciudad Juárez, surpassing the total of 14 in 2007, when killings claimed 6 municipal police, 3 transit police and 5 from the State Investigative Agency. In 2008, 11 victims are municipal police, 2 CIPOL (Chihuahua state investigative police), 2 Federal Investigative Police, and one Mexican army soldier. Chihuahua State Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez Rodriguez said no connection was found between any of these cases. The rash of killings began January 24, 2007: . . . Edgar Valencia Delgado, 37, shot to death outside of his house in Horizontes del Sur . . . March 11, lifeless body of Sergeant Adolfo Rios Corral found with two bullet wounds to the head inside a car near Cuatro Siglos Blvd. . . . May 10, 2007, body of municipal officer José Luis Delgado Monsiváis, found inside a white Honda Accord . . . May 29, 2007, municipal policeman Ismael Cháirez Hernández and state policeman Enrique Martínez Torres executed inside an official state vehicle near el Campestre . . . June 6, state investigative agents Moisés Pérez and Héctor Macías shot to death . . . July 30, state policeman Hugo Alejandro Barrón Rangel, 25, shot in the eye and killed, his body found in the trunk of a car parked at the central bus station . . . August 13, traffic cop Gerardo Lechuga Valenzuela, 38, shot to death at the corner of Joaquin Terrazas and Arteaga . . . September 24, preventive agent Horacio Sol Martínez assassinated by thieves who had just robbed the Dental Right office. . . . October 4, traffic police commander Héctor Osorio Hernández, 43, run down by several vehicles driven by hooded men at the corner of Mina and Mariscal . . . November 19, municipal policeman Jorge Arturo Baca Terrazas executed in a Telcel office in a shopping mall . . . December 16, Transit Commander Francisco González Solano, 44, assassinated by a shot to the forehead, his body found near a dike in the Colonia Luis Echeverria. . . . December 22, officer Víctor Hugo Caldera Flores, 40, beaten to death in Colonia Granjero. . . . 2008 first officer murdered . . . municipal police Captain Julián Cháirez Hernández, early Sunday morning January 20, in the Chamizal subdivision . . . January 21, Francisco Ledesma Salazar, 34, municipal police director, executed at the door of his house as he leaves for work . . . At night on the same day, Fernando Lozano Sandoval, state investigative police coordinator, survives a shooting on the Av. Paseo Triunfo de la Republica. . . . February