12 slain in Juárez as violence intensifies

By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times

Article Launched: 08/12/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT

EL PASO -- A dozen people died Monday in Juárez after a bloody weekend that left 19 dead, including two teenage boys killed in separate shootings Sunday.

The plague of killings showed no signs of slowing as more than 750 people have been slain this year in Juárez, including more than 60 in August alone. Many deaths are believed to be linked to a war among drug cartels.

Chihuahua state police on Monday said that a thin boy about 13 years of age and a man, about 22 years old, were found fatally shot shortly before midnight Sunday on Camerun street near the airport. The victims were not identified.

And Sunday afternoon, 16-year-old Luis Antonio Moreno Esparza and Adrian Dionicio Aguilera Villaza, 29, were gunned down in colonia Division del Norte, police said.

In a separate case, Cereso prisoner Juan Carlos Escajeda Dueñas, 33, was beaten to death in a restroom in the carpentry area. An autopsy found Escajeda, who was serving a 15 year sentence for killing a woman in the Valley of Juárez, died of head trauma.

Monday, a man and woman were fatally shot in a parking lot of a vacant retail center; the body of a man with his face covered in gray tape was found in the Lote Bravo area; the body of a man was found wrapped in a blanket in the Parajes del Sur area; and the body of a man with vein puncture marks was found.

In the evening, a total of seven men were gunned down in separate incidents. None was identified.

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

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_10171831