Thread: Memorial service held for UTEP students killed in Juárez

Memorial service held for UTEP students killed in Juárez
By Maggie Ybarra/El Paso Times
Posted: 11/08/2010 04:31:44 PM MST

About 400 people attended a memorial service Monday for two UTEP students who were killed in Juárez last week.

The students, Manuel Acosta, 22, and Eder Diaz, 23, were attacked by gunmen about 8 p.m. on Nov. 2, outside Diaz's house in colonia Rincones de Santa Rita. Their assailants fired 36 rounds, hitting the students multiple times, according to a Chihuahua state police report.

Their memorial service was held between the Business Administration building and the library at the University of Texas at El Paso at 2 p.m.

Students clung to one another and wept as the parents of Acosta and Diaz spoke to the crowd about the joy their sons brought into their lives. Some students wore black ribbons while others wore buttons with a picture of Diaz.

Both Acosta and Diaz were undergraduate students at UTEP's College of Business Administration. Acosta was to graduate in the spring and Diaz had just transferred to UTEP from El Paso Community College.

They were both at UTEP attending an operations management class less than an hour before they were shot and killed in Juárez, said Bob Nachtmann, the business college's dean.

Ivan Herrera, a 23-year-old UTEP student, said he was close to both men and familiar with the dangerous trek they regularly took between UTEP and their homes in Juárez.

Herrerra said he also lives in Juárez and commutes to UTEP. He said he has not had a violent encounter with criminals, but that does not mean that he is not prepared.

"After what happened to my friends, I'm on the lookout for anything," he said.

More than 6,800 people have been killed in Juárez since drug cartels began battling for key drug-smuggling corridors along the border in 2008.

Chihuahua state officials said there were 1,587 people killed in the city during 2008, 2,643 killed there in 2009 and more than 2,500 killed there so far this year.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_16557286

Where are the memorials for the American citizens killed in THIS country daily by illegal invaders coming in from south of the border.

In 2006 it was reported that 12 American citizens were killed a day by these invaders. Wonder what the number is now. Where are their memorials