Thread: 3 teens killed in Mexico, 2 were US high schoolers

3 teens killed in Mexico, 2 were US high schoolers

By OLIVIA TORRES AND JUAN LOZANO, Associated Press
Monday, February 7, 2011 at 2:30 p.m.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Three teenage boys were shot to death in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, and at least two of them had been high school students in Texas, authorities said Monday.

The boys were killed at a car dealership in the city across the border from El Paso, Texas, Chihuahua prosecutors' spokesman Arturo Sandoval said.

He said there were no witnesses and no leads on suspects or a motive. At least 60 bullet casings were found at the scene.

One of the boys, Carlos Mario Gonzalez Bermodez, 16, was a sophomore at Cathedral High School in El Paso, said Nick Gonzalez, the Roman Catholic brother who is the principal. Another victim, Juan Carlos Echeverri, 15, had been a freshman at the private all-boys Catholic school last year but left to study in Ciudad Juarez, Gonzalez said.

The third teenager was identified as Cesar Yalin Miramontes Jimenez, 17.

It was unclear if any of the boys were U.S. citizens. A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City said he had no immediate information on the case.

The school principal said Gonzalez Bermodez mainly lived in Ciudad Juarez and commuted each day across the border. He said 20 percent of the 485 students enrolled at Cathedral are from Ciudad Juarez.

Gonzalez said the school's sophomore class had a prayer service Monday and officials planned a rosary service for the entire school later in the week.

"It's a lot of pain, a lot of sorrow, a lot of tears, a lot of coming together as a community to try to hold each other up and to try and make sense today," Gonzalez said. "How do you make sense of this meaningless tragedy? Hopefully this can really empower us to make a positive change in the border community because their deaths will have no meaning otherwise."

Many Ciudad Juarez residents travel across the border on a daily basis for work or study. Some Mexicans live in El Paso for safety reasons and commute to Ciudad Juarez.

Ciudad Juarez city has become one of the world's most dangerous cities amid a fierce turf war between the Sinaloa and Juarez drug cartels. More than 3,000 people were killed last year in the city of 1.3 million residents.

Gonzalez said students at the school have had a number of relatives killed in the violence in Ciudad Juarez. A graduate of the school was killed last fall, he said.

"Our Juarez kids knew all three" of the teenagers killed over the weekend, he said. "It's a very tight knit community. A lot of them car pool; that's how they know each other."
---
Associated Press writer Olivia Torres reported this story in Ciudad Juarez and Juan Lozano from Houston, Texas.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011 ... schoolers/

There is a major war happening just across our border. WHY isn't our government stepping up to protect our border? In ANY other country, if this type of violence was occurring, ANY other country would take whatever means necessary to protect its border.

So the principal clearly knows the taxpayers are paying for people from a whole nother country who don't even reside in his area? That Principal needs to be arrested. 20% of their students commute daily across the border. That should be enough to show why we need the military on the border.

. . . a sophomore at Cathedral High School in El Paso . . .

. . . a freshman at the private all-boys Catholic school last year but left to study in Ciudad Juarez, Gonzalez said. . . .

. . . Many Ciudad Juarez residents travel across the border on a daily basis for work or study. . .

Kids with border crossing cards or anchor babies with U.S. citizenship living in Mexico with their parents can legally attend school at private Catholic schools where their parents pay tuition. Not everyone in Mexico is poor. There is a middle class and even rich people who prefer for their kids to attend school in the U.S.

I would dare to call Cathedral pretty much an all Hispanic school. Rich Hispanics.
I don't feel one bit sorry for these boys. If you go to Juarez you're an idiot!
This to me proves that Mexican citizens are not here to be real Americans.
If you're a real American, you don't go to Mexico to buy or look at cars for sale.

if you cross the north korean border illegally you get 12 years hard labor.

if you cross the iranian border illegally you are detained indefinitely.

if you cross the afghan border illegally, you get shot.

if you cross the saudi arabian border illegally you will be jailed.

if you cross the chinese border illegally you may never be heard from again.

if you cross the venezuelan border illegally you will be branded a spy and your fate will be sealed.

if you cross the cuban border illegally you will be thrown into political prison to rot.

if you cross the mexican border illegally you will be jailed for two years 1st offense, 2nd 6 yrs

if you cross the us. border illegally you get:

* a job,
* a drivers license,
* social security card,
* welfare,
* food stamps,
* credit cards,
* subsidized rent or a loan to buy a house,
* free education,
* free health care,
* a lobbyist in washington
* billions of dollars worth of public documents printed in your language
* the right to carry your countrys flag while you protest that you dont get enough respect
* and, in many instances, you can vote.

Slain U.S. teens had crossed border for party

Feb. 8, 2011 10:41 AM
Associated Press

EL PASO, Texas - A friend says two of three teens shot dead in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, had crossed the border from Texas for a party then stayed to buy a car.

Sixteen-year-old Carlos Mario Gonzalez Bermudez was a sophomore at El Paso's Cathedral High School, and 15-year-old Juan Carlos Echeverri had been a freshman there last year. Both were Americans.

The nationality of 17-year-old Cesar Yalin Miramontes Jimenez was unclear.

All were killed Saturday at a Juarez car dealership.

Cathedral High student Arturo Yanar said Tuesday he was friends with Gonzalez and Miramontes, and that they had been at a party together Friday night. He says he didn't know Echeverri.

He says he returned to the US after the party and that the others stayed because Gonzalez wanted to buy a used car.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... party.html

JohnDoe2 "Both were Americans"

By default...Anchor babies.

Originally Posted by elpasoborn

JohnDoe2 "Both were Americans"

By default...Anchor babies.

YES. We know that.

Sorry John Doe.....I thought the bold type you used in your post implied that they were Americans and that we were presuming via our comments that they weren't anchor babies. Now I see clearly that I misinterpreted!

Meanwhile, here's an updated version of the story:

El Paso Teens Killed In Juarez Had Gone There To Party, Friend Says
POSTED: 1:12 pm MST February 8, 2011

EL PASO, Texas -- Two of three teens shot to death at a car dealership in Mexico at the weekend had crossed the border from Texas for a party in Ciudad Juarez, one of the most dangerous cities in the world, then stayed overnight to shop for a used car, friends in El Paso said Tuesday.

Arturo Yanar said he went to the house party with Carlos Mario Gonzalez Bermudez, 16, and 17-year-old Cesar Yalin Miramontes Jimenez on Friday night.

Yanar said he decided to return home to El Paso after the party in the early hours of Saturday morning, while his two friends stayed on in the city in Chihuahua state to look at cars. He said Gonzalez had been talking about buying himself a car for months.

"It was a fun night, a great night. At least we had fun one last time together," Yanar said, sniffling.

Yanar is a 16-year-old sophomore at Cathedral High School in El Paso where Gonzalez also was a sophomore student. He said he didn't know the third victim, 15-year-old Juan Carlos Echeverri, who had been a freshman at the same high school last year.

Gonzalez and Echeverri were American citizens. The nationality of Miramontes was not immediately clear.

The three boys were gunned down at the car dealership just across the border from El Paso on Saturday afternoon. At least 60 bullet casings were found at the scene.

Chihuahua prosecutors' spokesman Arturo Sandoval said authorities have no leads on suspects or a motive.

Ciudad Juarez is the center of a fierce turf war between the Sinaloa and Juarez drug cartels. More than 3,000 people were killed last year in the city of 1.3 million residents.

Many Ciudad Juarez residents travel across the border daily for work or study. Some Mexicans live in El Paso for safety reasons and commute to Ciudad Juarez.

Yanar said he grew up in Juarez but had moved to El Paso 18 months ago. He said his father had forbidden him from returning there but that he violated the order to hit the party with his friends.

"It just gets worse there and I'm scared," he said of Ciudad Juarez. "When I walk around, I look back, I look sideways. I always think there's someone following me."

Yanar and another friend, Javier Martinez, 17, said Gonzalez and Miramontes had no problems with gangs or drugs and that they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"He was very brave, he had a lot of courage," Martinez said of Gonzalez, fighting back tears.

Cathedral Principal Nick Gonzalez said 20 to 30 percent of the school's 485 students regularly cross between El Paso and Juarez, despite the dangers.

"I was afraid but at the same time resigned that something like this was going to happen," he said. "No one here is shocked, I don't think."

The principal said his students still love the city and "haven't given up on Juarez, or on their lives there."

"That's why, despite the parental warnings, they go," he said. "It's their identity, it's who they are."

He said several of his students have lost relatives in the violence in Ciudad Juarez. A graduate of the school was killed last fall, he said.

Echeverri was a student at the Radford School in El Paso, enrolling last fall as a sophomore, principal John Doran said.

Doran said Echeverri was the first boy at the private school of 165 students to be killed in Juarez.

"This is a small school, so everybody knows everybody," Doran said. "This is just very hard."

Students were to observe a moment of silence at lunch Tuesday, and many were expected to attend a Mass for the slain teen in the evening, he said.

The other boys' families held funerals in recent days in Juarez, Yanar said, adding that cremation services are planned for Gonzalez in El Paso on Thursday. Cathedral will hold a rosary with all students on Wednesday.

http://www.kvia.com/news/26791961/detail.html