Thread: A violent pre-dawn in Tijuana

A violent pre-dawn in Tijuana, at least 15 dead

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Foreign News Report

A violent pre-dawn in Tijuana

Frontera (Tijuana, Baja Calif.), El Financiero (Mexico City) & others 4/26/08

Around three a.m. today (Sat.) in Tijuana, two rival criminal groups began an armed confrontation which escalated, moved to other points of the city, then engaged police action and resulted in "at least" fifteen dead, six wounded and six others arrested. Each confrontation left either dead bodies on the street or in vehicles. One gang of thugs took a number of their wounded to a private clinic where they forced doctors to look after them. Police arrived, another confrontation took place and two more died. Hundreds of spent bullet casings, bullet proof vests and bullet riddled vehicles marked the various scenes. The "Municipal Secretary of Government" today asked Tijuana citizens to remain calm and not to leave their homes unless necessary. City police are on maximum alert.

Heads have begun to roll in Baja California's Att'y. Gen's. office after General Sergio Alponte, commander of Mexico's Military Region II, wrote a response letter to the state's Att'y. Gen. and to the press in which he named names and denounced corruption., (Our report of 4/24/08 relates) The state Att'y. Gen. has now asked two of his staff to resign: his own deputy A.G. as well as the head of the anti-kidnapping section; he has also ordered the dismissal of his own consultant.

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Milenio (Mexico City), El Porvenir (Monterrey, Nuevo Leon) 4/26/08

General Miguel Hidalgo, head of the Anti-Drug section of Peru's National Police, said that they are investigating the presence in Peru of Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel, including their activities in money laundering and investments in coca plantations and in the manufacture of cocaine. Four tons of cocaine were seized at Lima's airport last year and there are 66 Mexicans in Peruvian jails for drug violations.

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a.m. (Leon, Guanajuato) 4/26/08

In Venustiano Carranza, Michoacan, another car-to-car gun fire assault in broad daylight resulted in the death of one man but also in that of his four year old daughter who was riding with him. The man's wife survived.

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El Diario de Yucatan (Merida, Yucatan) 4/26/08

1. The state congress of Chihuahua issued a report criticizing the "irresponsible" travel alert by the U.S. Ambassador in Mexico which warned about not visiting the border area of this state. They said most of the problem is caused by drug traffickers who fight each other for control of the area to smuggle drugs into the United States, "the world's largest consumer." They also pointed out that the U.S. has not made advances in controlling the use of illicit drugs and that the U.S. is the point of origin of the firearms which drug traffickers use to kill Mexicans. They added that travel alerts and the border fence are contrary to "international right" and good relations between neighbor countries and "for that reason they are asking the "SRE" ( Mex. Dep't. of State) to deactivate the alert through diplomatic channels."

2. A report of a burglary sent "Preventive State Police" to some houses in Campeche, state of Campeche. (note: this is on the western shore of the Yucatan Peninsula) The officers were met with gunfire and a shootout ensued, but some six thugs managed to escape. Two "Zetas", one of them a Honduran, were arrested. A search of the houses revealed 4,000 rounds of ammo for AR15 rifles, 2 shotguns, 12 AR15 rifles, 12 bullet proof vests, 8 fragmentation grenades, a machine for counting paper money, 8 kgs. of cocaine and a scale.

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El Debate (Culiacan, Sinaloa) 4/26/08

Jose Luis Soberanes, head of Mexico's Human Rights Commission, said at a conference at the Univ. of Sinaloa that discrimination, poverty and low salaries are the causes which make Mexico the country with the largest emigration in Latin America, adding that Mexico is also a transit country since, between 2004 and 2006, 650,000 illegal Central Americans were arrested and had to be deported. He added that among Latin American countries Mexico is at the forefront of emigration with more than ten million, then follow Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina and Peru with a million each. "The number grows each year because the migration flow from Mexico to the United States is more than 400,000 persons."

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El Diario de Coahuila (Saltillo, Coah.) 4/26/08

The body of a female physician who had disappeared in February was found west of Torreon. Her throat had been slit. Her car was also stolen. And the body of a taxi driver was found in a condo also in Torreon; he'd been tied up and strangled.

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El Imparcial (Hermosillo, Sonora) 4/26/08

Last Wednesday after 10 p.m. a security camera just east of a border port of entry in Nogales revealed men carrying sacks towards a house from which a vehicle then departed and then traveled immediately along to the border; when Border Patrol Agents attempted to stop it, the driver fled into Mexico. Shots were then fired at the agents from the Mexican side but Mexican police were unable to find the shooter(s). The abandoned vehicle was found to have 71 kilos, 732 grams of weed.

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El Pulso (San Luis Potosi, SLP) 4/26/08

The public security structure of this state has been severely destabilized after the kidnapping and execution of Rual (sic) Santamaria Casas, the deputy director for investigations of the state's A.G.'s office. He was found dumped along a highway, "taped" and with a coup de grace shot to his head. The result has been that Mex. military and federal agents sealed the area with highway control points and have disarmed every "Ministerial Police" officer and arrested the area head of that agency and four of its supervisors.

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El Diario (Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, ed.) 4/26/08

In Juarez, Ricardo Arteaga, 23, went to answer a knock at his door. When he did so, he was shot some eleven times. Arteaga was described as a drug retailer. This brings Juarez' execution tally up to 14 in seven days and to 245 for the year.

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Norte (Ciudad Juarez, Chih.) 4/26/08

The month of March ended with 1,178 (one thousand one hundred seventy-eight) vehicle thefts in Juarez.

Public insecurity is "deteriorating Juarez' image among national and foreign tourists" and hotel managers complain that even though they show pictures and even videos of thieves there are no resulting investigations or arrests by police. Hotel occupancy is down to 30 to 40 % and there have been no conventions during the first trimester of the year. Ninety Juarez police officers have resigned in the last three days.

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- end of report

The state congress of Chihuahua issued a report criticizing the "irresponsible" travel alert by the U.S. Ambassador in Mexico which warned about not visiting the border area of this state.

They said most of the problem is caused by drug traffickers who fight each other for control of the area to smuggle drugs into the United States, "the world's largest consumer."

They also pointed out that the U.S. has not made advances in controlling the use of illicit drugs and that the U.S. is the point of origin of the firearms which drug traffickers use to kill Mexicans.

They added that travel alerts and the border fence are contrary to "international right" and good relations between neighbor countries and "for that reason they are asking the "SRE" ( Mex. Dep't. of State) to deactivate the alert through diplomatic channels."

Blame the U.S.......Blame the U.S........same old song.

Their "internation right" to tourism money is more important than the safety of U.S. citizens?

Wouldn't halting money remittances to Mexico be beneficial?
Illegal immigrants would not receive money from relatives to pay coyotes to smuggle them over the border.
Coyotes would have less money to invest in weapons and drug smuggling.
Vehicle thiefts would go down due to less illegal alien smuggling.
Would eliminate one source of money laundering.

"Evil unchecked grows. Evil tolerated poisons the whole system."
Jawaharlal Neh