Another Attack on State Police Headquarters in Juárez

La Polaka:  For the third time this month gunmen sprayed bullets into state police headquarters on Juan Gabriel and Sanders.  This time no one was injured.  State police have retreated from their command of the State Security Commission, leaving it in the hands of Municipal police.  At least 25 state police officers have handed in their badges rather than risk sicarioville.  Others throughout the state have simply abandoned their jobs. At last count 10 state police officers have been killed in recent weeks, and another dozen have been wounded.

Two Simultaneous Attacks on Police in Southeast Juárez

Bottom Line:  One Sicario Dead

Some State Police Go on Strike Asking for Resignations

From reports in today's Diario de Juárez (click here):  For the eighth time in less than a week police in Juárez have been under gunfire aimed directly at them.  At about 8:30 last night armed men began shooting at the municipal patrol car parked in front of the home of Daniel Paulin Barraza, a municipal police commander, and into his home.  The driver of the patrol car was wounded in the leg, but managed to kill one of the assailants

At the same time another attack began at the home of an official of the State Security Commission (CES).  No one was injured except for a child hit by a ricochet bullet.

A group of state police officers in Cd. Juárez have called for a work stoppage of state police today beginning at 8:30 am, to protest the lack of protection afforded to them, and asking for the resignation of state police commander Gines  Martinez Garcia and State Security Commissioner Oscar Aparicio Avendaño. To guard against further attacks one unit stationeid an armored vehicle nicknamed El Rino in front of a local state police facility.  Reports have indicated that, fearing for their lives, state police officers throughout the state have failed to report to work.

Diario Foto:  The "Rino" Parked in Front of State Police Facilities

City Council Woman Bemoans Sunland Park City Government

Carolina Renteria Speaks Out on Radio KTAL

City Council member Carolina Renteria unloaded on how things are running in the City of Sunland Park, while on a radio talk show, La Politica New Mexico, KTAL LP, 101.5 FM, on this morning's program.

Among the comments she made:

1.  Ever since municipal elections were held last March in Sunland Park, bringing three new members to the council, she (Renteria) and Olga Arguelles, have been ignored and outvoted in City Council business.  Meetings, she asserted, are held by councilors to which she is not invited.  She does not receive regular communication about what is happening from the City Manager, Julia Brown, nor from Mayor Javier Perea, so she and Olga Arguelles are effectively isolated from city business.

Mayor Andy Nuñez, who was also on the KTAL program, told her on the air that Mayor Perea, not other members of the council, has the responsibility of keeping her informed about city business.  She should, he stated, take this matter up with him.

2.  Things are so bad at the senior citizens center that only 6 or 7 persons regularly go there for meals.  The food, she said, was bad, in spite of heavy expenditures for the center.  Most senior citizens are now going to a facility in El Paso for their meals.

3.  She is concerned about the quality of the water in Anapra (a part of Sunland Park municipality) and does not trust what she is told by authorities about the water quality there.  She gave no specific reasons for her mistrust.  She also complained that the city is dirty, with little or no cleanup effort.  Arsenic levels were found to be unacceptably high three years ago, and only the intervention of Sen. Mary Kay Papen led to a transparent process to correct the situation.  At the time County Commissioner David Garcia, at a forum in Sunland Park, blamed the apathy of the people of Sunland Park for the arsenic in the warer--even though no public entity ever informed residents of the poison levels in the water.  He was defeated in his re-election bid.

4.  Things within municipal government are so bad, she said, people are disgusted, and this is likely to lower the turnout rate in the current election cycle.

5.  She also expressed serious concern that the winning faction on the council--known as the Salinas faction--is "receiving money under the table," (recibiendo dinero por debajo de la mesa).

The Salinas faction is named after Daniel Salinas, a former Sunland Park City Council member who pleaded guilty to 2 felony charges of  extortion after he paid money for a lap-dancer to sit on his opponent (running for mayor) while he was video taped.  He then tried to blackmail his opponent with the tape.  Salinas was elected mayor but was not allowed to serve.

Last March Jessica Avila was elected to the city council.  She was elected to the council first in 2008, and usually voted with Daniel Salinas on city business then.  She votes with the Salinas faction now.  Berta Salmon, elected last March, is also said to be part of the current Salinas faction.  When elected she was a waitress at Ruth Chris Steakhouse in El Paso,  Daisy Lira was also elected to the Council last March.  She is sister to Christian Lira, a former city council member who played an active role in spearheading the "Salinas faction" slate of candidates last March.

Also elected last March was Lizette Salinas, sister to Daniel Salinas, to the position of City Judge.

Sounds to me like someone should check out some of these accusations and let the public know what is happening in Sunland Park.  Things were so bad a few years ago when what might roughly be called the Salinas faction was in control of Sunland Park, that the state government took over the management of the city.  There are a lot of private interests intersecting future policy directions of Sunland Park, and it is high time these became known to the voters in the county.  Sunland Park lies in the path of development of the largest economic project currently in New Mexico--the Santa Teresa project--and the issue of a border crossing at Sunland Park is front and center for the state.  Does no one care anymore?

This Morning on KTAL LP:  Mayor Murillo, Mayor Nuñez, Councilwoman Renteria

101.5 FM this morning will feature the mayors of Anthony and Hatch, and Sunland Park Councilwomen Carolina Renteria, discussing various aspects of the current election scene in the outlying areas of Dona Ana County.  Yours truly will be hosting the radio version of La Politica New Mexico.

Three Men Killed, Two Women Wounded While Eating Tacos

From Diario:  At about 9:20 pm last night gunmen in a late-model Ford 150 paused at a taco stand in Riberas del Rio Bravo (East Side) and started shooting at a table with three men dining there.  The owner of the taco stand was wounded, as was another woman at the scene.

Foto La Polaka:  Tables at the Taco Stand after the Shooting

Many Police Abandon Posts Throughout Chihuahua
Juárez:  Sixth Attack on Police in Four Days
Another Dead Body

Diario de Juarez (click here):  The sixth attack on police in four days took place Friday night when armed gunmen in a pickup fired at the headquarters of the State Commission on Security, wounding two men.  One man has been arrested.

La Polaka (click here) reports indicate that dozens of state security employees throughout the state have deserted their jobs in recent days, or called in sick, due to fear of being attacked.

Yesterday August Garcia Gonzalez, a state police agent, took his wife and children to the Cordoba bridge and asked for asylum, crossing into El Paso.  He said he had survived two recent attacks against his life, and spoke of chaos and corruption within the State Commission on Security.

The state prosecutor, Cesar Peniche, has speculated the attacks might be masterminded by Azteca gang leader Rene Gerardo Santana, alias "El 300," who was captured more than a year ago but released in December.  Others have speculated the attacks on police may be due to a bust made by police against traffickers of crystal meth.  This would not explain the desertion of dozens of security forces throughout the state.

The six attacks:  The first occurred on Tuesday afternoon when a driver tried to run over two municipal police officers.  This resulted in a chase and the capture of a suspect.  The second attack took place on Tuesday night when gunmen opened fire on a state police vehicle parked under the Sanders bridge.  The third attack was on Wednesday morning, on Ave. de las Torres, when gunmen opened fire on two state police officers wounding one.  The fourth was the killing of an intelligence officer for the municipal police, who was gunned down at his home shortly after midnight on Thursday morning.  The fifth was an attack on personnel in front of the State Commission on Security on Ave. de las Torres, near the scene of the third attack. No one was injured.  Bottom line:  Two dead officers, six wounded, and one officer fleeing to El Paso.

The body of a man through to have been tortured and strangled was found in an empty lot in Urbi Villa del Cedro

Another dead body:  Foto La Polaka

Details Emerge on Murder of Police Officer Who Taped Torture Session

 Diario reports (click here and here) this morning that Miguel Angel Salas Lopez, 34, the police officer who shot a widely viewed video tape of a torture session involving municipal police, had just entered his home in Col Vista de Ojitos, in the Southeast section of Juárez (near the river) when the alarm went off in his car, a white Hyundai parked outside.  This was shortly after midnight on Wednesday night.  From inside his home he tried several times to use his remote to turn off the alarm, which kept going off.  He emerged from his house wearing his bullet-proof vest and a 9 mm handgun. 

Four men were in hiding, waiting for him.  They shot at him with an AR-15 assault rifle and a handgun.  Salas was able to get eight shots off, wounding one of the assailants, before he was fatally shot.  The four men got into a pickup, which they abandoned about 20 blocks away.  The wounded man was dead and they left him in the pickup.  Nineteen spent cartridges from the AR-15 were recovered at the scene, and another 11 from the handgun.  Eight spent cartridges from Salas' gun were found at the scene.

State prosecutors, who investigate homicides, said they saw no connection between the murder of the officer and the release of the video he had shot of the torture session.  They emphasized that there was a decline in the number of homicides in Juárez between August and September of this year.

Juárez:  Municipal Police Officer Murdered in His Home

It Gets Complicated:  The Victim Video-Taped a Man Being Tortured by Police

From Diario this morning: A municipal police officer whose name has not been released was shot and killed by armed gunmen who stormed into his home in Los Ojitos last night shortly after midnight.  The officer was a member of an intelligence unit of the police, and apparently had taped a portion of a torture session against an alleged sicario of La Linea.  Readers who wish to see the recording can click here.  The video shows a man being held down by men in municipal police uniforms, with a plastic bag over his head.  At times he is deprived of the ability to breathe.  The video circulated widely in Juarez on social media yesterday.

Mayor Cabada took action yesterday morning to dismiss police officers involved in the torture.  He ordered an investigation and asserted that he did not know these types of practices were being undertaken by municipal police. 

Foto:  Diario de Juarez:  Part of Video Tape

Juárez:  Gunfire Airmed at Police Three Times in Two Days

A message?  A ruse?  Rogue sicarios having fun?  Whatever the case,  Diario (click here) reports on three occasions in the past day gunmen have shot at police.  The first case took place yesterday afternoon at 4 pm when a driver tried to run over two municipal police officers.  A chase ensued and a man was arrested.

The second attack was against a state police car stopped under the Sanders Bridge.  Gunmen opened fire on the vehicle and fled.  No one was hurt, no one so far arrested.

The third attack took place this morning at 9:30 am when gunmen opened fire on two state police officers.  One officer was wounded.

Juárez Body Count Still Low;  Is the Truce Still 

On?  Only Two Bodies This Weekend

Since August body counts have been down in the Juárez drug-related homicide business.  This past weekend only two bodies were discovered.  At about 3 p.m. yesterday a man was shot to death in the Southeast section of town, Riberas del Rio, as he was driving a white sedan.  A vehicle intercepted his car and shot the man to death.  In another incident a man was found, hands and feet bound, lying dead at Km. 33 of the Casas Grandes highway, about five miles beyond the turnoff to Santa Teresa.

The Fundamental Problem of the Democratic Party:

From Party of the Working Class to Party of the Well Educated

  

Mainly Macro (click here) is a blog by a British economist, Simon Wren-Lewis, and often spot-on.  In today's blog he goes through the exercise of showing how in France, Britain, and the US, leftist parties have drifted toward electoral bases in the well-educated populations.  Much of his blog goes through this, and is worth reading.

As you can see from the graphs, the Blue USA line is the most pronounced trend in this direction among the three countries.  One out of four votes for "the left" comes from voters in the top 10% most-educated voters.

Compounding this trend are some of the optics:  Nancy Pelosi often appears to personify the highly-educated (not to say, know-it-all) voter, full of statistics and facts and talking points, but unable to communicate with a former labor union member who got fired in a "downsizing" and now has trouble finding a job that pays $15.00 per hours.  Bernie Sanders, although himself an "East Coast Liberal," and socialist, understood that the cultural appeals from the Right were more attractive to this hypothetical (but very real) voter than the appeals to "diversity," identity politics, and other non-bread-and-butter bones tossed at them by the Democratic Party.  Most important, cultural conservatism was threatening to replace the electoral base of the Democratic Party.  For making this clear, as he gained momentum over Hillary, of course, he was punished by some dirty play in the dark alleyways of the Democratic National Convention, and has been pretty much ignored since then.  No other prominent Democrat, certainly not in the Senate or House, has made many moves to occupy this space.  The vacuum has been filled largely on the Right, with everything from White Supremacists to Fundamentalist preachers, to the NRA.

Wren-Lewis Compilations

Homicides in Juárez:  87 in September

 

Compared to August, which registered 182 homicides, Juárez was relatively tranquil, with only 87 homicides.  There appears to have been something of a truce between gangs involved in the local retail sales of illicit drugs, at least for the first two weeks of September, when homicides were reduced to about 25.  

President-elect Lopez Obrador (AMLO) is unlikely to reveal his overall strategy to deal with drug-related violence in Mexico, which has reached excruciating levels in many parts of the country.  He has suggested an open mind about legalizing marijuana, and has signaled he doesn't intend to continue the militarization of the previous two administrations, but so far he is understandably shy of details.