Timeline: A look at violent incidents throughout the area in '08
El Paso Times Staff
Article Launched: 05/31/2008 10:20:53 PM MDT


Mexican federal police patrolled the streets of Juárez last week. The violence that officials say is related to drugs has hit a crescendo in recent weeks and has drawn attention from U.S. officials. (Adriane Jaeckle / El Paso Times)Related
Juarez Violence
Jun 1:
Residents cautious as violence takes holdTracks of destructive turf war scar JuárezResidents cautious as violence takes holdMay 31:
New threat aimed at Juárez policeKillings hurt businesses, fuel anxiety in JuárezNew death list hung at police headquartersMay 30:
18 slayings push death toll in Juárez past 400Richardson urges U.S. on aid package for MexicoJanuary 2008


Jan. 10: U.S. Attorney's Office announces indictment against Barrio Azteca gang members and says the El Paso-based gang has alliance with Juárez drug cartel.

Jan. 16: Former Juárez director of police Saulo Reyes Gamboa arrested in El Paso on drug-smuggling charges.

Jan. 19: Six bodies of alleged members of a Juárez drug cartel are found buried in the backyard of a Juárez home.

Jan. 20: Juárez police Lt. Julian Chairez Hernandez is fatally shot.

Jan. 21: Juárez police Cmdr. Francisco Ledezma Salazar is gunned down outside his home.

Jan. 22: About 50 Mexican soldiers sent to Juárez to patrol streets.

Jan. 23: Juárez Cmdr. Fernando Lozano Sandoval of the Chihuahua State Investigations Agency is brought to Thomason Hospital for treatment after surviving a mob-style gunfight. Hospital is put on "lockdown" and guarded by El Paso police.

Jan. 25: More Mexican federal soldiers arrive in Juárez.

Jan. 26-27: Five people, including an 8-year-old girl, are killed in separate incidents on Juárez streets, unleashing a wave of violence.

Jan. 31: Juárez businessmen Fernando Macias Gonzalez and Jesus Duran Uranga are killed in separate incidents.
February


Feb. 1: Thomason Hospital remains on lockdown.

Feb. 2: Three more bodies found on Juárez streets.

Feb. 5: Juárez police Cmdr. Luis Alfonso Rivera Villa and investigative agent Jesus Manuel Garcia Rodriguez are shot to death inside a

car.

Feb. 8: Juárez police put on alert after a police officer is shot at.

Feb. 9: 150 additional Mexican soldiers arrive in Juárez.

Feb. 14: Thomason Hospital lockdown lifted.

Feb. 16: 21 alleged Juárez drug cartel members, including five U.S. citizens, are arrested by Juárez police.

Feb. 18: Mexican man wounded in a Palomas street ambush is taken to Thomason. Hospital security remains at normal level.

Feb. 17: Bloody uniform of missing Juárez police Officer Juan Hernández Sánchez is found.

Feb. 20: Juárez police warn of fake military-style checkpoints possibly set up by drug cartels.

Feb. 20: Soldiers detained eight men in Juárez accused of being hit men for theTijuana-based Arellano Felix cartel, or a group known as La LÃ*nea.

Feb. 22: Three more men found slain.

Feb. 23: Another mass grave with unknown number of bodies is found in a Juárez backyard.

Feb. 24: An El Paso Times poll finds 62 percent of El Paso voters believed Juárez violence is spilling over into El Paso; 54 percent say Juárez violence is having an impact on El Paso business; 46 percent of El Paso voters said the U.S. should increase its involvement in Mexico's drug war.

Feb. 27: Juárez police Officer Jose Cruz Cisneros found slain in his car.
March


March 2: Mexican police find another mass grave.

March 3: Juárez police report seven killings in three days.

March 15: Three men shot and killed while riding in a car with Tennessee license plates.

March 17: One man was killed and another wounded in a shooting while they rode in a Jeep Cherokee with Texas plates near a Juárez retail center.

March 19: Members of the Texas House of Representatives' Mexican American Legislative Caucus Border Security Task Force meet in El Paso to address border security concerns.

March 20: Juárez police Officer Oscar Campoya Saucedo gunned down on his way home.

March 19: Three charged in El Paso for attempting to smuggle guns into Juárez.

March 21: Eight more homicides are recorded in Juárez.

March 25: Violent weekend results in 15 homicides, including death of Juárez police Officer Juan Manuel Flores Ruiz.

March 27: More than 2,000 soldiers arrive in Juárez.
April


April 1: Juárez police in masks protest presence of federal police and soldiers.

April 3: Drug cartels purchase "help wanted" ads in Juárez newspapers.

April 4: A senior U.S. counter-drug official in El Paso confirms that the Zetas, a ruthless group of assassins made up of Mexican army deserters, are involved in the war between drug cartels for control of Juárez.

April 4: Mexican army detains 22 employees of the Chihuahua state attorney general's office and the state public safety office as part of operations targeting organized crime.

April 9: Two men found shot to death next to a pickup with Texas plates at a ranch about nine miles from the village of Guadalupe Distrito Bravos across the border from Tornillo.

April 14: U.S. State Department updates its travel alert for Mexico to warn tourists of ongoing border violence, including the current drug war in Juárez.

April 8: Villa Ahumada police commander and seven other men arrested in a daring helicopter raid at a narco-trafficker's funeral at the town's cemetery, about 70 miles south of Juárez.

April 15: FBI confirms that reputed Barrio Azteca gang leader David "Chicho" Meraz found dead last month in Juárez.

April 16: Federal Mexican officers start screening Juárez police officers, looking for evidence of corruption.
May


May 5: A third man wounded in Juárez is brought to Thomason Hospital.

May 6: Off-duty Juárez police Officer Mario Saul Peña Lopez is shot in his car.

May 8: Four El Pasoans shot and wounded outside a Juárez nightclub.

May 9: Gunbattle on the Avenida Juárez tourist strip left two taxi drivers dead and wounded five others, including three bicycle police officers.

May 10: Juárez police director Juan Antonio Roman Garcia shot and killed near his home.

May 11: Five shot and killed in Palomas, across the border from Columbus, N.M.

May 12: Military presence in Juárez expands to 3,000; seven more killed.

May 16: Juárez's top public safety official, Guillermo Prieto Quintana, quits.

May 17: More soldiers arrive; three more killed.

May 18: Prominent nightclub owner Willy Moya is killed outside a bar in the ProNaF area.

May 19: Roberto Orduña Cruz, a retired Mexican army major, is named Juárez public safety director.

May 20: Police report four more killings, including a 14-year-old boy.

May 22: Mass e-mail warns of deadliest weekend yet in Juárez.

May 22: Department of Homeland Security official speaking at a border conference in Austin says U.S. and Mexico should work together to fight drug war.

May 26: Deadly weekend results in 22 deaths.

May 30: Fifteen more bodies turn up in a 48-hour period





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