Frontera NorteSur February 2001

Other significant details of the story were that investigating officials believed that both US and Mexican victims would turn up in the graves. The FBI was needed on humanitarian grounds, according to Alvaro Cruz, because its experts had the resources to identify the bodies. Jorge Madrazo Cuéllar, Attorney General of México, said that some of his own men from the PGR, that served on the border between 1994 and 1996, may have been responsible for some of the disappearances. The press, and the public, seemed all too ready to believe that Cd. Juárez would be just the place for such horrors to take place.

In the end nine bodies were found on three of the narcoranches, six of the bodies have been identified. In the second week of May, 2000, José Trinidad Larrieta Carrasco of the Organized Crime Unit (Unidad Especializada en Delincuencia Organizada, UEDO), said that six of the nine bodies found on the ranches had been clearly identified. At a press conference before Mexican and international media Trinidad identified the known victims:

Raúl Alarcón Sánchez, Mexican, a Cd. Juárez resident who disappeared May 3, 1995. He died from knife wounds to the abdomen and neck.

Ignacio del Real Fierro, Mexican, an El Paso resident, identified by family members and three pieces of identification found in his clothes. He was a friend of Raúl Alarcón, above, but died from a gunshot wound to the head.

Marcelo Javier Aguilar Molina, US citizen, disappeared in April, 1995. Died from knife wounds to neck and abdomen.

Guillermo Jesús Rojo, US citizen. Died from knife wounds.

Jesús Alonso Provencio, US citizen, identified by his mother, last seen by her April 17, 1995. Died from knife wounds.

In the Santa Rosalía ranch two bodies were found and one was identified as the lawyer Antonio Tarazón Navarro, Mexican. Authorities are still investigating if perhaps Tarazón had represented one or two of the other victims. He disappeared in February, 1995, according to his wife and his sister. He was identified via DNA testing. He died of gunshot wounds to the neck and face.

At the third site, in the Granjas Santa Elena neighborhood, at an address without a street number at the corner of Abeto and Olivo streets, a ninth and still unidentified body was found.

In July, 2000, the second victim from the Santa Rosalía ranch was identified as Castor Alberto Ochoa Soto, Colombian. Tarazón was his lawyer and they had been buried together.

Ochoa and Tarazón were disappeared together after crossing the Paso del Norte-Santa Fe bridge into Cd. Juárez. They were kidnapped at the base of the bridge, in the light of day, by Federal Judicial Police (PJF) in blue Suburbans at approximately 11:00 a.m. on February 15, 1995. Four days earlier Ochoa had been freed by an El Paso judge after Ochoa had been accused of importing six tons of cocaine into the US. Ochoa was the nephew of the recently arrested head of the Medellín drug cartel, Fabián Ochoa. Ochoa's body is still unburied in Cd. Juárez waiting to be claimed by family.

Source: El Norte, November 27, 2000. Article by Carlos Huerta.

Juárez Drug War and Narcocops

The Ciudad Juárez newspaper El Norte reports that four city police agents have testified in front of a judge (el Juzgado Cuarto de Distrito) about the case in which a city police assistant director allegedly told his agents to stay away from a home containing a ton of marijuana. El Norte reports that Sergeant Enrique Moreno Valdez testified that now ex-assistant police director Francisco Javier Valles Ortiz ordered him to stay away from the drug-storage house and then tried to fire him the next day saying that he did not want him to work at his station.

Cd. Juárez's El Diario reports that the ex-assistant director of the Procuraduría General de la República (Federal Attorney General's Office, PGR) in the state of Chihuahua, José Manuel Díaz Pérez, who was arrested for allegedly trying to buy a higher government position for US$500,000, has been investigated in Mexico City since 1998 for allegedly ordering a triple homicide and cocaine trafficking. An arrest warrant for the crimes has now been issued and may soon be executed by the PGR. Díaz is currently under house arrest in Mexico City. The article does not address how Díaz could have been permitted to work in the PGR with such investigations taking place against him.

In a separate story, El Norte reports that the Procurador General de la República (Federal Attorney General) Rafael Macedo de la Concha believes that the wave of narcokillings in Cd. Juárez can be attributed to a turf battle between three of the country's strongest drug cartels: the Juárez (Carrillo Fuentes) cartel, the Gulf cartel and the Tijuana (Arellano Felix) cartel. The Procurador explained that the Gulf and Tijuana cartels are trying to take over Juárez cartel territory. Macedo made his comments at a border law-enforcement conference.

So far this year there have been twelve homicides in Cd. Juárez and three of them are believed to be drug-related executions. Last year there were 242 homicides in Cd. Juárez, 51 of them were considered to be narco-related slayings.

Source: El Norte, January 16, 2001. Article by Carlos Huerta.
Source: El Diario, January 17, 2001. Article by D. García and A. Quintero.

Juárez Year-End Homicide Statistics

There were 242 murders in Ciudad Juárez in the year 2000, 51 of them considered to be narco-related slayings. These numbers are up from 1999's 176 murders, an increase of 37.5%. The number of drug-related murders was also up according to El Diario but no figure was given for 1999.

Intentional homicides are investigated throughout Mexico by state-level, law enforcement agencies unless there is a drug component to the murder in which case it may be sent to the federal level for investigation by the Procuraduría General de la República (Federal Attorney General's Office, PGR). In Cd. Juárez, men's murders are investigated by the Departamento de Homicidios while almost all women's murders are investigated by the Fiscalía Especial para la Investigación de Homicidios de Mujeres.

The Fiscalía Especial investigated the killings of 27 women in the year 2000. Of these cases 12 were classified as crimes of passion, five were drug-related, four were sex crimes, one was the result of a fight, three were revenge killings and two murders were related to robberies. Two women's murders were not sent to the Fiscalía Especial because they were thought to be linked to organized crime. One of these was the case in which a female prison guard was found dead in a field with a male, city police officer.

According to the director of the Policía Judicial del Estado, Raúl Lira Gutiérrez, the increase in the number of murders does not mean that the problem "has gotten out of the hands of authorities." Lira also stated that narcomurders, "are not serious for society," as the victims were people involved with organized crime.

Regarding his agency's investigations, Lira said, "We are not passive in regard to these executions, we keep working on them, and we have lines of investigation for a majority of the cases. There is no predominate cause for these killings such as revenge or drug trafficking."

Source: El Diario, December 29, 2000. Article by Armando Rodríguez.

Corruption Attacked in Juárez: Customs and Federal Police Gutted

The director and the assistant director of the Procuraduría General de la República (Federal Attorney General's Office, PGR) in Chihuahua have been arrested along with 15 agents under their command. The arrests of director Norberto Jesús Suárez Gómez and assistant director José Manuel Díaz Pérez were for their alleged involvement in a scheme to buy Díaz a higher position in law enforcement for US$500,000. It is believed that this money would be earned back by selling protection to drug and contraband traffickers.

El Diario interviewed members of the Chihuahua Congress all of whom were glad to hear of the arrests. PAN Representative Ortuño Gurza emphasized that the arrest of corrupt police agents was long over due as previously they had been transferred rather than punished. Sergio Martínez Garza of the PRI supported the strong, forceful measures taken against the agents. Luis Pável Aguilar of the PRD stated, "we hope that this is the beginning of clean out and complete restructuring of the PGR and not just an action to quite voces of protest."

Also in line with Fox's promise to end government corruption was this week's removal of 41 of 47 Mexican customs officials including Walter González of Ciudad Juárez. González acknowledged to El Diario that he had been removed from his position and was only awaiting his replacement. He told the Cd. Juárez newspaper that "Secretary Gil Díaz wants people in whom he has absolute confidence and changes were made for this reason."

The customs administrators were let go because during the year 2000 the flow of contraband into Mexico was carried out with impunity and often with the support of customs.

Source: El Diario, January 3 & 4, 2001. Articles by Roberto Ramos and Lucy Sosa.

More than 4,000 Military Conscripts Riot in Matamoros Neighborhood

While waiting for a government office to open more than 4,000 military conscripts began throwing stones at homes, attacking neighborhood residents and burning cars in the early hours of January 24. The riot began near 2:00 a.m. in the Matamoros Modelo neighborhood and area residents are now demanding the firing of the chief of police, the fire chief and the city military recruiter.

The disturbance lasted at least four hours as police allegedly stood by and watched, refusing to intervene. Material damage appears to be significant and the investigator in the case has yet to finish evaluating the damage. At least ten complaints have been filed relating to damaged homes and businesses and stoned and burned cars.

The mayor of Matamoros spoke with the people that had been affected by the riot and has promised to pay them reparations.

While with the mayor, Modelo residents demanded the firing of the Secretario de Seguridad Pública (local police chief) and the commander of the Cuerpo de Bomberos (firefighters) because their employees did nothing to intervene in the disturbance. Neighborhood residents also asked for the termination of the head of city military recruitment because the same violence broke out last year, although to a lesser extent, when recruits were brought together in the neighborhood.

Source: El Mañana, January 25, 2001. Article by Felipe Valle, Efraín Martínez and Norberto Lacarriere.

New State Police Organization to Investigate Drug-Related Homicides in Chihuahua

A newly formed state police group will investigate murders linked to drug-trafficking. Comprised of ten police agents from the PJE (Policía Judicial del Estado) and one agent from the Ministerio Público, the group has already taken over 30 murder investigations and will investigate all drug-related killings that take place in the coming year.

Created last week the unnamed group will work out of the Academia Estatal de Policía (State Police Academy, Acepol) because of questions of space and privacy.

An El Diario article on the new organization seems to show uncertainty as to who commands the group. Ricardo Vázquez Santiesteban, assistant director of the state police, said that the person responsible for the group is the lawyer and Ministerio Público agent Jesús Torres. Torres was previously with the Fiscalía Especial para la Investigación de Homicidios.

Other sources indicated that the new group's commander is Steve Slater, a US citizen that has been employed by Chihuahua law enforcement. El Diario tried to interview Slater but did not find him in his office. However, some police officers told the newspaper that Slater does not have the position necessary to head the investigations.

[FNS note: the creation of this group is probably due to the fact that the federal police (PGR) have refused to take over investigations that the state police have determined to be drug-related. The state police believe that the PGR should investigate the murders because crimes involving drugs fall into the PGR's jurisdiction.]

Source: El Diario, January 23, 2001. Article by Armando Rodríguez.

Less Gang Activity in El Paso and Ciudad Juárez

Over the last two days both the El Paso Times and Ciudad Juárez's El Diario have published articles stating that gang-related crimes are down in their respective communities.

The El Paso announcement comes at the same time that the city is considering the demise of its specialized gang unit. An outside consulting company told the city that it should dismantle its gang unit so as to put more police agents on the street. The city will decide on the consultant's recommendation in the near future.

Cd. Juárez Chief of Police, Jorge Ostos told El Diario that the number of gang-related conflicts has gone down in the city. "The number of conflicts is much less than before and they are less frequent although equally violent," he told the press. He also mentioned that not all gang confrontations involve firearms.

The number of active gangs in Ciudad Juárez remains disputed. A state police (PJE) report said that there are more than 300 gangs in the city. In contrast, a 1999 study by Trabajo Social de la Dirección General de Seguridad Pública y Protección Ciudadana, found 108 gangs comprised of 3,793 minors.

Source: El Paso Times, January 28, 2001. El Diario, January 29, 2001.

Mexican Customs Accused of Offering Bribes to Journalists

The Ciudad Juárez newspaper El Diario states that hopes for transparency and honest dealings at the border have been dashed by customs offers of "economic support" to journalist.

The articles states that, in the past, journalists have been given bribes to provide favorable coverage of customs operations and to stay away from stories that might damage the reputation of the agency. Journalists had hoped that this practice would have ended with the arrival of the Fox administration but it appears that it has not.

The El Diario story alleges that customs said journalists should ask for economic support in February. Before then was not possible customs said because the Paisano program had just ended. It is also alleged that customs offered to help reporters get foreign goods into the country.

[FNS note: The Paisano program comes into effect during the holiday season to protect the million or more Mexican citizens that return to Mexico from the US. The program, staffed mainly by volunteers, monitors police and customs stops to make sure that no one can ask for bribes.]

Source: El Diario, January 25, 2001. Article by Rosario Reyes.

Chihuahua Governor Wounded in Shooting

Chihuahua Governor Patricio Martínez García was shot in the head yesterday at 11:30 a.m. in the Chihuahua City Palacio de Gobierno (Government Building). The alleged would-be assassin is Cruz Victoria Loya Montejano, thirty-years old, a former state police officer (Policía Judicial del Estado, PJE) fired almost four years ago from the PJE for threatening the lives of two people.

Martínez, commonly referred to in the Ciudad Juárez press as Patricio, is out of medical danger according to his doctors. Fired upon at point-blank range the bullet entered the front top of the governor's ear and exited from his neck. Martínez was given anesthesia for surgery to clean up his wound and a few hours later, from his hospital bed, he had resumed his duties as governor.

In case of emergency a Lear Jet air ambulance had been brought in to take the governor to El Paso, Houston or Mexico City, according to El Diario.

At this time it appears that Loya acted alone, according to El Diario. However, Loya was asked in front of journalists if someone had sent her to kill the governor and she said, "I don't know."

Interviewed minutes after elite PJE agents had raided his house for evidence in the attempted-murder investigation, Loya's father, Jesús Loya, said that his daughter was normal growing up but that she had fallen apart after she entered the PJE. The women's father said that he had no idea that his daughter was going to do such a thing and said that the shooting was wrong.

Source: El Diario, January 18, 2001. Articles by Dora Villalobos Mendoza & Reynaldo Domínguez Maro.

More on Shooting of Chihuahua Governor, Fox Speaks on Subject

State Attorney General (Procurador de Justicia del Estado) Arturo González Rascón has said that the State Police (Policía Judicial del Estado, PJE) are not investigating any sort of plot in the non-fatal shooting of Chihuahua Governor Patricio Martínez García.

This contrasts with statements made by President Fox in a January 24 television interview. When asked by Joaquín López if he believed that the shooting was a reply by narcotraffickers to a government crackdown against the drug trade, Fox replied, "Yes, that's how we see it, that's how we have analyzed it." Fox continued by saying that the reaction of drug dealers to the moves against them proves that the government has taken the right path.

In a separate story a state official said that from 1993 to 1995 state police agents were hired quickly and without proper screening due to a lack of officers. The governor's alleged attacker, Cruz Victoria Loya Montejano was a member of this generation of state police. Rather than receive the normal six months of training these agents received just two months. The police classes that graduated during these years are also being examined in the Cd. Juárez press for their high suicide rates and the PJE at that time is being described in the press as a "nest of unstable agents."

Sources: El Diario, January 25, 2001. Articles by Dora Villalobos and Jaime Alvarez.

State Police Find Stolen Cars in Tijuana City Pound

Baja California state police (Policía Ministerial from the Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado, PGJE) found 94 vehicles with outstanding stolen automobile reports in the lot of a company that had a city concession to impound cars.

According to PGJE spokesperson Raúl Gutiérrez Anaya, state police initiated the supervision of Tijuana's car lots at the beginning of the year.

In the first days of January state police agents looked at a sample of 600 cars that had been impounded at Grúas Parra Corrales and found that 94 of them had been reported as stolen in the second half of the year 2000.

Gutiérrez also stated that investigations will continue to determine if pound employees were selling parts of impounded cars at Grúas Parra Corrales or other companies.

Inspections at other city pounds will continue throughout Tijuana for the rest of the month.

Pot-Smoking, Méxicali Bus Driver Speaks

Mario "N" is a Méxicali bus driver who doesn't care about hear-say and recognizes that he is addicted to marijuana.

"While I'm working I don't use it, only when I'm done with my route do I buy a portion of marijuana," he said.

Mario does not consider that using drugs has an effect on his work since he has not had a serious accident.

"There are other fellow drivers that come to work "high" and put passengers' safety at risk," continued Mario.

Fatigue and stress are cited as causes for the drivers' adoption of this habit

"I recently began this habit and I plan to stop at any moment because it is bad for my health," Mario said.

Regarding the new plan for drug testing of bus drivers in Méxicali, Mario said that he doesn't fear losing his job. "I don't care because I have plans to find new work," he said.

Source: La Crónica, November 20, 2000.  Article by: José Manuel Yépiz.  

"Officers of the Year" Decorated by Méxicali Police Department

Seven Méxicali police officers were recognized as "Police of the Year" by the Council of Honor and Justice. Each officer received an engraved ring, a plaque and 18,000 pesos (US$1,800).

One of the decorated agents, Fermín Ayala Méndez, said that the integrity and discipline of local police should be recognized. Ayala also stated that the police serve their community 365 days a year and that it is an honor to form part of the police force.

Méxicali currently has 1,200 police officers.

Also recognized were eight police officers who had completed 20, 25, 30 or 35 years of service.

Source: La Crónica, January 3, 2001. Article by Elvia Solís Rodríguez.

19,000 Juárez Homes Steal Electricity from Utility

Approximately 19,000 Ciudad Juárez families illegally obtain electricity by running wires called "diablitos" from their homes to the cables of the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE). While the practice is highly dangerous those that steal power from the utility say that they can not afford to pay for electricity or that power lines do not yet reach their communities. The number of homes illegally obtaining power from the CFE has doubled since 1996 according to the utility.

Between January and August, 2000 833 house fires were attributed to the dangerous hook ups when illegal wires heated up or short circuited and came into contact with combustible material. These figures would suggest that about one of every twenty illegally-wired homes catches fire per year.

On December 31, 2000 much of the Anapra neighborhood celebrated the New Year in darkness when electricity thieves overloaded the system, according to Juan Duarte, a CFE service executive. Power was not restored until 11:47 on January 1, 2001.

Regarding the inability of many to afford electricity, a widow living in the Rancho Anapra neighborhood stated, "They charge us a lot for light, the last time I was billed 1,000 pesos (US$100). How am I going to pay this if we can barely feed ourselves? I prefer that they cut our service and that we hang off of the lines in front like everyone else on our block."

The Alderete Gutiérrez family has had electricity for the past 14 years--all of them thanks to a "diablito" connection. However, in contrast to people that do not want to pay for electricity or cannot afford to, the Aldretes live in the Lomas de Poleo neighborhood where there is no power infrastructure.

Source: El Diario, January 3, 2001. Article by Edith Caballero.

BC Receives Fed Money for Public Security

The Fondo Nacional para Seguridad Pública (National Fund for Public Security) will give 300 million pesos (approximately US$ 30 million) to Baja California to strengthen various aspects of state law enforcement. BC Governor Alejandro González Alcocer qualified the sum of money as a good amount.

The funds will go toward finishing El Hongo prison, equipping police agents and buying new equipment as set forth in an agreement between the state and federal government. As soon as the agreement is signed money will begin to arrive to the Baja California. This should happen in late January or early February at the latest.

Tijuana Mayor: PJE and PJF Need to Cooperate and Do More

The acting mayor of Tijuana, Juan Manuel Gastélum Buenrostro, has asked for a meeting with President Fox, the Federal Attorney General, the State Attorney General and the governor of Baja California with the goal of arranging for cooperation between the Federal Judicial Police (PJF) and the State Judicial Police (PJE).

Gastélum Buenrostro said that city police are dedicated to Tijuana, work hard and make arrests. However, the state and federal police need to begin arresting criminals, he stated. Gastélum Buenrostro also told Tijuana's Frontera newspaper that the PJF and the PJE need to start cooperating in the fight against organized crime.

Source: Frontera, January 8, 2001. Article by Aline Corpus.

US Crime Wave in BC?

Forty percent of US citizens arrested abroad are arrested in Baja California. According to Richard González, the US consul in Tijuana, of the 5400 US citizens arrested abroad every year, approximately 1800 are arrested in BC.

González told the Tijuana Journalists Association (Asociación de Periodistas de Tijuana) that the primary function of diplomatic representation is to protect US citizens that are in trouble in some part of the world. The consul also said that people detained in Baja California are generally well treated.

The US consulate in BC also attends to the deaths of 400 US citizens a year in BC. "It falls on us to tell families about the deaths, help arrange funeral services and make inventories of the deceased's belongings," González stated.

González also said that INS turns in 5,000 documents a month seized at the San Isidro port of entry to the US. These documents include stolen laser visas and falsified laser visas with superimposed photos.