| Â | | | | when they tried to stop subjects in a |
| | | | "camioneta" (read either p/u truck or SUV). |
| By Michael Webster: Investigative Reporter | | | | |
| May 8, 2008 1:00 PM PDT | | | | In Nogales, Sonora, a shootout between city |
| | | | police and "presumed criminals" resulted in |
| Â | | | | four deaths, one of them an agent. Three |
| | | | persons were arrested and a woman relative of |
| Four Americans were shot and wounded on | | | | the thugs was later killed in Hermosillo in |
| Thursday as they were leaving the Arriba | | | | what was believed to be a follow-up event to |
| Chihuahua nightclub in the ProNaF tourist | | | | those deaths. |
| zone in the violent Mexican border city of | | | | |
| Juárez. The shootings were apparently | | | | The partially burned bodies of two men were |
| deliberate attempts on Americans. They were | | | | found inside bags in Cajeme; one of them had |
| targeted not just random bystanders caught up | | | | had his legs cut off. |
| in the wave of violence that has recently | | | | |
| engulfed Juárez, Mexican authorities | | | | "Ministerial" agent Jose Manuel Pena Lopez |
| said. | | | | was driving a vehicle in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, |
| | | | when he was shot and killed by subjects |
| The wounded were identified by police as Juan | | | | riding a motorcycle. And Miguel Angel Santa |
| Manuel Contreras Machado, 32, Luz Elena | | | | Cruz Armendariz, the state's Ministerial |
| Velazquez, 27, Jorge Jimenez, 21, and | | | | Police investigations coordinator was riddled |
| Alejandro Vazquez, 26. Mexican police | | | | by gunfire. |
| confirmed that all four wounded are Americans | | | | |
| and live in the border city of El Paso Texas. | | | | In Navolato, Sinaloa, the body of a beheaded |
| | | | man was found with a message on a tag board. |
| Police said the victims were taken to | | | | Three other crimes presumable linked to |
| hospitals in both Juárez and El Paso. | | | | organized crime took place in the states of |
| Thomason General Hospital in El Paso | | | | Chiapas, Tamaulipas and Durango. Meanwhile, |
| confirmed that Vazquez and Jimenez are being | | | | four police officers were killed in an ambush |
| treated there and are in stable condition. | | | | in the northern state of Sinaloa and a local |
| | | | media report said another two local police |
| Many Americans are wondering when the Bush | | | | officers had also been killed. |
| administration is going to raise the travel | | | | |
| alert to its highest level "travel warning," | | | | Rival factions of the local Arellano Felix |
| for American travelers to Mexico? How many | | | | drug cartel in Tijuana on the |
| American citizens are going to have to be | | | | Mexico-California border fought each other |
| shot, killed or kidnapped before the American | | | | with rifles and machine guns in the early |
| government move to prevent needless deaths | | | | hours of the morning, police said. |
| and issue the proper "travel warning," for | | | | |
| Americans? | | | | Fourteen bodies lay in pools of blood, strewn |
| | | | along a road near assembly-for-export |
| At the scene of the shooting, investigators | | | | maquiladora plants on the city's eastern |
| found nine 9 mm bullet casings and a green | | | | limits. The corpses were surrounded by |
| Chevrolet Malibu with Chihuahua plates that | | | | hundreds of bullet casings and many of the |
| had four gunshots in its side windows and | | | | victims' faces were destroyed. |
| windshield. | | | | |
| | | | A 15th body was found close by after the |
| Since the start of the year, more than 200 | | | | victim apparently tried to walk away before |
| people, including several law enforcement | | | | collapsing dead. Eight other men were wounded |
| officers, have been killed in Juárez | | | | and taken to a local hospital where two more |
| alone, in a war between the rival Sinaloa and | | | | cartel members were sot dead by Tijuana |
| Juárez drug cartels. Since the | | | | police. |
| beginning of this year more than 3500 people | | | | |
| have been murdered in Mexico in what | | | | In the El Refugio section of Tijuana the body |
| authorities blame on the Mexican cartels and | | | | of a man was found inside a vehicle and |
| their criminal gangs and para-military | | | | wrapped in a blanket (note: this is a typical |
| forces. Officials claimed the rising death | | | | sign that an execution has been committed); |
| toll showed that criminals were panicking | | | | the vehicle was left parked in front of a |
| about the clampdown. | | | | children's playground. |
| | | | |
| Last month, and only after pressure from the | | | | Heavily armed men killed at least 16 people, |
| American press the U.S. State Department | | | | all members of a ranchers' association, in |
| updated its travel alert for Mexico warning | | | | two different massacres in southern Mexico, |
| U.S. tourists about the ongoing violence in | | | | Mexican media said. |
| Mexico, including the drug battles in | | | | |
| Juárez and other border cities. The | | | | Some 40 men riding in luxury vehicles and |
| alert, which is less serious than a "travel | | | | wearing uniforms of an elite police squad |
| warning," advises visitors to travel during | | | | shot nine people dead in the town of Petatlan |
| the day, avoid traveling alone and stick to | | | | in the state of Guerrero, El Universal |
| well-known tourist zones. The four shot | | | | newspaper reported. And a group toting |
| Americans where in that well-known zone. In | | | | automatic weapons killed seven people in the |
| fact it happened in downtown Juarez and | | | | town of Iguala, also in Guerrero. |
| within a very short distance from downtown El | | | | |
| Paso Texas. | | | | Reforma newspaper said the ranchers were |
| | | | holding a meeting in Iguala and at least two |
| More than 50 people died in several separate | | | | of the sons and other family members and |
| incidents of related Mexican drug cartel | | | | employees of the association's state leader, |
| crime in Mexico, with the most gruesome | | | | Rogaciano Alba, were killed in the attack. |
| attack by cartel para-military members, | | | | Alba himself has survived two other attacks |
| occurring in the southern Guerrero state. | | | | in the past, Reforma said. |
| | | | |
| In Ciudad Juarez, despite a huge army | | | | The newspapers did not say what could have |
| deployment in the violent city across the | | | | triggered the attacks but well-armed drug |
| border from El Paso, Texas Mexican drug hit | | | | traffickers are active in Guerrero, a poor, |
| men killed a senior police officer. | | | | mountainous state on the Pacific coast home |
| | | | to the Acapulco beach resort. Clashes over |
| Gunmen with assault rifles shot Saul Pena, | | | | land rights or local politics are also common |
| who was due to be named one of city's five | | | | in Guerrero. |
| police commanders, as he left police | | | | |
| headquarters. | | | | The number of dead in the war against |
| | | | narcotraffic already exceeds three thousand |
| "It seems they were waiting for him," said | | | | 500 hundred. On average, 205 members of the |
| police spokesman Jaime Torres. "They shot him | | | | different factions have died on a monthly |
| with AK-47s in the back, the stomach and the | | | | basis between Dec. 2006 and April of this |
| leg. He died in hospital this morning." | | | | year. In contrast, the monthly average of |
| | | | U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq is around 100. |
| Berenice Garcia Corral was executed by | | | | |
| killers who went into her private home garage | | | | President Felipe Calderon has warned that the |
| as she was parking her car. She was the | | | | narco-war would bring with it an elevated |
| commander of the Juarez sub-office of the | | | | cost in human lives, but the specialists in |
| state of Chihuahua's Att'y. Gen's. Sexual | | | | the matter point out that the level of |
| Crimes unit and also 2nd in command of the | | | | violence was underestimated. The president of |
| State Investigative Agency. | | | | the "CNDH" (Mex. Natn'l. Commission on Human |
| | | | Rights), Jose Luis Soberanes, warns that the |
| Also in Juarez, a private security guard in a | | | | capacity of the State has been surpassed and |
| bar was found dead an hour after being taken | | | | that more forceful means are due. |
| away by commandos. Still in another event, | | | | |
| two city police officers in a parked patrol | | | | Since December 2006, President Felipe |
| unit suffered bullet wounds from a drive by | | | | Calderon's Federal Government has deployed |
| shooting by unknown persons. | | | | 36,000 military troops and thousands of |
| | | | police around the country in an operation |
| In a barrage of more than 70 shots were fired | | | | aimed at clamping down on Mexican drug |
| in a roadway shooting that killed two men | | | | cartels and other organized crime. Many local |
| Lorenzo Juárez Aguayo, 29, and Agustin | | | | and state officials think more troops are |
| Damian Navarrete, 38, and wounded another | | | | needed and feel like the troops are losing |
| along Avenida Vicente Guerrero in | | | | the battle. The Mexican drug cartel violence |
| Juárez, Chihuahua state investigators | | | | has plagued the country since before he took |
| reported. | | | | office. Just in March of this year, the |
| | | | Mexican government sent more than 2,500 |
| The men were in a gray Crown Victoria and had | | | | soldiers and federal police officers to curb |
| just left a horse race track when they were | | | | the violence in the border city of |
| followed by a white van, whose occupants | | | | Juárez. Killings slowed for a few |
| fired multiple shots; they received multiple | | | | weeks after the arrival of federal forces but |
| gunshot wounds investigators said. Juan | | | | appear to have recently resumed. Now many |
| Verdugo, 21, who was in the back seat of the | | | | Mexicans believe the cartels have the upper |
| car, was wounded and taken to a Juárez | | | | hand and are continuing the horrible global |
| hospital in undisclosed condition. | | | | drug business that terrorizes many Mexican |
| | | | families. |
| The lifeless bodies of three more men were | | | | |
| found on different streets in Juarez. All | | | | Â For related articles go to: |
| dead from stab wounds, beat to death and/or | | | | |
| shot. | | | | Sources: |
| | | | |
| A captain of the Public Municipal Security | | | | Mexico Attorney General's office |
| Dep't., Saul Pena Lopez, died after having | | | | |
| been shot during a car-to-car assault in | | | | Mexican Military officers |
| Juarez. | | | | |
| | | | The president of the "CNDH" (Mex. Natn'l. |
| In Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, a "heavy | | | | Commission on Human Rights), Jose Luis |
| caliber" car-to-car gunfire assault killed a | | | | Soberanes |
| lawyer, his wife and a third adult and left | | | | |
| the dead couple's minor daughter gravely | | | | Juarez police Dept. |
| wounded. Casas Grandes Mexico is some 125 mi. | | | | |
| SW of Ciudad Juarez. | | | | Reforma newspaper |
| | | | |
| Chihuahua, Sonora & Sinaloa experienced | | | | El Universal newspaper |
| extreme violence as seventeen persons were | | | | |
| executed, seven of whom were state and city | | | | Tijuana police |
| police officers. At Parral, Chihuahua, two | | | | |
| city police officers were shot and killed | | | | U.S. |
| just two blocks away from the police station | | | | |