La Politica: New Mexico!

My Last Blog Entry...For a While

2010-12-31T19:17:00.010-07:00

One hundred years from now, on the eve of the second centennial of New Mexico statehood, New Mexicans will access video images of a woman dancing gracefully with a tall partner, alone on a dance floor in Las Cruces, surrounded by citizens celebrating her forthcoming inauguration as governor of the state. Some will comment on the old fashioned clothing worn by onlookers; others, intrigued by the persuasively elegant dancing, will browse through historical compendiums to find out how well she fared in governing the state.

Historians will record that on that evening, 40 miles to the south, Cd. Juarez was setting a new record in homicides, for the second year in a row, earning a statistical reputation as the most violent city in the world. New Mexico's financial situation was dire, the product of poor national performance and years of increasing corruption and cynical mismanagement. The state's educational system was ranked between 47 and 49 out of 50, in student performance, depending on the agency doing the ranking. Jobs were scarce, poverty was growing, and confidence was sinking. The dancing woman will be judged on how well historians believe she responded to these challenges. There will be room for some debate around the edges but the weight of evidence will be strong enough to render a fairly solid judgment; but on this side of the historical divide we cannot know what it will be.

Decades ago as a young man I found myself in an audience of people my age, listening to a panel of experts discussing the civil rights movement, then one of the two major political upheavals of the era. Young black students demanded faster change; older panelists cautioned them for patience--a classic generational confrontation. At the end of the heated session one of the panelists looked up at us and said something I still remember vividly. Fifty years from now, he said, you will look back on your life and reflect on the historic battles of your lifetime, and you will want to evaluate your own role as a citizen as these battles passed through your life. Most of you, looking back at the civil rights movement will say, "yes, racial relations needed fixing. Brave people traveled to Selma and Birmingham, and other battlegrounds, fighting for the cause of racial justice. I'm glad they did that." Another group, much smaller, will say, "yes, I remember Birmingham and Selma during the civil rights movement. I was there." I have never forgotten those words from the soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. They made a difference in some of the decisions I've made, and I've passed this advice on to many of my students. Each of us must make up our minds where "there" is, which side we are on, and what we will do about it.

I've enjoyed working on this blog immensely over the past two years, focusing increasing attention on the wars of Juarez. These are our neighbors and New Mexicans should be aware of what is going on there. I know something about these wars and I've tried, discretely, to pass some of this knowledge on to others. Lately, though, as you may have surmised from my low level of productivity, I've been occupied by other things. So it is my duty to announce to you now this will be my last entry, at least for a while. On Monday morning I will begin a public, official life, in which my opinions about most things, including Juarez, should be kept very private. Indeed, I am probably pushing my luck (I sought no approval for this entry) with about-to-be-constituted authority to slip this last blog in before my official start day. Let me end by saying there was just no way I could turn down the invitation by the dancing woman to join her for a different kind of dance, the dance of governance, and thereby throw my grain of sand into the movement of history in our time. Wish me well.

At the risk of repetition and straining the reader's patience, let me leave you with a poem I copied here two years ago, but which relevant today:

Defenseless under the night
Our world in stupor lies
Yet, dotted everywhere, ironic points of light
Flash out, wherever the Just exchange their messages
May I, composed like them of Eros and of dust
Beleaguered by the same negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame

WH Auden

The Beat: 2964 and Counting, With Twenty Days Left of the Year. Fourteen Killed on Saturday

2010-12-12T15:12:00.003-07:00

The score so far in December is 86 executions, with 2964 total for the year so far, a new record for the most violent city in the world. Last year the count was 2657, so the additional executions add up to nearly one more per day in Juarez. In 2008 it was 1653, and in 2007 it was 318.

Restaurants, Bus Companies Express Solidarity With Doctors

2010-12-12T14:57:00.003-07:00

Federico Ziga Martínez, president of the local National Chamber of the Restaurant Industry, said his association will support the work stoppage at hospital emergency units tomorrow. Hundreds of restaurant owners and employees will wear black ribbons as an expression of grief.

Manuel Sotelo, president of the Association of Bus Transporters of Juarez, said his organization will not stop bus traffic, since the maquila sector depends in great part on transportation of workers, but he intends to make some gesture of solidarity, even if only symbolic.

Twenty Four Hour Strike Leaves Only Two Emergency Rooms Open

2010-12-12T11:58:00.004-07:00

Tomorrow and early Tuesday morning will not be good days to be hit by gunfire in Juarez, since the only two emergency rooms available may have long waiting lines. So please try to choose another day to take a bullet wound

Various medical associations, grouped under a new umbrella organization called Médicos Unidos por Juárez, have decided to stage a twenty four-hour suspension of activities in emergency rooms--except for two sites--to protest the kidnapping of 11 doctors and the assassination of three so far this year. The strike, which will begin on Monday morning at 7:30 a.m., is more than just symbolic, inasmuch as the largest hospitals, including the three social security hospitals, the general hospitals of zone 6 and 35, and all private hospitals are joining in. Only the anchor General Hospital (on Paseo Triunfo de la Republica and Fernando Montes de Oca) and and the Hospital for Municipal Workers (on Adolfo Lopez Mateos and Anillo Envolvente del Pronaf) will continue working as usual during the work stoppage.

The doctors, moreover, are asking the three levels of government--state, local, and federal--to take action on a variety of issues. Among these is the clarification of the deaths of doctors Alfonso Rocha and Alberto Betancourt; for police to conduct their work with visible identity badges and without masks; for state funding of medical facilities to be proportional to that generated by the city; and for the state to create a special fund to reactivate the economy of Juarez. Other points include the professionalization of the municipal police force; the assignment of 200 federal agents to investigate the thousands of unresolved crimes; and greater accountability and punishment for corrupt public officials.

Alfredo Lugo Villa, a spokesperson for Médicos Unidos por Juárez told reporters that if the umbrella group has not received a "positive response" to these demands within seven days it will "escalate" measures until authorities begin to pay attention. “This movement comes from the citizenry, it is not political, it has no partisan affiliation, and it does not derive from any labor or contractual issues," he said.

Click here for story in Diario.

More Rehab Centers Attacked: Four Dead

2010-12-07T21:31:00.002-07:00

Veteran security reporter Felix Gonzalez (click here) reports that two drug rehabilitation centers were attacked yesterday, killing four persons. A preliminary report suggests armed men surrounded the facilities of the Center for the Control of Addictions, breaking down a gate and shooting inside the building. One person was killed. Later, apparently the same men, went to another drug rehabilitation center, killing three persons. At least ten more persons residing at the center were taken to hospitals after the attack. In the past two years various drug rehabilitation centers have come under armed attack, and many residents have been killed.

Governor of Chihuahua Discusses Possible UN Intervention

2010-12-07T21:11:00.003-07:00

In a note by Diario (click here)reporter Alejandro Salmón, the author writes the following:

Governor Cesar Duarte suggested that intervention of UN troops in Chihuahua might be studied by his government.

After signing an agreement to collaborate with the United Nations for the promotion of a culture of legality, the governor said he would take advantage of this new relationship to benefit Chihuahua in various ways.

"This is a subject being discussed in the Senate of the federal government, but if given a chance we would consider the possibility (of UN intervention). "

At the same time (click here) El Fronterizo reports that UN representative Antonio Matzitelli, who signed the agreement with the governor, suggested to reporters that UN troops intervene only under conditions of war, which is not the case in Chihuahua. He indicated that lowering the violence in the state requires a pact among mexican federal and state institutions.

Matzitelli said the UN would help analyze the strategy now being implemented, and seek operational solutions in specifice cases, using models and practices that have worked well in other places. the UN will also give training to judges, prosecutors, and investigators, provide software to police forces, and offer advice on preventing crime

Top Azteca Gang Killer Captured

2010-11-28T14:57:00.003-07:00

Arturo Gallegos Castrellon, 32, a.k.a. "El Farmero," a top leader of the Azteca Gang in Juarez was captured on Friday night after a lengthy, well publicized gun battle in a residence he was using on Gomez Morin, a major thoroughfare in Juarez.. Also arrested were Carlos Rodriguez Ramirez, 41, ("El 67") suspected of transporting drugs from Juarez into the United States, and Giselle Ornelas Nunez, 32, a.k.a. "La Maestra," accused of transporting drugs and weapons into Cd. Juarez.

Gallegos is believed to be a very bad guy indeed. He is believed to be the one who ordered the murder of the two employees of the U.S. Consulate this Spring; the one who ordered the killing of the high school football team (14 dead in the massacre), the Doble A team, in a case of what appears to be mistaken identity last January; and he is believed to be responsible for the killings of 5 federal police officers. He is also believed to be the one who ordered the murder of the wife of Jesus Ernesto Chavez Castillo, a.k.a. "el Camello," a member of the gang, captured in July. After "El Camello's wife began to visit Mexico City after his arrest, it is believed that "El Farmero" ordered her killed under suspicion she might be revealing things about the Azteca gang.

From various reports in Diario, El Norte.

Gun Laws in Mexico: The Black and Not-So-Black Markets for Guns in Juarez

2010-11-27T03:00:00.005-07:00

Diario this morning has a note by Berenice Gaytán (click here) with details about the markets, black and otherwise, for guns in Cd. Juarez these days.

Gun laws: According to the Ministry of Defense, all citizens are entitled to possess weapons to be used for household protection, but they must be in the 22-38 caliber range. More powerful weapons are reserved exclusively for use by the armed forces or law enforcement agents. Weapons are not permitted to be taken outside the household without express permission

However, people who hunt for sport and who belong to an authorized hunting club may possess more powerful weapons.

Gun registration procedures: in order to have legal right to possess a weapon for household protection, a citizen must present the gun, unloaded and in a holster or case, to the ministry of defense, along with an official identification card with a photograph of the owner, and proof of residency such as a light or water bill. As of last year payment of about $3.00 was required in the form of a bank statement that payment was made, using a code (400113) indicating the payment was for gun registration. But since weapons according to Mexican gun law are not allowed to be transported outside the domicile, citizens must first report to a military headquarters, without the weapon but with documentation about it, including serial numbers, to obtain a card permitting transportation of the weapon to the appropriate location to be registered.

Sounds complicated? The registration procedure is even more complicated by the fact that it is illegal to buy and sell weapons: there are no stores you can go to and purchase a gun. This has given rise in Juarez to a black market, where one may purchase guns of all kinds, including automatic weapons and assault rifles. Guess who satisfies the demand for guns in this illegal environment? People in the United States, where it is relatively easy to purchase a gun. In recent years the Mexican government has complained loudly about the lack of cooperation by the U.S. government in controlling the flow of illegal guns into Mexico.

In this article Berenice Gaytán interviews "Jose," (otherwise unidentified), who admits he bought a 38 caliber pistol on the black market and legalized it by going through the procedure outlined above with the ministry of defense. "They don't ask any questions," he said, "about how you obtained the gun, at least that's the impression I got. You just pay the fee, you take the gun and the documents, and you get your permit."

The Juarez Municipal Budget: Less Money Than Last Year

2010-11-26T08:59:00.003-07:00

From Diario (click here): Yesterday the city council of Cd. Juarez approved a budget for 2011 of 2.754 billion pesos (around $220 million at the current exchange rate), about $40 million (U.S.) less than the 2010 budget, a reduction of about 18%, a huge hit. The city council also approved a measure to allow the mayor to seek additional funds through increases in the fees charged for city services. About 40% of this budget will come from municipal income; about 31% will come from state-federal funds; and about 29% will come from strictly federal funds.

Xóchitl Contreras Herrera, a city council person, indicated that much of the deficit next year is due to the closing of businesses, which in turn is due both to stagnation in the Mexican, U.S., and global economies, and to the severe security environment in Cd. Juarez. The city also has an outstanding debt of about $32 million (U.S.), for which no funds have been allocated in the projected budget.

By contrast, the El Paso City budget for FY 2011 is $693 million, and for El Paso County it is $247 million. The Municipio de Juarez is more or less the equivalent governing body corresponding to both El Paso City and El Paso County. It should be noted, however, that the cost of living is significantly lower in Mexico, so the disparity between the nearly $1 billion being spent on local government in El Paso county and the $220 million for Juarez is not as dramatic as implied by the numbers.

If we take a look at the entire Paso del Norte region, the population is somewhere around 2.4-2.6 million people, counting Juarez, El Paso MSA, and Dona Ana County. Local governments (El Paso County, El Paso City, Cd. Juarez, and Dona Ana County) have budgets adding up to about $1.2 billion.

In contrast, the Albuquerque MSA, with a population of about 730,000 (El Paso has a county-wide population of about 763,000), has a budget of $455 million plus Bernalillo County has a budget of $612 million, in the same ballpark as El Paso alone (almost $1 billion), on a per-capita basis, but, region-wide local government in the MSA of Albuquerque, with a population less than one third the size of the Paso del Norte region, spends just a fraction under the total amount spent on local government in the Paso del Norte.

Don Alejo and the Debate About Gun Laws in Mexico: Juarez Apparently Divided

2010-11-26T06:49:00.006-07:00

Don Alejo Garza Tamez, the 77-year old property owner in Tamaulipas who defended his "rancho" near the state capital of Cd. Victoria, has now become a legend in the history of extortion during the latest chapter (2007-20??) in Mexico's war on drugs.

The story: On Saturday, November 13 of this year (2010) "Don Alejo," as he was known, received an extortion threat against his property, "rancho San Jose," a few acres of land 9 miles from Cd.Victoria, just South of South Padre Island. "Leave your property to us or we will kill you. You have 24 hours to vacate." Call the police? (are you kidding?) Give up the ranch? (No way!). Don Alejo told his employees to take Sunday off, don't come over here. He then spent the day organizing a one-man defense of his home, placing a gun and ammunition near each window of the house. On Sunday the bad guys came, firing in the air. Alejo chose his targets well during the gunfight that ensued, killing four and wounding two badly before the survivors fought their way into the house using hand grenades and killed him. Only then did the thieves begin to realize Alejo's noble death would prevent them from ever taking over his property. They fled.

Note to NRA: You might think about raising the funds to place a monumental statue of Don Alejo in front of his house, with a rifle clutched in his clammy dying hands: this one is more authentic than Charlton Heston, who used mere acting skills to rouse his audience with the same image.

This incident has captured the imagination of all of Mexico, but, if you've read this blog for the past couple of years you might expect it would provoke special discussion in Juarez.

Diario (click here) has an interesting note this morning. They interviewed 100 people "at random," (hardly a suitable sample size) to find out how they felt about relaxing gun laws in Mexico to permit households to purchase weapons for household defense.

If ever there were a place to debate gun laws, it is Juarez today, where armed self-defense is not just an abstract concept, given the very real threats your home might be violated by police or by extortionists, or murderers with many kinds of motivation.

From the very limited sample, it looks like a sophisticated debate. On the one hand there are those who argue having a weapon is dangerous, due to accidents, family violence, and because a weapon doesn't guarantee sufficient force to stop an assault, and because police or army troops increasingly invade homes looking for suspects, so there would be a danger of unnecessary violence. On the other hand there are those who claim that, since the emergency call number (066) often doesn't function at all or in an untimely fashion, and since the threats are very tangible for all sectors of society, the state should encourage everyone to have arms. Still others believe guns should be allowed, but registered, and should not be of the same caliber of arms provided to police and army. Several attorneys interviewed expressed the view that the Mexican Constitution guarantees citizens the right to have arms for household protection; in real life, however, it is extremely difficult to get a valid permit to buy a weapon.

Me? I will maintain a discreet personal silence on this issue, but the Mesilla Valley, this part of the Paso del Norte region (the other parts are Juarez and El Paso), is Pat Garrett and Billie the Kid-land, West of the Pecos, with a proud tradition of self-defense. And most folks around here, if they were living in Juarez, would obtain every weapon they could get hold of, plan a household defense just like Don Alejo did, and make sure everyone possible understood they were prepared to shoot to kill and if necessary join Don Alejo in the happy hunting grounds the moment anyone with arms--uniformed or not--burst into their homes unannounced.

Oops! I Was Wrong About the Chihuahua Budget

2010-11-24T09:59:00.002-07:00

My friend Javier Ortiz informs me that my numbers in my November 15 post were wrong. The budget for Chihuahua, including all expenditures, he says, is about $3 billion per year. Apparently the $565 million figure I used from an El Fronterizo article for my posting refers not to the whole budget, but rather, that portion of the state budget that comes from the federal government. The story was a report on a speech Governor Duarte gave, discussing the success of the federal delegation from Chihuahua in improving the federal budget for Chihuahua by 28% in 2011.

This is an important distinction, because with cost of living adjustments, the $3 billion spent by the state is in the same ballpark as the $5-6 billion spent by the government of the state of New Mexico.

I looked up federal expenditures in New Mexico for 2008 and come up with a figure of about $22 billion. I'm not sure whether I can find a similar statistic for Chihuahua.

Carjackings Up Sharply in Juarez: 13.3 per day on average

2010-11-20T08:07:00.002-07:00

In a note in Norte Digital, veteran security reporter Feliz A. Gonzalez writes that during the past few months the incidence of "car theft with violence" has spiked up to an average of 13.3 per day during the past two months. In 2009 the average was 9 per day; this shot up to 10 per day in 2010 up to September, and is now spiking up even more. In October there were 397 incidences of car theft with violence, out of a total of 1561 cases of car theft reported to authorities.

Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are the days one is most likely to lose one's automobile to thieves. Most cars stolen are older models, 1991 to 1995. It should be noted that many middle class families drive cars more than eight years old, since importation of these is much easier, with lower tariffs. Only relatively wealthy people can afford to buy newer models. Although the story doesn't contain information about this, I would guess that carjackings (that is, "car theft with violence," typically in which one is asked at gunpoint to abandon one's vehicle without taking the keys) is far more frequently directed at newer vehicles. I do not drive my newer vehicle to Juarez.

153 Municipal Police in Juarez Will Be Terminated For Failing "Trustworthiness" Test

2010-11-20T07:32:00.004-07:00

Laurencio Rodriguez Contreras, Chief of Public Security for Juarez, announced yesterday that 153 municipal police officers will be terminated in the next few days for failing to pass a "trustworthiness" test administered to 875 officers in Juarez during the past few months. He also announced that the rest of the police officer corps, 1863 officers, will submit to the same testing beginning in January 2011. See note in Norte Digital here.

On October 12 of this year Federal Security Chief Genaro Garcia Luna stated in Juarez that only 35% of 1664 municipal police passed the trustworthiness test. He did not stipulate whether these had been fired, but the news yesterday suggests those who failed the test are now being terminated. There has been no explanation for the discrepancy in the figures provided. It is not clear just what kind of testing is used to determine trustworthiness.

The discrepancy in the numbers might possibly be explained by the difference between active officers and inactive officers. The Juarez police force at the moment has 2631 officers on the books, although only about 1500 of these have been placed on active duty. It may be (this is my speculation) that the 153 officers being terminated are among the active duty officers taking and failing the trustworthiness test. Two years ago when the armed forces supplemented the municipal police in Juarez, municipal police officers were systematically fired. The police academy then began training programs to build up a completely new police force.

Presumed Assassins of US Consulate Worker Caught

2010-11-18T18:41:00.003-07:00

José Guadalupe Díaz Díaz, alias “El Zorro”, 32, and Reynaldo Díaz Díaz, alias “El Rey," were captured yesterday, and will probably be charged with narcotics distribution, extortion, and homicide. Díaz, or "El Zorro," is said to be one of the top figures in the Azteca gang, in charge of distribution and sale of drugs and extortion rings in the Aldama, Delicias, and Chihuahua sectors of Cd. Juarez. The Azteca gang is believed to be under the command of La Linea, that is, the Juarez cartel. "El Zorro" is also believed to have been one of the assassins of Lesley A. Enriquez and her husband Arthur Redelfs, 34. Enriquez was the daughter of a prominent businessman in Juarez and she worked at the U.S. Consulate. They were murdered in an attack on an SUV they were driving on Sunday afternoon after attending a children's birthday party near city hall in Cd. Juarez on March 13 of this year. Reynaldo Díaz Díaz is also believed to have been involved in that assassination, which left three persons dead, in two different vehicles.

For note in Diario, click here

New Mexico Budget Tanks Another $450 million; Chihuahua Budget up 28%. But Put This in Perspective

2010-11-15T20:32:00.004-07:00

While Governor-elect Susana Martinez tries to figure out how to manage a $450 million shortfall, discovered after the 2010 elections, after two years of deteriorating revenues in New Mexico, Governor Cesar Duarte announced today the Chihuahua state budget in 2011 will be 28% higher than the budget for 2010.

But wait: before going green with envy, consider this: The Chihuahua budget for 2011 will be $7.068 billion pesos ($565 million U.S.) The New Mexico budget for 2011, which ends on June 30 next year, will be about $5 billion, after going above $6 billion two years ago, about nine times the budget for Chihuahua in spite of the exceptionally hard times. Even admitting that the peso goes a lot farther in Mexico than the U.S. dollar does in the U.S., the difference between the two budgets is staggering, especially considering that Chihuahua state has about 3.2 million compared to New Mexico's 2 million.

In a press communique delivered yesterday Duarte noted that federal congresspersons from Chihuahua had done an excellent job of securing about $1 billion pesos from the federal government for providing increased security for Cd. Juarez. In Mexico state government relies much more heavily than in the U.S. for its government budget. States have no completely independent source of revenue funding in Mexico, in contrast to the U.S.

See note in El Fronterizo, here.

Five Suspected Extortionists Executed in the Last Week

2010-11-15T20:09:00.002-07:00

Report by Felix A. Gonzalez, El Norte Digital (click here):

Yesterday at about 7:35 a.m. a man about 35-40, driving a Ford F-150 was shot to death while driving on Independencia and Avenida de la Torres. Inside the vehicle police found a note that said, "don't forget the $15000 peso ($1200 U.S.) quota due next Thursday."

Earlier in the week two young men, ages between 20-25 were killed while driving a Honda Civic on Independencia and Zaragoza. Police received tips that the two were extortionists. Seventeen spent cartridges of 9 mm and 60 caliber were found near the scene.

Two men, ages between 20-25 were found killed in the Doña Victoria laundromat after a confrontation with federal police. Police found in their possession a notebook with the names and addresses of businesses they were apparently extorting from. Police found 37 spent 9 mm. cartridges near the scene and found an AK-47 in a vehicle nearby.

"Tell Me a Story," She Said to the Nurse. And Then She Died. It was Her Sixth Birthday

2010-11-07T08:47:00.008-07:00

Hérika Martínez Prado, in today's Norte (click here), reports the death of a six-year old girl in a hospital on Thursday, November 4, after being shot in an armed attack that left her mother dead in an apparent case of mistaken identity. Her mother, Eva Ordaz de Leon, 23, the mother of four, took her daughter Erika, six, to a clothing store to buy her some pants. After making the purchase at Guilly's, she put her daughter into her 1999 Chevrolet Tahoe, but when she started opening the door to the driver's seat, the gunmen began shooting. As one assassin, who witnesses said could not have been more than 20 years of age, approached the vehicle, he was heard to shout, "it isn't her," and the gunmen fled into about four vehicles that were waiting for them. Eva, who sold used clothing to help make ends meet for her family, was dead on the spot and Erika died later in the hospital. Erika seemed tired and sleepy, nurses say, and she asked one of the nurses to tell her a story. She had received three gunshot wounds, one of them to her heart. It was her sixth birthday.

Police Clarify: Jorge Gutiérrez Corral, ex-police officer, was not one of the kidnappers; he was just about to be videotaped when rescued

2010-11-06T21:15:00.005-06:00

From Diario: The unofficial version of events, as told by news media outlets the other day, was incorrect (see November 4 posting below): not only was Jorge Gutiérrez Corral not one of the kidnappers captured after an armed confrontation in Chihuahua, but he was actually one of two kidnapped persons who were freed that night. In fact, it is believed that Gutiérrez was freed just before he was to be videotaped, just as Mario González Rodríguez, brother of former Chihuahua prosecutor Patricia Gonzalez, was videotaped, confessing to a number of crimes, prior to his execution. Gutiérrez, however, was wanted by police and is said to have slipped away two years ago on November 10, 2008 during a joint operation by AFI (Federal Investigation Agency) and the Army designed to arrest him for ties to organized crime.

Mexican Consulate in El Paso Hosts Reception, Altar Contest in El Paso

2010-11-06T11:20:00.006-06:00

The Consul General of Mexico in El Paso, Ambassador Roberto Rodriguez Hernandez, hosted a reception at the consulate last night in honor of the Day of the Dead, a longstanding tradition in Mexico, in which families put up altars in honor of deceased members, with pictures of them, food (a powerful symbol of the desire for memory of loved ones to persist in our lives by offering them food to keep the flame alive), candles to remind the living to live righteous lives, religious objects, etc. Locally, Mesilla maintains a tradition of local families putting up altars in the plaza.

Once again, I tagged along with my wife, Magistrate Judge Olivia Nevarez Garcia, one of the invited dignitaries. On this occasion, in an empty lot next to the consulate building, altars were set up, with music and skeleton-made-up dancers, and jam-packed with people. One altar was to the late Jose Cisneros, a prominent painter from Durango who settled in El Paso and who died last year (for an excellent rundown on him click here). Another was to the great muralist and political activist David Alfaro Siqueiros, from Chihuahua City (he moved to Cuernavaca), who fought with the communists in the civil war in Spain and participated in an unsuccessful assassination attempt against Leon Trotsky (they machine-gunned every room in his house but he survived), in Coyoacán, a suburb of Mexico City (for a quick bio, click here). And a third was to the Aztec ruler Cuauhtémoc, of Tenochtitlan (one of three cities of Aztec domination) who fought against Cortes, trying to prevent the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. He was captured, tortured, and eventually executed by Cortes (click here for bio).

Not surprising for Mexico, a country that has a high respect for artists, two of the three altars were in memory of artists, rather than presidents, generals, or radio talk show hosts. Instead of choosing local famous personages, such as sexy singers, popular politicians, or TV personalities to act as judges for the altars, relatively unknown intellectuals were chosen by the Consulate, among them an acquaintance of mine, Enrique Cortazar, a poet and cultural leader from Juarez. One of the people who helped put together the altar homage to El Paso artist Jose Cisneros on behalf of the El Paso Public Library Association was Maria Elena Vargas, who worked diligently in the past few months on behalf of the Susana Martinez gubernatorial campaign in the South Mesilla Valley. Yes, my wife Olivia puts up an altar in our home each year.

Regional EPA Public Meeting held in Anthony Last Night: Dairies Criticized

2010-11-05T05:12:00.005-06:00

The El Paso Border Office of the EPA, headed by Dr. Carlos Rincon, held a tri-state public meeting in Anthony, New Mexico, last night to listen to environmental concerns of citizens in the three-state border region. The event, held at the Anthony Women's Cultural Center, drew a crowd of about 80 persons, and was part of the U.S.-Mexico Border 2012 Program. Mayor Ramon S. Gonzalez welcomed citizens of the border to Anthony.

Anthony city councilwoman Betty Gonzalez made a strongly worded presentation about air, water, and land contamination stemming from "Dairy Row," the string of dairy operations in the South Mesilla Valley. She argued that since the November 18, 2005, executive order by Governor Bill Richardson, seeking an all-cabinet examination of environmental problems in the South Mesilla Valley, "nothing has changed," because the state's regulatory agencies "cowtow to the powerful interests" responsible for contamination. Her remarks were echoed by Jerry Nivens, of Caballo, and by others in the audience, including Mesquite Community Action Committee chair Arturo Uribe, who pointedly asked EPA officials what the federal government intended to do to increase enforcement of existing laws regulating the dairy industry and landfills in the region.

New Mexico Environment Secretary Ron Curry, present at the meeting, replied to these complaints in ways that appeared to validate their concerns. "Sixty three percent of the dairies in New Mexico," he said, have been found to be operating in violation of existing regulations, and his office, he argued has been aggressive in creating a viable set of regulations for the industry, called the "Dairy Rule." These regulations will be issued in December of this year. But, he said, the dairy industry, thwarted in their efforts to write these regulations, went to the governor to try to stop the proceedings and are now engaged in a major effort to seek a repeal of the regulations in the state legislature. He predicted a strong lobby effort in this direction at the next legislative session.

**Dr. Rene Franco, from Cd. Juarez, announced that a treatment plant will be completed by May, 2011, enabling treaty water (delivered to Juarez from Elephant Butte Dam) to be used by the city of Juarez as drinking water.

**Carlos Antonio Ramirez Telles, President of the Technical Committee on Groundwater in Northern Chihuahua, issued a statement about the dangers of over-appropriation in the water basin in that region. The water table has fallen in recent years from 90 ft. to 400 feet in certain areas, after the number of wells increased from 300 to 1750, and he asserted it would take an estimated 100 years of total abstinence in the use of groundwater to restore the aquifer.

**An official of the New Mexico Department of Health reviewed plans for a four-year project to evaluate air quality monitoring in the tri-state region, to evaluate air quality regulations, and to collect data on the incidence of respiratory problems reported by hospitals in the region.

A larger, border-wide meeting of the EPA will be held in December, at which time plans for the successor program to Border 2012 will be more mature. It is not expected that there will be many changes to the "bottom up" character of Border 2012, which implies that local communities should continue to articulate environmental concerns to EPA officials as meetings such as the one held in Anthony last night.

Former Prosecutor's Brother Found Dead in Chihuahua

2010-11-04T16:22:00.006-06:00

From Diario: Mario González Rodríguez, brother to former state attorney general Patricia Gonzalez, was found dead yesterday in a shallow grave in a vacant lot in Chihuahua. Mario González was kidnapped on October 21 and appeared on a You Tube video (see below) handcuffed, confessing to a group of armed men pointing guns at him that he and his sister were closely affiliated with La Linea.

The discovery of the body came after an armed confrontation in Chihuahua between police and armed gunmen, in which five persons presumed to be kidnappers were captured. A few hours after the capture three persons who had been kidnapped were rescued, and a rumor went out that among those rescued was Mario Gonzalez, but the rumor was denied by Governor Duarte.

Among those captured during the shoot-em-out was Jorge Gutiérrez Corral, a former operations coordinator for Cipol (the now-defunct intelligence center for the state police) five years ago during the administration of Raúl Grajeda Domínguez, Secretary of Public Security for the state of Chihuahua. Grajeda was Public Security director for a time under the governorship of Jose Reyes Baeza., who left the governorship last month. Grajeda wrote a book called Public Security: Dead End Street, in which he recapitulates a number of experiences he had in that position. An arrest warrant was issued against him in Tamaulipas, earlier this year, for alleged connections to organized crime.

Jorge Gutiérrez Corral, wounded in the armed confrontation in Chihuahua and then transferred to a hospital under heavy guard, was one of five persons believed to have been part of the kidnapping gang that may have kidnapped and executed Mario González Rodríguez.

Elections: Major Findings, My Preliminary Take

2010-11-03T07:20:00.003-06:00

Bottom Line: After losing the governorship and six seats in the House, the biggest question mark for Democrats left in the wake of the elections last night is the future of leadership in the NM state house. Will Ben Lujan continue in January as Speaker of the House, or will he step down, or be forced to step down by Democrats or by a coalition of Democrats and Republicans? A lot of conversations among House members will revolve around this question in the next six weeks. The answer to this question will go a long way toward defining the character of the Democratic Party in New Mexico for the next two years. Voters: watch this issue and study the actions of your own legislator carefully, if s/he is a Democrat.

The only good news for Democrats this morning is that Republican gains were not more extensive (I'm thinking especially about the attorney general and land commission races, which were barely won by seasoned Democratic candidates running against young rank amateurs), and that a perfect storm rarely happens twice in a row.

The perfect storm: the national mood hurt Democrats and certainly was decisive in the eleven point margin Pearce held over Teague. It almost cost Heinrich his seat, and helps account for the surprisingly strong showing by Tom Mullins, who fell only 3000 votes shy of the total winning vote for Steve Pearce in a district that heavily favors Hispanic candidates. The statewide mood had also soured on Democrats, given the growing conviction among voters that Richardson is not the only problem within the up-to-now ruling party: well informed Democrats told me in Mora, for example, that many people felt Speaker Ben Lujan's strong support for Richardson's agenda in the past two years (which included a lot of highly questionable expenditures for his personal pet projects) came at their expense. Susana lost Mora county by about ten points, but she ran twenty points ahead of most Republicans in that county. So the statewide scenario was equally unfavorable for the Democratic ticket.

The perfect storm effect of national and statewide thundershowers was felt all the way up and down the ticket. For a party accustomed to governing easily at the mid-and bottom-levels of state government, perhaps the most emblematic outcome last night was the squeaker vote that brought Court of Appeals Judge Robert Robles, the incumbent, barely a 1.6% victory against Ned Fuller; it could have gone either way. It was also felt in countless races at the bottom of the local tickets; for example, in Dona Ana County Olivia Garcia, who normally wins by twenty points or more was forced to stay up until midnight last night to know the outcome, squeezing out a 52.5% victory against a virtually unknown opponent, and only after the South Mesilla Valley votes (heavily Democrat) came in at the end.

For Democrats and Republicans alike in New Mexico, this is an existential moment. Given the nature and severity of the problems confronting the state, who are we? What do we stand for? What do we propose to do to solve our problems? Given the reality that the governor will be a Republican and the legislature will be Democrat, how do we go about trying to make state government work again, after several years of poor leadership? As I said in something I wrote nearly two years ago: the state is begging for leadership and voters, for once, are watching.

October: Record Homicides In Juarez

2010-11-01T15:59:00.001-06:00

October beat the guns of August, with a record 352 homicides, compared with 339 in August. This brings the annual total of homicides in Juarez up to 2678, which is higher than the total for 2009, which was 2657. At this pace the year will end with about 3215.

Beneath the Sangre de Cristos: Susana's Final Campaign Stop in Mora

2010-10-31T21:48:00.014-06:00

The event was set for 3-5 p.m., Saturday at Cowboy Kitchen in Mora. My cousin Nick Cruz, who headed Democrats for Susana in Mora County, drove me there at about 2:30. It was on the main street across the street from a polling place, which was open. Democrats had put up little information tents for candidates next to the polling place, and to the right and to the left of Cowboy Kitchen on the same side of the street. So we were surrounded. That was a smart move, I thought to myself. Under such inspection you have to be pretty committed to show up, given that Democrats control the county. Several people in the Democratic tents glared at us as we parked and strolled to the restaurant. A crowd of maybe 30 persons was standing in front of the restaurant. An eighteen-wheeler pulled up, without sides to the trailer, fixed up with microphones and a dais. Candidates would speak from the platform, down at the audience. People were asked to move back so the truck could park closer to the restaurant. The crowd was growing bigger.

State police then measured the distance between the eighteen wheeler and the entrance to the polling place. It was three feet short of the required 100 ft. Then police measured the distance between the polling place and the Democratic tent next to it. I was told it too fell short of the requirement. Someone was looking for Ernie Olivas, who owns the empty lot on the West side of the Cowboy Kitchen, to see if he would rent it for a couple of hours so the truck could pull in there outside the 100 foot range. Did anyone have his phone number? Nick rang his number but Ernie didn't answer. Nick said he had seen him five minutes earlier. By now there were well over 100 people standing in front of Cowboys Kitchen, waiting for the show to begin. Suddenly a voice (I recognized it as belonging to Agnes Maldonado) from a loudspeaker informed us we had to go inside the restaurant. Change of plans.

After a crowd of perhaps a hundred settled into a room in the restaurant, a mariachi trio began to play; the female singer had a beautiful voice. Perhaps another 30 or so crammed into an adjoining room. The Republican county chairman began the show by introducing the candidates--for probate judge, magistrate, and sheriff. Each received a warm applause. Then statewide candidates spoke. People kept wedging into the small room until about 150 had squeezed in. The room got warmer.

Among the statewide candidates speaking was Ned Fuller, for Court of Appeals. When his turn came he said, simply, "What do you want in a judge? Equal treatment under the law, right? That's not what we've gotten here this afternoon, that's why we had to come into this small space," he said, alluding to the measuring incidences and the change of venue. He got a warm round of applause when he was done. When the statewide candidates were done, only Susana was left, but she hadn't arrived. The audience buzzed with anticipation. People been asked to leave their cardboard Susana signs (about 2 ft. by 18 inches) at the door when coming in so I started passing out a stack of Democrats for Susana bumper stickers I had, which were eagerly snatched out of my hands. "Hey Dwayne," somebody yelled out, "put a Democrats for Susana sticker on your hat!" Dwayne laughed and put one up to his hat for a few seconds, for a round of applause. Obviously a well-known yellow dog Democrat.

When Susana finally walked in, everybody inched forward to get a better view, and she delivered a rousing, energetic speech, sometimes speaking in flawless Spanish, expressing a hope to "win this big." Just as she ended, to thunderous applause, Dwayne raised his hand and quieted the crowd, saying he had a question. "I have a speech disability," he said. "I depend on government to help me through. Why are you going to take away those funds from me and people like me?" "That's not true," she started to say, but he interrupted to say "Yes it is, I heard it on television." The audience then turned on him and booed. Susana raised her hand to silence the crowd. Suddenly there was complete silence: a dramatic moment of truth. "I have a disabled sister," she said. "I've cared for her all my life, and we depend on government funding to keep her well. Why would I take away her funding just because I'm governor? Why would I take away funding for your disability? This is an example of the falsehoods people have been spreading about me!" When she was finished, the crowd broke into even more thunderous applause. The mariachi started playing and the afternoon was hers.

My cousins stood in line for 20 minutes to get me to take a picture of them with her. When we left there was still a 10-minute line of people who wanted to shake her hand and get a picture. I looked up at the mountains as we drove back to Holman. An early fall snowpack was already beginning to accumulate on the summits of La Jicarita. Winter comes early in the Sangre de Cristos, and I still had work to do to prepare for it.

Mesquite Group Offers Free Enchiladas, Rides, to Vote

2010-10-29T07:51:00.002-06:00

The Mesquite Community Action Committee (MCAC), with help from the SouthWest Organizing Project and Pushback Network is offering a free ride in VIP (Voter In Progress) Style to the Anthony Early voting polling site. According to Arturo Uribe, “We have been offering rides to the polls in Limo’s ever since Kerry and his campaign came into to town and rented vans for the weekend. We could get limo’s to provide the service at almost the same rate. Plus when you roll up in a limo and say let’s go vote, people jump in and say “lets go!” This year folks who live in the communities of Mesquite, Berino, Desert Sands, San Miguel, La Mesa and Chamberino can call or show up and get a plate of enchiladas and a ride to early vote. This Saturday MCAC will be taking folks to early vote at the Anthony Water Sanitation District water office ,

Ex-AG Patricia Gonzalez Allowed to Visit Headquarters She Thought Was Site of Filming of Her Kidnapped Brother

2010-10-27T06:36:00.002-06:00

From Diario this morning: Patricia Gonzalez, ex-attorney general of Chihuahua, was escorted through the Western Zone headquarters of the Attorney General's office in Cuauhtémoc yesterday, to prove to her that her brother was not filmed there in front of armed masked men, as she had alleged in a press conference the day before. A spokesperson for the Attorney General's office indicated she had confirmed that no cubicle in the building corresponded to the cubicle that appears in the video filmed by her brother's kidnappers (click here for video and here for prior story).

The investigation into the kidnapping is being conducted by the federal government with the collaboration of the state attorney general's office, now being run by a different team since the inauguration of Governor Cesar Duarte last month. As a relative of the victim, Ms. Gonzalez is permitted to assist in the investigation of the federal government.

The Massacre: Two of the Assassins Murdered?

2010-10-27T01:12:00.005-06:00

From a report by Felix A. Gonzalez, a veteran security reporter for El Norte Digital: Just after midnight yesterday a Jeep Grand Cherokee with Texas plates was found abandoned at the site of an industrial park for maquilas on Eje Juan Gabriel, with two dead bodies in it. One of the bodies had been decapitated, hands chopped off, and legs lopped off at the knees. Three messages were found inside the vehicle. One message, written on the glove compartment, said, "I'm a doble A and they chopped off my head for killing women and children. On the back window was written, "Come for your people;" and a sign on a piece of cardboard said, "This is what will happen to those who kill women and children, and to all the doblados." Police agents investigating the crime are trying to determine whether there is a connection between these homicides and the massacre of the youths at a party in Horizontes del Sur on October 22.

The massacre apparently was motivated by a desire of the assassins (police believe there were seven, carrying four assault rifles--two R-15 and two AK-47--, and three pistols--9 mm and 40 caliber) to find a man with the nickname, El Raton (The Mouse). Police now say witnesses suggest the man with this nickname was at the party and escaped through the back after being shot in the abdomen. Investigators also assert no evidence has been found to suggest there were any drugs in the house that came under assault.

National Pew Survey Confirms Republicans are More Energized This Year: New Mexico? Democrats Beware--I May Have Underestimated Republican Strength

2010-10-26T19:25:00.010-06:00

If a Pew Research Center study of U.S. voters is valid for New Mexico (click here), then I may have been wrong in my blog on Saturday (How Far Down the Ballot do Susana's Petticoattails Go?) predicting only a modest gain for Republicans in the state. Here's why.

In a study of likely voters (see below), Pew finds that Republicans have a huge advantage over Democrats among likely voters: 50-40 in October, up from a seven point advantage in September. This strong surge in momentum, if it continues, suggests that a Democratic candidate might have a ten point lead among registered voters, but still be neck-and-neck in the race because of who is likely to vote.

Adding to this is a subtle ethnic factor that might make a marginal difference in some races: Hispanics, who normally provide a healthy margin for Democrats, are cross-pressured in the governor's race, torn between ethnic and partisan loyalties, both strong influences on a person's vote. Cross-pressured voters tend to have a lower voter turnout rate, so if this holds, one might expect Hispanic turnout rates to be below normal for a gubernatorial year, since Susana Martinez is on the ticket for governor as a Republican. So this might raise that 10% turnout differential mentioned above to maybe 12-14 points, overall. This would bode very badly for Democratic candidates downstream on the ballot.

Thus, if the Pew numbers are accurate and valid for New Mexico, unless Democrats have put together a credible ground game to get out the vote on election day and if the momentum continues, it could affect several races, including the Heinrich-Barela race, the attorney general's race, the land commissioner's race, a PRC race, some state representative races, and, possibly, some court races, where you can kick out an incumbent with only a 43% vote of "no" for retention. Another factor feeding into the equation here is that the Pew study concludes that anti-incumbent sentiment is greater than it has been since 1994, a banner year for Republicans. This factor adds to the marginal advantages, mentioned above, for Republicans in New Mexico House races held by Democrats.

Finally, independent voters, according to the Pew study, favor Republican candidates by 19 points (49% Republican vs. 30% Democrat). In November 2006, Democrats held a seven-point lead among likely independent voters.

Bottom Line: In New Mexico this may add up to a perfect storm for Republicans. So while Susana's petticoattails may not be very long by themselves, other factors might contribute to more than modest gains by the Republican Party in New Mexico. There are, however, a lot of ifs inserted in this story, so we will have to wait until election night to find out what's what.

The Flap Over the Video of Ex-Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez's Kidnapped Brother

2010-10-26T07:20:00.009-06:00

Background: Patricia Gonzalez, Attorney General of the State of Chihuahua under the administration of ex-governor Jose Reyes Baeza was more or less universally despised in Cd. Juarez, at least in part because of her arrogant disregard to the feeling of Juarenses asking for more help from the attorney general's office during the upward spike in violence over the past three years. She also seemed frustratingly unable to prosecute cases brought to her by law enforcement agents. La Polaka called her "Paty Gaga," for her non-conservative wardrobe style. She left the office in early October when Governor Duarte took the reins of state government. Her brother was kidnapped last Thursday, October 21.

On Sunday a video appeared on You Tube of Mario Ángel González Rodríguez, her brother, in a scene very much like the one reported here last week of a woman being interrogated before her assassination. Like that video, You Tube pulled this one, but it continues to be seen throughout Mexico. If you want to see it, click here. In it, Mr. González confesses, at gunpoint, to being a bag man for his sister, collecting payoff money the La Linea cartel from different sectors of the state, including $200,000 per month from Juarez, $100,000 from Chihuahua, $50,000 from Parral, and $50,000 from Cuauhtemoc. He also states his sister ordered the assassination of two reporters, including the slaying of Armando Rodriguez, of Diario, in 2008, and Enrique Perea in 2006, and that General Espitia (head of Joint Operation Chihuahua) was paid off $100,000 per month. He readily names names, far more than I have summarized here.

For several months there appears to have been something of a clandestine public relations campaign between the two rival gangs in Juarez, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Juarez Cartel, also known as La Linea. Paintings on walls and banners have been left, accusing President Calderon of protecting the Sinaloa Cartel, and others accusing state and local authorities of protecting La Linea. This video fits into this narrative, widely accepted as truth in Cd. Juarez.

Patricia Gonzalez herself appeared yesterday in public for the first time, asserting that the cubicle from which her brother was filmed in this video is located in the office of the attorney general in Chihuahua, constructed under her orders when she was attorney general. She has asked for a federal government investigation into the kidnapping, welcomed an investigation into her activities as attorney general, and denied all allegations. Among other things she said she wanted those responsible to return her brother "dead or alive," a choice of words reminiscent of her somewhat insensitive language when she was attorney general.

Kidnapped Man Escapes Encajuelamiento

2010-10-24T08:58:00.003-06:00

In the early morning hours, Rubén González Serna knocked on the door of a household in Punta de Oriente, a village in Aquiles Serdan (Central Chihuahua), asking for help. He was badly beaten (see photo) and he said he had been kidnapped. He had been forced into the trunk of a car, presumably to take him to be killed, but he was able to open up the trunk and jump out when the car slowed down. The men in the car saw him running toward a group of houses, and apparently decided to flee. The family reported the incident to police, using the 060 line. The family was told there had indeed been a man reported kidnapped, and forced into the trunk of a white Tsuru (a Japanese care not sold in the U.S. but very popular in Chihuahua). He was taken to a hospital and treated for his injuries.

The Massacre: Details Emerge from Witnesses

2010-10-24T07:17:00.003-06:00

Diario (click here for story) interviewed survivors and parents of children at the party which ended night before last in the deaths of at least 14 youths. From this and other reports, a picture of what happened (not exactly why) is beginning to emerge. The most relevant information comes from just one source, a father whose son was at the party, so the picture should be seen only as tentative. Conflicting versions of the same event, especially if traumatic, is common.

The father said he had heard that the family living in the household under attack had been deported from the United States. They began renting the house about three months ago, and it was said that people were going to the house to buy drugs. Because of this he asked his son not to go to the party. But the son got curious and went with a friend to the party. They were outside the gates when the assassins arrived.

They arrived in four cars and one pickup. There were about sixteen of them (other witnesses say they were between the ages of 16-21) and they did not have their faces covered. They carried only pistols. Inside the house, they began to ask the youths for "El Raton," (the mouse, or, possibly, the rat) and other persons. When everyone denied knowing them, one of the assassins said, "So, you're not going to talk? Then shoot them all." That created panic and everyone began to run. Then the shooting began. The boy whose father warned him not to go to the party was shot twice in the legs and once in a forearm. His father states that while the shooting was going on he called the police but no one answered.

Another Tragedy: Birthday Party Ends With 13 Killed, 20 Wounded

2010-10-23T17:16:00.002-06:00

A birthday party for Francisco Lopez, 14, at his home, ended tragically when gunmen burst into the house and began shooting last night at about 10:55 p.m. in Horizontes del Sur. When it was over his mother was dead, along with 12 other persons, most of them adolescents. Twenty persons were wounded, three of them critically. Witnesses said the gunmen arrived in three or four vehicles and they were described as being young, between the ages of 16 and 21. (For story in Diario click here) The house is in a modest middle class neighborhood.

Governor Duarte promised this afternoon in a statement followed by a press conference to clarify the circumstances of the massacre, he visited the hospital this afternoon where the injured victims were taken. He promised not to pass on his responsibilities to others, a veiled criticism of the previous governor. Governor Duarte also did not discount the possibility that U.S. experts might assist in the investigation.

El Fronterizo reports this afternoon (click here) that one theory about the motive for the massacre is that gunmen were searching for a person nicknamed El Raton (The Rat).

On January 31 of this year a similar massacre of adolescents ocurred in Villas de Salvarcar.

How Far Down the Ballot Do Susana's Petticoattails Go?

2010-10-23T07:16:00.006-06:00

My alligator-devouring, West-of-the-Pecos coyotes from near-tejana-land, just across the river from Rosa's Cantina, out in the badlands of New Mexico, are telling me they don't expect the petticoattails of Wicked Susana La Tejana, born on the wrong side of the Rio Grande in the South Mesilla Valley, to extend too far down the ballot. Let's take a look at the scenario.

Democratic Party insiders are tacitly conceding the governor's race will be won by Susana, in spite of her wicked origins. But how deep are the coattails? The more people are inclined to blame the Democratic Party for enabling the past eight years of Richardson's tyrannical rule, it would seem, the more effect this might have downstream on the ballot.

The national mood also plays a role here. There is likely to be a shift of about 50 House seats to the Republican Party. Nancy Pelosi will almost certainly be gone in January. But only one of the three Congressional seats in New Mexico, all held by Democrats, seems to be vulnerable. Pearce appears to be pulling away from Teague down the stretch, almost certainly due to the national mood, since the two candidates are nearly identical twins: both from Hobbs, about the same age, oil-and-gas-related businessmen, conservatives.

The state legislature? I calculate Republicans will pick up only 2-4 seats in the House, statewide. Normally state house members are evaluated by their effectiveness either in getting things done for their district or getting important statewide legislation passed, rather than by the generic mood of voters. Weak legislators in safe districts have been known to survive for decades, but this year, where Republicans were able to recruit adequate candidates, voters seem inclined to be paying attention, especially in districts with independent-minded voters. So I may be wrong about my count. If Republicans pick up more than five legislative seats, this would be a sign of strong coattails.

So where does than leave us?

Just below the governor's race, voters will encounter secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, attorney general, commissioner of public lands--in that order. The only Democrat among these who appears to be in trouble is Mary Herrera, who has received a good deal of bad publicity about the bureau of elections within her office in recent months. The rest, from polling data, appear to be shoo-ins. After that come some judges races, state rep, and then the local county races.

In the local races in Dona Ana County conventional wisdom (the alligator devouring West-of-the-Pecos coyotes again) has it only Nate Cote and Jeff Steinborn may have serious opposition out of seven state reps; three don't have any opposition. If they lose it will almost certainly be because of the coattails. The same is true all the way at the bottom of the ballot, where two of the five supreme court justices and two of ten Court of Appeals judges are in retention elections. Here it only takes 43% to toss out a judge. So a serious statewide test of the coattails effect will come if one or more of these (all Democrats) is knocked off.

Bottom line: If the Republican Party picks up only a couple of seats in the legislature and perhaps the secretary of state's seat, this will hardly be a rousing coattails election. If, however, they pick up more than five seats and lose one or more of the judges up for retention, it might signal something far more serious to the Democratic Party.

Washington Is Elevating It's Presence in Juarez

2010-10-22T17:13:00.009-06:00

Victor Hugo Michel, of Milenio (click here) has obtained a copy of a work plan prepared by the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, outlining a number of steps which have already been implemented in the past few weeks in the Juarez-El Paso area, and some which are still to come. Other measures will have border-wide implications. The anti-narcotics section of the U.S. Embassy will be in charge of administering the program.

Make no mistake about it. this report is significant. It clarifies a number of things happening in Juarez in the past few weeks, such as the arrest of significant members of La Linea and threats against the U.S. Consulate, and it suggests a greatly beefed up effort is still in the works to deal with multiple security issues. For example, funds have been allocated by the pentagon to create a network of secure communications between Juarez and El Paso. Once implemented this will provide real-time operational capabilities based on real-time intelligence gathering on both sides of the border. This is completely new in the bilateral relationship. Among the other goodies in this package:

1. For the first time Washington is beginning operational cooperation with the Mexican government in its dealings with drug trafficking organizations. The approach is multi-dimensional. The U.S. government will begin sending intelligence advisors to Juarez; pentagon funds will assist the Mexican government in training, equipment, professional exchanges, and sharing of information. At least one DEA agent will be assigned to live in Juarez full time and train federal agents in intelligence techniques. A team of DEA agents will be on hand in El Paso.

2. Perhaps most important, Washington has given the Mexican federal security department access to its EPIC data base in El Paso on drug traffickers. This data base, owned by DEA, is global in scope, and is comprised of multiple data bases from about two dozen agencies. The data base has been in operation for about two decades now, and has been available for law enforcement officers in the United States, but not in Mexico.

3. U.S. intelligence specialists who work at EPIC and their counterparts in Juarez are in daily contact to exchange information, including methods of operation of cartel and other criminal gang operations. This has led to significant arrests on both sides of the border. The Center for Emergencies and Rapid Reaction (CERI), whose command was transferred earlier this year to the federal police, receives data from U.S. agencies based in EPIC to enable a more effective use of Mexican police.

"The objective is to strengthen the intelligence gathering capacity of the Mexican government and create links between U.S. and Mexican agencies to maximize the use of information in real time and guide Mexican strategic and tactical operations."

4. Kidnapping is also part of the effort. Special training has been given to elite units of the Federal Police and the Police of Chihuahua, with assistance from the National Police of Colombia.

The report indicates that "this pilot program is based on meetings of binational teams held in El Paso and Juarez in January and February 2010.

Mesquite Candidate Forum: Genuine Debate at the Grassroots, Quality Candidates

2010-10-22T06:53:00.002-06:00

The Mesquite Forum, sponsored by the Mesquite Community Action Committee, last night featured candidates for county sheriff and county commission. I moderated the event.

Sheriff's candidates: What would candidates cut and not cut, if budget cuts are needed? Both stressed they would not cut the number of deputies in the field, inasmuch as public safety is top priority. Todd Garrison, incumbent sheriff, asserted that 93% of the current budget goes to personnel costs, so if officers in the field are off the table, there aren't many places to cut, but he would start with equipment and training, if necessary. J.R. Stewart, current President of the Police Officer's Association, stressed there are many sources for funds in addition to the county budget. He would rely on his experience as a successful grant writer to seek additional grants to supplement the budget.

Both candidates agreed that the recent fatal shootings of persons with mental health problems were justified under the circumstances. Stewart assured the audience he knew facts about both cases that were not included in news reports that, if the public were aware of, would put to rest questions about the appropriateness of actions taken. Garrison agreed.

Stewart emphasized the need to establish a community relations board that would meet monthly to exchange information and concerns with the community. Garrison emphasized his desire to continue community-based policing. The major disagreement between them appeared to be over a relatively minor issue, the use of GPS systems in patrol cars. Garrison believes GPS, while expensive, has utility in keeping headquarters informed about the exact location of a patrol car when the officer has had to leave it, while Stewart indicated he believes in high quality radio communications systems, which he said work well currently in the municipal police.

Informal comments I heard after the forum indicated many in the audience were extremely impressed with both candidates and have confidence each of them have more than enough of what it takes to do the job well.

County Commission: Billy Garrett emphasized his strong roots in the local community, as a third generation Las Crucen, his experience as a top manager for the National Park Service in dealing with multiple constituencies, and the importance of adding serious community involvement in both management and planning functions for the county. John Zimmerman emphasized his long experience as a missile-test engineer at White Sands Missile Range, and his experience as a Naval Reserve officer, including writing plans in Bosnia for the air war there.

Zimmerman stressed the need for a comprehensive master plan for the county, and indicated he thought the first iteration of the 2040 plan, written by a private firm, was a "total failure." Garrett's approach seems to be more nuanced, taking into account multiple actors, emphasizing the need for local communities to set priorities after a serious examination of options; for these to be embedded in plans and budgets, and for the commission to take its role as an overarching policy implementer seriously.

Informal comments I overheard after the forum indicated that, like the sheriff's race, both county commission candidates were exceptionally well prepared.

The Mesquite Forum has matured a great deal in just a few years, reflecting greater public awareness, a stronger willingness to engage with candidates and public officials, and a greater social cohesion all around. Community leaders are to be commended, especially the strong, sustained efforts of Arturo Uribe to mobilize community involvement. The South Mesilla Valley is in the path of rapid, possibly massive, economic growth as El Paso spills into the Valley and as developments in the Santa Teresa area portend stronger interaction with Mexico. The Mesquite model is one other small communities in the Valley might look at to protect their interests.

July Juarez Car Bombing Suspects Caught: La Linea Takes More Blows: Mission Accomplished? We'll See

2010-10-21T16:05:00.008-06:00

Yesterday six more persons were accused of complicity in the July 15 car bombing on Ave. 16 de Septiembre in Juarez, which caused widespread fear throughout Juarez, severely dampening commercial activity in the area. If you are not familiar with the case see my posting on it here, and you might look at several follow-up postings I made in the days that followed.

They arrests were made during an operation in which 14 alleged members of La Linea were apprehended while packaging cocaine. Noé Fuentes Chavira, also accused of involvement in the bombing, was captured on August 13.

Among those captured yesterday was Fernando Contreras Meraz, (see photo at right) accused of being the intellectual author of the bombing. He is alleged to have coordinated and supervised the attack, aimed at federal police agents, and is alleged to have made the cell phone call that detonated the bomb. on July 15.

Luis Cárdenas Palomino, Regional Security Coordinator of the Federal Police, speaking at a press conference at a command center in a suburb of Mexico City, asserted that La Linea, the armed force of the Juarez Cartel, has for all practical purposes been dismantled. This is the first time, he said, that a cartel has been "dismantled from bottom to top." It might be worth noting that Diario, the flagship newspaper in Cd. Juarez, did not include these remarks in its coverage today of the arrest (click here), although most newspapers throughout Mexico did (see, for example El Universal story here). Diario included photographs of the fourteen persons arrested, and it named each one by name, role within the organization, and sometimes nickname and age.

Narco Pinta Left Last Night Alludes to Rash of Executions of Women Accused by Killers of Extortion

2010-10-21T05:49:00.005-06:00

La Polaka has a photo (click here) of a narcopinta (narco-graffiti?) that appeared on a residential wall last night in Col. Melchor Ocampo at about 7:30 p.m. The painting was signed "El 51," attributable by its content to La Linea, although in the past messages apparently from La Linea were signed "La Linea" or "El Diego." It is directed to Chapo Guzman and others specifically mentioned. It chides them for killing women, referring apparently to be a series of recent executions of women whom the killers accuse of involvement in extortion, and invites them to come out into the streets and fight them there. On Tuesday a video appeared on You Tube (see below), reproduced in Diario and other newspapers, placed there by a source identified by Diario as being connected to the Sinaloa Cartel, headed by Chapo Guzman. Thus, there is the suggestion the woman, and others, allegedly involved in extortion, have been executed at the hands of a death squad under the control of the Sinaloa Cartel.

The Sinaloa Cartel and the Juarez Cartel (also known as La Linea) have been engaged in bloody conflict for several years now in a turf battle to control narco trafficking in Cd. Juarez. The narcopinta, and the widely viewed video of the woman being interrogated, as well as news stories of women being executed with messages left behind accusing them of being extortionists, all suggest the Sinaloa Cartel has been executing female extortionists working for La Linea in Juarez, not only to disrupt some of the activities of La Linea but perhaps also to gain public sympathy.

Confession of Juarez Female Extortionist (Later Executed) is Revealing

2010-10-20T07:04:00.010-06:00

Diario today runs a story with a link to a video in which a woman, flanked by two hooded men with assault rifles, confesses to having been an extortionist for La Linea, on the payroll for $160 per week. A list on notepad paper with the names of businesses she was extorting is shown during the interview. The video appears to have been taken by a vigilante group that captured her. The woman, who identifies herself as Sanjuana Gabriela Enríquez Galván, was later executed and her body was discovered in Col. Melchor Ocampo, face down, with a message on her tee shirt saying "I'm an Extortion(ist) for La Linea." A red rose was placed on her back.

Diario points out that from the answers she gives in the interview one gathers that the same group interrogating her was responsible for the execution of Gabriela Enríquez Galván, also on October 11, who was kidnapped in the presence of her two small children, outside an auto repair shop, and later found "encajuelada" in the trunk of a white Nissan.

According to Diario the video was placed on You Tube by "elplumaoriginal," who has been identified as a member of the criminal gang "Gente Nueva," associated with El Chapo Guzman. It was added to the link for “quitapuercosenchihuahua,” (getsridofpigsinchihuahua), a set of You Tube videos dealing with narco-violence in Chihuahua. Using the link provided by Diario I originally posted the video here, but it was blocked by You Tube because the contents "violated the terms of service." The video is still playing on various mainstream news sites, including Diario. If you want to see it click on this site here from Norte Digital. I would caution readers that much of it is not pleasant, and it gets graphic at the end.

Anthony Casino Gets Opposition From Mescalero Apache Tribe, Sunland Park Racetrack

2010-10-19T16:25:00.004-06:00

Here is a note I saw in the October LFC newsletter I received in my email this morning:

The Mescalero Apache Tribe and the Sunland Park racetrack are opposing Jemez Pueblo’s proposal to build a casino and hotel near Anthony. The U.S. Interior Department rejected the plan for the casino 300 miles away from the pueblo in 2008 but is now reconsidering the decision. The Mescaleros and Sunland Park say the pueblo casino will hurt their businesses in southern New Mexico. The Mescaleros also object to the casino being built within their ancestral homelands.

The newsletter did not give the source for this information, but if it is correct, opposition from these two potential competitors would seem to be a serious obstacle. As I understand it in the few instances Native American Tribes have been allowed to purchase off-reservation land for the purpose of starting a casino, authorities made clear they would permit this only because there was no serious opposition to it. The Mescalero objection appears to be not only financial, but also cultural. I could easily be wrong in this assessment, however, since I am not an expert in the very complicated matter of tribal gaming law, regulations, and practice.

Twenty Year Old Female Criminology Major Becomes Chief of Police in Guadalupe, Valle de Juarez

2010-10-19T04:54:00.007-06:00

Marisol Valles Garcia, 20, on Monday became chief of police of Guadalupe Distrito Bravos, a community with a population listed at about 9000, in the Valle de Juarez, not far from Ft. Hancock. She was the only applicant for the position. Each village in that area is assigned a patrol car and four agents by the municipality. Valles has not yet completed a degree in criminology. Since being named to the position last week she has managed to recruit three female officers to assist her. José Luis Guerrero, mayor of Praxedis, said that the surrounding communities have 19 police officers, of whom 9 are women. Police officers are not armed.

The Valle de Juarez has become something of a no-man's land, having been taken over at least in part by agents of the Sinaloa cartel, and said to be under the control of Gabino Salas Valenciano, a.k.a. el ingeniero. Some reports have indicated that half the population has fled, after being told pointedly to leave the area. Three local mayors (called jefes seccionales) have been killed in the Valle de Juarez in the past year. The last one, Rito Grado, was killed last Saturday night in Juarez, where he spent his weekends in a modest home. On June 19 this year former mayor of Guadalupe, Jesus Manuel Lara Rodriguez was murdered in his home in Juarez, where he had also fled after receiving death threats. A number of police officers have been killed, decapitated, or kidnapped in the Valle in the past two years.

Valles pointed out that as a municipal police chief she is not responsible for drug trafficking, which falls under the federal government, but will try to create preventive programs in schools, to make public places safer, and to organize neighborhood watch groups. She also suggested she might try to create a bicycle patrol. Click for notes here in Diario and El Pionero.

More on the Death of Rito Grado from El Porvenir, Valle de Juarez

2010-10-19T04:01:00.005-06:00

Enrique Corte Barrera, writing in El Pueblo, (click here) asserts that Rito Grado Serrano, the third sectional chief to be killed in the Valle de Juarez in the past year, had been ordered by a criminal gang to inform them of the movement of army troops and federal police that periodically patrol the Valle. Instead of doing so, Grado had complained to the state legislature that he needed help, and that he was unable to get municipal authorities to even make an appointment to see him. There is no evidence he ever got any help. He fled to Juarez, where he was murdered in his house last Saturday, October 16, along with his son, who was killed while trying to escape.

Section Chief (for El Porvenir) of Municipality of Praxedis Killed Last Night

2010-10-17T08:08:00.007-06:00

From a story this morning in Diario: The El Porvenir Section Chief for the Municipality of Praxedis G. Guerrero, Rito Grado Serrano, 56, was killed last night along with his son, Rigoberto Grada Villa, 35, by gunmen who burst into his home in Col. Patria I in Juarez, at about 8:40 p.m. La Polaka reported police found 60 spent cartridges of AK-47 ammunition, and that Grado had moved to Juarez after receiving death threats. El Porvenir is a small community in the Valle de Juarez, just across the river from Ft. Hancock, Texas. The Valle has lost about half of its population in recent months as a result of violence apparently caused by the takeover of the region by the Sinaloa cartel. On Friday four dead bodies were found in the Valle.

Last June Grado publicly asked the state legislature in Chihuahua to assist El Porvenir in providing security, since the municipal government not only was not providing assistance, but would not even make an appointment to talk about security assistance.

Eight persons were murdered in Juarez yesterday, Saturday.

Is Something Different in Juarez?

2010-10-16T19:26:00.005-06:00

I spent most of the day in Juarez. I had three things to do in three different parts of the city, so I traveled to or through many areas of town. It may simply be my imagination, but I sensed something different since I was there in August: while still cautious, people seemed more relaxed, more confident, more likely to look at each other in the face--all over town.

The statistics certainly don't justify this change: the homicide rate continues unabated; it will almost certainly hit a record this year. Extortion continues to plague small business owners throughout the city, every day. Evidence of police corruption continues to be recorded in the daily newspapers. The Valle de Juarez is a no-man's land. President Calderon got an earful of complaints during his visit to Juarez on Tuesday. And given the record numbers of street vendors on hand at the Santa Fe Bridge on the way back and the large number of used wardrobes being sold on the streets near residential areas it looks like unemployment is still high.

But the feeling of the town seemed different, at least to me, as though a corner had been turned. In fact, at the beginning of Eje Juan Gabriel, near 16 de Septiembre and Avenida Juarez, a crowded, high crime (at night) part of town I thought I detected a kind of un-self-conscious pride reflected in the faces and gait of the pedestrians. Instead of the gritty, frightened faces and hurried pace, there was confidence, relaxation, as though to say, "we will survive this, too." It reminded me of the look on peoples' faces in San Salvador, in many areas of town, a full four years before the peace when it became clear to them the guerrillas would not win the war and the business class simply stopped paying "war taxes" to the guerrillas.

What could possibly account for this? My take: we know a lot more about the hows and whys of violence in Juarez than we did six months ago. We know more about relationships between governments (state, local, and federal) and between government and citizens, government and drug organizations; about the civil war within law enforcement; about how to deal with extortionists. The analysis in newspapers today is far more to the point than the hand-wringing, blame-it-on the evils-of-our-own society and culture or the personal finger-pointing that filled the opinion columns a year ago. Confucius said the beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name.

Another possible factor: in recent weeks the newspapers have been filled with stories about citizens banding together in various ways, sometimes spontaneously, without the help of law enforcement to respond to extortion on their own. Could greater understanding about the environment combined with the inner satisfaction of taking some matters into one's own hands have a healthy impact on the collective psyche? I hope it was this, and not just a temporary lull or the overactive imagination of a visitor in town on a warm fall Saturday afternoon.

Update on Valle de Juarez: Still Deserted, Still Dangerous

2010-10-15T20:52:00.004-06:00

I posted some articles in April about the Valle de Juarez, which was wreaked by violence last Spring. Here is an update. See my post from last April for some background.

Two years ago La Linea (the Juarez Cartel) and the Sinaloa Cartel (also known as the Pacific Cartel and the Chapo Guzman Organization), among other conflicts began to fight over control of the Valle de Juarez, a sparsely populated area Southeast of Juarez along the Rio Bravo (Rio Grande in English) with communities across from Fabens, Texas, such as Praxedis G. Guerrero, Guadalupe, and El Porvenir. It is an area with high poverty and small farmers irrigating from the federally managed irrigation district.

When the top man for the Juarez cartel in the Valle, Rodolfo Escajeda (a.k.a. El Rikin) was arrested in Casas Grandes in September 2009 by the Mexican army, Gabino Salas Valenciano, a.k.a "El Ingeniero," from the Sinaloa Cartel, made a bid to take over the entire territory, and has largely succeeded in doing so. In the ensuing violence, over half of the residents moved away, and those remaining behind still in in fear of their lives, as municipal, state, and federal law enforcement agencies have largely abandoned the area to the cartel.

This morning four so-far unidentified dead bodies were discovered in the Valle near the highway between Praxedis and Guadalupe, each with multiple gunshot wounds. The beat goes on.

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Female Traffic Officer Complains to Teto About Corruption

2010-10-15T05:35:00.002-06:00

La Polaka (click here) reports an incident that occurred yesterday when mayor Teto Murguia visited the Traffic Department as part of a public review of municipal agencies he is conducting at the beginning of his term in office. As the television cameras began to roll a uniformed female officer interrupted to accuse three department commanders, which she named, of corruption. First, she asserted, they are telling traffic police they must fill a quota of 20 traffic tickets a day; second, they are extorting $200 pesos (about $16 US) per day from officers assigned to the busiest intersections (I was almost given a ticket at one of these earlier this year, don't ask me why I didn't get it), and third, she accused them of sexual harassment. She told reporters that, yes, she was afraid of reprisals for making this statement. Teto listened and promised to investigate thoroughly, a promise, according to La Polaka, that is made routinely at the beginning of each city administration.

Report to President Calderon: Only 35% of Municipal Police in Juarez Passed the "Trustworthiness" Test

2010-10-14T17:06:00.005-06:00

From a story in Diario (click here for story):

The national Secretary of Public Security, Genaro Garcia Luna, issued a report to President Felipe Calderon on Tuesday, during the president's visit to Cd. Juarez. The report consisted of an evaluation of the results of the "We are All Juarez" security program, launched a few months ago. In attendance when the report was delivered to the president were Governor Cesar Duarte and Mayor Teto Murguia.

Typically, such reports contain statistical information about the effectiveness of a particular initiative. This report is no different, and it presents an interesting profile of the kinds of issues the federal government has been trying to handle in recent months in Juarez. A few examples, but remember that many persons in Juarez do not complain to police forces, either local, state, or federal, so there is an unknown number of complaints that are not registered:

Kidnapping: 34 kidnap victims were freed by federal police, 38 kidnappers were arrested, and 5 kidnapping rings were broken up.

Protection Racket Extortion: 109 complaints of extortion were registered. Out of these 103 cases were "dealt with" without the victims paying anything; 6 were registered after payment had been given. 28 arrests have been made.

Telephone Extortions: 359 complaints were registered, out of which 306 were classified as "attempted extortion." 53 complaints were registered after payment had been made.

Federal Police Emergency calls: The Center for Emergencies and Rapid Response received 1495 calls on 089, an average of 8.4 per day. (This average is, incidentally, almost exactly what the homicide average is so far this year.)

066 Calls: the more common 066 number for emergencies (equivalent to 911) received 795,968 calls. Out of these only 164,271 fell within the scope of the service, but the wait times for a response to a qualifying emergency have dropped from 20 minutes to 7 minutes.

Drug Cartels: 118 suspected members of the Juarez cartel (La Linea) have been arrested, and 22 member of the Pacific cartel (Chapo Guzman) have been arrested. No figures were released about how many of these are still being detained.

"Trustworthiness Tests:" Without specifying what the test consists of, Garcia Luna asserted that 1664 tests were administered to municipal police in the six month time frame, and only 35% of those tested were declared to be fully "trustworthy." ("controles de confianza"). The entire municipal police force consists of about 2500 officers, recruited and trained for municipal police duty during the past year or so, after the entire municipal police force had been dissolved when the armed forces arrived to replace them in early 2009.

Wes Handy, RIP

2010-10-13T07:51:00.006-06:00

The death of Wes Handy, born in 1921, saddens us even as it reminds us that those fortunate enough today to have lived as long as he are among the very few whose lives spanned three major epochs in American life: the age of agriculture, with limited technology, horses, mules, and human labor; the age of industry, symbolized by the dominance of the automobile, steel, and giant factories; and the post-industrial age (we still don't know what to call it, referring only to what we no longer are) in which the digital revolution, global human networking, and brainpower seem to be driving forces.

Wes grew up on a family farm without electricity or running water, and he remembered when his father bought his first tractor. Maturing to adulthood during the golden age of American industrialism, he was well ahead of his time during the last half of his life, not only understanding future needs of American society as the country grew older, but also helping invent appropriate living arrangements for people in the latter stages of their lives, and, not so incidentally, making himself rich in the process. When I would see him and Nadine, however, they were more likely to be surrounded by small children at Little Playmates, not forgetting the formative stages of life.

They donated generously to many educational, religious, and other causes and I owe them a strong personal debt of gratitude for making money available during the 1980s, when funds were very scarce, to make trips to Central America. What national stature I achieved during that decade in the debate over Central America was due in no small part to that generosity. On one occasion their funds enabled me to take two of my students to El Salvador during the middle of the civil war, a trip with scary moments, but which nevertheless had a lasting influence on their lives. They also set up an academic excellence award, and made available a luncheon fund, for occasions when I asked prominent New Mexican politicians to speak to my class on New Mexico politics, so students could mingle socially with the political class of the state, and listen to the arguments and discussion about contemporary themes, in a setting that privileged honest debate.

Wes was a curmudgeon, with a penchant for telling it like it is, boldly, sometimes loudly, without euphemisms, and without fear. In that sense I looked at him as a role model. He had a piercing intelligence that saw things as they were, not as we would wish them to be, but he sided with people who were trying to push the envelope just a bit toward the ideal side. Like many in his, "the finest," generation, he believed we are all in this together and need to work toward social consensus through compromise, countervailing balance, and dialogue--not by imposing easy formulas from ideological textbooks.

I first heard of Wes from the late Sen. Gladys Hansen, about thirty years ago, when I was chairman of the Dona Ana County Democrats. We needed funds, and I asked her who I might hit up. Like most people Gladys spoke about them in the plural, as in "Wes n' Nadine," since they acted inordinately as a team. Wes was generous in giving to the party and his money wasn't contingent on anything, but he made me feel obligated to engage with him as he tested my thoughts about things political, good government always being the target of discussion. When he disagreed with me he let me know it, and I always learned something from the exchange. It was very clear he had absorbed much of the wisdom of the agrarian age, as well as the industrial age, and was struggling with the rest of us to wring some wisdom out of our contemporary condition: he brought an extraordinary depth and breadth of perspective and insight to that struggle.

Goodbye, Wes, you led an exemplary life.

The Deceptions of Brian Colón

2010-10-09T21:24:00.024-06:00

About the "Tejana" ad by Brian Colon: (scroll below to see ad)

Several commentators have exposed the Colon ad for trying to divide Hispanics from North and South. Just a couple more points.

Colon slips two intentional deceptions into this ad: First, because "Colon" is a Spanish surname, his comments about "our culture" encourage you to think he is Mexican American. In fact he is from New York, of Puerto Rican extraction, so he is the cultural outsider, less entitled to use the term "our culture" than any New Mexican--Native American, Anglo or Hispanic--of second generation or beyond. If he had said, "I'm from New York and I resent Susana for being from Texas," there would have been no deception but the comment would be laughable. The only way to get the desired negative response is for him to try to deceive viewers into thinking he is an insider sharing an insider prejudice; he clearly wants to be viewed here as a cultural New Mexican, and clearly wants Susana not to be. This, incidentally, raises the question of what exactly qualifies one to be a cultural New Mexican: family background? Fluent Spanish? Liking green chile? Number of years living in the state? Passing a test on New Mexico culture? Whatever the criteria, I would wager Susana Martinez beats him by a landslide. In any event, Colon was trying, shamefully, to exploit a negative stereotype.

His second deception is to lure you into accepting his unstated premise that people from El Paso (Anglos or Hispanics) are culturally different (inferior?) from people (Anglo or Hispanic) across the river in Sunland Park New Mexico. Colon is hoping viewers North of I-40 are so geographically challenged they won't be able to distinguish between El Paso (where Susana was born) and "Tejas" --as the term is normally used in Northern New Mexico--but they will believe there is a difference in culture between El Paso and Sunland Park. If he were to argue this point in Las Cruces, Anthony, or Sunland Park, he would be laughed at: El Paso was part of New Mexico, culturally and politically, from the time Onate crossed the river here in 1598 until 1846, when the present U.S.-Mexico border separated El Paso from New Mexico. And you won't find anyone in this region claiming to be able to distinguish between "Tejano" culture in El Paso and "Nuevo Mexicano" culture on the New Mexico side. So just how is Susana culturally different from New Mexicans? The culturally different person here is Brian Colon. Using his own logic from this ad, shouldn't we disqualify him because he is further removed from New Mexico culture, history, and families than Susana?

There is another possible interpretation of the ad others have hinted at. The word suromato (literally, "go South or I kill"), used only in Northern New Mexico, refers negatively to Mexicans, as opposed to the Hispanic descendants of the pioneers who settled in Northern New Mexico in the 17th century. It also carries the connotation of Mexican Americans, not just Mexican nationals, from the South (not a clearly defined geography; I have heard the term used in reference to Las Crucens, for example), and is pejorative. Thus, the term "tejana" as used in this ad might simply be a code word for suromato, implying that Northern New Mexicans would not want one of those to be governor. Diane Denish, of course, is from an area of the state often associated with prejudice against Spanish speaking people, whether Mexican nationals or Mexican American descendants of the Onate expedition: they are all "Meskins" to some Little Texans, at least according to conventional wisdom or stereotype in the South Valley of Albuquerque or in Espanola. So when Colon speaks under the false cover of his surname to accuse Susana as being an outsider, to the benefit of a Little Texan, it raises more issues than it settles, and incidentally violates a longstanding, sensible, informal rule of New Mexico politics: ethnic factors influence elections, but we don't talk about them: when we point an ethnic finger, we often have several more pointing back at us. If Colon were more culturally a New Mexican, he wouldn't have cut the ad.

Brian Colon has been accused of ethical mischief before. While state Democratic Party chair he picked up a box of documents in Las Cruces dealing with the Region VII Housing Authority on behalf of his law firm, which was trying to sue to recover money lost when Region III defaulted on $5 million in bonds it owed the state. It was a conflict of interest for Colon, as state party chair, handpicked by Richardson, to pick up evidence that might potentially implicate prominent Democrats. Frances Williams, the plucky lady who unraveled a good deal of the housing authority shenanigans, scolded Colon severely for doing this and told Heath Haussamen, referring to the conflict of interest in Colon's actions, "This stuff with Brian Colón, it goes to the heart of ethics and how we deal with government...” Click here for story in Haussamen.

Note: I wrote the section on suromato after a lengthy conversation about it with my cousin, Erminio Martinez, from Las Vegas, NM. He traces the origins back at least to the 1920s. Any errors there might be in that section, however, are my sole responsibility.

Outgoing Mayor Reyes Ferriz: Governor Baeza Blocked Efforts to Control Violence in Juarez for Political Reasons

2010-10-09T07:24:00.005-06:00

In a remarkable interview to Diario (click here), PRIista outgoing Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz, who leaves office tomorrow, describes how political infighting between the governor's office and the municipality of Juarez caused a break between the state government and Juarez, and an "abandonment" of the state government's efforts to contain the escalation of violence in Juarez.

When the wave of kidnappings and extortion began in the Spring of 2008, he asserts, governor Jose Reyes Baeza (no relation), also a Priista, was more interested in pointing out that it was the federal government (controlled by the PAN party) that was failing, than he was in cooperating with the national and local governments to solve the problem. "At that point I began working with the federal government, especially with the secretariat of Governance (PGR), and we began to coordinate our efforts. The state then began to see the intervention of the federal government in the violence of Juarez as a (Panista) political intervention in Cd. Juarez (controlled by the PRI)," the mayor said. "The state government did not want us to work closely with the federal government."

Another point of friction was the relationship between the mayor's office and the state prosecutor, Patricia Gonzalez. The state prosecutor's office simply wasn't doing its job. "When I began to pressure them privately to make it work, the state government thought I was trying to make them look bad, For me it would have been politically convenient to have said in public that the state was doing nothing, but I was hoping we could get all three levels of government to work together. Things got so bad I made an agreement with the federal prosecutor's office so that they would hold persons accused of crimes, rather than the state government, because not only was not doing its job in detaining suspects, but when it did so, it let them go." It became clear the state government would not cooperate even to the extent of providing the resources it had promised.

Basically state government had refused to exercise its respo0nsibility to fight insecurity in Cd. Juarez: as an example, the mayor points to the day he informed the public that the maintenance of federal forces in Juarez would cost the municipal government $420 million pesos; "immediately I got a message from the governor saying "don't even think you can count on state government for that purpose." The governor also refused to increase the number of agents in the prosecutor's office in Juarez where, the mayor said, there are less than half the number that there are in Chihuahua (city). "The truth is, the government not only did not cooperate, but in various instances it openly blocked efforts by the federal government to invest in security. "We would convince the federal government to give us resources bu the state government would say no."

The break between the state government and Juarez became an open one when the governor began promoting the candidacy of his former secretary, Oscar Villalobos, for governor (in the elections of 2010) and the mayor supported Cesar Duarte, who went on to become governor. Things came to a head in 2010 when the governor wanted to impose Victor Valencia as mayor, one of Reyes Ferriz's worst enemies. "I had reason to think Victor Valencia (who was named the governor's representative in Juarez six months after Reyes Ferriz became mayor) was not the ideal candidate for Juarez," he said, indicating only that "the people of Juarez know why" I have no confidence in him."

Two More Bodies Burned Alive

2010-10-08T22:35:00.003-06:00

From a note in Diario (click here): Two charred bodies were found by law enforcement officials moments after a group of armed men removed two men from a vehicle, poured gasoline on them, and lit a match in Col Independencia II, near the railroad tracks. Witnesses said they could smell gasoline and heard a vehicle zoom off, and could hear the victims, who were still alive as they tried to put out the fire.

Diario Interview Tomorrow: Outgoing Mayor of Juarez Faults Outgoing Governor Baeza for Abandoning Juarez

2010-10-08T22:24:00.002-06:00

Diario will release an interview it had with outgoing Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz, who will be living in Washington, D.C. during the next two years, speaking out on security issues and lobbying various agencies. He blamed the attorney general's office for releasing, not prosecuting, persons arrested by the armed forces, for failing to help Juarez with its problems of mass transit, and for the general failure of the state attorney general's office to do its job.

Citizens Fight Back: Burgler Beaten by Neighbors

2010-10-08T07:02:00.005-06:00

From a report (click here) in Norte Digital, by Herika Martinez Prado, one of the better security reporters in Juarez:

Late at night in Col. Valle de Santiago, a family returning home from an outing surprised a burgler inside their home. The burgler, Antonio Giner, 26, was taken outside by the owner, who began beating him. Neighbors wanted to kill him, and some suggested burning him (this has happened before, scroll down to last paragraph in my October 5 post), but instead he was turned over to the police. Martinez did an excellent job of interviewing people at the scene:

Note: in Mexico the term "linchar" (deriving from the English "lynching") refers to cases where neighbors kill a delinquent caught in the act: it does not suggest the use of a rope, as it does in American English. Newspapers in Mexico, for example, used the term to describe what happened to the two kidnappers in Ascencion two weeks ago, and to the death of the man at the barbecue stand yesterday. I will re-adopt the term in English, dropping the "y," hoping readers will understand the term's current usage in Spanish.

"...neighobors wanted to linch him, just like Ascencion, but it scares you because of your family that there might be reprisals and the police are not helping us for anything," said a neighbor.

Other neighbors complained that burglary has escalated in the last few weeks, especially of car batteries and residential break-ins.

A pointed comment by Martinez in her report: "the linching was prevented not by the presence of police but by the presence of reporters..."

"Sometimes the police don't even come. Last Tuesday they came but only because they were called in by newspaper reporters, but if you talk to them they practically ignore you. You call 066 and the lady who answers is rude to you sometimes even treating you worse than the criminal."

"Sometimes you even want to buy a gun, but for someone who is not in organized crime it is very difficult, but without one, imagine if a thief is here with me and my family, and what can I do, nothing, just say "come in?" and the police don't help."

"All of us in the neighborhood want to close off the major entry ways into the neighborhood and we are collecting signatures, we want to put in a steel gate or block it up or put up a gate with a watchman..."

All Aboard? Armed Thief Killed by Clients at Barbecue Stand

2010-10-07T16:24:00.008-06:00

At about 1:30 this afternoon at a barbecue stand at Benemérito de las Américas and Plutarco Elías Calles, four armed men assaulted the establishment, forcing the owner and clients at gunpoint to empty their pockets. After the assault three of the men got into a vehicle, which sped off before the fourth man was able to climb aboard. Clients and, apparently, passersby, attacked the man left behind, beating him with fists and, some say, knives, and there is one report he may have been shot with his own pistol. Someone called 066 (equivalent to 911) to attend to the man but by the time paramedics arrived the thief was dead.

From stories in La Polaka, Diario, el Pueblo

The Beat: 14 yesterday, two burned bodies

2010-10-05T17:23:00.009-06:00

The first victim on a homicidal Monday in Juarez was Óscar Ulises Miranda Hernández, 31, a member of a state crime scene unit. He was killed by gunmen at about 7 a.m. as he was taking off the "club" from the steering wheel of his state-owned pickup, preparing to leave his home at the intersection of Montes Urales y Sierra de Samalayuca in Col. La Cuesta. His parents arrived at the scene shortly thereafter and found his body still in the cabin. His father lowered him to the ground, ascertained that he was dead, folded his son's arms, shut his eyelids, and offered him a farewell blessing. (see picture) Kneeling beside his son, the father held him in his arms for a long moment while his wife stood by. Thirty seven spent cartridges, 7.62 x 39 y 9 milímetros, were found nearby. He was the 112th law enforcement agent to die violently this year, and the 16th state police agent to be killed. According to a story in Norte Digital (click here) Mr. Miranda was one of the very few crime scene operators who did not use a face mask while working at crime scenes.

Later in the morning the body of a man scorched by fire was discovered in Col. Granjas de Chapultepec. It is not known whether he was burned alive, as has happened in several other cases in recent months.

At 5:30 p.m. a man was killed outside a sea food restaurant, Los Bichis. He was shot inside a white Nissan Sentra in the parking lot of the restaurant on Ave. de la Raza, a major thoroughfare. Having failed to kill the man, the gunmen returned a few minutes later and finished him off. Passengers in a blue Jeep with New Mexico plates observed the incident, panicked, and were treated later by the Red Cross. Blood stains could be seen on their clothing, suggesting they might have been quite close to the shooting when it happened.

He was waiting for his own death: At about 9:30 p.m. (according to a story in El Mexicano) Ricardo Ribota, 37, was killed inside a residence in Col. Km. 5. His parents asserted that he had expected his own execution, being a member of a gang. Family members told police Ricardo had sent his wife and two children to buy a pizza, and just as they were returning they saw several armed men going into the house, where they shot and killed him in the kitchen. At least seven gunshots were heard.

At about 9 p.m. a man was splashed with gasoline and a match was lit, in Col. Mexico 68. It is believed neighbors tried to put the flames out, but only his tied feet and hands were left un-scorched. It only took a galon of gasoline to kill him, apparently, since a one-gallon tank for gasoline was found at his feet. A note was left nearby saying, "they killed me for being a thief, and others will follow."

From stories in Diario

Cesar Duarte Inaugurated Governor of Chihuahua

2010-10-04T18:28:00.004-06:00

Cesar Duarte took the oath of office today as governor of the state of Chihuahua, succeeding Jose Reyes Baeza, also a Priista. He was elected in statewide elections on July 4. Among the things he promised in his inaugural speech were to "be the best friend of business;" to build 1200 miles of highways in the state; to set aside $8 million (US) to assist children orphaned by the violence; to increase punishment to life imprisonment for kidnappers, extortionists, and multiple assassins; to send a jobs program to the state legislature to increase employment; and to recover public spaces now lost because of the threat of organized crime. The governor of the state of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto, attended the ceremonies, along with 14 other state governors, as did the President of the PRI of Mexico, Beatrice Paredes, several former governors, and other dignitaries.

Among the persons named to the new state cabinet are:
Attorney General: Carlos Manuel Salas, former PGR subdelegate in Juarez
State Police Chief: Gen (R) Julian David Rivera Breton, former police chief, Juarez
Secretary of Education: Jorge Quintana Silveyra, president, Autonomous University, Juarez
Secretary of Social Development: Fernando Uriarte Zazueta will stay on; he lives in El Paso
Secretary of the Economy: Alberto Chretin Castillo, up to now living in El Paso
Secretary of Government: Graciela Ortiz Gonzalez, federal congresswoman
Secretary of the Treasury: Christian Rodellagas Hinojosa, currently finance secretary
Secretary of Rural Development: Octavio Legarreta Guerrero
Secretary of Labor: Fidel Perez Romero
Secretary of Health: Dr. Sergio Pina Marshall
Secretary of Urban Development and Ecology: Rafael Servando Portillo, Duarte campaign manager
Secretary of Communications and Public Works: Javier Garfio Pacheco
Comptroller's Office: Jose Luis Garcia Mayagoitia

Other appointments are pending

The Beat: 289 in September

2010-10-04T12:17:00.010-06:00

September closed in Juarez with a total of 289 violent deaths, not quite as many as the 336 registered in August, or the 313 in June, but one more than the total in July. As of September 30, 2326 homicides have been registered so far this year, still on record pace. In all of 2009 there were 2657 homicides on the year. At the current pace through September the yearly total will be 3110 at the end of 2010, more than 8.5 homicides per day.

Tax Cuts for the Top 1% is Again Gaining Traction

2010-09-28T21:30:00.004-06:00

A few statistics about income distribution in the U.S. since 1979, from a blog by Chuck Marr (click here)

From Marr's blog: As I’ve noted before, over the last three decades a stunning shift in income has taken place in this country, from the middle class to those few at the very top of the income scale. Back in 1979, the middle 20 percent of Americans had more than twice as large a share of the nation’s total after-tax income as the top 1 percent. But by 2007, the top 1 percent’s slice of the economic pie had more than doubled and in fact exceeded the middle class’s slice, which had shrunk.

This great income shift means the average middle-income American family had about $9,000 less after-tax income in 2007, and an average household in the top 1 percent had $741,000 more, than they would have had if the 1979 income distribution had remained. Here’s how this looks in graph and table form:

For an excellent argument about why the tax cuts to the wealthiest 1% should be allowed to expire at the end of this year, written by one of the nation's top economists at the University of Chicago, click here.

Sunland Park: Aguilera Ousted for Ousting Luz Vargas

2010-09-28T14:26:00.002-06:00

Jaime Aguilera, city manager of Sunland Park, was fired last night at about midnight, after a lengthy five-hour meeting. He had been convicted of wrongdoing in California several years ago before becoming city manager in Truth or Consequences, where he was hired in spite of his criminal record. The immediate cause of his firing was his dismissal yesterday of Librarian Luz Vargas, who was physically removed from her office by city police after she had complained about irregularities in the management of the city. For many years Vargas has fought the Camino Real landfill, which has long been a point of contention among city residents, most of whom would like the landfill to cease operations. Many of these opponents were angered by Vargas' firing and they showed up last night to protest, indicating they believe Aguilera is in cahoots with landfill managers to silence opponents of the project. Many residents of Sunland Park believe that Camino Real managers have paid off public officials for many years to protect the interests of the unpopular landfill.

Authorities Meetin In Chihuahua City to Define Security Measures for Ascencion

2010-09-28T14:05:00.002-06:00

Nearly a week after the incident in Ascencion which resulted in the deaths of two young men engaged in a kidnapping attempt, the mayor of Ascencion, Rafael Camarillo, and the mayor-elect, Jaime Dominguez, met in Chihuahua with officials from Operación Coordinada Chihuahua (once called Joint Operation Chihuahua), to discuss the next steps in safeguarding the security of the people of Ascencion, according to an announcement made yesterday by Governor José Reyes Baeza.

Not only did townspeople beat to death two of the 8 or 9 kidnappers involved in the abduction of a seventeen-year old girl from a restaurant, they also pressured the mayor into firing all twelve municipal police agents and their commander. The town is now being patrolled by interim police agents and by units of the federal police.

Who Executed the Two Kidnappers in Ascencion?

2010-09-26T15:26:00.012-06:00

Gabriela Minjares writes a note in today's Diario, among other things quoting criminologist Óscar Máynez Grijalva, who is often asked to comment on the crisis of violence and authority in Cd. Juarez. "People who take justice in their own hands," he said, referring to the events in Ascencion last Tuesday, "become criminals because they violate the law, even though frequently there are attenuating circumstances that could be considered self defense."

Aside from the awkwardness of the last part of the sentence (it is just as awkward in Spanish), I find his comment to be profoundly wrong, although, significantly, law enforcement officials in Chihuahua were quick to point out, as if in agreement with him, that townspeople who participated in the beating to death of two kidnappers might be liable for criminal charges.

It so happened I taught a freshman class in politics on Thursday, and the reading for the day was from Thomas Hobbes, The Leviathan. In that book, which forms part of the bedrock of the theory of the state in Western civilization, Hobbes argues that in a state of nature; that is, before the formation of a state, or government, there is "continuall feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short." He likens this to a continual war: "To this war of every man against every man, this also is consequent; that nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice, have there no place. Where there is no common power, there is no law; where no law, no injustice. Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues."

Hobbes goes on to argue that the only justification for the creation of the state, which limits human liberty, is to prevent this continual war of "every man against every man."

I told my class, to the best of my limited ability to reconstruct events, the story of Ascencion. I provided some background about the deteriorating security situation in Northern Chihuahua, where in towns like Ascencion criminal gangs pay off police to protect their illicit activities, which include drug trafficking, extortion, and kidnapping. According to news reports between 20 and 30 kidnappings have occurred in Ascencion in the past six weeks. As I've said before, I've been to many troubled cities, but never have I seen any resemble the "state of nature," as described by Hobbes, as closely as what I see in Northern Chihuahua.

But--and here is where I disagree with the criminologist--there was a state in Ascencion on Tuesday morning. There was law. There was justice. It was not provided by the government, federal, state, or local, of Mexico. The people of Ascencion, with virtual unanimity according to all accounts, became the state, at least for a moment, because the state associated with the government of Mexico, and the social contract that went with it, had ceased to exist. In the days before the incident the townspeople of Ascencion had, in effect, created a social contract among themselves, to provide law, where law no longer existed. It was created out of muffled conversations, cell phones and coordinated solidarity against the gangs protected by police agents. When a seventeen year old girl was kidnapped, the state acted. The state pursued the kidnappers, rescued the victim, and then meted out justice instead of allowing Mexican authorities to take charge. And they applied the death penalty, which is not permitted under Mexican law. Two days later the death penalty was applied in Virginia against a woman with an IQ of 72, 2 points higher than the legal limit. Was her death more legitimately applied than the death of the two kidnappers because the state of Virginia spent umpteen dollars dotting i's and crossing t's to make the execution procedurally without blemish?

Who executed the kidnappers? Not criminals with "attenuating circumstances:" The state executed those kidnappers; that is to say, the people of Ascencion.

Citizens of Ascencion: Your actions on Tuesday, from all appearances, fell within the boundary lines of legitimate behavior in accordance with the founding documents of the Western theory of the state. We have no quarrel with your actions. We are your neighbors. We salute you.

Angry Citizens Kill Kidnappers, Force Policemen Out: The Lessons of Ascencion, Chihuahua

2010-09-23T05:45:00.003-06:00

In Ascencion, Chihuahua, a small farming and ranching town of about 10,000 on the road to Casas Grandes, townspeople beat to death two teenage boys participating in a kidnapping of a seventeen year old girl. Yesterday, Wednesday, townspeople pressured the mayor into firing the entire municipal police force, on the grounds that they had enabled a rash of kidnappings in recent weeks. Citizens assert they will patrol their city themselves.

The story began on Tuesday at about 9:00 a.m. when several men tried to kidnap the owner of a restaurant. Not finding him, they took a girl who works at the restaurant. Townspeople had been wary since last Thursday of a suspicious group of men riding in vehicles in the surrounding area, and had organized themselves to react quickly in case of an emergency. In the past few weeks, according to witnesses, about 20 persons in the area have been kidnapped, and on monday suspicious vehicles had come into town, causing townspeople to sound an alert.

The details of exactly what happened next are still fuzzy. Law enforcement officials (some versions say the army, other say the federal police) were contacted about the kidnapping and apparently they organized a search which discovered two vehicles, one containing the girl. After a chase, the vehicle carrying the girl apparently rolled over on the highway. The girl was rescued and at least two men were arrested and later sent to Juarez on suspicion of kidnapping. Some reports asserted townspeople prevented a police helicopter from landing near the site because they feared authorities would take them away only later to release them.

It is still unclear what happened with another vehicle containing some of the suspected kidnappers. The story in El Mexicano asserts the federal police had stopped this vehicle (Adriena Gomez Licon of the El Paso Times reported the vehicle had rolled into a ditch after a chase) to arrest the men, but were impeded from doing so by a mob that arrived at the scene. The mob began beating the men with their fists and with sticks and, according to this version, police finally wrested the men from the mob, but they died shortly thereafter. Andrés Rodríguez (alias R-1), either 16 or 17, and a seventeen-year old with the nickname "Mundo" were dead.

In addition to the dead suspected kidnappers, police arrested Obed Alberto Flores Arellano, "El Nenuco"; Jesús Manuel Ortega Rascón, "El Chumel," and Arturo Matancillas Lozoya, "El Cubano", who are suspected of being members of two kidnapping rings, "Los R" and "Los Caborca". The leader of the Caborca gang, Pedro Ávila Castillo, and two other gang members knows as "Los Paisas", managed to escape.

Yesterday the mayor of Ascencion, pressured by the wrath of citizens, fired all fourteen municipal police officers, and forced them to hand in their weapons and equipment, due to complaints the police had often protected kidnapping gangs. According to Norte Digital the previous chief of police, Salomón Baca Muñoz, resigned due to threats he had received, and citizens asked they mayor to contact his successor, mayor-elect Manuel Granados, to ask who he might appoint to fill the vacant positions of the police. The only police protection the city now has is afforded by army officers, who patrol in humvees.

The Lesson: When legally constituted authorities are unable to provide any degree of security against threats to public safety, it is only to be expected that citizens will take the law into their own hands. Evidence suggests this has happened not only in Ascencion, but also in many other parts of Chihuahua, where dead bodies are left to be discovered with signs nearby identifying them as extortionists or kidnappers. The case of Ascencion is likely to be repeated.

The Beat: Seven on Sunday

2010-09-20T22:07:00.004-06:00

At about 8:30 p.m. last night witnesses saw two men running down the block until they got to Antimonio and Norzagaray, in Col. Zacatecas. At that point a vehicle caught up to them and fired at least four shots. One man, about 25-30 was dead, and the other was wounded. The assailants then ran over the dead man with their vehicle and fled the scene. The man he was with was taken to a hospital, wounded. (see picture at right)

Early Sunday morning assassins broke into a house with a sledge hammer and hatchet and then attacked a woman, Yolanda Dávila Meraz, 52, and her son, Pedro Pulido Dávila, 14 with these instruments as well as with guns. Both were pronounced dead.

Two men driving a black SUV were shot and killed in Col. Patria by a group of armed men. The men were security guards at a local convenience store.

Compiled by stories in Diario and El Fronterizo.

KRWG radio debate on border issues: Pearce Vs. Teague: Don't Expect Any New Ideas

2010-09-20T10:21:00.010-06:00

The radio debate at 9 a.m. this morning was ostensibly about border issues; actually, it was about handling the current public hysteria about the border, and we got little more than platitudes from both sides, reflecting the talking points of each party caucus. Part of the problem was that the moderator, Fred Martino, accepts the operating assumption, shared by the commercial news media, that the border represents various forms of wickedness threatening us and that each wickedness requires a militarized response. The candidates were basically asked to provide policy options based on these assumptions. Since current discourse about the border reflects this hysteria, both candidates were eager to go along.

Immigration? Send more troops to the border. My opponent hasn't been as tough as I on this. Drug trafficking? Send more troops to the border. My opponent isn't tough enough. Violence in Juarez? Send more troops, my opponent is weak here, too. You expect this kind of rhetoric from congressional candidates in Kansas City. But in a border congressional district? At no point in the discussion did anyone point out that immigration and drug trafficking have been dealt with for decades by sending more troops to the border, with no tangible results. Today illegal migration and recreational drug supplies are worse than ever, untouched by the billions of dollars spent on border patrol, customs, ICE, and all the other alphabet soup agencies. Perhaps its time for new thinking? Perhaps a little demand reduction? Nope, just send more troops to the border, thank you, vote for me. The candidates might have been asked if the federal government might play a role in helping to develop the Santa Teresa border crossing and related infrastructure--as a border security measure, and if stimulus money might be used.

I'm being too harsh. In a congressional campaign you don't try to change public opinion, you cater to it. But at least I'd like to have had a glimmer of hope that the candidates might end up having something more intelligent to say in Congress about the border than the typical politician from Paducah Kentucky. There is no question, each of the two candidates has been to the border umpteen times, talking to border patrol agents, customs agents, ranchers, and sheriffs. They know what's on the ground. But the answer to our immigration and drug problems will not be solved by asking border patrol agents what to do: they will be solved by creating rational policies in Washington that have widespread public acceptance and the will to follow through, and for too long now we've gone along with the fiction that hotels, meat packers, restaurants, roofers, and other industries don't knowingly hire undocumented migrants, and that we can stop the supply of illegal drugs entering the U.S. with stronger border controls at check points, and that law enforcement corruption exists only in Mexico. And until our political system can deliver rational policies on these issues, expect the bipartisan game of sending more troops to the border to continue, with no tangible results other than the kind of frustration that leads to an angry electorate.

Democratic Pollster Polls Independents: They Lean Strongly Republican This Year

2010-09-20T06:57:00.007-06:00

Douglas E. Schoen, author of Mad as Hell: How the Tea Party Movement is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two-Party System, released (click here) some findings of a poll of independent voters last month, this morning in the Wall Street Journal. While the results point favorably toward the Republican Party in this year's election, it shows strong dissatisfaction with the Republican Party as well.

Highlights: Independents, who make up 36% of the electorate and outnumber each of the two major parties, lean toward the Republican Party over the Democratic Party by 50% to 25%. In spite of this fully, 54% view the Republicans unfavorably compared to 39% with favorable views. And almost half (48%) are sympathetic toward the tea party movement. Perhaps most important, a huge percentage of independents (40%) are still undecided about their vote in the upcoming congressional races. Interestingly, independents rate President Obama favorably at exactly the same rate as everyone else: 43% favorable and 55% unfavorable.

The message is clear: independents are key to the outcome of the battle to control the House of Representatives. Expect both Democrats and Republicans to cater strongly to these voters for the next six weeks. What, then, do they want?

The poll indicates independents, like their Tea Party counterparts, want to decrease the size of government, cut spending and taxes, balance the budget, reduce the debt, decrease the power of special interest groups, and reduce partisan polarization.

Sounds just like a Republican, right? Then why the unfavorable rating for Republicans? Why the high undecided vote?

Independent voters (and many Tea Party advocates as well) appear to have decided that while Republicans talk about these things, when in power, they maintain the size of government, increase deficits, and cater to their favorite interest groups slurping for federal dollars. Instead of reducing, they shift spending away from social programs toward law enforcement, the military, welfare checks of one kind or another to the Fortune 500. The poster child for all of this is the personage of George W. Bush. Party operatives, using scientific methods, have gleefully diverted attention from these realities by demonizing Democrats, thereby polarizing the electorate even further. Republicans have thus impaled themselves on the sword of their own ideology: they have successfully convinced a majority of the public about the sins of "Big Gummint," but they have failed, when in office, to act as though they believed it. Democrats, on the other hand, beginning with President Clinton, have in practice slurped at the trough of the Fortune 500, eagerly seeking their campaign contributions, sucking up to their lobbyists, and ruling on their behalf, while maintaining the rhetoric, but no longer reality, of "being for the little guy." The richest 1% gobbled up the lion's share of all the new wealth America produced under Clinton, just as they did under Reagan, Bush, and Bush.

Thus, both parties have much in common, having created a system that privileges the salaries and perks of people associated with partisan activity at the Washington level) and each party, in its own way, speaks out of both sides of its mouth. Anger at this deceptive pattern has broken out in ways that currently favor Republicans, but only two years ago the anger was expressed against the disjointed, neurotic, and ostrich-like national Republican campaign, to the advantage of the Democratic Party and Barack Obama. In previous periods of American history when both parties got hypocritical and essentially corrupt, it was outside agitation that moved the country forward: reform rarely comes from within a political party; only when a party loses does it wake up, and in a two party system when both parties go bad, third parties threaten the cozy status quo. This appears to be happening today in the ranks of the tea party movement and the independents.

In New Mexico independents do not outnumber Democrats or Republicans, and we usually lag behind national trends for an election cycle or two, except in the Albuquerque area, where John Barela's chances of winning Heinrich's congressional seat may well rest on his ability to activate the anger of the independent voter.

Diario Tries to Make Sense Out of Narco-Message

2010-09-19T18:57:00.010-06:00

Yesterday at 5:30 a.m. reporters were alerted about the appearance of a "narco-message" written on a banner (see picture on the right), at a major intersection. It said, "Commander Diaz Saavedra, commissioner Pavon, Comander Arias, what happened to the reporters will happen to you if you don't reverse gear and give us the money, you are just like Major Rezendiz. Sincerely, La Linea." Stories reporting this appearance yesterday suggested that La Linea might be taking responsibility for the murder of the Diario photographer, Luis Carlos Santiago, 21, and the critical injury to Diario photographer Carlos Sanchez Colunga, 18, on September 16.

Today a narco-message appeared on a wall (see picture) denying that La Linea shoots newsmen.

Diario staffers began to dig further into the original message, and (click here for story) and have reached the following conclusions, based on information provided by law enforcement officials

The men named in the narco-message were federal police agents assigned to work with the municipal police department. Diaz Saavedra took over the Delicias police station in April, when federal police took over the command of municipal police functions, replacing Lt. Col. Rezendiz, an army officer. Commander Arias was a federal police agent assigned to the Benito Juarez station Pavon was also a federal police agent who, Diario learned, was transferred to Mexico City. Anonymous informants told Diario Diaz Saavedra, Pavon, and Arias, were all involved in extortion.

First Pearce-Teague Debate Set for Tomorrow (Monday) 9:00 a.m. KRWG Radio 90.7 FM

2010-09-19T14:16:00.009-06:00

One of the more interesting races this fall in New Mexico is the one between Steve Pearce and Harry Teague for Congress in New Mexico's conservative-leaning District 02. Here's why.

1. Both candidates have held the job. Pearce won the CD02 job in 2002, after Joe Skeen stepped down, beating state senator John Arthur Smith in what began as a tight race and then ended in kind of a whimper when Smith ran out of money three weeks before the election. A then-popular President Bush campaigned for Pearce at a huge event in Alamogordo and Pearce came in with a 12 point advantage. Pearce held the seat during the Bush years until he stepped down in 2008 to run for the Senate seat vacated by Pete Domenici (he lost to Tom Udall). Joseph Cervantes jumped into the CD02 race and seemed like a shoe-in until he dropped out, for family reasons, in late December. Parenthetically, I announced I would run for Cervantes' New Mexico House seat, since he would have to vacate it to run for the U.S. House, but I dropped out of the running after Cervantes dropped out of the CD02 seat. The decision by Domenici to drop out of the Senate caused a whole chain of droppings in and out.

With Cervantes out of the race Teague, a wealthy man with connections, had no difficulty winning the Democratic Party primary race and was swept into CD02 by the Obama tsunami of 2008.

So Pearce has actually occupied CD02 for a longer time than Teague: the advantage of incumbency, is therefore diminished; both will be perceived as more or less equally experienced. This is a huge factor, when you consider that in most years well over 95% of all incumbent congressmen and women get re-elected. Add to that the widespread feeling that this is an anti-incumbent year, and you can see that the issue of incumbency in this race is complicated.

2. Both are from Hobbs, NM, and grew up with Diane Denish and Richardson buddy Johnny Cope. Teague owns or owned an airplane with Cope, which they loaned out to Richardson during his presidential bid. All are about the same age, early 60s. Teague and Pearce owned oil-related businesses across the street from one another. Both started out in Hobbs with no money and both made out very well in life, financially. Both are conservative in temperament as well as ideology. Both have pretty much the same set of beliefs and values as most businessmen in the district.

Up to here there is little to distinguish one from another, as demonstrated by the Sanderoff poll a couple of weeks ago showing the two to be within the margin of error, with Teague up by 3 points.

3. If the national scene favored Teague in 2008, it would seem to favor Pearce in 2010. The local partisan scene, however, tilts toward Democrats. Disgust with George Bush was reaching record levels two years ago, a factor which helped create a huge swing in both the Senate and House in favor of the Democrats. But today, polls show unhappiness with Obama, whose approval rating is now in the low-to-mid 40's, not nearly as lethal as the 27% Bush had at the end of September, 2008, but still pretty low. Worse, the approval rating for Democrats in Congress last month in a Gallup poll was 33%, and 32% for Republicans. At first glance this might seem to be equally bad for Pearce and Teague, but most observers feel these numbers, combined with the strong success of the Tea Party advocates, suggest voters are in the mood to toss out incumbents. This would be bad for Harry Teague, since evidence suggests voters are clearly aware he is a Democrat. On the other hand, demographic trends in CD02 tend to favor Democrats, who outnumber Republicans by 47% to 35%. Democrats in CD02 tend to be pretty conservative, but this is not as pronounced as it was a decade ago, and the overall ratio of Democrats to Republicans has been moving in the D's direction in recent years, so Pearce is unlikely to be touting a highly Republican partisan identity, although he is likely to be joining in the chorus of Republican policy complaints against the Democrats in Congress.

Bottom Line: Teague is likely to emphasize his hard work (no one doubts the grueling schedule he has maintained) on behalf of constituents, his success in bringing bacon to New Mexico, and his likability, which is high. He is very unlikely to talk about the advantage he now holds as a Democrat in a Democratically-controlled House, since current projections suggest the Democrats might well lose control of the House by a margin of 5-10 seats. Pearce is likely to surf on the strong wave of sentiment against Congress, and against the President and national direction, while emphasizing his previous experience as a congressman. This one is hard to predict.

350 Bars, Cantinas, Dance Halls, Closed Because of Extortion Threats. Nightlife Gone in Downtown Juarez

2010-09-18T21:18:00.005-06:00

In an unsigned story in Norte Digital today (click here) the authors estimate that about 350 bars, beer halls, cantinas, and bars with dance halls have closed down due to the threat of extortion. The article asserts that all of the bars in Juarez are now subject to threats by extortionists, who, they claim, are collecting about $100,000 (U.S.) per week from the owners, who pay between $75 (U.S.) and $750 (U.S.) depending on the volume of trade. About 179 of the establishments that have closed were located downtown, and there is practically no nightlife left in the downtown zone. The number of persons employed in these establishments is down to a mere 20% of what it was just two years ago. Even ambulatory peddlers of flowers, tacos, and the like, as well as taxi drivers, are forced to pay extortion fees of $5.00-$10.00 (U.S.). Bars that are still operating have cut their hours drastically, rarely open except on weekends.

More Violence in Juarez: Another Decapitated Head, Report of Car Bomb Unfounded

2010-09-18T21:07:00.005-06:00

Another decapitated head was left on the roof of a car in Col. Arroyo de las Víboras; the body was inside, and law enforcement officials at first feared a car bomb had been planted, but these proved to be unfounded. After further investigation it turned out that a natural gas container inside the car contained nothing but natural gas. Diario carried the story on Sunday, October 19 (click here). La Polaka had earlier reported as fact that a bomb had been found and deactivated, and my initial draft of this note, relied on the veracity of that report. All of Juarez has been spooked about car bombs for a couple of months now, since a real car bomb went off, giving rise to multiple rumors, including this one. News media should be extremely careful not to fuel these fears (Juarenses have enough troubles as it is) and I regret my willingness to accept the Polaka story as fact.

More on the Grito in Juarez: massacre this morning at nightclub

2010-09-17T08:10:00.005-06:00

Newspapers this morning are commenting on the bicentennial celebration (of the declaration of independence by Father Hidalgo in Dolores in 1810) in Juarez on Wednesday night and Thursday. Photographs have circulated (see pictures to your right) showing a lonely Mayor, Jose Reyes Ferriz, giving the grito to an empty parking lot in front of city hall. Don Mirone, an outspoken critic of the mayor, who writes commentary in Norte, contrasted the desolate, depressing event in Juarez with the 10,000 juarenses who celebrated the Grito across the river at the main plaza in El Paso (in Juarez it is still known as the Plaza de los Lagartos, a reference to the old days when there was an alligator pit in the main square). Alicia Vásquez commented in Diario that in spite of the lack of security, families, neighborshoods, businesses, schools, and churches were full of people celebrating. She concluded, "we shouldn't continue being puppets capable of unity only when there is a fiesta. This celebration, while sprinkled in some cases and in others drowned in alcohol should remind us to lift up our spirits to work, struggle, and become better Mexicans."

One group of people celebrating last night at the El Vivar nightclub at the Pronaf, stayed a little too long: a group of armed men entered the nightclub, filled with people, at about 3 a.m. this morning, and killed at least seven people. Apparently it was a private party. Nightclubs are legally required to close at 2 a.m.

Another Journalist Killed in Juarez This Afternoon

2010-09-16T18:35:00.002-06:00

Luis Carlos Santiago, a photographer for Diario, was shot and killed today in an automobile as he and another photographer, Carlos Sanchez, were leaving the Rio Grande Mall. Sanchez was seriously injured and is in a hospital in serious condition tonight.

The Juarez Grito: Quiet, Restrained; Nine Murders Yesterday, One Beheaded

2010-09-16T13:42:00.005-06:00

I was at the Mexican Consulate dinner last night, courtesy of an invitation my wife received, in honor of the two hundredth anniversary of the Grito de Hidalgo, equivalent to our own Fourth of July. Among the people from New Mexico who were there were Maria Elena Vargas, from Sunland Park, State Representative Mary Helen Garcia, Judge Fernando Macias and his wife Claudia, Judge Oscar Frietze, Judge Richard Silva and his wife Remy, Public Defender chief Ken Henrie, and Valecia Gavin. The official ceremony was brief, with just a few short remarks from the Mayor of El Paso, the manager of the El Paso Museum of Art, where the event was held, and Consul General Roberto Rodriguez.

Mr. Rodriguez, an up-and-coming diplomat in the Mexican Foreign Service, carries the rank of Ambassador, bestowed on him in 2002, and has served as Consul General in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Nogales, Arizona, prior to his appointment in El Paso. He made it clear in his exceptionally brief remarks that while there is reason to celebrate the bicentennial of the Mexican Revolution, the current moment in Juarez is marred by "violence, corruption, and narco-trafficking." In fact, he went on to say, this is a moment to create a new revolution, to "erradicate" these ills from Mexican society, for the development of Mexico and, for "the future of the society of El Paso and Cd. Juarez." Clearly, the Ambassador had decided not to ignore the obvious poor state of affairs in Cd. Juarez, and to ask Mexicans to rededicate themselves to the tasks at hand.

In Cd. Juarez, Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz decided a couple of weeks ago not to have large gatherings of people in celebration of the Grito, for obvious security reasons, and urged citizens to be content with a "virtual" Grito, to be observed on television. He did the honors, however, alone, in city hall last night, accompanied only be a few soldiers and reporters, while a few bystanders who ignored his admonition stood by. (see picture). He allowed a spotlight to be thrown on him for a few seconds while standing on a balcony of city hall, waved a handkerchief and did the traditional "grito" of "Viva Mexico!" A very lonely Grito, particularly on the bicentennial anniversary of the original Grito by Father Hidalgo. Father Hidalgo, it should be remembered, was rewarded for his declaration of independence by being beheaded by Spanish authorities, and his head placed on a pole in front of the main square in Dolores, where the Grito took place. Two hundred years later a man in Cd. Juarez was beheaded for reasons unknown, his body was left wrapped in a red blanket, feet and hands tied, and the head was wrapped in cloth and placed on the trunk of the car. Eight other persons were murdered in Juarez yesterday, the 15th of September, on the eve of the two hundredth anniversary of the first Grito.

But about 5000 juarenses showed up for a Grito parade this morning in the Chamizal area (fairly easy to secure) which was televised to avoid security risks associated with congestion. The parade was accompanied by heavy security, particularly army soldiers, who received warm applauses--apparently the public still has greater respect for the army than for other security agencies.

Campaigns As a Form of Reality TV

2010-09-15T07:30:00.011-06:00

In the future corporate America will take over electioneering altogether to exploit its entertainment value to sell aspirins, cereals for kids, and promote the corporate image of the Fortune 500. That is to say, the private sector will manage all aspects of public sector campaigns, while leaving the public sector intact in its traditional form. This will create vast efficiencies in the electoral marketplace, which is now pretty messy and poorly packaged.

After a national primary day, all of the surviving candidates will be put on a deserted jungle island with varying survival tools and weapons. The TV host will provide instructions for candidates to go through a series of obstacle courses and opportunities to give speeches, which will be evaluated by semi-well known television personalities for believability, emotional connection with the audience, as well as outed for lying or other scandals, as in American Idol and Dancing with the Stars. Viewers will evaluate for themselves the skills of the candidates as they run through the obstacles, and a few segments will be devoted to intimate moments in which candidates, exhausted by the day's activities, will confide to each other in front of TV cameras what they really think of the other candidates and confess, perhaps to their own sins. All of this, of course, will be recorded and edited into weekly hour-long segments.

On the first Tuesday in November all TV viewers who have registered with the network will be entitled to vote by electronic means within a ten-minute window of time, and the winners will be announced on prime time as all candidates sit together in an auditorium waiting for the results. The faces of the losing candidates will be shown as the winners are announced. The winners, of course, will become the stars of subsequent reality programs, such as "The Governor's Office Weekly," "Our Senator in DC This Week," (narrated by George Stepanopulos), "The County Commission Blues," etc., in which the sponsors inform us in an entertaining fashion about the personages running our public affairs, dramatic votes in Congress, and so on, so that we can keep up with things like good citizens. This will eliminate the need for most TV news programs (which have gradually evolved into entertaining snippets, anyway), except insofar as they keep us informed about the latest episodes and prepare us for future dramatic segments.

There are seven weeks left until the elections in New Mexico. Most voters begin paying attention about now to the major campaigns, i.e., the governor's race and maybe a local race or two. Many have already made up their minds (normally they will stay loyal to party) firmly enough to say so in a telephone poll, leaving only a small minority who still fall into the "undecided" camp. These are the real target of the last few weeks of campaigning, and an extraordinary amount of money is spent per undecided vote. If the undecided voters happen to trend toward a specific demographic group, such as white males between the ages of 45-65, both campaigns will begin targeting these in their ads, ignoring everyone else. In the smaller races, where polling is impractical, candidates have few options but to put a smile on their faces and meet as frequently as possible with potential voters.

Those who have already decided how they will vote, however, pay close attention to the race because of its entertainment value, which is often high, with eye-catching attack ads, the very real possibility that a candidate will be caught lying blatantly or exposed by some revelation of mischief in the past, real or imagined. If there are debates people who know exactly who they will vote for will watch anyway because of the chance a candidate will stumble badly enough to show up on You Tube. People also like to be open-minded and like to keep a corner of their mind open to changing their vote in the remote chance that their preferred candidate will make terrible tactical mistakes and drive voters into the other camp.

Although I will continue to give updates on what is happening in Juarez, I will spend more time in the next few weeks looking at elections in New Mexico. Stay tuned.

Juarez and New Mexico: Good Neighbors? Do We Even Care?

2010-09-07T15:21:00.014-06:00

I have seen troubled cities in Latin America before. Bombs would go off at night in Santiago, Chile as the Allende regime began to collapse. I was downtown the day the tanks of a military unit surrounded the palace of government for several hours and I saw a chunk of the brain of a bystander, killed moments before, splattered on the wall of the second story of the building he was next to when the bullet hit. After that there was a strict curfew in the weeks before President Allende was killed in a military coup. In Bogota bombs went off day and night in Colombia a few years ago and conflicts between the FARC, drug traffickers, paramilitary forces, and the Colombian military affected public security in various other cities near the Venezuelan border. I was in San Salvador when the wealthy were being kidnapped and shopkeepers were being charged "war taxes" by guerrilla forces as part of a fund-raising effort to support the war, and hundreds of suspected communists were killed each week by death squads, and then after the earthquake hit and later when the crime rates escalated as the wars ended and the armies demobilized.

But I have never seen anything as bad as Juarez for the past two years, a colossal failure of public policy to deliver public safety to the people of a major city. There are many aspects to this failure and writers will be debating the causes and consequences of Juarez 2008-2010 for the rest of the century; the story is rich, and well worth telling.

Given the lack of even the most elementary coverage in New Mexico of events in Juarez over the past two years, and with only limited time and resources available, I have tried to present snippets of stories that have appeared in the major news outlets of Juarez, without much editorializing on my part. My goal in doing so has been simply to inform readers about some of the atmosphere in Juarez, to convey something of the flavor of events as they unfold. From the feedback I've received it appears there is some desire in New Mexico to follow what is happening in Juarez more closely than the occasional story that breaks nation-wide or in an occasional Sunday supplement. I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of how events in Juarez have affected some of their neighbors in Southern Dona Ana County, in some of the lowest-income communities in the United States. New Mexicans don't only ignore Juarez; they also ignore that part of New Mexico living in the shadows of El Paso and Juarez. We brag about our multicultural heritage but sometimes act as though Mexico exists only in the past tense.

The people of Juarez are my neighbors. I live within 40-50 miles of the heart of a vibrant, endlessly fascinating city. The late Ricardo Aguilar, prize winning novelist and a colleague and friend of mine, wrote passionately about its people and its foibles. The city has been likened to the Alexandria depicted in the Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durell, one of the great novels of the 1950s. Countless corridos mention its name. Along with its sister city of El Paso, it remains the cultural capital city of the U.S.-Mexico border region. And for the past couple of years the city has been in serious trouble.

I have heard severe criticisms from New Mexicans angry at the Clinton administration for its failure to act in Rwanda in 1993, when a million Tutsis and Hutus were being slaughtered by official acts of genocide. I have heard neighbors in Las Cruces agonize over poverty they witnessed on visits to exotic places in South America, and contribute to orphanages in Africa publicized by movie stars. I've known dentists who travel far and wide to fix teeth in remote villages of Central America. Twenty years ago many churches in New Mexico proudly served as "sanctuaries" for refugees from the Central American civil wars, and there was a good deal of piety about having the courage to violate the spirit and sometimes letter of our migration laws to protect these migrants. I remember a celebrated trial of a journalist who actually assisted migrants to come in from Central America, in part so she could write about it. But I have yet to hear much of a peep or debate in New Mexico about what our responsibilities to our neighbors In Juarez might be in their time of agony, what kinds of things we might do to express our sympathy, or somehow alleviate some of the pain.

Last February, after 15 high school students were killed by accident in Juarez, the mayor of El Paso's reaction was to advise El Pasoans to avoid going to Juarez. I was proud that the legislature in New Mexico passed a memorial expressing condolences to the families, but I don't believe any newspaper or TV station in New Mexico recorded this fact, nor the gratitude toward us expressed by Diario contrasting the mayor of El Paso's reaction to that of New Mexico's, something that, had it been publicized, we could all be proud of, and which might have served as a springboard of sorts to begin a statewide discussion about Juarez. And I have noticed that my own university, aside from stern admonitions about going to Juarez, has had no official reaction to any of the events of the past two years, no sponsoring of academic conferences, no expressions of sympathy, no reaching out. The university of New Mexico, which just received a grant of $2 million to support its Latin American studies program, has shown a similar lack of interest in Juarez. Not enough grant money available right now to make it worthwhile, leave it to others, never mind they are our neighbors. Shouldn't at least a small sliver of our tax dollars to higher education in New Mexico go to try to understand better what is happening at our doorstep? Doesn't our economic development in Southern New Mexico depend in part of our relationship to Chihuahua?

Can we be good Samaritans? Good neighbors? What might this mean? Yes, sticking our nose in their business without knowing what we are doing could be a very costly mistake. But to do nothing, no discussion, no expressions of sympathy? Is that the right thing to do?

As I reflect on the deep tragedy that is Juarez I don't feel a lot of pride as a New Mexican. Much as we brag about our Hispanic cultural heritage and appropriate money for museums, Juarez might as well be in a country with a name ending in "stan." It isn't our affair. We don't do Juarez. I don't pretend to have all the answers about what, exactly we might have done or might still do, but as a minimum we might exhibit more caring, more concern, more expressions of affection and good will. The pictures you see to your right? These are our neighbors.

Three Bodies Found Behind Shopping Center (see pictures)

2010-09-03T16:11:00.006-06:00

Three dead bodies were found in the early morning hours before dawn behind the shopping center near Tecnologico and Ejercito Nacional. There were indications they had been tortured before being executed. A sign painted on the chest of one of the bodies said "For being extortionists." The men had duct tape wrapped around their heads and plastic neckties. About 500 yards away another dead body, this one wrapped in black garbage bags, was found with a message, "For kidnapping," See story by Juan Salazar García, El Mexicano here.

La Barbie Confesses: See Here

2010-09-02T15:00:00.002-06:00

On August 31 Mexican authorities arrested Edgar Valdez Villarreal, a.k.a. La Barbie. His nickname (he was said to resemble Ken the Barbie doll, with light skin and green eyes) was given by his football coach at United High School in Laredo, Texas, where he was born. At the time of his arrest there was a $2.4 million reward offered by the Mexican government for information leading to his arrest, and a $2 million reward offered by the U.S. for information leading to his capture. He was indicted in the U.S. in June of 2010 for cocaine trafficking, and was indicted by the federal government of Mexico in 2002 for conspiring to distribute marijuana. Mexican authorities claimed they had been hot on his tail for about a year, barely missing him on some occasions, while sometimes capturing some of his accomplices.

He was arrested under unclear circumstances in the city of Lerma, or possibly Santa Fe (reports were contradictory), in the State of Mexico, near the border with Morelos. La Jornada newspaper in Mexico City reported that rumors were circulating among persons close to the government that Valdes had become an informant for the DEA at least eight months ago, and that he turned himself in and will become part of a witness protection program when extradited to the U.S.

After leaving Laredo he is said to have gone to Mexico City and then back to Laredo, working for the Gulf Cartel. After the arrest of Gulf Cartel boss Osiel Cardenas in 2003 he went to work for the Sinaloa cartel, at one point being a bodyguard for Chapo Guzman himself. He joined the Beltran Leyva Organization after the 2008 arrest of Alfredo Beltran Leyva in January 2008, an act the Beltran brothers attributed to betrayal by Chapo. This caused the two organizations to split and become rivals. Now headed by Arturo Beltran Leyva, the Beltran Organization allied itself with the Juarez Cartel. After Arturo Beltran Leyva was killed by Mexican marines in December 2009, Valdez is said to have begun to dispute the leadership of the organization now headed after Arturo's death, by Hector Beltran. In alliance now with Los Zeta, parts of the Beltran Leyva organization, led by Valdez, have in much of 2010 fought their rivals, the Gulf cartel allied with the Sinaloa cartel and the La Familia cartel in the Reynosa region across from McAllen, Texas.

In his confession he claims the violence in Juarez is caused by a rivalry between the Vicente Carrillo organization and the Sinaloa Cartel and the Beltran Leyva cartels. He asserts that Chapo's people refused to respect a pact that had been established and began killing rivals; Chapo himself did not want to fight, but his people refused to obey him and the violence got worse.

The Juarez Guns of August: New Monthly Record Set, 18 Yesterday

2010-09-01T07:04:00.008-06:00

The Official Count: 336 for August, surpassing the previous record of 313 set last June. Just five years ago (2005) the homicide in Juarez for the entire year was just 207. In recent times the first August record was set in 1995, with a total of 34 deaths, a record which held until 2007 when 38 persons were killed in August, and 320 for the year. The spike in homicides in the past two years has been dramatic. In 2008 there were 911 homicides from January through August, and last year there were 1496 in the same time period. This year the total for the first eight months is 2035. For monthly totals click here.

The Dead: The first person to be murdered on the last day of the month has not yet been identified. He was gunned down on a street in Col. Centro Industrial. Then Jesús Félix Nevares, in his 40's and Luis Aurelio Hernández Félix, 21, were gunned down in Col. Lucio Blanco II, in an incident in which another man was wounded. At about 1:30 p.m. the body of an as-yet unidentified man was found floating in an open sewage ditch near Blvd. Cuatro Siglos and Ave. Fco. Villareal Torres.

More: Then just before 3 p.m. a group of armed men burst into a home in Col. Mariano Escobedo and murdered four persons, Leticia Corral Nevares, 17, Julio and Arturo Corral Nevares, in their 20's, and Jesús Juárez López, 36. Leticia Corra's twin sister was saved when her brother Julio protected her body with his as he was killed. Witnesses remarked that the Corral Nevares family has been wiped out now, as another member of the family was killed in a bar a few months ago.

At 3:15 the murder of a municipal police officer, Raúl Aguirre Palacios, late 30's, was reported on Manuel Gómez Morín and Venus in Col. Satélite. Later in the afternoon two men on bicycles who had stopped to rest under a tree at the intersection of Juan Gabriel and the Casas Grandes highway, were killed in a volley of at least 25 rounds of 9 mm. ammunition. Then in Col. Azteca a man was killed on the street by a death squad, and in a separate incident two men were found dead of gunshot wounds near the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional on Ejército Nacional.

An Eye for an Eye? Later three persons were killed by a death squad in Col. Aldama. Socorrito and Beto Barraza, an elderly couple, were gunned down along with an unidentified man of about 25 years of age, outside their home. Witnesses said the couple were the parents of Sergio Rafael Barraza Bocanegra, who was released by authorities last April after confessing to the murder of his wife, Rubi Marisol Frayre, 17. She disappeared in September 2008 and her body was found on June 18, 2009. Her husband fled Juarez and was captured in the state of Zacatecas. He confessed to the crime and asked for forgiveness of her parents during the hearing in April. The authorities released Mr. Barraza after the prosecutor turned down at 20-year sentence Barraza had accepted (the prosecutor wanted the judges to impose a 60-year penalty for the crime). The three judges declared Mr. Barraza not guilty and released him altogether, explaining that the cause of death of the woman could not be established, and Mr. Barraza's confession might have been elicited through torture. The case was widely covered in the news media of Juarez.

The scene at the movies was all too real: Finally, a man was murdered in a movie theater at about 9 p.m. as a film was being shown in the Cinepolis at Oscar Flores and Zaragoza. The incident caused some panic as members of the audience rushed to the exits and the theater was shut down. Reporters did not ascertain the name of the movie.

Compiled from stories by Luz del Carmen Sosa, Diario (click here) and Felix A. Gonzalez. Norte Digital (click here) and Juan Salazar García, El Mexicano (click here)

Nearly a Quarter Million Persons Have Fled Juarez

2010-08-30T09:05:00.002-06:00

According to a new study by Ramón Chavira and Wilebaldo Martínez, from the Autonomous University of Cd. Juarez, about 230,000 persons have left Juarez in the past two years due to the increasing violence in the city. According to the study, over half of these have moved to the U.S., and most of these to the neighboring city of El Paso. This means that 18% of the people of Juarez, nearly one in five, has left the city. Those who stayed in Mexico generally returned to states they had migrated from, such as Durango, Veracruz, and Coahuila. During the maquila boom of the late 1990s and early 2000's many persons came from these states to work in the growing maquila sector of Juarez. From story in el Pionero of Delicias, click here.

2006 Murders So Far in 2010: Record Pace

2010-08-30T07:00:00.003-06:00

With two days still to go in August, the homicide rate is still running at record pace, in spite of a relatively quiet weekend. Last year at the end of August there had been 1496 murders. As of this morning it stands at 2006, a 34% increase over last year.

Five Dead: At about 2:00 a.m. on Sunday morning a group of armed men interrupted a family gathering at a home near the Babicora police station in Col. Torres del PRI, killing five persons, including a woman who was shot in a 1996 Taurus, apparently trying to escape the massacre. The victims were estimated to be in their 20's and 30's.

One: José Javier González Delgado, 26, was shot and killed on the street in Col. Arco Iris shortly after midnight on Sunday.

In Front of His Wife and Daughter: On Sunday morning Pedro García Briones, 23, accompanied by his wife and infant daughter, was traveling on a bus going into town on the Casas Grandes highway. At km. 15 a group of armed men stopped the bus, looked over the passengers, and forced Mr. Garcia to exit the bus. In spite of a spirited protest by his wife, who was prevented from moving by one of the gunmen, Garcia was shot several times before the gunmen took off. Fifteen spent cartridges were found on the ground by his body.

Another Tire Repair Shop Victim: Roberto Fernandez Diaz, 36, was shot and killed inside a tire repair shop on km. 27 of the Casas Grandes highway, near the intersection to San Jeronimo, in Col Villa Esperanza.

More: Manuel Ortiz was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds at about 4 a.m. in a bedroom in a residence in Col. Felipe Ángeles. Juan Raymundo Sida de la Rosa, 41, and Juan Alberto Sida Chaparro, 22, were shot and killed on a street in Col. Hermenegildo Galeana. Seventeen spent cartridges were found nearby. José Reyes Ortiz, 31, died at the Social Security Hospital at 7 p.m. on Saturday night while being treated for gunshot wounds he sustained during an attack on a street in Col. Paseos del Alba.

Compiled from stories by Luz del Carmen Sosa, Diario (click here) and Félix A. González, Norte Digital (click here), and Cruz Loera, El Fronterizo (click here)

Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin: The Writing on the Wall: Daniel 5: 25-28. Meanwhile the Count is Up to 1994 for the year

2010-08-29T06:04:00.009-06:00

Two narco-messages painted on walls appeared yesterday briefly in Juarez before they were painted out. One was photographed with the following message, written with many misspellings:

“siganse asiendo pendejos para el joto de ferriz y calderon ustedes apoyan al chapo gusman por eso se les estan tumbando federales son los ke cobran cuotas y secruestan y dicen ke los de la linea tu teto murgia espero y no apoyes al chapo gusman mientras sigan cobrando cutas y estorsionando seguiremo tumbando federales atte la linea”

(My translation: "go ahead and keep on being dumb jerks for the queer Ferriz (outgoing mayor of Juarez) and Calderon you support Chapo Guzman which is why federales (police) keep going down they are the ones who charge extortion fees and kidnap and then blame la linea, you, Teto Murguia (mayor-elect of Juarez) we hope you don't support Chapo Guzman as long as they keep charging extortion fees we will keep knocking off federales sincerely la linea."

This message was painted on a wall at the intersection of Octavio Paz and Álvaro Obregón in Col Zapata. Another, which was not photographed before authorities painted over it, was painted on a wall at the intersection of Paraguay and Niños Héroes.

A review of news outlets that cover murder in Juarez reveals that only four persons were murdered yesterday, a relatively quiet Saturday, bringing the total up to 1994 on the year.
Héctor Gutiérrez Portillo, 29, was shot multiple times at the intersection of Panamá and Zempoala in Col. Hidalgo, shortly after midnight. His body was found sitting against a wall outside a convenience store; another person was reported wounded at the scene. Both were reported snorting cocaine at the time of the attack. A few minutes later police were called to a house in Col. Industrial where two men were killed and two more wounded when gunmen shot the locks off a chain protecting the gates of the residence and forced their way into the house. They led the victims outside to the patio where they were executed.

The Beat: Death in Juarez: Two Burned Alive, Three Presumed Extortionists, Others

2010-08-28T12:52:00.006-06:00

At 10:30 a.m. on Friday the bodies of two men were found murdered in a Chrysler Voyager, in Col Los Nogales. One apparently tried escaping, as the door was open and a leg was hanging out.

More Junk Yard Mysteries: Ten minutes later two men were found dead in the patio of the office of a junk yard called "yonke 68 Zaragoza," on the Juarez-Porvenir highway. Moments after the assassination newspaper reporters came, and observed federal and municipal police agents arrive. The dead men were identified as federal police, Aldo Holguín Crespo and Aurelio Iván Musiño Reyes, 27 and 29, respectively, shot shortly after arriving in a 2008 Nissan Altima to pick up some used parts. As Diario reporter Luz del Carmen Sosa relates it (click here) when federal police learned the dead men were federal agents they ordered the municipal police to leave the scene. They entered the office and began to question the owner, Alberto, and an employee of his. The owner explained that moments after the federal agents arrived gunmen came in and started shooting. One of the agents tried to flee between some cars but was hit by gunfire. Federal agents confiscated Alberto's cell phone and radios and then began to arrest Alberto. They took him outside and asked him to put his hands on the hood of a car. While he was doing this a federal agent took the butt of his rifle and smacked Alberto on the forehead with it. He began to bleed profusely, and a witness offered him a handkerchief to wipe off the blood from his face. Witnesses explained that Alberto had been present during the attack on the federal agents but had not participated in it. Federal agents arrested Alberto anyway, as well as an employee of his.

Junk yard owners have complained to Diario that they are often required to sell stolen used car parts brought in by the very persons who extort money from them, and then hand over the proceeds to the extortionists. And speculation about the motive for the killings began among witnesses, who indicated the 2008 Nissan Altima the dead agents were driving is far above the financial ability of a young federal police officer to afford--new automobiles carry high tariffs and many persons in Juarez purchase used vehicles brought in from the U.S. at no tariff as long as they are more than seven years old. Witnesses also explained that Alberto had rented out his license to sell junk cars to someone else three months ago, but was using the lot to try to sell a used Mustang a few weeks ago when federal agents driving an Eclipse offered him their car plus two thousand pesos (about $150) in exchange for the Eclipse. When he said no the agents threatened to take the car anyway, and Alberto finally caved in and lost his Mustang.

Presumed Extortionists Killed: Three men were found dead with signs of torture, hands bound, and faces covered with tape, last night at about 11 p.m. in an empty lot behind Wal-Mart. There was a sign next to one of the bodies saying, "For Being Extortionists."

Burned Alive: At about 5:30 yesterday morning neighbors heard noises in an empty lot in col.
Ángel Trías. According to one witness a man was taken out of a Dodge Caravan, still alive. Shots were heard (although no empty cartridges were found) and the man's body was then set on fire and the Caravan left. No signs of violence were found on his body, except for the burns. The man had on only cowboy boots and he was found face down.

Then last night, just before 9 p.m., in Col. 9 de Septiembre near Jimenez and Delicias, witnesses saw several men get out of a black SUV. They threw gasoline on the body of one of the men from the car, and then lit a match. Witnesses heard the man screaming and at least one person tried to put out the flames with a bucket of water, but it was too late.

Burned Bodies Found in Chihuahua: At about 8 a.m. yesterday the bodies of 9 men shot to death and then tossed into the cabin of a 1998 or 1999 Ford Expedition and incinerated, were found at km. 23.5 on the Chihuahua-Juarez highway just north of Chihuahua. Fifteen spent 9 mm. cartridges were found near the vehicle.

Compiled from stories in Diario. El Mexicano, Nortedigital

Santa Fe Bureaucrats Want to Close Anthony Court: A Population of 50,000 Will Be Inconvenienced. Does This Make Sense? Does Anybody Care? Read On

2010-08-25T20:53:00.013-06:00

Arthur Pippin, Director of the Administrative Office of the Courts--a creature of the New Mexico Supreme Court--which prepares budgets and provides other professional services for the New Mexico court systems, has informed the Magistrate Court in Dona Ana County that it will close the Anthony Court in the very near future. The closing is in response to the state's perilous fiscal condition, with tax revenues lower than expected.

The problem with closing the Anthony Court is that, located more than twenty miles South of Las Cruces, it services a population of about 50,000, including the communities of Sunland Park, Santa Teresa, La Union, Chaparral, Chamberino, La Mesa, San Miguel, Anthony, Berino, and Mesquite. And it serves this population only two days per week as it is. This population is about the same size as Eddy County (population about 52,000), the 10th largest county in the state, in population. People in Sunland Park, Santa Teresa, and Anthony are among the fastest growing communities in the state, with El Paso spilling into our South Mesilla Valley from the $5 billion expansion of Ft. Bliss. If Anthony is closed, Sunland Park, Santa Teresa, and Chamberino residents will have to commute about 35 miles to the Las Cruces Magistrate Court. People in La Union, Chaparral, Chamberino, La Mesa, San Miguel, Anthony, Berino, and Mesquite, will have to commute an average of about 20-25 miles to get to the Las Cruces Court. The Hatch Court, about 40 miles away, but with only a small fraction of the cases handled by Anthony, will not close.

The Anthony Court handles about 6000 cases per year. This calculates at about 60 cases per day for the two days a week the court is open. Are the courts in counties with less than 50,000 population, and less than 6000 cases per year, going to close down, or drastically curtail their schedules?

It so happens, the New Mexico Motor Transportation Department, located 2 miles from Anthony, issues numerous citations per week to truckers with irregularities--often part of the huge increase in traffic in the past few years from Mexico, an increase that is bragged about in economic development brochures hoping to attract industry to the area. Does it matter that a state agency will be stretched thin by having to send officers all the way to Las Cruces to handle these cases? Can the AOC release the measures they are going to take in other counties to address the fiscal crisis, transparently, so that citizens can judge for themselves whether their court is getting fair and equitable treatment?

Yes, closing Anthony will save the court system in Santa Fe some money. But with all the extra dollars spent in gasoline, isn't this really a transfer of money from citizens and sometimes other state agencies to the court system, a tax, really, on people of the South Valley to pay for the state's (that is, the legislature's and the governor's) inability to set priorities and plan ahead? Aren't NM taxpayers still subsidizing the Hollywood industry for their costs while filming here, a tab that cost us $90 million in the fiscal year just ended, in an enterprise that gets us back 14 cents on the dollar? Why should the South Mesilla Valley have to pay more than their fair share for the state's poor priorities and planning?

The South Mesilla Valley has been neglected for many decades by the political system, and it remains among the poorest regions in the state, in spite of usually contributing an extremely high percentage to the usually winning party. Supreme Court Judges come down at election time smiling nicely, asking for votes, and usually can count on extremely high percentages. Aren't the people of the South Mesilla Valley entitled to more than a door slammed shut at the courthouse? Was this decision made, as it appears, without any consultation with the people that would be affected? If there are good answers to these questions, let us know.

Only One Murder on Tuesday

2010-08-25T19:00:00.003-06:00

The only murder in Juarez on Tuesday was that of a 28-year old woman who was kidnapped, shot in the head twice, thrown out of a vehicle onto a street, dragged for several yards, run over by the wheels of the vehicle, and left on the street in Col Niños Héroes. Seven persons were executed on Monday. For story in El Mexicano, click here.

Obama Extends Tax Cuts to the Rich, Republicans Want Even More: Death and Taxes: Let's Talk (Cents?) About Taxes for a Change

2010-08-23T10:09:00.012-06:00

The Tax Policy Center has just published a report (click here) detailing the stakes in the debate over extending the tax cuts enacted by Congress in 2001, after George W. Bush became president, and again in 2003, when tax rates were lowered to 15% on capital gains and dividends.

First, let's review a few tax rules enacted in the past few decades and proposals on the table to cut taxes or extend the tax breaks beyond the congressional expiration date, with an estimate by the Policy Center of how much each proposal would cost in lost revenues for the federal government.

1. AMT: originally, the Alternative Minimum Tax was imposed by Congress on the wealthiest income earners, many of whom were escaping the taxation system altogether through various loopholes. Until 2000 the AMT applied only to the wealthiest 1% of workers. However, with inflation, it began to apply to more and more persons, projected to rise up to 20% of taxpayers in 2010. There is now a proposal to index the AMT so that it will only affect the wealthiest 1% of Americans. Cost in federal revenues of this proposal: $66 billion.

2. 10, 25, and 28% rates: In 1988 the top tax rate for any income was set at 28% (down from 50% in 1986). Since that time the top tax rates went up to 39.6% in the 1990s, and then down to 35% during the Bush years. There is now a proposal to go back to rates of 10, 25, and 28% for all but the highest incomes, which would basically extend tax cuts for lower and middle-level income earners. Cost of this proposal in federal dollars: 121 billion

3. Marriage penalty relief: in 1969 Congress imposed higher taxes on some married couples than they would have paid had they both been single; by 1996 46% of couples were paying more, and the marriage penalty was eased up in 2001 and 2003, but the relief is scheduled to elapse at the end of 2010. There is a proposal to extend the relief. Total cost in federal dollars: $32 billion.

4. Expanded tax credits: Because of the recession certain tax credits were enacted in 2009 to help stimulate the economy, particularly beneficial to middle class families. There is a proposal to continue these. Cost: $29 billion.

5. Tax dividends like capital gains and lower rates for bottom tax brackets: there is a proposal to treat dividends like capital gains, instead of like income as they are now, and to lower rates on the bottom tax brackets. Cost: $24 billion

6. Extend estate tax at 2009 level. Until George Bush came along, estates were taxed if they exceeded $1 million. These were taxed at a rate of 37% going up to 55% for wealthier estates. Bush enacted a gradual estate tax cut such that in 2009 estates were not taxed unless they exceeded $3.5 million, at a rate of 45%. This year, 2010, there is no estate tax at all, so if you are going to die, this is a good year to do it, for your heirs' sake. After that, Congress agreed to go back in 2011 to the pre-Bush tax rates for estates over $1 million. There is a proposal to keep the estate tax where it was in 2009. Cost: $26 billion.

7. Lower rates on dividends and capital gains. Under sunset provisions long-term capital gains taxes are scheduled to go up from 15% to 20%, except for lower-income brackets, which are scheduled to be taxed at 10%. Currently, long term capital gains are taxed at 15% except for lower-income brackets, where the tax rate is zero. Dividends, which are currently taxed at 15% (zero for low-income brackets) are scheduled to be taxed in 2011 as ordinary income. There is a proposal to keep the rates at 15% for dividends and capital gains. Cost: $11 billion.

8. Repeal PEP and Peale for upper income brackets: Twenty years ago there was a phase-out of personal exemption deductions and itemized deduction values for upper income brackets which ended in 2010. The Obama administration budget reinstates the PEP and Peale limitations on single individuals earning over $200,000 and couples with AGI over $250,000. There is a proposal to repeal PEP and Peale limitations for upper income brackets. Cost: $21 billion.

9. Extend 33 and 35% tax rates: The 2003 tax cuts to wealthier Americans are scheduled to expire. Under these cuts the top rates fell from 27% to 25%; from 30% to 28%; from 35% to 33%; and from 38.6% to 35% for the wealthiest tax bracket. These are scheduled to go up to 28%, 31%, 36%, and 39.6%. There is a proposal to extend the 33 and 35% tax rates to the wealthiest Americans. Cost: $36 billion.

If none of these proposals should go into law, the federal government would be richer by an estimated $366 billion per year. But this is unlikely. The administration, according to the Tax Policy Center, has a plan to give tax breaks to all taxpayers, starting out with about $69 and $583 to the lowest two income brackets averaging incomes of $11,600 and $28,852, respectively. Taxpayers averaging incomes of $52,224 and $88978 would get breaks averaging $1016 and $2124, respectively. Taxpayers in the 80-90% bracket, with incomes averaging 138,385, would get a break of $4032; taxpayers in the 90-95% income range would get a break of $5508; and taxpayers in the 95-99% range (ave. income=$345,574) would get a break of $8809. Taxpayers in the 99-99.99% range, averaging $1,098,290 in income, would get a break of $14,022, and the richest one-in-a-thousand taxpayer, incomes averaging $8,367,274, would get a tax break of $61,510.

Republicans, who cry crocodile tears about the huge deficits piling up, recommend giving the very wealthiest Americans major tax breaks by keeping the top tax rates at 33% and 35%, repealing PEP and Pease for the rich, and lowering the tax on dividends and capital gains back to 15%. The Tax Policy Center estimates that these lowered taxes would raise the deficit by $68 billion per year and put $310,140 into the pocketbooks of the richest one-in-a-thousand, whose incomes average $8,367,274. Just what you need if you make over $8 million, right? Another $310,000 welfare check from Uncle Sam during the worst recession since the Great Depression.

Easy Juarez Sunday: Only One Murder

2010-08-23T08:24:00.002-06:00

A man in his 40s was found murdered by gunfire at about 1:00 a.m. on Sunday morning in Col. Los Olivos. No other deaths were recorded. On Saturday 10 persons were gunned down, for a total on the weekend of 23 murders.

Michelito, Lupita, Cerqueira, have Bad Afternoons

2010-08-23T04:27:00.008-06:00

Michelito was knocked down once again, by his first bull, Merenguero, weighing 880 lbs. He misjudged the trajectory of the bull on a quick turn by the beast and was thrown to the ground without injury as the bull tried to stab him with scooping thrusts of his horns. Michelito backed away from most of his passes after that instead of holding his ground. The bull took to pawing on the ground, backing away, difficult to kill and Michelito butchered him with three misplaced thrusts of the sword, finishing with a descabello (a maneuver with a small sword thrust into the back of the head, severing the spinal chord of the bull) which killed the bull on the second try. Not pretty, any of it. His second bull, smaller, about 80 lbs. lighter, was more his size, and the capework was better, but not distinguished. He was warned about time (you have to kill the bull within 16 minutes in Mexico) twice, killed perfunctorily, and was booed for his performance.

Lupita's first bull was hard to fight but she showed determination. She was unable to kill the bull with her sword thrust and the peones killed it with a puntilla (daggar to the back of the head).

The proceedings in her second bull violated the letter of the law and especially the spirit behind bullfighting. After a few initial veronicas by Lupita, the bull was injured slightly in the right hind leg during the pic-ing. Everyone in the ring saw it, visibly limping, and the bull should have been removed immediately, alive, the legal protocol for an injured bull. It retreated to a querencia (a spot in the ring it prefers) and could not be coaxed to the middle of the ring. In spite of the obvious injury, her bullfighter placed, or rather misplaced, a pair of banderillas with the bull in a dangerous defensive position. Instead of taking charge and asking the authorities for the bull to be removed, Lupita stood by for several minutes, apparently confused, while one of her bullfighters made half-hearted efforts to lead the bull to the middle of the ring. Lupita finally left the ring altogether, with the bull clearly holding his right leg up. Her bullfighter led it to a burladero to be killed by a peon with a dagger long after 16 minutes had elapsed, which should have triggered the removal of the bull alive, a second reason for removal. Highly irregular, very ugly, another butchery; score another point for opponents of bullfighting.

Since the bull had, in spite of two legal reasons for it's removal alive, been killed in the ring, Lupita was, technically, not entitled to another bull, but she was given one anyway. She handled it reasonably well and was well on her way to winning an ear except for a missed thrust on the kill followed by a half-hilt thrust which was not mortal and forced the bull to be killed by dagger. In Juarez they might have given her an ear. Not in Mexico City, especially after the ugliness of the previous bull, in which she had basically abandoned her responsibilities to fight, to seek the removal of the bull, and to take charge of the proceedings. Cerqueira fought two bad bulls perfunctorily without incident, poorly killed. The man on horseback was unable to kill the bull on horseback and had to kill it on foot with a descabello; not pretty.

Bad afternoon. I watched a good deal of it as it was streamed on internet live from the Plaza and later recorded. The bullring was only filled to about 10% capacity, which may help explain the unprofessional management of the afternoon. The video clip of this could serve as a poster child for banning bullfighting.

Michelito, Lupita López, to fight in 9th Novice Bullfight in Mexico City Tomorrow

2010-08-21T13:46:00.004-06:00

The novice season is ending in the Plaza Monumental Bullring of Mexico City. Tomorrow Michelito, the twelve-year old novice who, in spite of obvious potential and desire, has been tossed around like a rag doll all summer long by bulls he couldn't handle, will fight again in the the largest bullring in the world. In his last fight there, on June 6, he was tossed by his second bull and was unable to finish.

Also on the cartel is Lupita López, also a novice, a 31-year old woman from Yucatan who, like Michelito, was tossed in the same venue with Michelito on June 6. Each of them has killed only one bull in Mexico City so far this year. The third matador is the french novice, Tomás Cerqueira, who debuted in Mexico City only last week, but without much luck. Emilio Gamero, a novice rejoneador (matador on horseback) will kill one bull as well.

Below is a YouTube clip of each of them getting tossed in Mexico City last June 6.

Juarez This Weekend: More Death, Hotel Fiesta Inn Flap; Protest March

2010-08-21T07:46:00.009-06:00

The weekend began at an August pace: twelve murders yesterday in Juarez. One of them occurred at the intersection of Ave. de las Americas and 16 de Septiembre, where the Shangri-la and Los Arcos restaurants are located. There, a man was murdered by gunfire at close range inside a bus, in an incident that also wounded a pregnant woman and the bus driver.

Fiesta Inn Flap: This past week saw an only-in-Juarez controversy unfold over the presence of federal police agents at the Fiesta Inn Hotel on 16 de Septiembre. The hotel is located just a couple of blocks from the Los Arcos restaurant, in front of the Lucerna hotel, next to the Women's Hospital, and right next to the large installations of Diario de Juarez, the flagship paper for Juarez. Several dozen federal police officers were housed there (they come to Juarez for relatively short rotations and tend to stay in hotels for security reasons) until Thursday.

On Tuesday evening at about 7 p.m. there was an exchange of gunfire that lasted about 12 minutes when men in a Cherokee Jeep began shooting at civilian automobiles carrying a federal police intelligence unit, right in front of the Fiesta Inn hotel. When it was over 5 agents were wounded, federal police agents had beaten a Diario photographer trying to get pictures of the incident, people at the Women's Hospital were slowly getting up after hitting the floor at the sound of gunfire, and there was generalized panic throughout the entire Pronaf quarter, one of the busiest areas in the city.

The next day Diario editorialized that the agents should leave the hotel, as a safety precaution for this highly commercial section of town. The agents left on Thursday. As they were leaving there was a demonstration against Diario by hotel employees, who complained they would be out of a job now that the federal agents were leaving. Federal police spokesman José Ramón Salinas explained that the police were leaving "because of the high cost" of the room charges.

Protest: A group of about 60 persons marched down Ave. Manuel J. Clouthier (Jilotepec) in what they said was "a march against death," protesting the violence in Juarez and specifically the deaths of Josefina and Rubén Reyes, city council woman from Guadalupe (in the Valle de Juarez) last January in front of a restaurant, and her brother, on Wednesday. The march had a decidedly anti-government element in it, as marchers chanted “Juárez no es cuartel, fuera ejército de él” (Juarez is not a barracks, troops out of of town) and “federal, policía: la misma porquería” (federal police or local police; the same stinking mess). The march was apparently organized by several groups, including the Latin American Federation of Associations of Disappeared Family Members, and the Movement for Culture and Plural Citizen Front.

Compiled from stories in Diario.

The Crisis in Juarez: Diesel, Gasoline Sales Down

2010-08-21T06:51:00.002-06:00

Due to the economic and law enforcement crisis in Juarez, and significant price increases, gasoline sales are down 30% and diesel sales are down 40%--about what they were six years ago. Three years ago the Pemex refinery in Juarez would make about 190 deliveries to gasoline stations each day. Now the number is down to 140.

Whereas in early 2009 filling a tank with about 16 gallons (60 liters) cost $333 pesos (about $25 U.S.) today the same amount costs $501 pesos (about $38). Mexican government officials have warned citizens they can expect more gasoline price increases in the next few months from the government-owned oil company, Pemex, which sets prices.

From a note by Juan de Dios Olivas, Diario.

Albuquerque Journal Editorial: NMSU Athletic Budget Taking Money From Academics

2010-08-19T10:51:00.004-06:00

Used Car Part Businesses Hit Hard by Extortion, Murder

2010-08-19T07:08:00.003-06:00

Álvaro Palos López, 35, was killed on Tuesday afternoon a few yards from his junkyard, the Yonke 48 located on Manuel J. Clouthier 1036, in Col. Salvárcar. He was running from his assassins, who caught up to him and gunned him down right in front of a ravine. He had refused to pay a quota of $1500 pesos (about $115 U.S.) per week, demanded by extortionists witnesses said were identified with La Linea. In May the manager of the enterprise, a man identified only as Guadalupe, was murdered after the owner refused to pay the extortionists. Guadalupe tried calling 066 (equivalent to 911) and the operator heard gunshots. They sent the Red Cross ambulance but Guadalupe was dead when they arrived.

In another case a junkyard owner was kidnapped and, according to the story in Diario, his family paid a ransom fee of $200,000 pesos (about $15,000 U.S.) but the victim' body was found on May 10, decapitated. Junkyard owners complain that a group of suspected extortionists were jailed but later released because of a "poorly prepared case." Since that time, about two weeks ago, they said, extortion cases among junkyard owners have increased. One person interviewed said that the number of junkyards has declined from about 800 in 2008 to 500 now, due principally to the threat of extortion.

Las Cruces Per Capita Income Up in 2009

2010-08-18T07:52:00.004-06:00

Capitol Report New Mexico (click here), an excellent web site that keeps track of economic indicators and trends in New Mexico's economy, reports today that per capita income in Las Cruces went up 1.4% from 2008 to 2009, to $28,855. In contrast per capita income in Albuquerque declined 0.7%, to $35,165. Santa Fe declined to $43,002, a decline of 4.3%.

Mutineers Will be Relocated, Violence is Down: Facundo Rosas Rosas

2010-08-18T06:49:00.003-06:00

The Federal Police Commissioner to Juarez, Facundo Rosas Rosas, told reporters yesterday the 248 persons who participated in the mutiny against their commander, Salomón Alarcón Romero, have been relocated and have already been replaced in Juarez. Alarcon, Ricardo Duque Chávez, Joel Ortega Montenegro and Antelmo Castañeda Silva--accused by the mutineers of severe acts of corruption--have been suspended, as well as 16 persons thought to be ringleaders of the revolt.

Federal Government Report to Mexico City Last Saturday: Violence is Down

Rosas was challenged by reporters about a report presented to federal police officials last Saturday in Mexico City to the effect that the violence in Juarez is in " marginal decline." The data used by the federal government, according to reporters, does not coincide with data provided by the state prosecutor's office, which is used by the news media to keep track of homicides, and which indicates that homicides are in fact on the rise compared to last year. Rosas suggested that last year there were spikes of up to 287 murders per month during the second half, compared to "249 murders in July of 2010. This is a decline that doesn't satisfy very much, but we are working on it." Reporters, however, pointed out that the state prosecutor's office shows July of 2010 with 291 homicides, a slight rise. Rosas also asserted that kidnappings and extortions in Juarez are down compared to last year. From a note this morning in Diario

However, Felix A. Gonzalez, writing for Norte this morning (click here) cites statistics from the state prosecutor's office showing that, while auto theft is down overall, car jackings, which is to say, theft with threat of violence, is up about 50% compared with last year.

El Juli, Number One Ranking Bullfighter This Season

2010-08-17T15:27:00.003-06:00

A few weeks ago (click here) I wrote a few words about seeing the young matador El Juli (Julián López Escobar) in Juarez in 1999, and I've been trying with only limited success this summer to follow (through the news media) the career of Michelito, the twelve-year-old novice in Mexico. He has had several bad afternoons and there is some question whether he can learn to stay out of trouble quickly enough to make it as a serious matador. I'm betting that he can.

I looked up the escalafon taurino (the bullfighter rankings) this morning and discovered that El Juli is finishing up the 2010 season Number one again for the first time in years. He was severely gored in the thigh in 2005 and other matadors (Miguel Angel Perera, Morante de la Puebla, El Cid, Jose Manzanares, Sebastian Castella, Juan Bautista) have been able to compete with him for top honors ever since.

I have embedded a Youtube video of El Juli when he was 18 in 2001, and if you want to see how he has evolved as a bullfighter you can see a video of him just a few days ago in Gijon, Spain on August 12 by clicking here and scrolling down to the first video.

Would you Rather Be Killed by a Beautiful Woman? Female Assassins Recruited, Teto Advisor Assassinated, Twenty Dead, More Juarez Guns of August

2010-08-17T05:49:00.005-06:00

The guns of August are smoking in Juarez.

Yesterday, Sergio Raúl Natividad García, a former city councilor and city administrator during the previous administration of Hector (Teto) Muguia (2004-2007), was killed as he was driving on Tecnologico at 1:25 a.m. on Monday morning, apparently ambushed by an assassination squad. He was one of the persons Murguia most confided in, and he was expected to play a major role in the new city administration of Murguia, that begins in October. He began his political career in 2004 when he was elected councilor, but withdrew from that position when appointed by Murguia to be the director of a department dealing with new urban growth. He was on the transition team for the mayor-elect. For story in Diario click here.

Mr. Natividad García was one of twenty persons assassinated yesterday.

In a note in Diario Sandra Rodríguez Nieto reports (click here) that a man captured and accused of participating in the homicide of a police officer whose body was dismembered, has informed his captors that La Linea recruited about 20-30 young, attractive women between the ages of 18 and 25 or 30, to form part of assassination squads. They have been on salary for about two months and are learning the trade on the job. The are recruited in large part to prevent suspicion on the part of their targets, and they integrate themselves into existing assassination cells.

Death in the Afternoon: And More, as the Beat Goes On: 47 on the Weekend

2010-08-16T14:03:00.003-06:00

From Diario (click here): Yesterday afternoon at about 2 p.m. on Los Ángeles, a residential street in Col. Industrial, three pickups pulled up to a recently rented house where people, mainly women, had been partying for three days. The men in the pickups, all of them armed, surrounded the house, and a few of them entered. Then witnesses say they heard gunfire. Thinking it would be over in a few moments, neighbors were surprised gunshots could be heard in the house as much as twenty minutes later. Then the men walked out of the house calmly, bought some popsicles and snow cones from a street vendor who was passing by, and left. Only then did police arrive, to find four persons dead, three women, and one man. Four more women were injured. All of the women killed or injured were between 18 and 24 years old. The man killed was Rogelio Orozco, 26. The weapons used were AK-47 and R-15.

The 47 persons killed in Juarez this weekend tied the record set this year on a weekend in January and another in July. On Friday twenty persons lost their lives, 6 were killed on Saturday, and 21 were killed yesterday.

A few hours before the Los Ángeles killings, at about 1 a.m. on Sunday morning, five persons were killed at a residential home in Col. Infonavit Solidaridad, when a birthday party, for a woman who turned 20 on Saturday, was interrupted by assassins. The victims were shot while sitting at tables in plastic chairs provided for the party. Hours later, according to Norte (click here) the gunmen returned to kill one of the survivors.

Michelito, Twelve Years Old, Has a Bad Afternoon in Torreon

2010-08-12T21:45:00.005-06:00

Michelito Lagravere, the twelve-year old novice bullfighter, got knocked down by a novillero (novice-level) bull, his first of the afternoon last Sunday in Torreon, and, while he killed it (without much elegance) he was unable to continue for his second bull. Instead, he was taken to the hospital. Ulises Rivera of El Siglo de Torreon reported that his first bull, Compadre, "lacked presence and style," and tossed him during a pass. He failed multiple times to kill the bull with the sword, and was not applauded when he finally succeeded in killing him. He then was taken to the hospital. A local novice bullfighter, Salvador López, finished out the afternoon, having to kill three bulls, for which he was awarded the "Coliseo Centenario" trophy. He is the first novice bullfighter in the history of the Torreon bullring to kill three bulls in one encounter. For story in El Siglo click here

Body Count 1802 On the Year: Ten More Yesterday

2010-08-12T07:59:00.003-06:00

During August the homicide average in Juarez has notched upward, from 8 to 10 per day. Yesterday ten persons were killed, including a federal police officer, whose decapitated body was found wrapped in a blue tarp with hands and feet tied near a warehouse on Oscar Flores Blvd. On his body was a narco-message that said, "I'm a PFP (federal police), Sincerely _____," indicating the assassins, presumably, were members of La Linea. Twenty three federal police officers have been killed since federal police took over security responsibilities, replacing the army, on April 9. Another of the victims was Hugo Francisco Zamora Ochoa, 24 años, a nephew of Manuel Espino, former head of the PAN Party in Mexico, who lives in Juarez. He was killed at the Mitla Mall at around 11 a.m. just as he was getting into his automobile, a black Peugeot, in the shopping center parking lot.

Compiled from stories in Diario and La Polaka

Funeral Homes, Cemeteries, Hospitals, and the Presence of Death: The Juarez Tuesday Beat

2010-08-11T07:14:00.015-06:00

The Juarez Beat: Eleven Dead on Tuesday

As the corpse of a murder victim in Juarez was being embalmed at a funeral home at about 1 p.m. yesterday afternoon, a group of men entered and asked to see the body. The owner of the establishment denied the request since the body was still being prepared, but at that moment a group of armed men entered the building, causing the first group to flee through a back door. A few minutes later the owner, Ramón Quintana González, 50, his son Ivan, and a friend of the family, Octavio Aragón, were dead from gunshot wounds and another one of González's sons was wounded. The corpse that was being embalmed at the time of the incident was going to be transferred to another funeral home, but there had been difficulty getting another funeral home to accept it, for fear of just the kind of incident that took three lives at this funeral home, the Funeraria Satélite.

"When is this going to end?" asked one of the neighbors, who had come across the bodies of two decapitated men (pig faces painted on their chests) fourteen hours earlier behind the Jardines Eternos cemetery, about 500 yards away from the funeral home.

At 8:30 last night two men arrived a the emergency entrance of the Social Security Hospital (No. 66), one of them injured with a bullet wound. After the wounded man was admitted a group of armed men burst into the emergency room, located the men, and killed them.

The body of a 28-year old woman, Blanca Iris Pérez Chico, was left next to an empty lot at Parque Industrial Aerojuárez, at about 3:45 p.m. Witnesses said the vehicle carrying the body then ran over it before leaving the scene. She had been kidnapped earlier in the day.

Compiled from staff reports in Diario, click here for story.

To Arm or Not to Arm Traffic Police in Juarez

2010-08-10T08:20:00.005-06:00

The Mexican defense department has taken weapons assigned to traffic police (part of the municipal police force) away from them temporarily, ostensibly to verify registration numbers. But many traffic police officers believe the measure was taken because of recent attacks by organized criminal gangs against traffic police, in which weapons were taken from officers.

Recent attacks against traffic police assigned to guard bus terminals have resulted in injuries to officers and in several instances officers under attack have been relieved of their weapons. On July 27, for example, eight officers were attacked, and all were relieved of their weapons. This, many traffic officers believe, is the real reason their guns have been taken away: to prevent criminal gangs from attacking traffic police to obtain guns. Diario (click here) interviewed several traffic officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, who asserted that the registration checks occur once or twice a year but in previous checks officers were simply asked to present themselves at an office to verify the registration number on their weapon. The guns never left their possession, as has happened now. Some of the officers feel much more vulnerable without their weapons, and hope they will get them back soon.

Mutiny Fallout: 248 Officers Will Be Investigated for Insubordination

2010-08-09T23:49:00.006-06:00

Diario today notes (click here)that the public has been "astonished" to hear that the 248 federal police officers who rebelled against their apparently corrupt superiors may face charges of insubordination. In a press release from the Federal Public Security Department, it was announced that four commanding officers of the Third Group of federal police in Juarez have been transferred to Mexico City to face an investigation by the internal affairs department of the federal police. Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz today not only confirmed this but he also added that the PGR, the national prosecutor's office (similar to the Justice Department) will also conduct an investigation.

But the press release also indicated that the 248 agents may face punishment for having made their protest public without using "appropriate channels" to bring to public light the corruption of the police.

Other notes in Diario today suggest that some sectors of the population would like to see the federal police leave, and bring back the armed forces. This, according to Mayor Reyes, is not going to happen.

This is a delicate situation for the federal police, for many reasons. If, as many people seem to think is likely, the four commanders were indeed committing some of the crimes they were accused of, then a good question is, why did it take a full fledged mutiny, including a moment in which federal police were pointing loaded weapons at each other, to bring this to light? Did it not begin (as I understand it from reading the Diario account) precisely because officer Desid ended up being arrested, the mutineers believed, for refusing to obey orders to commit illegal acts? That is, because "appropriate channels" were not working? Shouldn't the mutineers be rewarded for their actions, instead of punished? On the other hand, ignoring the insubordination of the mutineers could be devastating for federal police command structures in the future, and if left unpunished, it might provoke federal agents to mutiny for inappropriate reasons, say complaints about working conditions or pay, which did in fact surface during this past mutiny, along with much more serious accusations. A serious investigation is needed, by a credible outside team with no vested interest, to understand factually just what the circumstances were. Fixing the "appropriate channels" may be a necessary step, but if police corruption is as widespread as some people think, it is difficult to imagine fixing things if the appropriate channels are part of the problem.