OVER THE WEEKEND: MEXICO’S BLOODIEST DAY; OPEN TRANSIT OF MIGRANTS URGED
m3report | June 14, 2010 at 6:03 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/pg2Ga-w2

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS
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Foreign News Report

The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis. You are free to disseminate this information, but we request that you credit NAFBPO as being the provider.

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Saturday 6/12/10

El Universal (Mexico City) 6/11& 12/10

Mexico suffers the most violent day

Friday was Mexico's bloodiest day of the presidential term of Felipe Calderon. Saturday's edition summed up Friday's organized crime-related mayhem: "In what constitutes the most violent day since the present federal administration began the frontal struggle against organized crime, 85 people lost their lives in acts related directly to 'adjustments of affairs' between rival gangs, confrontations and assassinations with high-caliber firearms." This is the highest count since November 3, 2008 when 58 died in crime-related warfare. Between Thursday evening and Friday in Chihuahua state, 38 people were killed; in Tamaulipas, 20; five in Guerrero and six in Sinaloa. The other 16 deaths were reported from San Luis Potosi, Baja California, Durango, Michoacán, Jalisco, Queretaro, Nayarit, state of Mexico and the Federal District. [Some of these are reported below.]

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20 executed in Tamaulipas

The bodies of two women and 18 men were located in five different locations in Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas. Police authorities said all the bodies were found blindfolded and with hands tied behind their backs. None had identification, but all had signs of torture.

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Attack on rehab center kills 19

Unknown assailants attacked a drug rehabilitation center in Chihuahua City, Chihuahua, killing 19 and wounding several others, some gravely. Thirty of the inmates were made to lie face-down on the floor and were then riddled by gunfire. The targets were presumably six members of a rival gang and the other victims merely collateral damage.

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19 more in Ciudad Juarez

Another 19 murders took place in beleaguered Cd. Juarez, Chihuahua, including a police captain and two agents who were guarding property seized from narcos. [This story was not found in Juarez newspapers, which have been preoccupied with the death of a youth at the hands of the US Border Patrol. ]

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US should investigate death of Mexicans

Human Rights Watch (HRW) demanded that the government of the US investigate "quickly, thoroughly and transparently" the deaths of two Mexicans at the border. HRW said that the increase in the number of incidents in which migrants die or are injured by border agents cause grave concern about the illegal and excessive use of force. "It is necessary that the increasing number of murders by the Border Patrol be cleared up through an investigation by the US that is transparent and complete," stated Jose Miguel Vivanco, director for the Americas of the human rights organization. The article also referred to the Border Patrol's "murder of a child who was playing with four friends in Ciudad Juarez."

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Calderon sounds off from World Cup matches

Mexican President Felipe Calderon, attending the World Cup soccer matches in South Africa, demanded that the US government punish those guilty of killing the Mexican youth, Sergio Adrian Hernandez. Calderon referred to two "assassinations" of Mexicans at the hands of US authorities that have occurred in the past few days. In the case of the youth, he said it was a special affront because it had to do with a minor who was "killed by gunfire inside our own country." The president expressed his indignation at the deaths of two Mexicans at the hands of the Border Patrol because it indicates a wave of anti-Mexicanism.

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Both countries condemn deaths

US and Mexican legislators jointly condemned the murders ["asesinatos"] of Mexicans Sergio Adrian Hernandez and Anastacio Hernandez Juarez by observing a moment of silence at the request of Senator Christopher Dodd during the 49th Mexico/United States inter-parliamentary Meeting. Dodd, vice-president of the US congressional delegation, advised that he would gather forces from both countries and "commit ourselves to ending the violence."

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Get the rope!

The coordinator of the Mexican senate's PAN political party, Gustavo Madero, insisted that the Border Patrol agent who "murdered" the youth in Cd. Juarez be extradited. The senator rejected the explanation of US authorities that rocks are mortal weapons. He said that the US agent should be tried in Mexico so that he would be punished for the crime.

El Nuevo Diario (Managua, Nicaragua) 6/11/10

Costa Rica has nothing to envy - an observation from Nicaragua

"The silence, nearly total, powerfully calls attention to the pro immigrant organizations in this country and to the Nicaraguan authorities in respect to the new Costa Rican immigration law that came into effect last March 1st." So begins an article comparing the "anti-immigrant and discriminatory" Arizona law SB 1070 with neighboring Costa Rica's new law, which the writer finds is about equal in that they both have the same "repressive and persecuting" elements. He concludes that, "There exist millions of voices that have been raised against the migratory reform in Arizona [and] still here there has been nothing done to face up to a reform that has nothing to envy of that Arizona law, although there exists one clear difference: there it's for a state, here for a whole country. [The entire opinion can be accessed at the link below.]

http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/opinion/76477

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El Financiero (Mexico City) 6/11/10

Mexican Consulate in McAllen to add mobile services

Reynosa, Tamaulipas - The Mexican Consulate in McAllen, Texas, is planning to bring its services to the Mexican community residing in the cities located in Hidalgo, Starr and Brooks counties through a program called "Mobile Consulate." A consular representative, Erasmo Martinez, said the intention of the Consulate is to bring its services to the Mexican community residing in outlying towns and who need attention or orientation.

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Sunday 6/13/10

Excelsior (Mexico City) 6/12/10

More on the rehab center massacre

Investigation into the massacre of 19 people in Cd. Juarez [above] will center partly on the statements of survivors of the attack on the drug rehab center. Three of those who survived the initial attack have died. There is also strong evidence that the attackers were linked to the criminal gangs La Linea (part of the Juarez cartel) and Gente Nueva (part of the Sinaloa cartel), since both groups left messages apparently explaining the motive for the ;murders. Other than this, authorities have not released further information.

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US rules out arms reform

US legislators participating in the 43rd Mexico-United States inter-parliamentary meeting assured there are not political conditions for reforming the laws relating to possession of firearms in the US. A news leak from the meeting held in Campeche indicated that the US has moved forward in the confiscation of arms. According to them, they recently closed three arms stores in Arizona. The US delegation pointed out that the "Gunrunner" program will extend throughout the country to arrest those involved in illegal arms traffic.

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El Colombiano (Medellin, Colombia) 6/12/10

Undocumented Somalis arrested

Colombian police intercepted five illegal Somalis traveling on a public bus destined for the city of Popayan. They were detained at a checkpoint on a major highway leading out of Ecuador. [No mention was made of their ultimate destination or how they reached South America. However, neighboring Ecuador doesn't require visas for tourists.]

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Monday 6/14/10

El Financiero (Mexico City) 6/13/10

The view from Spain

Ethnic and racial discrimination of present bad immigration regulations is viewed as slavery and should be eradicated because it goes against human rights, according to Jose Luis Dicenta Ballestar, Secretary General of the Latin Union and ex-Spanish ambassador. Interviewed during a seminar in Mexico, Dicenta Ballestar advised that the world should accept the free transit of people like it accepts goods, services and money. In this sense, he maintains that the Latin Union (an organization that includes all countries that speak languages of Latin origin) should work to end the egoism of countries that take advantage of the inferiority of undocumented people. He described the Arizona law as a "brutal cynicism" by the people who support it and who then exploit the undocumented for their low-wage labor and without offering Social Security. "Mexico is a country of extraordinary importance, per se, with a solid tradition regarding human rights. In the cultural world Mexico is a point of reference and can play an important role," he said. The former Spanish Consul General in Los Angeles confirmed the reality behind the movie A Day without Mexicans by pointing out that, "Take the Latin Americans from California and the state would be economically paralyzed."

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El Universal (Mexico City) 6/13/10

Welcome to Michoacán

More than 20 graphic reporters from various states' media were illegally detained by an armed group of presumed locals and held overnight near the seaport of Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacán. Full details of the matter are not yet known. During their detention, the cameramen were relieved of their equipment that, for each, was valued between 10,000 and 50,000 pesos [$800-$4,00]. The cameramen and photographers from various business publications were in the port area by state government invitation to promote tourism. All were released unharmed, although apparently their equipment wasn't.

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Nine dead in gunfight in Nayarit

At least nine people died in a gun battle in Tepic, the capital city of Nayarit. A statement by the governor on his Facebook page related that eight gangsters and one police officer were killed in the 10-minute confrontation. Another police officer and a soldier were wounded. [No further information was released. Nayarit is a small Pacific coast state rarely mentioned in the news.]

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La Prensa (Managua, Nicaragua) 6/13/10

La Prensa made note of news report of the death of 85 people in one day in Mexico [reported above by El Universal]. One reader's comment follows. "Elmayasa" noted: "85 dead and they go on griping about one killed on the border. It's not that the boy's life is not valued, but that every newspaper shouldn't carry on like it's the first Mexican to die in a month. 2006 - Oct. 2009, 15,448 deaths."
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Cambio de Michoacán (Morelia, Michoacán) 6/13/10

Neglected part of the arms problem

Morelia, Michoacán - Enrique Bautista Villegas, President of the local Governmental Commission, said that Mexican Customs does little or nothing to stop the flow of smuggled arms into the country from the US. He suggested that Mexico guard its border with the same vigor as the US. [Ed. note: Mexico is fixated on the US as the major source of illegal arms, but little attention is focused on their Pacific seaports or virtually open border with Guatemala.]

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-end of report-

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