Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields (42 page)

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
March 23, 2008

CHIHUAHUA—Sergio Granados Pineda, secretary of government, rejected the idea that the state is ungovernable due to the wave of executions in Ciudad Juárez and the flight of the Palomas police force under death threats from narco-traffickers. He said that the state would not ever “throw in the towel” when it comes to public security.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
March 23, 2008

NUEVO CASAS GRANDES—The two men killed Friday night while driving in a Jeep Grand Cherokee with no plates were identified yesterday by the authorities as Hugo Rene Clemente Monarrez, 29, and José Martín Burgos García, 19. Police recovered a large quantity of AK-47 cartridges at the scene.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
March 23, 2008

A sergeant with the Technical Preventive Group (formerly Delta Group) was shot to death today at about 5:00 P.M. The victim, who was off-duty, was driving a dark green Dodge Neon when a commando attacked him several times.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
March 23, 2008

Three people were murdered yesterday in a two-hour period. José Uribe Roldán, 19, was shot in front of his house in the Infonavit Solidaridad neighborhood by members of the Sunside Park 04D gang. Neighbors reported that the victim belonged to the Los Cheros gang and that the killers had been chasing him. Minutes later, at about 1:30 P.M., a body was found in the Granjas Unidas neighborhood, lying face down with two bullet wounds in the back. He has not been identified. At 3:00 P.M., Nicolás Olivares García, 50, was killed outside of his house by a group of four armed men shooting from a late-model vehicle. His body was left where he fell in the patio of his house, where he made bricks. Unofficial sources said that the victim was a retail drug dealer.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
March 23, 2008

CHIHUAHUA—Two men from Juárez were shot to death yesterday when they left the El Cubo disco in the “Golden Zone” in Chihuahua City at about 2:00 A.M. Héctor García Pérez, 40, was dead at the scene, while José Luis Araiza Galindo, 22, died later at the regional hospital. The victims had apparently argued with their attacker inside the club and when they left, he shot them at point-blank range and then escaped in a black Jeep Cherokee.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
March 23, 2008

Two high-ranking municipal police officials were assassinated yesterday in separate incidents. Juan Manuel Ruiz Flores, operational commander of Delta Group, was killed by an armed commando around 5:15 P.M. as he drove on El Centenario Street. He was off work and driving a Dodge Neon when he was pursued by at least two other vehicles, but he was unable to outrun them. After Ruiz Flores was hit by the initial hail of gunfire, one of his attackers returned to finish him off with several shots at close range. The killers remained at the scene even as the ambulance and paramedics arrived and they were warned via their dispatcher to stay away from the scene until it was safe to approach.

Meanwhile, in Parral, Carlos Gómez Sáenz, subdirector of the municipal police of that city, was executed by a group of armed men as he left his home at 9:21 P.M., accompanied by his 10-year-old daughter, Karla Verónica Gómez Villa, who was shot in the back. She was reported in stable condition at the hospital, under heavy police guard.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
March 23, 2008

An unidentified man’s partially nude body was found yesterday in Colonia Hidalgo near a pile of garbage bags. The body appeared to have multiple injuries caused by beating. He appeared to be between 40 and 45 years old and had a bulldog tattooed on his right arm.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
March 23, 2008

EL PASO—Javier Emilio Pérez Ortega, municipal police chief of Palomas, is in El Paso under the protection of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), after crossing the border at Columbus, New Mexico, to seek asylum in the United States.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
March 23, 2008

Secretary of Public Security, Guillermo Prieto Quintana, said that 180 new cadets will begin police training this Monday. The SSPM has offered the cadets a $750 monthly training stipend, and as new police officers, they will receive a salary of $980 per month. The secretary urged citizens to apply to join the new police force.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
March 23, 2008

The growing psychosis among security forces due to the recent assassinations of police officers is reflected in the collapse of vigilance in the city. Javier Aguirre Reyes, head of a small business association, said that uniformed police are more worried about watching their backs than protecting the citizens.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
March 24, 2008

The bodies of five men, strangled and showing signs of torture, were found discarded in different areas of the city during the past 10 hours. Unofficial sources indicate that the men were abducted, beaten and tortured with sharp objects, strangled and then dumped in open areas. The first victim was identified as Manuel Carranza Montoya, about 30-35. The second murdered man was found along the Juárez-Porvenir highway. He was about 35 and had several tattoos: the name “Herrera” on his upper back, “Mi Madre Alicia” and a heart pierced by a sword on his chest and the word “Juaritos” on his neck. Another victim, 20-30 years old, was found in another place along the Juárez-Porvenir road thrown into a vacant lot. Later, another body was found in the Colonia La Cuesta, his face partially covered by a black plastic bag. He was 45-50 years old with a partially gray beard. The fifth strangled body of a man 25-27 was found yesterday morning with a white electric cord tied around his neck. The bodies were all taken to the Forensic Medical Service, and it is hoped that their families will come to identify them and claim their remains.

El Paso Times,
March 24, 2008

JUÁREZ COURTS TAKE HISTORIC LEAP IN ADOPTING LEGAL REFORM

For the first time, the prosecutor, the defense lawyer, the judge and the accused are in the same room and proceedings are open to the public. The parties take turns presenting their case to the judge in the back-and-forth familiar to anyone watching televised courtroom dramas. Lorenzo Villar, a former lawyer and one of 12 newly minted judges, is an enthusiastic believer in the new way. “The biggest difference is the judge doesn’t stay in his office and his assistants do all the work,” he said. “Now the judge decides everything in a public manner. The prosecutor has to tell me about the case, then the defense lawyers and you get to know the victim and the suspect personally. All gets resolved in an hour.”

There are no juries in Mexico. “There is more guarantee (against corruption) in this system. Before, there could be pressures,” said defense lawyer Ulises Soteno Torres.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
March 24, 2008

Due to a lack of sufficient weapons, the SSPM has ruled that only command-level officers may carry their service weapons 24 hours per day. The spokesman said that it is impossible for all officers to retain their weapons when off duty and this privilege will be accorded only those at high risk. This decision was made despite the fact that the last 4 police officers executed were low-level street cops and were not on the “narco-list” of “executables.”

“We are not allowed to keep our weapons, we have to turn them in when we go off duty so that there will be enough for the next shift. If you want to take it, you have to pay 200 pesos per week,” said an officer who asked for anonymity.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
March 25, 2008

PUERTO PALOMAS DE VILLA—The body of a man was found yesterday in a garbage dump. He had been shot 18 times with a type of bullet used exclusively by the army. A man collecting recyclables found the body of a man about 22 years old, wearing an imitation goose down vest, army boots and a military-style haircut.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
March 25, 2008

FAMILIES OF FALLEN POLICE LEFT WITHOUT PENSIONS

Families of executed municipal police officers will not receive a government pension unless the officers were killed on duty, said Julio Gomez Alfaro, coordinator of the Commission on Labor and Social Protection. “The pension and retirement policy doesn’t include executions. . . . ” However, he added that the lives of all police and firemen are insured and that the families of the fallen officers will receive this economic support. As of yesterday afternoon, 8 municipal policemen had been assassinated so far this year, as well as 2 state police, two CIPOL agents and one army soldier.

Mario Campolla, brother of murdered officer Oscar Campolla, said that their relatives’ bodies are sometimes robbed. “On top of the cowardly murders, they take your relatives’ things. They stole my brother’s watch, a ring and his salary. When they returned his wallet, all of the money he had in it was gone.”

“Wives and children of the police have been abandoned. There are mothers who no longer receive their husbands’ salaries because the men have disappeared. The corporation does nothing to search for the missing officers,” said one relative.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
March 25, 2008

CHIHUAHUA—“All of the public security agencies are infiltrated—all of them, pure and simple—and we are not going to put our hands in the fire for any bad element,” Governor José Reyes Baeza declared yesterday, concerning the narco-related assassinations and executions in Chihuahua in recent days. The governor explained that the state is facing an atypical situation over the last two months and he has confidence that in the next few weeks, Chihuahua will return to its prior condition of normalcy. Baeza Terrazas said that he had formally petitioned the federal government to send their elite forces to investigate, “and that they explain to us what is happening in Chihuahua.” For his part, local representative Miguel Jurado Contreras declared yesterday that the state is completely overrun by narco-trafficking.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
March 25, 2008

Daniel Antonio Hernández Enríquez was killed and another man was wounded yesterday when they were attacked by armed men as they walked along Yaqui Street. The dead man’s mother arrived at the scene and identified the body.

Other recent victims identified and/or cause of death:

• Saturnino Acosta Herrera, 51, shot in the chest

• Israel Macías Navarro, 37, shock induced by gunshot to the abdomen

• Jesús Macías Navarro, 41, gunshot to the face

• Joel Tim Ríos, 43, bullet wound to the chest

• Unidentified man, Colonia Hidalgo, asphyxia by strangulation

• José Uribe Beltrán, 19, bullet wound to the head

• Unidentified man, Colonia Granjas Unidas, bullet wound to the head

• Nicolás Olivares García, shock induced by bullet wound to the chest

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
March 25, 2008

Two men were shot to death in their pickup truck last night after being pursued by their killers, and two others were abandoned on the streets of the Colonia 16 de Septiembre. The two bodies were found about 3 blocks apart in the western area of the city, semi nude and showing signs of torture. The other two men were driving in a Chevrolet pickup in the Colonia Profesora Maria Martinez when an armed commando chased them down and shot them. Witnesses said that the dead men were known in the area by their nicknames “El Pelon” and El Tuercas” (Baldy and Nuts).

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
March 25, 2008

CHIHUAHUA—Two months after suspending public activities due to a viral illness that caused partial facial paralysis, Governor Reyes Baeza Terrazas announced his return to public life, including travel outside the state. He reported that he had been treated with acupuncture which accelerated his recovery of mobility in the right side of his face.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
March 25, 2008

More than 40 unidentified bodies have been buried in a common grave, said Rosa Padilla Hernandez, coordinator of the Forensic Medical Service. “We are working at maximum capacity with 103 employees working three shifts, but this has been one of the most violent months ever and we cannot keep up,” said forensics expert Hector Hawley. “When we arrive at a crime scene we can’t work too fast, but in this month, there have been cases when we have barely arrived and we get calls about another event. . . . ”

Frontera Norte Sur, Las Cruces (N.Mex.),
March 25, 2008

NO EASTER TRUCE IN 2008

Narco-violence in Mexico showed no let-up during the Easter holiday season. Press reports from just the three days between Holy Thursday, March 21, and Easter Sunday, March 23, registered at least 59 homicides connected to organized crime. By all accounts, Ciudad Juárez’s citizens are terrified by the seemingly endless string of killings. Shootings have occurred on main streets, in front of commercial malls and other businesses and in bars and motels. As many as 218 executions were reported in Ciudad Juárez and different regions of Chihuahua from January 1 to March 25 of this year.