View Full Version : Gunmen in Mexico kill 3 with U.S. consulate ties
LongWire
03-14-2010, 14:25
RIP and thanks for your service...........
The Cartels seem to be taking this war serious............
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62D19Q20100314?type=politicsNews
Gunmen in Mexico kill 3 with U.S. consulate ties
Julian Cardona
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico
Sun Mar 14, 2010 2:20pm EDT
(Reuters) - Three people connected to the U.S. consulate in Mexico's most violent border city were murdered, police said on Sunday, prompting U.S. President Barack Obama to respond with outrage and sadness.
WORLD | BARACK OBAMA | MEXICO
Gunmen on Saturday killed an American couple associated with the consulate in Ciudad Juarez, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, in broad daylight, a police source told Reuters.
The couple's baby survived the attack, the source said.
Minutes later, another man with ties to the consulate was murdered in a different area of the city at the center of a bloody turf war between drug cartels, according to the source.
Gunmen boxed in the third victim's car with other vehicles and shot him, according to a media witness who saw the crime scene in the city where 8,000 troops and federal police have been deployed.
A consulate employee and her husband, both U.S. citizens, along with the husband of another employee who is a Mexican citizen, were murdered, the White House said in a statement.
"The president is deeply saddened and outraged by the news," White House National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said in a statement, adding that Obama "shares in the outrage of the Mexican people at the murders of thousands in Ciudad Juarez and elsewhere in Mexico."
In an apparent reaction to the attacks, the U.S. State Department on Sunday updated its warning on travel in Mexico to say that it had authorized the departure of dependents of U.S. government personnel from U.S. consulates in several northern Mexico border cities.
In Ciudad Juarez, one of the world's deadliest cities, there are as many as a dozen drug murders a day and scenes of bullet-riddled vehicles and bodies lying in pools of blood are common.
Mexico's drug war has killed some 18,600 people, mainly cartel members and police officers, since President Felipe Calderon took power and launched an army crackdown on traffickers in late 2006. The rampant violence worries Washington and foreign investors.
Hammer said the United States would work with Calderon's government "to break the power" of drug trafficking organizations.
The consulate in Ciudad Juarez and U.S. Embassy in Mexico City could not immediately provide more details.
(Writing and additional reporting by Caren Bohan; Editing by Eric Walsh)
RIP
With 2,000 homicides in 2009, Ciudad Juarez beats out war zones as the murder capital of the world. 133 violent deaths per 100,000 residents. Across the river in El Paso, the number is 13 per 100,000, the same murder rate at Houston.
USG has done some recent training for the Federales through the Merida Initiative (http://www.usembassy-mexico.gov/eng/eborders_Merida_Initiative.html), but honestly it looks pretty close to chaos on the border.
Three people connected to the U.S. consulate in Mexico's most violent border city were murdered, police said on Sunday, prompting U.S. President Barack Obama to respond with outrage and sadness.
Yeah, that will show them. That "respond with outrage and sadness" makes the bad guys sit up and take notice every time.
Responding wih helicopter gunships would probably just piss them off.
RIP, fellow citizens. Vio con Dios.
Responding wih helicopter gunships would probably just piss them off.
Gee, pissing off some drug scum in Mexico would be just awful.
Regardless of their hiding place, regardless of their station, regardless of their nationality or age, they should be dealt with with the most severe means available.
I wouldn't object to an occasional drone attack. The first one would be a day to remember at CBP.
Drones silently patrol U.S. borders (http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/03/12/border.drones/index.html?iref=allsearch)
Right now, Predator aircraft monitor some border regions on a limited basis. Customs and Border Protection says it has six of the unmanned aircraft: There are three Predators in Arizona, two in North Dakota, and one is being tested for maritime anti-narcotics duty in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The agency will get its seventh drone this spring. That one is expected to go to Corpus Christi, Texas. Right now, none of its drones fly over Texas, the agency said.
The pilotless Predator B can fly up to 240 knots (276 mph) at altitudes up to 50,000 feet, according to the Customs and Border Protection Web site.
But there are questions about safety. A federal government study reported that the Predator is prone to crashing.
"Serious safety and technical issues need to be addressed if the program is to be expanded domestically," a May 2008 congressional report said. "... It is noted that UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] suffer accident rates up to hundreds of times higher than manned aircraft."
And I live just 500 from there...and just 150 miles north of the border.:(
I just read an article (print - no link.) that discussed how Texas was putting on seminars to aid affluent Mexican nationals in permanently relocating to Texas. In addition, per various news reports, San Antonio is a hub city for shipment of illicit drugs across the country. If the drug dealers' prey moves, how long until they refocus their efforts?
My concern - when does the mess spread to where I am? (Purely rhetorical question)
My concern - when does the mess spread to where I am? (Purely rhetorical question)
It already has. There have been several drug-related assassinations in the SATX area within the past month.
It's hard to believe how that city has changed. When I was a young teenager in the early '70s, my dad used to take us there all the time so he could get good, cheap boots. I took my wife and kids there in the early '90s once. No way now.
Bordercop
03-15-2010, 07:26
And I live just 500 from there...and just 150 miles north of the border.:(
I just read an article (print - no link.) that discussed how Texas was putting on seminars to aid affluent Mexican nationals in permanently relocating to Texas. In addition, per various news reports, San Antonio is a hub city for shipment of illicit drugs across the country. If the drug dealers' prey moves, how long until they refocus their efforts?
My concern - when does the mess spread to where I am? (Purely rhetorical question)
Link: http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_11770841
After threats, Juárez mayor in El Paso
By Diana Washington Valdez / El Paso Times
Posted: 02/24/2009 12:00:00 AM MST
EL PASO -- Police are investigating threats against Juárez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz, who moved his family to El Paso for safety, El Paso police Detective Carlos Carrillo said Monday.
"We received information that the Juárez mayor lives in El Paso, and that possibly they were going to come to El Paso to get him," Carrillo said. "He has not asked us for our help, but it's our duty to protect any resident of our city who may be under threat."
Juárez police said written threats against Reyes Ferriz and his family were left in different parts of Juárez after the police chief, Roberto Orduña Cruz, resigned Friday. The threats were written on the kind of banners and posters that the Juárez drug cartel has used to send messages to police and others.
Meanwhile, Mexican authorities were unraveling a shooting Sunday in Chihuahua City that killed one of Chihuahua Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza Terraza's bodyguards.
Alejandro Chaparro Coronel died while defending another state agent in a convoy. He was a commander who served on the Chihuahua state police force for 11 years.
The assailants wounded two other bodyguards, both also members of the state police.
Mexican officials said police returned fire and wounded one suspect, Eduardo Hernandez Valdez, 36. He served in the Mexican army from 2001 to 2003.
The Chihuahua governor, who drove his own vehicle with the bodyguards behind him, said earlier he did not know whether the attack targeted him or stemmed from an unrelated dispute between his bodyguards and the armed suspects.
"We cannot speculate and will comment only about what we know," the governor said.
Chihuahua state officials said they had indications that the shooting was an isolated case stemming from a disagreement between the governor's bodyguards and one of the suspects.
Officials said the bodyguards stopped one suspect's vehicle because they thought it was following the convoy. Then a second vehicle approached, from which two armed men exited and started firing at the bodyguards.
The suspects' vehicles, which were stolen, were found burned outside Chihuahua City.
Both the Juárez mayor and Chihuahua governor belong to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
Hector Garcia, the federal attorney general's regional director in Chihuahua state, said at a Monday news conference that the government will investigate any federal violations in connection with Sunday's shooting.
Garcia, who is serving his second tour in Juárez, gained notoriety in 2003 when he claimed publicly that the Juárez drug cartel had been dismantled and no longer existed.
Juárez city official Guillermo Dowell said the violence in Juárez and Chihuahua state is comparable to what occurred in Ireland and Iraq, "where people were killed not because of what they did or failed to do, but to plant terror in a city and its authorities."
He said Reyes Ferriz remained committed to fighting back with a clean and competent police force.
"The mayor's position is that the city police have to serve the public and not some organized criminal band, and he will continue to clean up the police force in a process he began since the first moments of his administration," Dowell said.
Violence against high-ranking politicians in Mexico is not new. In 2001, Patricio Martinez Garcia, then the Chihuahua state governor, survived an assassination attempt by the Juárez drug cartel and a corrupt policewoman.
FBI agents in El Paso had warned him about the cartel's plans. A Chihuahua state policewoman was charged and imprisoned in the plot.
And I live just 500 from there...and just 150 miles north of the border.:(
My concern - when does the mess spread to where I am?
N
I think we are very close to having a cross-boarder war.
www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=429229
Photos released of Mexican helicopter flying over Falcon Heights, By Sergio Chapa, Friday, March 12, 2010 at 7:48 p.m.
Authorities have released photos showing a Mexican military helicopter flying on the American side of the border.
Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo “Sigi” Gonzalez said the photos and eyewitness accounts prove helicopter flew unauthorized into American airspace on Tuesday evening.
The alleged incursion happened near Falcon Dam in the rural community of Falcon Heights.
Witnesses said the chopper had the Mexican navy logo, armed men inside and the cargo ramp down.
The chopper reportedly spent at least 15 minutes in the area before crossing back into Mexico.
The incident has been confirmed by both U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Federal Aviation Administration.
Sheriff Gonzalez said they have information the helicopter was hovering over a drug cartel member’s home in the area.
“If they’re looking for cartel members on the American side, that scare me,” Gonzalez told Action 4 News. Gonzalez said this is not the first time such an incident has happened.
I doubt that the chopper was on a humanitarian mission nor was it FUNDED by the Mexican Government..
In other news,, ammo prices are at a 24 month low,, with free s&h...
:munchin:mad::munchin
I respect Calderon and Mexican LE for taking the fight to the narcos. Over 19,000 people have died since 2006. Cops and Mexican Federales are targeted. I hope we find a way to help them put a lid on it, but think it might already be out of control.
Bordercop
03-16-2010, 08:13
Link: http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2009/11/soldiers-wary-of-often-corrupt-mexican.html
Google police corruption in Mexico and you will get thousands of hits. Of course not all police in Mexico are corrupt, yet, but the one's who won't accept a bribe are killed. Here is an example of how bad the corruption is:
Soldiers wary of often corrupt Mexican police
Thursday, November 12, 2009 | Posted by BUGGS
By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ and JULIE WATSON
The Associated Press
When soldiers tried to halt a suspicious-looking SUV that was being escorted through Monterrey by a state policeman, the officer radioed for backup. In minutes, police from 40 patrol cars surrounded the troops, drawing their guns and sending the soldiers diving for cover in an hour-long standoff.
Confrontations like that are happening with increasing frequency in Mexico's wealthiest city as soldiers fight corrupt police officers helping drug cartels - in addition to taking on the drug dealers themselves.
This year alone, police and soldiers have confronted one another more than 65 times, The Associated Press has learned - a growing and dangerous trend in the war on drugs.
Things are so bad, the general in charge of army operations in northeastern Mexico told the AP, that he has warned police chiefs his men are ready to open fire on police if it happens again.
"The moment they shoot at us, get in our way, use their guns to protect criminals, they become criminals themselves," said Gen. Guillermo Moreno, who commands troops in Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas states along the Texas border.
President Felipe Calderon has acknowledged that corruption permeates Mexico's low-paid police at all levels and therefore has opted to combat the billion-dollar drug-smuggling industry by relying primarily on the military, which has seen remarkably fewer cases of bribery by traffickers. His administration also has sent in federal police and soldiers, both of whom are higher paid and usually better educated, to go after police on the take.
As a result, distrust between police and soldiers runs high. But nowhere has it exploded like in Monterrey, an industrial hub two hours from Laredo, Texas.
That point was driven home Wednesday with the brazen killing of army Brig. Gen. Juan Arturo Esparza shortly after he was named police chief in the suburb of Garcia. Five Garcia police were among 10 people arrested in the case Thursday.
Most of the problem comes from the fact that Nuevo Leon has not purged corrupt police from its ranks like other states have.
The police chief of Ciudad Juarez - a retired army general - has fired hundreds of officers suspected of corruption in the past year, and the army trains new recruits, many of whom are former soldiers. In western Michoacan state, home to the violent La Familia cartel, state police take regular drug tests and have their guns checked every six months to ensure they have not been used in crimes.
Army generals in charge of each region decide whether to invite state police to work with them, and most have done so. But Moreno said he doesn't trust Nuevo Leon police.
"For the safety of our troops and their families, we carry out our operations by ourselves," he said.
The confrontations have jumped from two in 2008 to 67 this year, Moreno said. They range from soldiers stopping officers who were following them to spy for drug cartels, to exchanges of gunfire with police guarding drug lords. In one incident, a police officer was shot in the leg.
The Oct. 13 standoff involving the soldiers and police from 40 patrol cars ended peacefully, but not before some tense moments captured on video by a TV crew.
The dozens of police who responded to the officer's call for backup lined up to take aim at the troops, who pointed back with high-powered rifles.
Army and police commanders talked face-to-face and ordered their men to stand down. The men obeyed - but not without some resentment.
"We're all in this together, and we should support each other," a police commander is heard telling one of the soldiers on the video.
"No, we're not," the soldier snaps back. "We have arrested many police officers who are not in this with us."
More than 100 Monterrey police officers have been detained this year on suspicion of links to organized crime. Soldiers have found officers referenced in lists seized from drug traffickers detailing who was receiving bribes.
Many police are suspected of working for the Zetas, a group of former army soldiers-turned-enforcers for the cartel known for its meticulous record-keeping as much as its brutal tactics.
Those arrested include two Nuevo Leon state officers accused of taking part in the abduction of nine soldiers allegedly in retaliation for the army's anti-drug operations.
Officials recently detained two other officers from the same force on suspicion of kidnapping two army lieutenants who were moonlighting as bodyguards for a lawyer. They have not been seen since Sept. 25.
"We believe a significant percentage of these officers have links to organized crime, either by collusion or because they were intimidated and are afraid," Moreno said.
Acting on his recommendations, state authorities in June banned officers from using cell phones during work hours to try to prevent them from tipping off criminals to raids by soldiers and federal agents. They also stripped most state and city police officers of their automatic rifles - to protect troops.
Esparza's slaying four days after his appointment was the third time a military officer hired to professionalize a city police force in Mexico has been killed this year.
More than three dozen gunmen in about 10 SUVs ambushed and killed Esparza. Two former soldiers and two Garcia police officers accompanying him also were killed.
Monterrey Mayor Fernando Larrazabal has ordered the city's 1,000 traffic officers off the streets while his administration makes sure they are clean. He said officers will undergo polygraph tests, and a new citizen-run council will investigate police corruption.
The state's new security secretary, Carlos Jauregui, did not respond to an AP request to detail his plan.
Mexico's top federal cop, Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna, says the only way to resolve the problem is to get rid of the low-paid city police forces, many of which have seen little improvement after being purged repeatedly in the past decade.
He wants to create state law enforcement agencies to oversee Mexico's 31 states and the federal district of Mexico City. The government would raise officers' salaries significantly to deter bribery.
Garcia Luna presented his ideas to state police chiefs who met last week to discuss a report on police that calls city police "an easy target for corruption." It said more than 60 percent of the 159,734 city police receive monthly salaries of only 4,000 pesos (about $300). Most have less than 10 years' education, and many are illiterate.
Incorporating them into state forces would help prevent organized crime from corrupting them, the report said.
"In Mexico, infiltration by organized crime among local police ranks is very widespread," said Martin Barron, a national security specialist at the National Institute of Criminal Justice, a government think-tank. "Police are so low paid that unfortunately they have to make up for that, and they do so through corruption - either by asking for bribes from citizens, passing information to the cartels, turning their heads or doing other things for the gangs."
U.S. anti-drug officials have long complained that corruption among Mexican police has hindered cross-border efforts to fight drug cartels. But they say Mexico has made great strides to clean up forces, especially on the federal level, and the two nations' law enforcement are working closer than ever before.
Nevertheless, Mexican federal officers, like soldiers, often find themselves working in areas surrounded by state and local police on the take.
Police concede that corruption in their forces has helped the cartels build deep criminal networks across Mexico. But they seethe at the condescending attitude of more than 45,000 troops sent to drug hot spots. Police say soldiers often treat them as if they are all corrupt.
"It's humiliating," said Jorge Castaneda, a 23-year veteran of the Monterrey police. "They pull you from your patrol car. They take away your cell phone, if you have one, and they even take your gun. We're here because we want to wear this uniform, but people don't appreciate our work."
So basically, it's a narco state with no effective security or defense.
Yikes!
incarcerated
03-18-2010, 04:19
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/national/stories/DN-juarez_18int.ART.State.Edition1.4bd9e5e.html
Clinton, Gates, Napolitano to lead top-level delegation to Mexico over killings
12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, March 18, 2010
By TODD J. GILLMAN and ALFREDO CORCHADO / The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON – A top-level U.S. delegation will visit Mexico on Tuesday in a major show of solidarity, after the borderland drug war claimed the lives of an American couple and a Mexican man last weekend.
The group – including three Cabinet members and the nation's top military and intelligence officials – is weighty enough to signal fresh focus from the White House after years of bloodletting in Mexico.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will lead the VIP group, which will include Defense Secretary Robert Gates; Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano; the president's top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan; National Intelligence director Dennis Blair; and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Top officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Justice Department, border security and other agencies will join the delegation to Mexico City to meet with counterparts.
A Mexican Embassy spokesman, Ricardo Alday, said the meeting wasn't a direct response to the latest murders, but "obviously, after what happened in Juárez, it will have greater significance because that's going to be a reminder of the challenges ahead."
....The State Department announced the visit Wednesday.
Earlier Wednesday, Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison urged President Barack Obama to visit the border with them soon to "draw national attention to a national priority." In a letter Wednesday, they demanded a "concrete plan" from the White House to guard against spillover violence.
"I think it would be helpful to the president if he were to travel to the border to see it for himself," Cornyn said.