Saturday, September 22, 2018

What Happened to the Sort-of Truce in Juárez?
Diario:  Body Count So Far in September is 65

A man was executed in Plutarco Calles, near downtown this afternoon around 3 p.m.  He was wearing jeans and a black polo shirt.  Another man was executed inside a home in Col. Azteca last night.  Witnesses heard gunfire and found the body inside the house.

It is difficult, from a distance, to know what is going on with the truce apparently called by street gangs who had ratcheted up the body count in the past few months.  Drug-related deaths in Juárez come from two sources:  those originating in disputes between the two major drug trafficking organizations dedicated to transshipment of stuff to the US, and those originating in turf battles for the local control of retail drug sales in Juárez.  In 2009 and 2010 most homicides in Juárez stemmed from competition between the Juárez cartel and the Sinaloa cartel, over the infrastructure needed for the transshipment of drugs into the US.  In the past year or so most deaths have been attributed to turf battles over the control of retail drug sales within Juárez.  Diario ran a story last week that reports from recently jailed gang members, local street gangs called for a truce a couple of weeks ago after a great deal of killing this summer.  The body count is about half of what it was in August. 

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