Mayhem in Monterrey: 12 die

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A total of 12 individuals have been killed in ongoing drug and gang related violence in or around Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, including a lynching in Monterrey, according to Mexican news reports.

Late Friday night four unidentified individuals were killed and a fifth was wounded in Juarez municipality, according to a news report which appeared on the website of Milenio news daily.

The shooting took place at around 2330 hrs at  residence on Calle Flor de Belen in Valle de San Juan colony, where a lone armed suspect fired an AK-47 rifle into a gathering of five young men who had been drinking. The armed suspect exited a taxi and immediately started firing at the gathering

The dead were identified in a separate report as Alan Joseph Beltran Mora, AKA "El Popeye", 19, Edgar Gerardo Pedroza Cardona, 26, David Adrian Garza Vargas, 23, and José Roberto Perez Estevez, 18.  The wounded was identified as Alan Ramiro López, 19.

After the shooting, the shooter remounted the taxi and fled the scene.

Earlier in the evening a fifth unidentified man was shot to death and two others were wounded in Independencia colony, according to the same Milenio report.

The shooting took place near Loma Larga near San Pedro Garza Garcia in an area called Camino a las Antenas.

Seven other individuals were killed in or around Monterrey since Friday.

• An unidentified police agent from Guadalupe municipality was killed and two others were hurt in a rollover accident in San Nicholas de la Garza municipality Saturday night, according to a Milenio news account.  A police unit was in pursuit of a taxi cab on Avenida Romulo Garza when the driver lost control near the corner of Avenida Roberto Garza Sada.
• A woman was found shot to death near a bar in San Nicolas de los Garza municipality early Saturday morning.  Angela Gabriela Rodriguez, 39, was found by a taxi driver at around 0400 hrs near a drinking establishment called La Taberna on  Avenida Universidad, bleeding from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. The victim died a short time later while receiving medical attention.
• A mother and her son were found shot to death in southern Monterrey Saturday night.  Ana Cecilia Hernandez Robledo, 50, and Claudio Simon Hernandez Arriaga 15, were found in their residence in Cerro de la Campana colony near the intersection of calles San Isidro and Raul Chapa Zarate.  Reports are armed suspects with rifles burst into the residence then started firing as the victims slept.
• Two men were found aboard a taxi cab shot to death in Monterrey Friday night, according to a Milenio news account.  The victims were identified as  Victor Manuel Bonilla Piña, 30, and Fernando Gonzalez Piña, 44, who were found near the intersection of calles Mina and Juarez in Topo Chico colony.  The report said that armed suspects had driven by where the taxi was, and fired into the vehicle killing the two passengers.  The taxi driver was unharmed.

And now a feel good crime story...

One unidentified individual died and two of his accomplices were beaten in a lynching in Independencia colony in Monterrey Friday night, according to a Milenio news report. 

Three hooded suspects attempted a home invasion at a residence, but when the mask of one of the attackers was removed, somehow a call went out, and a total of 120 local residents fell upon the group, beating them. 

Before units of the Policia Federal and Fuerza Civil could arrive, one of the alleged attackers was dead and two others were severely wounded.  According to the report, the colony was where a number of kidnappings and extortion crimes had taken place.

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

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Is the Fuse Lit? Uprising/Lynching in Ascención

ASCENSIÓN, Chihuahua – An attempted kidnapping September 21 in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua touched off a burst of mass outrage that left two suspected young kidnappers dead and a small town in open rebellion.

While the details are still sketchy, the events began with the abduction of a 17-year-old female worker of a seafood restaurant in the town of Ascension by a group of young men.

Located south of the New Mexico border, Ascención is in an agricultural region known for its production of chili peppers for the US export market and other crops. The rural area has suffered numerous kidnappings and killings during the last two years.

Alerted to the kidnapping, townspeople and soldiers mobilized, freed the victim and detained five alleged kidnappers; one suspect reportedly escaped. Hundreds of angry residents beat two of the detainees, teenagers, and blocked police from rescuing the suspects, who were later pronounced dead. Reportedly, the mother of one of the suspects witnessed her son’s demise.

In a stand-off that lasted throughout the day, residents prevented two federal police helicopters from landing and blockaded roads to prevent military reinforcements from arriving. Armed with picks, shovels and machetes, enraged residents shouted at “corrupt” soldiers and police to leave. Some locals accused government security forces of colluding with delinquent bands.

One version held that the rescued kidnap victim was the niece of a member of the local town council.

“La Chona Lights the Fuse,” headlined Ciudad Juarez’s Lapolaka newsite, whose director was just granted political asylum in the United States. The news organization couched the report in historical and contemporary terms: “The new Mexican Revolution could have begun this Tuesday in Ascención…”

While mass lynchings are not uncommon in certain parts of Mexico, such acts have been rare in Chihuahua. The Ascension incident came at an extremely delicate political moment in Chihuahua and Mexico. Submerged in violence, the border state is two weeks away from a political transition that will usher into power a new governor, new state legislature and local governments.

Since the July elections, the murders of several relatives of Governor-elect Cesar Duarte and other politicians, frequent public displays of narco-banners warning of new attacks and round-the-clock executions have added constant doses of mass anxiety to an already tense political and social environment characterized by the ongoing confrontation between heavily armed organized crime groups.

“We consider that an armed conflict which has not been duly recognized by international institutions exists in the state of Chihuahua and Ciudad Juarez in particular,” read a statement from three prominent, non-governmental human rights organizations this week.

“The cost has been devastating: Thousands of executions, murders of women, robberies, extortions, taxes on businesses for turf rights, deaths of human rights defenders and journalists, hundreds of thousands of displaced people, complaints of human rights violations that are not investigated or sanctioned, and tears and blood that run through the desert in total impunity.”

The statement was signed by representatives of the Chihuahua Commission in Solidarity and Defense of Human Rights, Paso del Norte Human Rights Center and Women’s Human Rights Center of Chihuahua City.

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