From the Diario de Juarez, Sunday, March 1: Drug-related executions, which surpassed 1600 in Cd. Juarez last year, reached a record number of 230 in February. This is higher than the annual totals in 2003, 2004, and 2005, and breaks the previous monthly total of 228, set in August, 2008.
The latest executions occurred on Saturday when two police officers in a patrol car stopped at a filling station in Praxedis G. Guerroro, in the Valle de Juarez. A group of armed men caught them by surprise, shot them, and reloaded their weapons before fleeing. On Friday the body of a woman killed by gunfire was found in the back seat of an abandoned black 2001 Chevrolet Impala, at a filling station on the corner of Cuatro Siglos and Paseo de Nogal. Hours later a female police officer and her male partner were shot and killed in Praxedis G. Guerrero, in the Valle de Juarez. This was the 13th female police officer killed this year. Meanwhile, an investigation continues into the death of a state law enforcement investigator, who was shot and killed on his way home, apparently by military personnel. According to witnesses a group of soldiers were talking to prostitutes on a steet corner when a car driven by Manuel Lorenzo Saucedo Delgado, accompanied by another car with law enforcement personnel working on a case with Mr. Saucedo, passed by and soldiers began shooting at them. The vehicles stopped and soldiers ordered the men out of the vehicles and began beating them. At least one other man was wounded by gunfire.
On the U.S. side, a California State Assemblyman, Tom Ammiano, has proposed legislation that would legalize the sale and taxation of marijuana, as a means of raising funds for the state, which is in the throes of a heavy financial downturn. And according to a declassified document street gangs, like the Barrio Azteca gang of El Paso, connected to major narco-trafficking organizations, are taking over the wholesale distribution of illicit drugs in many parts of the United States.
3 comments:
And do not forget that Gov Richardson is going to reward the state of Chihuahua with allowing its citizens to reloate to New Mexico. That will only bring the killing to New Mexico what is he thinking.
Perhaps someone should email Janet Napolitano of these developments. She will address any narco-violence spillover when it happens...clue--it has happened! She said this on Thursday--"Right now it has not (crossed the border). But it is a contingency we have in mind because it could," the former Arizona governor told reporters. Where in Arizona is she from that she would be unaware?
Apropos Jose's post on the killings in Juarez, Foreign Policy Magazine has a very good article on the situation in Mexico: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4684
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