South of the Border News

Mexico attacks leave 17 dead

2009-02-05T09:19:00.000-08:00

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AFP) – Seventeen people, including a police officer, were killed in a 24-hour period in suspected drug attacks in Mexico, mainly in northern border areas, police and officials said.

Dozens have died so far this year and more than 5,300 died in 2008 as powerful drug cartels fight increasingly bloody turf wars despite a government crackdown including the deployment of some 36,000 troops.

Read full article Yahoo News

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Former dump is revived

2009-01-30T17:02:00.000-08:00

TIJUANA — Thanks to a groundbreaking binational partnership, people will now play soccer on what was once called Mexico's most notorious toxic waste site.

The 4-acre parcel was home to Metales y Derivados, an American-owned lead smelter that dumped more than 42,000 tons of hazardous waste into the ground, according to environmental officials. People living in Ejido Chilpancingo, a residential area near the site, complained for years that the contamination made them sick.

Now the heavy metals and other contaminants are entombed in concrete, and mini-courts are painted on the clean, flat surface.

Read full article Sign on San Diego

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U.S. anti-drug information leaked to Mexico cartels

2009-01-16T08:08:00.000-08:00

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Corrupt officials inside Mexico's security forces have leaked U.S. anti-drugs intelligence directly to drug traffickers to help them escape raids, a senior U.S. law enforcement agent said.

A recent anti-corruption sweep showed the infiltration of Mexican police forces had reached alarming levels, with several high-ranking investigators and a presidential guardsman arrested for selling information to drug cartels.

The U.S. agent said the arrests were an encouraging sign that Mexico's government is serious about stopping drug gangs from getting their hands on intelligence, some of which comes from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA.

Read full article Yahoo News

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DEA updates its top 10 list: Fresh faces abound

2009-01-10T06:51:00.000-08:00

With most of the original leaders of the Arellano Felix drug cartel behind bars or dead, a new generation of suspected traffickers has stepped up to the plate. But their faces have barely been shown – until now.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Thursday presented a poster with photographs of 10 suspected drug traffickers, including a previously unreleased photo of Fernando Sanchez Arellano, described as the cartel's current leader.

“This is the new hierarchy, who's basically running the show down there now,” said Eileen Zeidler, the DEA's spokeswoman in San Diego.

Read full article Sign on San Diego

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American anti-kidnap expert vanishes

2008-12-16T16:34:00.000-08:00

MEXICO CITY — Felix Batista had negotiated with kidnappers scores of times to win the release of victims. But the U.S. security expert has vanished after a series of mysterious phone calls, appointments and messages – an ominous turn in the struggle to rein in Mexico's increasingly aggressive kidnappers.

Authorities and fellow kidnap negotiators said Tuesday they are struggling to find out what went wrong when Batista disappeared on Dec. 10.

The Coahuila state attorney general's office described the chain of events that preceded Batista's apparent kidnapping in the state capital, Saltillo:

"Mr. Batista was eating with several people at a restaurant on the north side of the city, when he received a phone call, and after conversing for several minutes, he left the restaurant," the agency said in a statement. "He told his companions that some people in a white SUV were going to leave him a message."

"At about 7:00 p.m., behind the restaurant, he got into a vehicle that wasn't the one he had described, and he hasn't been heard from since. From the investigation conducted so far, there were no signs of violence at the site where he was last seen."

Read full article Sign on San Diego

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Plane crash leaves Mexico interior secretary dead

2008-11-05T08:57:00.000-08:00

MEXICO CITY – One of Mexico's top pointmen in the war against drug trafficking died when a government jet crashed into a Mexico City street, setting fire to dozens of vehicles and dealing crusading President Felipe Calderón a serious blow.

Officials said the Tuesday crash appeared to be an accident but the loss of Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino, former anti-drug prosecutor Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos and six others thinned the ranks of Mexico's already embattled leadership.

U.S. Ambassador Antonio Garza praised the two officials and suggested them as models for the fight against organized crime.

“Their dedication and commitment to accomplishing their work, especially that which strengthened our bilateral fight against those who attack the security of our two countries, certainly will be a model for all of us in a common effort that will continue to strengthen,” Garza said in a statement.

Read full article Sign on San Diego

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Six slain in continuing Tijuana drug carnage

2008-10-28T12:13:00.000-07:00

TIJUANA – Less than 48 hours after the capture of a key member of the notorious Arellano Felix cartel, the violence associated with drug trafficking continued unabated Monday.

Six men were slain between 3 and 7 p.m. in north and east Tijuana by gunmen from organized crime, authorities said.

The Body of a man with several gunshots and a wounded man were found on Avenida Ferrocarril about 3 p.m. in colonia Libertad, adjacent to the border, according to the state Attorney General's Office.

About 5:30 p.m., the agency received word that two men had been fatally shot by gunmen traveling in a vehicle in eastern colonia Mariano Matamoros.

Read full article Sign on San Diego

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Tourism hurting in Baja

2008-10-23T11:39:00.000-07:00

Continuing violence, struggling U.S. economy take toll
By Sandra Dibble
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

October 21, 2008

TIJUANA – In five decades at the same spot on Tijuana's Avenida Revolucion, Raúl Mendiola's store has built a loyal clientele eager for brightly colored Talavera pottery, Oaxacan wood carvings and nativity scenes made of tin.

But these days, few are dropping by the Emporium, a small shop filled with pieces signed by craftsmen from across Mexico.

From Avenida Revolucion to Rosarito Beach's Bulevar Benito Juarez, merchants report that business has never been worse. Increased violence, a troubled U.S. economy and clogged border crossings have dealt a triple blow to hotels, shops and restaurants near the border that are dependent on American tourists.

Read full article Sign on San Diego

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Mexico's Peso Has Biggest Weekly Advance in Almost Two Years

2008-10-17T15:19:00.000-07:00

Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico's peso had its biggest weekly gain since December 2006 amid speculation a global credit crisis may ease soon and as the central bank bought the currency to stem a two-month rout.

The peso gained 1.7 percent in the week, rebounding from a 14 percent tumble last week that was the biggest weekly decline since the Mexican government abandoned a currency peg in December 1994. The central bank bought $2.3 billion worth of pesos, following purchases of $8.9 billion worth last week that drew down foreign reserves from a near-record $84 billion.

``People are regaining some calm after these past couple weeks have been quite a roller coaster,'' said Mario Correa, an economist at Grupo Financiero Scotiabank Inverlat SA in Mexico City. ``It helps to know that Banco de Mexico seems to be willing to keep selling some more dollars to keep the exchange rate checked or behaving in an ordinate fashion.''

The peso fell 0.3 percent today to 12.8760 per dollar today, from 12.8343 yesterday. Mexico's currency traded at 13.0930 a week ago.

Read full article Bloomberg

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Feds issue warning about travel to Nogales

2008-10-15T10:08:00.000-07:00

It's extemely sad, that we have to get to this point, were you can't even travel to your country without worrying....

A sharp rise in violent crimes in Mexico fueled in part by drug cartels has prompted the U.S. Department of State to issue a travel alert Wednesday for all U.S. citizens.

Daytime shootings in public places and criminals following US citizens to their vehicles along border areas landed Nogales, Sonora on the list.

The State Department said travelers should be especially wary of Route 15 between Nogales and Hermosillo, Sonora. Other northern cities on the list include Tijuana, Chihuahua City, and Ciudad Juarez.

Read full article AZ Central

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Mexican town helps migrants flee police

2008-10-14T11:39:00.001-07:00

RAFAEL LARA GRAJALES, Mexico - An angry crowd in central Mexico attacked police and helped nearly three dozen illegal Central American immigrants escape from custody after hearing that officers had allegedly sold the migrants to human smugglers, officials said Monday.

Hundreds of people attacked police as they were trying to load the 34 immigrants into a van Sunday in the farming town of Rafael Lara Grajales, Puebla, state prosecutor Rodolfo Igor Archundia said.

The migrants fled in the chaos, but 21 were quickly caught. Police were searching for the other 13.

Read full article Yahoo News

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Mexican town helps migrants flee police

2008-10-14T11:39:00.000-07:00

Cartel suspects held as killing continues

2008-10-13T13:49:00.000-07:00

October 13, 2008

TIJUANA – A group of gunmen killed two men dining at a Tijuana restaurant and an employee shortly after 8 p.m. yesterday, the state Attorney General's Office said.

Three others were wounded at Mariscos Negro Durazo, in the tourist district of the Rio Zone, the agency said.

No one was detained, and the victims were not immediately identified.

The shooting marked another violent day in Tijuana where four other people were killed in the eastern part of the city.

Drug-trafficking rivals have been fighting for control of the drug trade.

Read full article Sign on San Diego

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18 dead across Mexico in latest violence

2008-10-09T18:01:00.000-07:00

GUAJALAJARA, Mexico (AFP) - Five police were killed and three hurt in an overnight grenade attack in Mexico's western Jalisco state, while 13 others died in attacks elsewhere in the country, officials said Thursday.

The deaths included six in the southern Oaxaca State, relatively untouched by suspected drug-related violence in which almost 3,500 have died so far this year.

The Jalisco police officers were carrying out a "routine check of a suspect car when two other cars drove up, from where (the attackers) fired shots and threw two grenades," killing five, said a police officer from Lagos de Moreno.

Read full article Yahoo News

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Right Thing to Wear at the Wrong End of a Gun

2008-10-08T10:04:00.000-07:00

Something that goes with my Blog entries, regarding violence in Mexico ...

MEXICO CITY — Exclusive clothing boutiques line Avenida Presidente Masarik here. A Burberry coat? A Corneliani suit? A Gucci scarf? Have enough pesos, and they are yours.

But tucked on a leafy side street in the Polanco neighborhood is a shop unlike the others, one whose bustling business says much about the dire state of security in this country. At Miguel Caballero, named after its Colombian owner, all the garments are bulletproof.

There are bulletproof leather jackets and bulletproof polo shirts. Armored guayabera shirts hang next to protective windbreakers, parkas and even white ruffled tuxedo shirts. Every member of the sales staff has had to take a turn being shot while wearing one of the products, which range from a few hundred dollars to as much as $7,000, so they can attest to the efficacy of the secret fabric.

Read full article New York Times

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Border bloodshed likely to worsen, experts warn

2008-10-06T11:29:00.000-07:00

:( !!!

After a particularly violent week in Tijuana that has left 54 dead in a fierce cartel power struggle, experts on both sides of the border fear the worst is yet to come.

Since early last year, Mexican President Felipe Calderón has deployed thousands of soldiers and federal police to drug-route battlegrounds such as Baja California, Chihuahua and Michoacan. Experts say it's clear that the recent bloodbath along the border, felt especially hard in Ciudad Juarez and Nuevo Laredo and now increasingly in Tijuana, is the backlash.

In the United States, there's a growing unease about the potential for spillover. Some sectors of the border-region economy have already suffered severe losses as a result of the violence, and others may follow.

Read full article Sign on San Diego

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March marks 1968 Mexico killings

2008-10-03T11:27:00.000-07:00

The massacre of students in the capital by troops just before the Olympics has yet to be properly investigated.

By Tracy Wilkinson and Deborah Bonello, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
October 3, 2008

MEXICO CITY -- Thousands of Mexicans marched across their nation's capital Thursday to demand justice for victims of a 1968 massacre of students by government troops -- contemporary Mexico's most traumatic atrocity and one that remains unresolved.

Survivors of that bloody night 40 years ago and Mexicans who had not been born then joined forces, chanting "Dos de octubre! No se olvide!" (Oct. 2! Don't forget!) as they converged on the downtown Zocalo plaza.

Read full article Los Angeles Times

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California-Mexico border technology park gets green boost

2008-10-02T16:36:00.000-07:00

I usually post news of just Mexico, but this are a good news for the Border towns..... GO GREEN!!!

A long-delayed project to attract computer chip makers to the Mexico-California border is getting a green makeover.

Silicon Border Development said Wednesday that it had obtained financing to move ahead with a science park in Mexicali, Mexico, thanks largely to a new strategy of targeting companies in the fast-growing solar energy industry.

German solar cell manufacturer Q-Cells is on track to break ground soon in the 3,000-acre site just across the border from Calexico, Calif., about 120 miles east of San Diego. It's likely to be the first of what the developer hopes will be a slew of green technology companies looking to find a low-cost home near California, one of the world's most promising markets for renewable energy.

Read full article Yahoo News

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Cartels' struggle for control blamed

2008-09-30T11:35:00.000-07:00

I do not believe this is even news for the Border-towns, organized crime killings are like an every day thing,finding death bodies is part of the news now days.... it is getting pretty scary!!!

TIJUANA – An escalating struggle between gangs led to the deaths of 16 people found early yesterday in two locations in Tijuana, Baja California's top prosecutor said yesterday. Many of the bodies were bound and partially clothed, several with missing tongues.

“What we are seeing is a war that is taking place among the various cartels,” state Attorney General Rommel Moreno Manjarrez said at a news conference held last night at his Tijuana offices. He offered few details. He said the investigation into the 16 deaths has been turned over to federal organized crime investigators.

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Mexico's Peso Tumbles as House Votes Against U.S. Bank Bailout

2008-09-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

Mexico's economy feels the impact of the decisions made by the U.S. .....

Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico's peso tumbled to a one-year low after a $700 billion bank bailout package was rejected in the U.S. House of Representatives, heightening prospects of a deepening economic slowdown.

The peso weakened past the 11-per-dollar level for the first time since January after U.S. legislators, by a vote of 228 to 205, rejected the government's proposal to contain the lending crisis. The legislation would have allowed the U.S. Treasury to buy troubled assets from financial institutions.

Read full article Bloomberg

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Decapitated bodies of 3 men found in western Mexico

2008-09-26T09:49:00.000-07:00

This is one of my sadest blogs.... Headlines for Mexico lately are about violence and drugs..... I see why all the tourists are avoiding Mexico, nobody is safe, and that is really scary.... :( ... Mexico Lindo y Querido What are they doing to you??

MEXICO CITY — The decapitated bodies of three men were found on a road Thursday in a western Mexican state plagued by drug violence, local media reported. The heads were found in sacks nearby.

Beheadings have become a common intimidation tactic in territorial battles between Mexico's powerful drug cartels. Decapitated bodies are often dumped in public, sometimes with threatening messages.

Police found the three bodies with their hands bound in El Huajote, a town in the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa, Mexican newspapers Reforma and El Universal reported, citing the state Attorney General's office.

Read full article Chron.com

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More arrests in Mexico's war on drug cartels

2008-09-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

:( !!!!

Two years into Mexico's new antidrug effort, increasingly frequent police crackdowns only seem to be escalating the violence, forcing gangs to use more sophisticated weapons and more spectacular attacks.

The problem was highlighted Wednesday when Mexican police arrested two men carrying high-powered explosives, according to the Australian news outlet News.com.au citing a report in the Mexican newspaper El Universal.

The men, who had six tubes of C4 military explosives, were seized by the army near the western city of Morelia, where assailants threw grenades into a packed crowd on September 15, El Universal daily reported on its website.

The newspaper said they were members of a drug gang called "The Family" [La Familia]. It is one of two groups named by the attorney general this week as suspects in the grenade attack, which marked an escalation in Mexico's drug war.

Read full article Christian Science Monitor

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Strong quake hits off Mexico's Pacific coast

2008-09-24T11:29:00.000-07:00

MEXICO CITY – A strong earthquake struck off Mexico's Pacific coast lateTuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but no tsunami warning was issued and there was no immediate report of damage.

The quake, measuring 6.4, hit 113 miles southwest of Manzanillo, Colima, at a depth of 25.9 miles at 7:33 p.m. local time (0233 GMT), USGS said. It was the second quake to shake Mexico's Pacific coast Tuesday.

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Officials pursuing leads in rioting at state penitentiary

2008-09-23T09:40:00.000-07:00

TIJUANA – Investigators are following numerous leads as they try to piece together the events at the La Mesa state penitentiary that ignited two days of rioting last week and left at least 23 dead.

“We have facts that we cannot reveal at the moment, but I can assure you it has a lot to do organized crime,” Rommel Moreno Manjarrez Baja California's attorney general, said yesterday.

Read full article Sign on San Diego

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19 killed in second Tijuana prison riot in days

2008-09-18T10:41:00.001-07:00

You will think that it will be less likely to have this sort of violence in the presence of authorities, but it seems that the officials still take advantage of their power…..

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) -- Soldiers and federal police have regained control of Tijuana's infamous La Mesa State Penitentiary after a second riot in three days left 19 people dead and 12 injured, officials said Thursday.

Relatives of the inmates say they rioted because they were not given food or water since the previous riot on Sunday, which led to the deaths of three inmates. Authorities blamed warring gangs, but said prison officials also are suspected of being involved in the second melee, and three top officials were suspended by the governor pending an investigation

Full Article Sign On San Diego

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Mexico probes drug links in deadly national day attacks

2008-09-17T14:04:00.000-07:00

Terrorist Attack, the Zetas or Narcos... who ever did this its a horrible crime that needs to be investigated and not just speculate who did it!!

MEXICO CITY (AFP) — Mexican authorities on Wednesday focused on possible drug gang involvement in deadly attacks on independence day celebrations that sparked fears that civilians were now targets in the country's drug wars.

Seven died and more than 100 were injured as two grenades ripped through crowds gathered in Morelia city, Michoacan, the home state of President Felipe Calderon, late Monday.

"The first signs point to organized crime," a spokesman for the federal prosecutor's office told AFP, declining to be named, after the Michoacan state governor labelled the explosions a "terrorist attack."

The attacks showed "an escalation of violence, with a grenade explosion in the heart of the population," the spokesman added.

Read full article AFP

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Blasts at Mexico national day, three dead

2008-09-16T11:20:00.000-07:00

Horrible event that painted a beautiful celebration with blood, a celebration that became the grave of some and the horror of many ... :(

MORELIA, Mexico (Reuters) – Explosions ripped through a crowd of people celebrating Mexican independence day in a western city, killing at least three revelers and wounding about 50, the Michoacan state government said.

The explosions in the center of Morelia late on Monday might have been caused by grenades, El Universal daily said.

Morelia is the capital of Michoacan, a state hit in recent years by drug gang violence. More than 2,700 people have been killed in Mexico this year as violence between drug gangs spins out of control despite a military crackdown.

Read full article Yahoo News

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Prisoners riot in Mexican border city of Tijuana

2008-09-15T12:06:00.000-07:00

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) -- Prisoners are rioting at a state penitentiary in the Mexican border city of Tijuana.

Red Cross official Fernando Esquer says at least four prisoners are injured with bullet wounds and have been evacuated for treatment.
The riot began Sunday afternoon and quickly escalated. A fire raged on the patio and prisoners have hung messages from the prison's roof and windows.

Read full article San Diego Union Tribune

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8 arrested after tunnel discovered near border

2008-09-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

Unbelievable, the drug cartels are getting more sophisticated when it comes to building clandestine tunnels!!! Can you imagine how much money it cost to build this?

By Sandra Dibble
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
September 3, 2008

MEXICALI – Eight suspects were in custody yesterday in the Baja California capital of Mexicali after state agents caught them working on a clandestine cross-border tunnel that had an elevator, lighting and ventilation.

The entrance to the 434-foot passageway was discovered Monday afternoon about a half-mile east of the Calexico border crossing in the upper-middle-class neighborhood of Colonia Nueva. The tunnel leads from a house near the U.S.-Mexico border fence, and it comes to within 130 feet of U.S. territory, said Agustín Pérez, a spokesman for the Baja California Secretariat of Public Safety.

Read full article San Diego Union Tribune

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Mexico Congress Chief Demands More Anti-Drug Support

2008-09-11T15:15:00.000-07:00

Both Countries need to be united to fight the Drug cartels, it affects both sides of the border. The fence is no problem for Drugs!!!

By Adriana Lopez Caraveo and Jens Erik Gould

Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- The president of Mexico's lower house of Congress said the U.S. government hasn't done enough to help Mexico battle organized crime.
The U.S. hasn't made it a priority to help Mexico root out drug cartels as violence escalates on the border between the countries, Cesar Duarte Jaquez, a member of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, said in an interview. He added that the U.S. has the responsibility to do more to help because most narcotics consumers are Americans.

Read full article Bloomberg.com

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