Tuesday, 22 January 2008
Mexico: Federal Police Capture 11 Members of "Pacific Cartel"

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS
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Foreign News Report

El Universal (Mexico City) 1/22/08

1. Federal police reported the capture of 11 members of the "Pacific cartel" during two searches on the south side of Mexico City.
The attachments to today's report are photos of this group and of the weapons that were seized at the same time. Some of the equipment included 40 bullet proof vests with markings of a Mexican federal security agency. One of the locales also housed a clandestine drug lab. Armored vehicles were also seized.







2. Theft and robbery are the "kings of crime" in Mexico's Distrito Federal.
"Preventive Police" officers there in 2007 arrested 22,437 persons, a daily average of 61.5, because of those crimes. This is an increase from 2006, when the daily average reached 56.11 persons.
El Financiero (Mexico City) 1/22/08

1. Ernesto Palacios Lopez, a criminal court judge, was shot and killed while driving his vehicle yesterday evening. Unknown persons used a .223 caliber firearm. Judge Palacios was dealing with the case of a man believed to be an operative of the Sinaloa drug cartel. The murder occurred in San Nicolas de Garza, a suburb of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, where a second murder victim, this one tortured and shot, was found dumped in a park. (note: this last portion from Milenio, also a Mex. City paper.)

2. The Mexican army plus state and federal police have taken over law enforcement duties in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. All firearms used by the city's regular police force have been taken away and are being inspected "to review the permission to bear them" and none of the city's police officers will resume their law enforcement duties until after an evaluation of their trustworthiness is made.
These events are occurring after the arrest in Tamaulipas of 11 persons believed to be linked to the Gulf Cartel. Four of the eleven are city police officers. All eleven were taken to Mexico City.
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El Imparcial (Hermosillo, Sonora) 1/22/08

Today, Mexican Special Forces suddenly took over the Matamoros, Tamaulipas, city police facilities to inspect weapons and the individual records of each of the city police officers. The facility was surrounded without warning "to avoid any incidents during the revision of the weapons" and the city police officers are not being allowed to leave. This is taking place just hours after the same operation took place in Nuevo Laredo.
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El Porvenir (Monterrey, Nuevo Leon) 1/22/08

Mexican federal and military personnel seized 21 shoulder weapons - mostly AR 15 - , plus 389 clips and 7,658 rounds of ammunition while searching a house on Santo Tomas St., "almost at the corner with San Simon", Colonia San Pedro, in Reynosa, Tamaulipas. Most of the ammunition was of calibers for assault rifles and hundreds were of the so-called "cop killer" variety. There were also bullet proof vests, gas masks and other tactical gear.
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Norte (Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua) 1/22/08

Fernando Lozano Sandoval, "first commander" of Chihuahua's State Investigations Agency, was shot and killed last night while driving his vehicle in Juarez. Two other officers with him were supposedly kidnapped according to eyewitness reports.
An hour later, the executed body of a man was found dumped on the street. Though formal identification had not been made, it is believed it could be one of the two kidnapped subjects.
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El Nuevo Diario (Managua, Nicaragua) 1/22/08

(note: the following is about Guatemala but the item appeared in a Nicaraguan paper)

There have been "at least" 76 murders in Guatemala in the first eight days since the inauguration of the country's new president. One was a police officer. Of the 76, 69 were by use of firearm; twenty other persons have been wounded, also by firearm.
Security forces have begun "high impact" operations in the more troubled portions of the capital city.
According to the "Ministry of Government", the majority of these crimes are due to "narcotraffic", to wars between gangs and to their "settling of debts." Guatemala has one police officer for each 650 residents. Last year's murder tally reached 5,781 victims.
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La Hora (Guatemala City, Guatemala) 1/22/08

(note: following is just one paragraph from a rather long op/column by Carlos Caceres titled "Assault in Arizona against labor immigration" (re Arizona HB2779))

"The Guatemalan Congress, through its migrants' commission, ought to develop an active posture to determine if the human rights of Guatemalans is (being) violated or whether human rights international protocols or treaties signed by the United States are being attacked. This activity will also bring out the xenophobic and hateful climate brought out by the political campaigns.
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