Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields (38 page)

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
February 13, 2008

THREE DEAD AND 14 ABDUCTED IN PALOMAS, ASCENSIÓN AND NUEVO CASAS GRANDES; POLICE CORPORATIONS UNDER SIEGE IN THE NORTHWEST AFTER THE ASSASSINATION OF THE SUBDIRECTOR AND TWO OTHER PERSONS

NUEVO CASAS GRANDES—After the violent night in which heavily armed groups left three people dead, one injured, and at least 14 abducted and missing in Nuevo Casas Grandes, Ascensión and Palomas, a psychosis has taken over the Public Security agencies. The towns find themselves besieged by elements of the Army, the Federal Police, and Police Intelligence (CIPOL).

In one of the incidents, Carlos Mario Parra Gutiérrez, Subdirector of Public Security of Nuevo Casas Grandes, was killed after the presumed
sicarios
set his house on fire. Almost simultaneously, several groups killed another two persons in Ascensión and Palomas, where at least 10 more were abducted; this number could be higher because at an apartment complex, the attackers destroyed the locks on all the doors and captured an unknown number of people.

Parra Gutiérrez had tried to fight the fire when he was struck by a bullet in the head, and though he managed to call for help to get to the hospital, he died while receiving medical treatment. The official’s coworkers said that he had worked for Municipal Public Security for 12 years.

Another of the victims was identified as Vidal Arámbula Avelar, a storekeeper who owned a wine and liquor store. Vidal Arámbula was violently taken from his home on Puebla Street, and after being handcuffed, he was apparently told to run for his life (
la ley fuga
) and was then machine-gunned in the street. His body was left lying on Avenida Mexico in front of a taco stand.

As of the close of this edition, the authorities had no leads as to the identities of those responsible nor of those persons who remain missing.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
February 14, 2008

Heavily armed men in two vehicles exchanged gunfire as they traveled to different areas of the city. The confrontation left at least one person injured and several were abducted at the scene. After the shoot-out, dozens of agents from the army, the State Investigative Agency, the Center for Police Investigation, federal and municipal police surrounded a luxurious residence in Pradera Dorada. Unofficial sources inside the police agencies said the shooters retreated into this house.

Norte de Ciudad Juárez,
February 15, 2008

Jesús Muñoz Fraire said that his family’s home was robbed during a military operation in a neighboring residence. He accused the soldiers of stealing two televisions, a home theater and jewelry belonging to his wife.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
February 16, 2008

PRADERA DORADA “BUNKER” FORGOTTEN BY AUTHORITIES

Despite the arsenal found inside the residence in the luxurious Pradera Dorada neighborhood, no investigation has been initiated and the house at 3202 Rancho Las Cabras has not been secured. Neighbors interviewed thought that the house had been abandoned. Military authorities reported the confiscation of 25 rifles, 5 pistols, 7 fragmentation grenades, 3,493 cartridges of various calibers, 142 ammunition clips, 14 bullet-proof vests, 13 mesh vests, 8 radios and 5 vehicles, 3 of them with Sinaloa plates.

El Fronterizo, Ciudad Juárez,
February 16, 2008

MILITARY AND FEDERAL FORCES RETURN TO PRADERA DORADA HOUSE

At about 7:00 P.M., military personnel in at least two tanks as well as federal and state agents moved in on the house again and remained for several hours. Soldiers closed the roads and searched all the cars that passed by.

El Paso Times,
February 18, 2008

Officer Juan Hernández Sánchez, a 12-year veteran of the force, was last seen Feb. 11, according to his colleagues and his family. His car was still parked at the police station.

Sunday, a homeless man found a bag at Venezuela and Ignacio Zaragoza streets, containing what appeared to be the belongings of Officer Hernández. There were uniform pants and a uniform jacket embroidered “J. Hernández,” and an undershirt with what appeared to be a blood stain. There was also some clear and gray adhesive tape, police said. Another officer, Jesús Enríquez Solís Luévano, also vanished, although the circumstances of his disappearance were not clear Monday. That case is also in the hands of state investigators, city police officials said.

Norte de Ciudad Juárez,
February 19, 2008

FOUR MEN EXECUTED IN ASCENSIÓN AND PALOMAS IN 24 HOURS BY ARMED COMMANDOS

Martín Gonzalo Palacios, 35, alias El Cuiltra, and Horacio Ontiveros Muñoz, alias El Carolino, were taken before dawn, their bodies found along a dirt road.

In Palomas, the bodies of Javier Ortega Miranda, alias El Boby, and Adán Alonso Pérez Fuentes, alias El Oscuro, were found inside a Cadillac Escalade.

Due to such incidents, army troops now patrol the region searching for killers who have sown terror in these communities.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
February 20, 2008

Twenty-one men detained by the army last Saturday in a house in Campestre Arboleda declared that they were beaten by agents they cannot identify since they were blindfolded while being tortured. In their declaration before a judge, they retracted their confession to manufacturing small doses of drugs in the house as they had confessed to while being tortured.

Asrael Govea, one of the detainees, said to the judge: “The officers said to us, ‘Who hit you?’ And I said, ‘The officer.’ And they hit me again and again and kept asking me, ‘Who hit you?’ Until we finally said to them, ‘No one, Sir!’”

The uniformed and shackled detainees gave their declarations in a hearing room inside the state prison. When they raised their shirts, in addition to large purple bruises, some had pre-Hispanic symbols and the word “Azteca” tattooed on their bodies. Most said that they worked construction or sold things on the street and earned between seventy dollars and ninety dollars per week.

New York Times,
February 21, 2008

DEADLY BOMB IN MEXICO WAS MEANT FOR THE POLICE

MEXICO CITY—Juan Manuel Meza Campos, 44, was trying to plant a bomb

in a police official’s car when it blew up and killed him on a busy avenue here last week. The blast unsettled residents of the capital, which had so far escaped much of the drug violence that has racked other parts of the country. Mr. Meza, who went by the nickname El Pipén, had links to drug dealers in a high-crime neighborhood called Tepito, where there is a lively trade in drugs and contraband goods.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
February 21, 2008

Before dawn yesterday the Mexican army arrested 8 men at different locations in the city who were supposedly working as spies for the criminal organization known as “La Linea,” composed mainly of current and former police officers. Unofficial sources said 12 were arrested.

The detainees were identified unofficially as: Luis Carlos Ramírez, César and José Vizcaíno, José Inés González, Juan Rojas, Juan Muñoz, César and Javier Ledezma, Manuel Padilla, Mario Ricardo Martínez Rosales, Francisco Muñoz Escobedo, Ricardo Ramírez.

Fearing retaliation, family members of some detainees demonstrated at the military installations, demanding that the authorities provide information on the whereabouts of their relatives. They were denied entrance and no representative of the military spoke with them. They then went to the offices of the Federal Attorney General asking where their relatives had been taken, but they were informed that they were not there.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
February 26, 2008

Federal officials reported that five bodies, two heads and three thoraxes were found buried in four clandestine graves in the patio of a house-warehouse in the Cuernavaca neighborhood at 1847 Cocoyoc Street. The house has been sealed off since January 25 when authorities confiscated 1.8 tons of marijuana.

Las Cruces Sun-News,
February 27, 2008

Javier Perez Mendiola, alias “El Indio,” 41, and Adrian Juárez Juárez, 25, were putting gas in their Dodge Ram pickup at a station just a few steps from the border in the town of Palomas when assailants wearing ski masks pulled up in two cars and opened fire on them. Investigators had made no arrests and were trying to determine a motive for the killings.

Houston Chronicle and El Paso Times,
February 27, 2008

Agents Seize $1.9 Million Hidden in SUV on Border; Mexican National Jailed in El Paso in One of the City’s Largest Cash Seizures Ever

Saul Sanchez, 42, a Mexican national living legally in Kansas City, Kansas, was arrested by ICE agents on charges of currency smuggling. Agents at the Bridge of the Americas used a density meter to inspect the doors of the 1992 Ford Expedition and found $1,858,085 in cash.

International Herald Tribune, Associated Press,
February 27, 2008

MEXICAN POLICE FIND PARTS FROM AT LEAST 8 BODIES IN PITS NEAR BORDER IN CIUDAD JUÁREZ

A statement from the prosecutor’s office said authorities found five complete bodies, three limbless trunks and two heads in four pits.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
February 27, 2008

Bodies found in a clandestine grave now total nine, according to federal police authorities. A report stated that digging will continue and that it is not possible to say exactly how many human remains might be discovered.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
February 28, 2008

An agent of the mounted police, José Guadalupe Cruz Cisneros, known to his neighbors as “El Tyson,” was executed just a few meters from police headquarters. He died instantly in a hail of AK-47 gunfire. His wife and 12-year-old son and other close family members arrived at the scene. Cruz Cisneros left work at 7:00 P.M. and drove toward home in his 1989 Datsun pickup. He was chased by several armed men in two vehicles; one closed him in as the occupants of both vehicles opened fire. Cruz Cisneros died inside his truck from bullet wounds in his abdomen, thorax and face.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
February 28, 2008

FAMILY MEMBERS OF DISAPPEARED PERSONS SEARCH

“NAR COFOSA”

After several bodies were found in a clandestine grave in the Cuernavaca neighborhood, family members of disappeared persons demanded information from the state and federal prosecutors’ offices. Since last Monday, relatives of three missing persons voluntarily gave DNA samples in order to determine if any of the bodies found recently might be their loved ones.

El Paso Times,
February 28, 2008

Jaime Hervella, founder of the Association of Relatives and Friends of Disappeared Persons, said an anonymous telephone tip led Mexican police to the house at 1847 Cocoyoc Street. “I received a phone call from an informer that at such and such a warehouse where they recently picked up marijuana, you will find some of the individuals on your list.” Hervella’s group maintains a list of about 200 men who disappeared in Juárez since the early 1990s and are believed to be victims of drug traffickers.

El Paso Times,
February 29, 2008

FEDERAL CASE UNVEILS INNER WORKINGS OF AZTECA GANG

Barrio Azteca assists the Juárez drug cartel in the importation of drugs and with killings in exchange for narcotics at discounted prices, Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret Leachman said. The gang also offers members sanctuary in Mexico from U.S. law enforcement.

In one of the strangest twists in this month’s court hearings, it was revealed that the gang operates a drug rehabilitation center in Juárez for “la familia,” a code name for its members, located a few blocks from the U.S. border.

The rehab center was necessary because the gang, which has dealt heroin on El Paso’s streets, had some of its members fall prey to the highly addictive drug, gang enforcement officers said.

MARCH

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
March 1, 2008

IN TWO MONTHS, 76 MURDERS

Yesterday, the last day of February, there were four murders in three different zones of the city.

El Paso Times,
March 1, 2008

JUÁREZ—A body tossed off a cliff landed in the backyard of a home minutes

before 3 A.M. Friday in the Felipe Angeles area of Juárez, police said.

The unidentified dead man’s hands and feet were bound with tape, which was also wrapped around his head. He was wearing gray pants, a blue sweater with black stripes and black shoes.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
March 2, 2008

Elements of the Federal Police discovered three bodies in a clandestine grave in the Colonia La Cuesta. In total, 12 bodies have been exhumed in investigations during the last 10 days.

El Diario, Ciudad Juárez,
March 2, 2008

Families of disappeared persons denounced the lack of information and of a place where they can provide facts to assist federal authorities to identify the bodies found recently in Colonia Cuernavaca.