Thread: MEX:Killings and Injuries in Mexican Independence Day Attack

7 killed in Mexican Independence Day attack
By JULIE WATSON – 3 hours ago

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Mexican governor said Tuesday that organized crime was responsible for explosions at an Independence Day celebration that killed at least seven people and injured 101 in the colonial city of Morelia.

The attack happened just as Gov. Leonel Godoy was delivering the traditional "grito," or shout for independence, in Morelia's main plaza, where thousands had gathered to celebrate.

Godoy said that based on witness accounts and because of the damage and death toll, authorities believe someone launched several grenades into the crowd.

"Without a doubt, we believe this was done by organized crime," he told Mexico's Televisa network.

Godoy is governor of Michoacan, the home state of President Felipe Calderon and a hotbed for drug trafficking.

Calderon, who has already sent thousands of soldiers to the state, said the attack demands an immediate response by the armed forces. He also went on national TV to demand that Mexicans help in anyway possible to combat crime, and asked people to provide any information linked to the attack.

"The country demands national unity, unity that requires our unanimous repudiation," the president said.

Mexico's drug cartels and criminal networks have been slaying their rivals in increasingly large numbers and publicly dumping beheaded corpses as expressions of their power and impunity.

But this attack is one of the boldest yet, targeting "the grito," a cherished Mexican tradition that millions together in public plazas each year. It also cast a pall over the Sept. 16 parades planned for cities and towns across the nation to celebrate the 1810 start of Mexico's 10-year war of independence from Spain.

Godoy said he cancelled Morelia's Independence Day parade, "because there are children, women and innocent people who have been hurt."

The attack comes only days after 24 bodies were found bound and killed execution-style in a rural area outside Mexico City in one of the largest massacres in recent history.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hrQN ... QD937SJVO0

Violence mars Mexico's independence day celebration
NEW: Death toll rises to eight in two blasts, official says; more than 100 wounded

NEW: Mexican president says federal officials will help investigate

Explosions occurred during independence day celebration in Morelia

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Eight people were killed and 101 were wounded in two explosions during a celebration of Mexico's independence day Monday night, a Mexican official said Tuesday.

(photo)Wounded people get help after blasts Monday night during an independence day event in Morelia, Mexico.

Two people remained in grave condition, said Roman Armando Luna Escalante, secretary of health in Michoacan state. Eleven of the wounded were children, Luna Escalante said. None of them are gravely injured.

The explosions occurred around 11 p.m. near the governor's residence in Morelia, the capital of Michoacan. The second blast happened shortly afterward a few blocks away.

Officials would not say if they have any suspects or if any group has claimed responsibility.

Some experts pointed to drug cartels or insurgents.

"It could be a warning to the federal government, which has put a lot of money and manpower to deal with drugs, which are very powerful there," said Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank on Western Hemisphere affairs. "It could be leftist guerrilla groups that occasionally throw a bomb.

"The problem is that this is part of a real wave of violence that is consuming Mexico."

Don't Miss
Bodies of 24 shooting victims found in Mexico
Headless bodies may have been burned in ritual
Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who was born in Morelia, condemned the attacks and said federal officials will redouble efforts to help state authorities investigate.

More than 1,500 soldiers and federal police were maintaining order Tuesday, which marks the 198th anniversary of what Mexicans regard as their independence day.

Festivities typically start the night before because on September 16, 1810, shortly before dawn, a priest in a village in the state of Guanajuato rang a church bell and called on Mexicans to fight for independence from Spain.

The celebration in Morelia on Monday night was one of hundreds nationwide to celebrate that call for independence, which Mexico formally achieved in 1821.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/ameri ... xplosions/

Great! We have a lot to look forward to in this country if the lovely humanatarians open boders pro-illegals have their way.

Eight people were killed and 101 were wounded in two explosions during a celebration of Mexico's independence day Monday night, a Mexican official said Tuesday.

Oh well, SUCKS for them! :P

What would REALLY be impressive is if they would get up off their welfare butts in this country and fight the Mexican government for "Independance" from corrupt American businesses and corporations hiring Mexicans to work as slaves, at slave wages and bringing Mexican kids here to work illegally in "KOSHER" slaughter houses! So "UN-KOSHER!"

To all illegal alien MEXICANS: Don't wave your ugly buzzard rags in MY country, yelling , "ViVa La Mexihole, ViVa La Raza!" Go to Mexihole and do that! Take your own country back...leave MINE ALONE, numb nutts!

Yea...mexico certainly has much to celebrate! Drugs, violence, gangs, murders, corrupt to the core political system, over 10% of their population living illegal in the US in order to send remittances to their beloved mexico.

On top of all that, you cannot even turn on the faucet and get a drink of water without becoming deathly ill! I can see why they are in the mood to celebrate!

I am no proponent of any criminals, but it seems to me, that even American criminals would not think to do such a thing at a Fourth of July celebration here. Does anyone else feel the same about that?

To me, it shows these people have a more serious issue, underlying their organized crime and gang problems, it is a terrible lack of unity and cohesiveness as a nation, this is, to me, a bigger problem that the crime, which to be honest, has led to such a huge crime problem in the first place.

Originally Posted by NoBueno

Yea...mexico certainly has much to celebrate! Drugs, violence, gangs, murders, corrupt to the core political system, over 10% of their population living illegal in the US in order to send remittances to their beloved mexico.

....... I can see why they are in the mood to celebrate!

They're in the "mood to celebrate," because they've just about completely taken over the USA! If Obama gets into office, it's a done deal! Mexican Independance Day is just a cover for the up and coming, "Viva La Raza in Aztlan Day" which will be on January 20, 2009, regardless if a Democrat or a Republican is sworn into the White House!

Now, if by some fluke and twist of fate, Baldwin gets in, hopefully we'll get to see ICE go into "full deportation mode" and no more Mexican Flags will be seen waving on this side of the border EVER AGAIN! NOW THAT would be a dream come true!

I'm fairly certain that 30-40 million Mexican citizens here in America illegally could overwhelm the drug cartels if they cared to take their beloved country back.

Mexican national holiday turns violent despite bishops' pleas
By David Agren (Catholic News Service)
Published Sep 16, 2008


Civilians and police officers help the injured after grenade explosions in the main square of Morelia, Mexico, Sept. 15. Explosions ripped through a crowd of people celebrating Mexican independence day, killing at least seven revelers and wounding more t han 100.

(CNS photo/Agencia Quadratin, Reuters)
MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- Independence Day festivities turned violent in the state of Michoacan as three grenades were tossed during the governor's annual performance of the "grito," a popular re-enactment of Father Miguel Hidalgo Costilla's call for independence.

Michoacan Gov. Leonel Godoy Rangel said Sept. 16 that the previous day's attacks in the state capital Morelia left at least three dead and 50 injured in the western state, which in recent years has been rife with organized-crime violence related to drug trafficking. Mexico's Reforma newspaper put the 2008 death toll from organized-crime-related violence at 156 in Michoacan and 3,148 nationwide by mid-September.

The attacks came barely two weeks after Mexicans flooded the streets of cities across the country, calling for an end to a rash of kidnappings and organized-crime-related violence. They also happened during the country's most important civic holiday, which has become politicized heavily in recent years due to the refusal of the 2006 election runner-up to concede defeat and recognize the legitimacy of President Felipe Calderon's administration.

Catholic officials recently expressed dismay at the increasingly divisive nature of the independence day holiday. The Mexican bishops' conference issued a message Sept. 11 calling on all Mexicans to celebrate jointly, regardless of partisan persuasion.

"Now is not the time for divisions; Mexico deserves something more," said the message, titled "The Divided Grito." "May we shout, newly united, for an independence that gives us peace, security and progress," it said.

The bishops' message rejected the use of the grito for partisan and political ends.

"Apart from the ideological and partisan feelings, we must leave aside speaking of 'legitimate' and 'illegitimate,'" the message said, referring to the country's presidential politics. "We have an institution that is the presidency of the republic and leading it is a constitutional president."

In Mexico City, Calderon -- a Michoacan native who sent the military to confront narcotics traffickers in his home state almost immediately after taking power in December 2006 -- appeared Sept. 15 on the balcony of the National Palace, a colonial-era building overlooking the expansive Zocalo, or main square, in the capital, and yelled "Viva Mexico!" the defining act of Mexico's independence celebrations.

The annual grito usually is performed by the president in the Zocalo.

But Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Calderon's political nemesis and the self-proclaimed "legitimate president," also screamed the same iconic phrase a little more than an hour earlier to supporters of his alternative government gathered in the Zocalo. The former Mexico City mayor also used his grito to call for the resignation of three federal Cabinet members responsible for public security matters and called on members of his petroleum defense movement to march through central Mexico City in opposition to government proposals for allowing increased private participation in the government-run oil industry.

The prospect of increasing political tensions in the Zocalo prompted some revelers to celebrate closer to home.

"It's too political," said Felix Ramirez, who instead attended festivities organized in his local Mexico City borough. "I'd rather spend more peaceful time with my family than get into the middle of a political struggle."

Lopez Obrador frequently calls Calderon "illegitimate," "spurious," and a "usurper."

He now has disrupted the past three gritos by beckoning his followers -- many donning the yellow and black colors of his Democratic Revolution Party and clutching old election paraphernalia -- to the Zocalo, a symbolically important square that is home to the Metropolitan Cathedral and has been perceived as the country's center of political power since Aztec times.

Some revelers seemed exasperated by the inability to leave aside political differences for a national holiday with nearly 200 years of tradition.

"There's an intellectual illiteracy," said Francisco Aguilar, also celebrating at a grito in his local borough. "No one can stop fighting."

http://www.yourdiocese.com/diocese4325/ ... -bis.shtml

"Stupid is as Stupid Does!"