Trends More Lawlessness in Juarez: October 2008

[Woodman]

Journalists targeted in latest Mexico drug violence:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1013/p99s01-duts.html


As drug-related violence continues to worsen across the border in Mexico, journalists are being increasingly targeted.

Mexico's widening war with drugs has claimed more than 3,000 lives this year alone. On Sunday, assailants opened fire on the US consulate in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, reports the Associated Press. Nobody was injured in that attack, but on Saturday gunmen killed six young men at a family party in the gang-plagued Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, reports AP.

Saturday night's mass shooting was the second in the border state of Chihuahua in less than a week. Just before midnight Thursday, gunmen opened fire in a bar in the city of Chihuahua, killing 11 people.

The most recent violence underscores yet another frightening dimension in the violence: the targeting of journalists, the San Antonio Express reports. ...

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Ciudad Juarez, Mexico: 6 people lined up, gunned down:

http://www.kten.com/Global/story.asp?S=9196998

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) - Police in Ciudad Juaerz, Mexico, say six people were lined up and shot to death outside a business.

So far no arrests in last night's attack in Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Officials are investigating whether the shootings were linked to drugs.

City police spokesman Alejandro Pariente says a written statement "for all rats" was found among the bodies and the statement said the killings "will continue."

Pariente says investigators found more than 100 bullet shells at the scene.

Drug violence has been spiraling across Mexico and especially in Juarez, where more than 1,000 people have been killed this year.

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Juárez travel: Visitors should be on alert

http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_10738708

Renewed official travel warnings for those heading into Mexico come as no surprise. And they are to be taken seriously.
The U.S. State Department advises Americans to only visit legitimate business and tourist areas in that country, but stops short of recommending Americans stay away entirely.
But it does point out our sister city, Juárez, as a particularly dangerous place to visit in Mexico. That continues to be highly disconcerting. El Paso/Juárez is a major trade partner via the maquiladora industry, and both cities need the commerce as lifebloods to the economy.
But law and order is not prevalent in Juárez; the killers, robbers, thieves and kidnappers run virtually free. The violent gang war for supremacy in the illegal drug trade sends deadly ricochets into innocent bystanders. ...

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At least 25 killed in bloody Juárez weekend:

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_10706350

EL PASO -- At least 25 people -- including six in a mass shooting -- were killed during the weekend in Juárez, adding to the more than 1,070 homicides since the beginning of the year, Mexican authorities said Sunday.
Most of the victims were shot, one person was beaten to death with an unknown object and one body was found wrapped in a blanket.
In the mass shooting at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday, six men were fatally shot and another man suffered gunshot wounds. Investigators found four bodies on a sidewalk at Andrés Ortiz and Toronja Roja streets in the Juárez Nuevo colonia. Two other bodies were found inside a home's front patio. The injured man, who was not identified was taken by ambulance to a hospital.
No arrests have been made.
On Friday, at least 12 bodies were found throughout the day by Mexican investigators.
One man, José Luis Carillo, 24, was found dead behind a store at Felipe Angeles and Revolución Proletaria streets at about 3:50 p.m. Friday. Carillo had been shot multiple times.
About four hours after Carillo's body was found, Mexican investigators found the body of an unidentified man wrapped in blanket at Segunda de Ugarte and Encino streets in the Josefa Ortiz colonia. The man, who is believed to be about 35 years old, had a cut on the nose, but authorities still do not know how the man died.
In a separate homicide, an unidentified man was found partially nude in a parking lot on Riveras del Bravo Etapa III in Poblado de Loma Blanca. The ...


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2 killed in shootout with army in Juárez:

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_10741408

JUAREZ -- A shootout with the Mexican army left two men dead and another in custody late Wednesday in Juárez as the violence continued in the city.
The incident began about 10 p.m. when a black 1998 Dodge Durango sped away from soldiers who ordered it to stop for a routine check on Avenida de las Torres near Zaragoza boulevard, Chihuahua state police said.
The occupants of the Dodge allegedly fired at the pursing soldiers, who returned fired in the area of Palacio de Mitla street.
Two unidentified men in the Dodge were shot and killed and a third man, Heriberto Cardona Andunez, 30, was arrested and turned over to agents of the Mexico attorney general's office, known as the PGR. Police said they found two 9-mm handguns in the vehicle.
The shooting was part of a violent Wednesday with nine other deaths, including three state prison guards gunned down near a bus stop and three men found slain near a vacant lot in colonia Salvacar.
Along with the street violence, Juárez business owners are being threatened to pay "protection" to organized crime rings, city officials said.

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Americans are too afraid to visit bloody Juarez:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i...E10pAD93R335G0

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Mexican officials are trying to persuade Americans to visit Ciudad Juarez, touting the city in a new billboard campaign as a "land of encounters." But on this side of the border, that sounds like a cruel joke.
More than 1,100 people have been killed this year in Juarez, population 1.5 million, in a drug-related bloodbath so staggering that the city has been declared off-limits to U.S. soldiers looking to go bar-hopping; El Paso's public hospital is seeing a spillover of the wounded; and residents on the American side are afraid to cross over to visit family, shop or conduct business.
"We all like to make money, but the money I was making isn't worth it," said Fernando Apodaca, who spent at least one day a week for the past 18 years working in Juarez as an auto industry consultant. After his Cadillac Escalade SUV was seized in a carjacking last month, Apodaca vowed he wouldn't go over the border again.
"I had a gun to my face. There's no law over there," he said.
Juarez, situated just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, has had more murders this year than New York and Chicago together had in all of 2007 — and those two cities have seven times the population of Juarez. Last weekend alone, Juarez had 37 killings.
Juarez has always been a rough town, but one where many Americans felt safe enough to play, shop and work. Violence began to mount early this year after Mexico's president launched a national offensive against drug lords. ...