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Violence erupts in Juárez after alleged hit man slain
By Adriana Gómez Licón / El Paso Times
Posted: 11/08/2010 12:00:00 AM MST

The slaying of an alleged hit man may have set off a string of drug cartel attacks this weekend in a poor neighborhood of southeast Juárez.

Different shootings, including a massacre of seven, and a kidnapping unfolded Saturday in the city plagued by violence. Two of the attacks occurred in Carlos Castillo Peraza, a neighborhood of dirt roads and unfinished homes protected with wood pallets.

Many residents feared the attacks erupted because of the killing of Juan Manuel Escobedo, 42, known in the neighborhood as "El Mouse." Escobedo, who police previously tied to the Juárez drug cartel, is not the suspected target of the recent massacre of 15 people in Horizontes del Sur, also nicknamed "El Mouse."

Gunmen opened fire on Escobedo's SUV on Friday about 8:30 p.m. in the Carlos Castillo Peraza neighborhood.

Police found Escobedo dead on the street next to his yellow SUV with Oklahoma license plates. His passenger, 28-year-old Guillermo Hernández Escamilla, was also wounded and transported to the hospital, where he died an hour later.

Saturday afternoon, Escobedo's neighbors celebrated the yearly fiesta of San Judas Tadeo.

Many of the partygoers were aware of Escobedo's death. They did not want to be identified by name, fearing retaliation.

Some people said Escobedo had a shop where he sold used merchandise.

Although the party's ambience Saturday was pleasant with music and a band of tribal dancers, or matachines, the neighborhood turned violent a few hours later.

In the evening, armed men arrived in two vehicles to a family party and killed seven people, Chihuahua state police said. Four of the victims appeared to have been siblings because they shared the same paternal and maternal last names of Puentes GarcÃ*a.

Juan MartÃ*n, 33, Eduardo, 32, ValentÃ*n, 26, and Carlos Puentes GarcÃ*a, 29, were gunned down along with José Inés Flores GarcÃ*a, ValentÃ*n Puentes Hernández, 52, and an unidentified man. An eighth victim remained hospitalized Sunday, Chihuahua state police said.

Only 30 minutes after the massacre, gunmen killed two men and kidnapped another in nearby Parajes de San Juan neighborhood. Police have not identified the men.

Vladimir Tuexi, spokesman for the Chihuahua state attorney general, acknowledged the attacks gained intensity this weekend in those areas of southeast Juárez but said no more information was available.

"Right now, there is nothing we can disclose about what is happening there," he said.

Federal police had arrested Escobedo, the hit man whose killing apparently triggered the violence, earlier this year on suspicion of killing six drug addicts on June 16 at a rehabilitation center and orchestrating 14 murders in 2009.

Police took Escobedo into custody on June 24 after a routine checkpoint in the same neighborhood of Carlos Castillo Peraza. Police found marijuana and weapons in the vehicle Escobedo was driving. That vehicle also had Oklahoma license plates.

It is not clear when, why and under what conditions police released Escobedo. Federal police did not return calls Sunday.

In other parts of Juárez, violence continued during the weekend, killing at least 24 people.

Two police officers were killed Sunday morning in the parking lot of a mall. Blanca Jessica MartÃ*nez Puentes, 22, and César Augusto MartÃ*nez Hernández, 25, were on duty at the time gunmen attacked them, said Chihuahua state police.

A 45-year-old man, Julián Espinoza Estrada, was stoned to death Sunday in Barreales, a small town in the Juárez Valley.

A dismembered body was found Saturday morning in south Juárez. Police found three black bags: one with the head of an unidentified man, another one with the arms and legs chopped off and a third one with the torso.