1 killed, another abducted in Juárez
By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 05/14/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT


Bullets went flying Tuesday on a busy commercial boulevard near the Juárez country club as the wave of violence showed no signs of slowing and police leaders began taking extra steps to protect themselves.
The shooting erupted at 2 p.m. when armed men attacked a 2006 black Toyota pickup with New Mexico plates along Tomas Fernandez boulevard, Chihuahua state police said.

The truck's occupants returned fire before the truck's unidentified passenger was shot and killed and the driver was taken away by the attackers, Channel 26-KINT (cable Channel 2) reported.

Officials said they found 41 shells at the scene.

Monday evening, a similar ambush took place and about 100 shots were fired on Calle Oaxaca in the Ecco 2000 neighborhood in south Juárez, state police said.

Pedro Alfredo Carrillo Avalos, 25, and Jonathan Carrillo Avalos, 23, died of gunshots that raked a Mitsubishi Montero with Texas plates. It is unknown whether they were Texas residents.

A third man, Luis Alvarez Caballero, 26, was shot and killed at a nearby home, and a 15-year-old boy bystander was grazed on the abdomen by a stray bullet.

Juárez public safety secretary Guillermo Prieto Quintana on Tuesday quelled false reports that he had resigned. Prieto Quintana said meetings between him and police commanders would no long er take place at a set location but would take place at different sites decided at the last minute as a precaution.

The brazen shootings and kidnapping are part of a war amon
drug-trafficking gangs based in Juárez and Sinaloa state fighting in various parts of Mexico.
The situation in Juárez is part of a larger fight among drug gangs and government forces across Mexico.

Mexico Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora Icaza, at a meeting Tuesday with authorities in Culiacan, Si naloa, compared the situation in Mexico to Colombia's struggle against its drug cartels and Italy's fight against the Mafia.

"The assassins kill each other fighting for markets and for control of territories, and in doing so, they massacre daily the peace, tranquility and confidence of society," Medina Mora Icaza said, according to a transcript.

"It happened in other lands, and it is happening in our Mexico."

Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com; 546-6102.


http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_9250040