Spike in Violence in Northern Chihuahua

By Buggs for Borderland Beat 

The mayor of Ciudad Juárez, Cruz Pérez Cuéllar, said that the rise in homicides in recent days is due to confrontations between gangs that are dedicated in trafficking people and drugs (as seen in the second video below). 

Mayor Cuéllar went on to say “There are indications that it has to do with human trafficking, there is a dispute between criminal groups that are dedicated to trafficking. Apparently, there was a dispute that elevated to violence of crime, but we are attempting to control it. It appears there was an internal rupture in the criminal groups in the city and this is what caused this spike in homicides. We are in full coordination with the prosecutor's office,” he said in a press conference. 

The spike in violence prompted Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) to deploy 400 military forces around the city of Ciudad Juárez. These soldiers belong to a special unit that is characterized by their fast mobility in their deployment capacity.

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5 suspects in 2010 Juarez car bomb released

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Five suspects in the July, 2010 car bomb in Ciudad Juarez were released from prison, after Mexican authorities said they had no role in the crime, according to Mexican news reports.

A news report which appeared in the online edition of El Diario de Chihuahua said that representatives of the Procuraduria General de la Republica (PGR) or attorney general of Mexico said that not only were the five accused tortured into confessing the crime, they had had no role in the crime.

The innocents were identified as Noe Fuentes Chavira, Rogelio Amaya Martinez, Victor Manuel Martinez Renteria, Gustavo Martinez Renteria and  Ricardo Fernandez Lomeli, all from Chihuahua state.

The 2010 Ciuidad Juarez car bomb was the first car bomb used in the Mexican Drug War since the start in 2007, and the first of a series by other criminal groups in northeastern Mexico between that time and early 2011.

That attack which took place in Zone Centro of Ciudad Juarez took the lives of four including one Policia Federal agent.  At the time it was thought the explosive used was US made C4 plastic explosive, but it was later learned that the explosive was a commercial grade dynamite known as Tovex.  Tovex is used extensively in mining operations in the sierras of western Chihuahua state as well as by Pemex, the state owned petroleum entity.

The Policia Federal unit operating in Ciudad Juarez were the target of the attack.

At that time the five had been placed in preventative detention, which is a common practice for serious drug related crimes in Mexico.  Among the crimes which landed the five in prison were possession of marijuana and possession of a weapon under the Firearms and Explosives Act, which prohibits anyone without explicit permission from the government from owning  the same caliber of weapon used by Mexican security forces.

According to a lawyer with Centro de Derechos Humanos Paso del Norte (CDHPN) or Human Rights Center, Diana Morales, said that the Istanbul Protocol was applied in the cases of the accused, and it was found that because torture could be proved, the five must be released.

Additionally, the document used to charged the five had already been filled out, dated for August 11th instead of August12th, the date of the actual detention.

According to the account, the human rights office met with current PGR Jesus Murillo Karam and said that if any of the five had been subject to torture, then must all go free.  It later transpired all five had been abused by federal police while in custody.

The Guadalajara Juzgado Primero de Procedimientos Penales de Distrito ordered the release of the accused Thursday and last Friday they left prison.

The complaint about torture  had been filed a year ago.

The Policia Federal unit which was attacked by the car bomb, had long been under suspicion in the press for illegal practices such as torture and abuse of authority.  This writer saw news reports at the time including video which purportedly showed top local Policia Federal officials engaged in torture of suspects, but could not credit the information.  Those officials also reportedly used drugs seized in other operations which were planted as evidence in other cases.

The practice at the time was so bad that the unit itself was under nearly constant attack from criminal elements in the city, one week suffering several attempted ambushes of their patrols, losing three agents.

Finally on August 8th, a mutiny took place at the hotel where the unit was billeted where the grievances were aired out publicly.  Two days later the entire unit was rotated out by air and replaced with another different unit.

Two months later in October 2010, forty agents, presumably in that unit, were relieved of duty and imprisoned.  The El Diario report does not say if the same Policia Federal elements were involved in in illegally extracting the confession from the five accused.

The Juarez car bomb was an attack conceived by Jose Antonio Acosta Hernandez. AKA Diego, the prolific number two man in La Linea, the enforcement wing of the Juarez Cartel.  Acosta Hernandez was busted in Chihuahua city by a Policia Federal special forces unit in the summer of 2011.

According to the El Diario de Chihuahua report, several suspects are to be tried in the bombing.  Thery include  José Ivan Contreras Lumbreras, AKA El Keiko,  Jaime Arturo Chavez Gonzalez, AKA El Jimmy,  Mauro Adrian Villegas, AKA El Blaky or El Negro, Fernando Contreras Meraz, AKA El Barbas, Martin Perez Marrufo, AKA  El Popeye or  El Gordo, Lorenzo Tadeo Palacios, AKA El Shorty or Shorty Dog and Jorge Antonio Hernandez, AKA  El Chapo or  El Chapito.

Acosta Hernandez is also accused in the attack, but since he is in prison in the United States, he will not be prosecuted.

The El Diario report also said that the Policia Federal's role in the wrongful imprisonment and torture are still under investigation.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com

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8 die in Ciudad Juarez massacre

A total of eight individuals including three children were but one stabbed to death in Ciudad Juarez Saturday night, according to Mexican news reports.

According to a news report which appeared in El Diario de Chihuahua news daily news website, the incident took place at a residence near the intersection of calles Luciano Becerra and Fernando Montes de Oca in Morelos Zaragoza colony.

Originally Mexican press released news that the victims had all been shot to death, but neighbors nearby did not report any gunshots.  However, later reports said one shot was fired.

Three of the child victims  were identified as Daniel Romero Castañeda, 6, Abril Romero, 4 and Valeria Lara Castañeda, 4.  Rosa Maria Castañeda Morales, 60 and her daughter Maria del Carmen Castañeda, 28, and Rosa Maria Castañeda Morales, 30 were also identified as among the dead.

A news account which later appeared in La Polaka  said that one of the female adult victims had been shot to death, but reports did not say which.

One of the two male adult victims was identified as Ruben Romero, 28.  A second male victim was said to be in his 30s. All the victims had been bound and gagged prior to being killed.

An unidentified three month old infant also was reported kidnapped from the residence, however, neighbors had taken the child for safekeeping.

The massacre was discovered when members of the victims' church noticed their absence and sought to find them.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com

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Mayhem in Ciudad Juarez: 7 die

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Three unidentified individuals were shot to death in front of a bar in Ciudad Juarez in Chihuahua state early Monday morning, according to Mexican news accounts.

According to a news item posted on the website of La Polaka news daily, the victims, two men and a woman were shot in front of La Academia bar near the corner of calles Zaragoza and Cardenas in Primero de Mayo colony in southern Ciudad Juarez at around 0200 hrs.

Four other unidentified individuals were killed or were found dead in Ciudad Juarez since Sunday night, according to separate news reports which appeared in La Polaka news daily.

• An unidentified man was shot to death in southern Ciudad Juarez Monday.  The incident took place near the intersection of calles Fragata and Trasatlantico in Hacienda de las Torres colony, where armed suspects approached the victim, who was a street vendor, then shot and killed him.
• An unidentified man was found shot to death in Ciudad Juarez Monday.  The victim was found near the corner of calles Barbachano and Yepomera.
• An unidentified man was found strangled to death in Ciudad Juarez Monday.  The victim was found inside a residence near the corner of calle Carlos Amaya and Ramon Alcazar. in Constitucion colony.  He had been strangled with a plastic bag.
• One unidentified man was shot to death in a shooting and another was wounded  in Ciudad Juarez Monday evening, according to a news report posted on the website of El Diario de Juarez.  The victim crashed his Nissan Titan pickup truck into another vehicle, a Dodge Neon on Avenida Paseo de la Victoria near Calle Tapioca at around 1820 hrs.    Armed suspects who had been pursuing the victim then fired on the driver from the passenger side, killing him.  The driver of the Neon was injured in the crash, but was not hit by gunfire.  A separate La Polaka report said the sedan involved in the crash was a Chevrolet Cavalier.  The La Polaka report also included a photo of the scene which showed a white Chevrolet Astro van was also involved in the crash.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com  He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com

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8 die in Chihuahua state

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A total of six unidentified individuals were found Friday in a series of graves in Rosales municipality in Chihuahua, according to Mexican news reports.

A Notimex wire dispatch posted on the online edition of El Diario de Coahuila said that the victims were found in four pits inside ejido Rosales, according to a spokesman for the Chihuahua state Fiscalia General del Estado (FGE) or attorney general, Carlos Hernandez.

The bodies were found on Thursday and excavation continued into the next day.  The totals were five men and one woman found.

Two other men were killed and several others were wounded in four separate incidents in Chihuahua state.

• Five unidentified individuals were shot and wounded Friday night in a shooting at a bar in Chihuahua city, according to a news dispatch posted on the online edition of La Polaka.  The attack took place at the Bar Las Animas near the intersection of calles Morelos and Allende in Centro Historic.  A number of armed suspects entered the bar and started shooting.  Seven each 9mm spent cartridge casings were found at the scene.
• An unidentified man in his 20s was found stabbed to death in Ciudad Juarez Friday, according to a news account which appeared in the online edition of El Diario de Juarez.  The victim was found near then intersection of calles Pedro Rosales de Leon and Buenavista in Villahermosa colony.
• A 34 year old man was shot to death in Ciudad Juarez Friday night.  The victim, unofficially identified as Omar Alfredo Fereseres, was aboard a pickup truck at around 2020 hrs near the corner of calles Isla Aruba and Division del Norte in Guadalajara Izquierda colony when armed suspects aboard a Jeep Cherokee SUV fired on him, killing him.
• An unidentified man was shot and wounded in a carjacking in Ciudad Juarez Saturday afternoon.  The incident took place in Satelite colony near the corner of calles Venus and Saturno in front of a school.  The car that was stolen was for sale, according to reports.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com.  He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com

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5 Juarez cops die in shooting -- UPDATED

Updated with new information including identities of the victims and other new information

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Five  Juarez municipal police agents were shot to death and another three were wounded in an assault at a residence in Juarez Wednesday night, according to Mexican news accounts.

El Diario de Juarez news daily identified four of the dead as Juan Rodriguez, Maria Romero, Blas Barrera and Brenda Ulloa.  The fifth victim was identified only as Ceballos.  The police agents were all from Cuauhtemoc and Babicora police stations

The attack took place at about 2030 hrs near the intersection of calles Oasis de Lisboa and Rafael Murguia in the Praderas de los Oasis subdivision.

The officers were attending a cookout at the residence when they were shot.  Uncredited reports say as many as 20 shooters entered the residence and fired on their victims.

 El Diario de Juarez also said none of the five officers would be buried with honors since they were off duty when the shootings occurred.


According to La Polaka news daily, the killings were preceded by several narcomensajes or narco-messages against Juarez's controversial mayor, Hector Murguia Lardizabal, and his police chief Julian Leyzaola Perez, both civic functionaries with a hard nosed reputation in the city.

According to La Polaka, a total of 18 municipal police agents have been shot since the start of the year.

Juarez has been in the thrall of a deadly competition between local operatives with the Sinaloa cartel and the Juarez cartel,and their enforcement wing, La Linea.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com

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More Mexican Mayhem: Juarez Edition

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Five unidentified men were shot to death and a woman was wounded in a shooting at a Chihuahua, Chihuahua beauty salon Monday evening, according to Mexican news accounts.

The shooting took place at the Performance Salon near the intersection of calles 39th and José Joaquin Calvo in San Rafael colony east of Zona Centro in the city.

Scene outside Performance Salon in Chihuahua city

Shooters arrived at the barber establishment aboard two vehicles, dismounted and started firing.  Two of the victims were waiting for a haircut, while a third was already receiving service.

The other two victims attempted to flee the fusillade by foot but were caught by gunfire.

Five other individuals were killed in ongoing drug and gang related violence in Chihuahua state, including two Ciudad Juarez municipal police agents.

• A man was found shot to death in Juarez Monday. José Murguia Gomez, 35, was found near the intersection of calles Batopilas and Carlos Adame in Anahuac colony.  The victim was shot following a foot pursuit.
• An unidentified woman was found dead near Juarez Monday.  The victim was found in Campesina colony near the intersection of calles José Isabel Sanchez and Benito Juarez.
• An unidentified employee of an eating establishment was shot to death early Monday morning in Juarez.  An armed suspect entered the place in Partido Romero colony near the intersection of Avenida 16 de Septiembre and Calle Emilia Calvillo, shouting at the victim before shooting him.
• Two undercover Ciudad Juarez municipal police agents were shot and killed Monday.    The agents were observing an attempted hijacking of a food delivery truck at a grocery store in Rancho Anapra colony near the  intersection of calles Quimera and Remora.  The two agents attempted to detain the armed suspects when the suspects opened fire on the officers killing them.  The El Diario de Coahuila news story said that 16 Juarez municipal police officers have been killed in the line of duty since the start of the year.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com

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We Will Either Find a Way for Mexico, or Make One!

This is my first substantial contribution to the Borderland Beat, so

I’m going to apologize in advance for my stage fright (and minor case
of writer’s block). Someone once told me that having an ink set
around is a good remedy, but having something to say about what’s
going on in Mexico right now is far more important than writer’s
block.

I was watching el Noticieros Televisa (Galavision in Miami, Florida,
not sure if the channel is available in other states) last night, and
I made sure to watch it because I wanted to see what they were going
to report in reference to Mayor Edelmiro Cavazos Leal’s untimely
death, after being kidnapped and executed for allegedly refusing to be
involved with a drug cartel.

According to Buggs’ previous post, Mayor Fernandez, the mayor of San
Pedro Garza Garcia in Nuevo Leon, stated during an interview that the
deceased mayor had discussed harassment issues pertaining to organized
crime and corruption activities in Santiago. I’m going to be very
honest and say that if the mayor of my city or any city in the U.S.
were found executed near a road, you better believe that the
individual(s) responsible for such a senseless act of violence would
undoubtedly be in custody within 24 hours or less. There’s no
question that the likelihood of that happening in the U.S. is rather
low, practically unfeasible. In fact, it’s the kind of scenario that
happens in movies, not in real life.

So, who dropped the ball? Why are security issues only relevant until
someone is brutally killed? And why does the government wait until a
government official is found executed near a road in order to
articulate these issues?

Help me understand, because I don’t see how this is reality for any
country, especially not a beautiful country full of culture and
passion. Between the death toll in Juarez (which continues to rise on
a daily basis) and the countless deaths of journalists (many who
risked their lives in order to report their country’s decline),
government officials, federal and state law enforcement officers and
innumerous innocent people caught in the crossfire.

During personal correspondence with one of the contributors of the
Borderland Beat, I was very touched when he stated: “My only mission
is to provide a window to the reality of what is happening in the
country of my parents and which I love.”

He also requested that I keep Mexico in my prayers. And I do, in my
prayers and thoughts. And I often reflect on the fact that it’s going
to take an outrageous amount of faith and hard work to cultivate a
Mexico that the Mexican citizens truly deserve, and trust me, the
impossible is imperative. Standing by and watching on the sidelines
is not enough, in fact, it’s unacceptable. You have to start
somewhere and according to the news last night and an article by Jose
Gil Olmos, a writer for Proceso, there are 7 million kids without
education or work. Although I think multiple media outlets were
arguing the actual number (which is still in the millions), but the fact
that there is a number, is once again, unacceptable.

Sources: Noticieros Televisa and Proceso
Picture: From La violencia estimulada by Jorge Luis Sierra

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Shots fired from Juárez hit El Paso City Hall

By Daniel Borunda
El Paso Times

Police said the bullet flew through the window, then through an interior wall before hitting a picture frame and stopping.

El Paso, Texas - Several gunshots apparently fired from Juárez hit El Paso City Hall on Tuesday afternoon.

No one was hurt, but nerves were rattled at City Hall in what is thought to be the first cross-border gunfire during a drug war that has engulfed Juárez since 2008.

El Paso police spokesman Darrel Petry said investigators do not think City Hall was intentionally targeted but rather was struck by stray shots.

"It does appear the rounds may have come from an incident in Juárez," Petry said.
City Hall, whose east and west sides are covered by glass windows, sits on a hill about a half-mile north of the Rio Grande.


About 4:50 p.m., city workers were going about a regular day when a bullet penetrated a ninth-floor west side window of the office of Assistant City Manager Pat Adauto.

The building was not evacuated, but several secretaries with windows facing Juárez described the incident as scary. Several police officers were sent to City Hall. A police crime scene investigator could be seen taking photos of the building.

Petry said an inspection by police and city staff found that City Hall was hit by seven gunshots, which appeared to be losing velocity when they struck. Six of the rounds hit stucco walls on the north and south sides of the building. Two bullets were recovered -- the one that went through the window and one that bounced off an exterior wall. The size of the bullets was not disclosed.

"Any time somebody takes a shot at City Hall, it's of great concern to us," El Paso Mayor John Cook said. "It's OK if people take political shots at us, but this is unacceptable."

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A Mayor is Slain in Ciudad Juarez

A commando executed the mayor of Guadalupe Distrito Bravos, Jesus Manuel Lara, 48, inside his home in Ciudad Juárez.

The mayor of Guadalupe Distrito Bravos, a city in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, was killed by gunmen, prosecutors said.

Manuel Lara Rodriguez was killed Saturday afternoon as he was leaving a house in Santa Teresa, a neighborhood in the northern section of Guadalupe Distrito Bravos, Chihuahua state Attorney General’s Office spokesmen said.

The 48-year-old mayor had received death threats earlier this year and sought refuge in the border city of Ciudad Juarez a month ago.

Last Saturday afternoon the Mayor of Guadalupe Distrito Bravos was executed outside his home when an armed group, that was waiting for him, opened fire killing him instantly.

Guadalupe Distrito Bravos is in the Juarez Valley about 45 minutes from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s murder capital.

 
The border state of Chihuahua is Mexico’s most dangerous state.

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Video of Shooting on U.S.-Mexico Border Released

A video released Thursday shows a U.S. Border Patrol agent firing earlier this week on four Mexicans who threw stones at him after they were spotted trying to enter the United States, an incident that left a 14-year-old boy dead.

The video, which was made by a Mexican with his cell phone, shows the four young men walking under a bridge over the Rio Grande, known in Mexico as the Rio Bravo, that links Ciudad Juarez to El Paso, Texas.

The Mexicans can be seen approaching a fence in their attempt to enter the United States.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent then arrives on a bicycle and manages to detain one of the Mexicans, while the other three run back toward the Mexican side of the border.

The three teenagers realize that their friend has been detained and throw several stones at the U.S. agent, who fires three times at close range at the Mexicans, killing Sergio Adrian Hernandez.

The Border Patrol agent fires while holding the detained Mexican by the hair, sending the others scurrying for cover.

A group of people watching the incident unfold, including the man who took the video, shout “they are throwing rocks,” followed by the sound of gunshots and a person saying “he hit him, the stupid man hit him.”

One of the other teenagers raises his hands and surrenders when he sees that Hernandez has been shot in the head, and more Border Patrol agents appear on the riverbank.

The video appears to disprove the U.S. agent’s account that he felt his life was in danger and also contradicts the statements of Hernandez’s mother, who said Wednesday that her son did not cross into the United States and was only watching what was going on.

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May is the Most Violent in Ciudad Juarez so far

Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua - A total of 253 people were murdered last month in Ciudad Juarez, a border city in the northern state of Chihuahua, making May the most violent month of the year in Mexico’s murder capital, prosecutors said.

Drug-related killings totaled 227 in January, 163 in February, 203 in March and 240 in April, the Chihuahua state Attorney General’s Office said.

“The numbers speak for themselves, this is evidence that authorities are not doing their jobs well,” a representative of a grassroots group in Ciudad Juarez said.

Local, state and federal officials met May 28 to discuss the first 100 days of “Todos Somos Juarez,” a social development program launched in the wake of the killings of 16 people, the majority of them students, at a birthday party in the border city on Jan. 31.

The program seeks to reduce crime and violence in Juarez, located across the border from El Paso, Texas, by restoring the city’s social fabric.

Many in Juarez, however, contend the program has yielded few results.


Residents of the Villas de Salvarcar neighborhood gathered for a Mass on Monday to mark four months since the birthday party massacre.

Relatives and friends of the massacre victims released white balloons to remember the young men and protest the violence and impunity in Juarez.

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Army failed to stop a shooting that killed five in Ciudad Juarez

Despite the fact that several elements of the Mexican army were a few feet from the crime scene, they failed to stop a slaughter perpetrated by an armed commando in Ciudad Juarez that killed five people.

Five people, including the owner of a truck burritos, were riddled with bullets killed by a group of sicarios a few feet from the border bridge of Zaragoza, and right in front of the passive eyes of the army who did not make an attempt to stop the attack despite being a few feet away.

According to a report on channel 44 in Ciudad Juárez, the events occurred on the afternoon of Friday, May 28 a few feet from the border crossing and without the Mexican army intervening.

The shooting occurred when a pickup truck parked near a bus converted to sell burritos and several of the occupants got out to buy something to eat. Right after an armed group arrived and opened fire with rifles, killing the crew of the SUV and the owner of the business selling burritos.

Although they were a few feet from the scene, the elements of the Mexican army assigned to the international bridge in Zaragoza never intervened or tried to stop the shootings.

A report by Channel 44 shows the images of the distance from the site of the shooting to the gate of Zaragoza, where the soldiers were standing and did nothing to stop the aggression.

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Six Gunned Down in Ciudad Juarez

Six men were fatally shot on Friday just a few meters (yards) from the Mexico-U.S. border, the Chihuahua state Attorney General’s Office said.

The victims came under attack while riding in an SUV near one of the bridges that link Ciudad Juarez with El Paso, Texas. Seeking refuge, the driver pulled up to a grocery store.

Two of the SUV’s occupants were killed inside the shop and two others died on the street, while two remained in the vehicle.

Authorities are working to identify the victims, described as ranging in age from 25 to 35.

Drug-related violence has claimed more than 1,000 lives in Juarez since Jan. 1 and upwards of 5,000 over the past 2½ years.

President Felipe Calderon’s administration has deployed about 5,000 Federal Police officers in the border city of 1.5 million to try to stem killings by drug cartels battling for control of smuggling routes into the United States.

Juarez was also occupied for months by thousands of army troops, but the military presence did nothing to quell the violence, while drawing numerous complaints from residents about abuses by the soldiers.

More than 23,000 people have died in Mexico’s drug war during Calderon’s tenure, which began in December 2006.

See More for videos:

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Wedding in the Most Dangerous City

Authorities confirmed that the bodies found were the same ones abducted at a wedding

The District Attorney in Juarez confirmed this morning that three of the four bodies found yesterday in the back of a pickup are the same men who were abducted "levantados" on Friday during a wedding in the church "El Señor de la Misericordia."

The investigating authorities identified the victims as: Guadalupe Morales Arriola 51, Rafael Morales Valencia 29, and Jaime Morales Valencia 25. A fourth person remains as unidentified. A police source confirmed that Rafael Morales was the man who was getting married that day, his brother Jaime Morales and Guadalupe Morales was the best man.

The four dead were found in a 2006 Toyota Tacoma truck that was abandoned in the street Antonio de Mendoza in the community Los Virreyes.

The bodies had visible signs that the men  had been tortured. The bodies were found with their hands tied, some of them were nude, severely beaten and their faces covered with brown tape, all signs of organized crime.

The day of the event the participants said that once the assailants fled the scene, about a minute later a unit of the PF drove by but failed to stop when they were flagged down.

Subsequently, the Federal Police (PF) reported the arrest of two alleged perpetrators of the attack in the El Señor de la Misericordia Church, thanks to information provided by a witness.

PF spokesman, Jose Ramon Salinas Frias, reported that hours after the abduction of the bridegroom and his godfathers an arrest of two people was achieved.

"We have a possible witness under detention. Because of what that witness we have made two arrests, who are the potential perpetrators," he said.

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Eight Killed in Mexican Border City

Eight people were killed in separate incidents in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s murder capital, the Chihuahua state Attorney General’s Office said.

Six people, including a 17-year-old boy, were gunned down, while one person was stabbed to death and another was beaten to death, the AG’s office said.

The bodies of three men, one of whom had been beaten to death, were found early Sunday in Ciudad Juarez, located just across the border from El Paso, Texas.

One of the men was stabbed to death in the Libertad neighborhood and the other was gunned down in the Parajes San Juan section of the border city.

Five other people, including a woman, were killed between Saturday afternoon and midnight.

The body of the woman, identified as Lidia Magallanes Cordoba, 32, was found in the middle of the street. She had been shot three times.

The teenager, identified as Irving Ramirez, was shot in the side and died at Ciudad Juarez’s Hospital de la Familia.

Ciudad Juarez, where more than 5,000 people have been murdered since 2008, has been plagued by drug-related violence for years.

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The Slaughter Continues in Juarez

Despite the fact that President Felipe Calderon has sent over 5,000 federal police officers to Ciudad Juarez, the violence continues at a record pace. At least 15 people have been killed within the last 24 hours, among the dead are six teenagers, in various violent acts in Ciudad Juarez which borders the United States.

It seems like the more federal police they send, violence just increases, nothing changes in this criminally torn city. People continue to be executed at all hours of the day in Juarez, and we see some of the low level sicarios get arrested, but what we don’t see is the arrest of the heavy weights, they remain immune.

Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua - Shortly after four o'clock in the morning 8 people that were in the bar "Aristos" located on Avenida Vicente Guerrero and Honduras in the community of El Barreal in Ciudad Juarez were shot dead.

Gunmen (sicarios) entered into the bar and took the eight people into the back yard where they were then placed against a wall and executed. The sicarios then walked next to each body and shot each one of them point blank on the head "coup de grace or tiro de gracia" style.



Authorities have mounted a huge police deployment throughout the city in search of those responsible, unofficially it is said that several people were injured and taken to different hospitals in the city.

Police found 12 spent casings and a 1990 Chevrolet Blazer, which apparently belong to the people massacred, said Arturo Sandoval, spokesman for Chihuahua state police.

Several customers and employees were apparently traumatized and were terrified after witnessing the bloody massacre.

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Juárez Nears 5,000 Killings

By Daniel Borunda
El Paso Times

Homicides in the Juárez drug war will soon surpass the 5,000 mark as a vicious conflict continues.

As of Sunday evening, there have been more than 760 murders this year, raising to 4,992 homicides in the Juárez area since 2008 when a drug cartel war erupted, according to a tally kept by the El Paso Times.

The war between the Sinaloa and Juárez drug cartels that began in January 2008 sparked an unprecedented wave of murder, including daytime street shootings, mutilations and massacres.

By comparison, the number of deaths in Juárez surpasses the 4,393 members of the U.S. military who have died in the Iraq war since 2003.
 

The killings in Juárez have been unrelenting.

On Saturday night, gunmen burst into a funeral vigil for a slain teenager and opened fire, killing three women and wounding 10 others at a house in the Independencia 2 colonia in the southern part of Juárez.

Chihuahua state police said the shooters fired 44 rounds. Police identified the dead as Maria del Carmen Rangel Chacon, 65, Sara Orosco Rangel, 46, and Ernestina Rubio Martinez, who was 55 to 60 years old.

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Six Murdered in Mexican Border City

Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua - Six people, including three attending a wake, were killed in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s murder capital, the Chihuahua state Attorney General’s Office said.

Gunmen burst into a house Saturday night in the Independencia neighborhood and opened fire on a group of people holding a wake.

Three women died in the attack and 12 other people were wounded, the AG’s office said.

Several of the wounded are listed in serious condition at hospitals in Ciudad Juarez, located across the border from El Paso, Texas, the press reported.

Investigators found 44 bullet casings from 9 mm pistols inside the house, where a wake was being held for a man murdered in the town of Parral.

Three other people were killed in separate incidents Saturday night in Ciudad Juarez, where more than 5,000 people have died in drug-related violence since 2008.

Jose Luis Perez Ramirez, 25, was shot in the head in the Terrenos Nacionales neighborhood, the AG’s office said.

The body of a woman who had been shot several times was found in a street in the Fray Garcia San Francisco neighborhood.

The body of an unidentified man, whose head was wrapped with a trash bag, was found in the Senderos del Sol neighborhood.

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5 Sicarios Arrested in Police Slayings

Mexican police arrested five suspects in the killings of seven police officers and a bystander in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, authorities said Monday.

Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua - Mexican police arrested five suspects in the killings of seven police officers and a bystander in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, authorities said Monday.

The sicarios arrested were identified as: Antonio Espinoza Reveles, Germán Isau Ozorno Manuel, Daniel Escobar Bonilla, Gerardo Torres Estrada and José Luis Hernández Montañéz.

The suspects are members of La Linea gang, the enforcement arm of the Juarez drug cartel, according to a statement from a joint anti-crime task force in Chihuahua state.

The men confessed to Friday's ambush of two police patrol trucks as they were flagged down for help by an unidentified man, the federal, state and local task force said. Six federal police officers and one local police woman were killed.

The suspects also confessed to 36 other slayings since 2009 and to extorting money from at least 21 businesses, the task force said.

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