Frontera NorteSur October 2000

Benavides is also being accused of trying to bury allegations of involvement in drug-trafficking by having the editor of the Cd. Juárez weekly magazine Semanario, Antonio Pinedo Cornejo, thrown in jail for defamation. Benavides said that Pinedo's claims about his relation to the drug trade were unsubstantiated and for this reason Pinedo was arrested last week. Pinedo said he based his allegations on a federal investigation of Benavides.

In statements to El Diario Efrén Gutiérrez Casas, president of the local executive committee of the PRD, jokingly called Benavides and Molina "the dynamic duo" and said that wherever they go the drug trade and organized crime will run rampant. Gutiérrez also stated that Benavides should have resigned a long time ago when it was obvious that he was having no effect on lowering crime in Cd. Juárez.

Gutiérrez also expressed doubts that former Chihuahua Governor Francisco Barrio Terrazas would be effective in fighting corruption. He emphasized that under Barrio's leadership the state did not make gains against fighting corruption. Indeed, there were scandals in which state police agents from the Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado were involved in drug trafficking and organized crime.

Wilfrido Campbell Saavedra, local PRI leader, said "Fox is sending the message that he is running out of bullets. I hoped for better from him in terms of putting together a proven team."

Source: El Diario, September 20, 2000. Article by Francisco Raúl Robles.

Mexican Authorities React To Carrillo Fuentes Case

In response to US law enforcement groups naming Vicente Carrillo Fuentes "an international star of the drug trafficking world" in an attempt to put pressure on him and the Juárez drug cartel that he is alleged to be the head, the Chihuahaua Attorney General's office (Procuraduría General del Estado) stated that its police force, the PJE, would be unable to arrest Carrillo because they have no outstanding warrants for his arrest--not even a traffic ticket.  

According to the Chihuahua State Attorney General, Arturo González Rascón, Carrillo can only be arrested in Mexico on organized crime and drug charges. All of these crimes fall under the jurisdiction of the federal Attorney General's Office, the PGR.

Juárez Mayor Gustavo Elizondo reacted to the Friday, September 15 announcement by US officials by stating that the increased persecution of Vicente Carrillo Fuentes would would reduce the homicide rate in Juárez. Elizondo's reasoning behind this is that increased pressure on Carrillo would force him to leave the state and go elsewhere.

An El Diario article from September 15 said that US law enforcement agents hope that by indicting Carrillo in the deaths of people buried in graves at ranches near Cd. Juárez, Carrillo will become a liability to his own organization. This could then pressure the Juárez cartel to give up Carrillo. Added pressure could also stop Mexican officials from their alleged protection of Carrillo.

US officials are also anxious to seize over $300 million that the cartel has in the US.

When asked where Carrillo was one US official quickly responded that he was to be found in the Republic of Mexico. He then retracted his statement and another US official said that they are not sure where Carillo is as he frequently changes location. Carrillo could be in the US, Mexico or another country, he continued.

In a separate story, Cd. Juárez Chief of Police Javier Benavides resigned from his position. It is believed that he is being considered for a position in the Fox government. He could potentially serve in the Federal Attorney General's Office, perhaps with Francisco Molina Ruiz, or in some capacity as an anti-corruption official. Cd. Juárez Mayor Elizondo named Jorge Ostos, former Police Academy director, to Benavides' former position.

Source: El Norte, September 16 & 17, 2000.  Articles by Edgár Prado and Fransisco Luján.
Source: El Diario, September 15, 2000. Article by Rafael Núñez.
Source: El Norte, September 19, 2000. Article by Francisco Luján.

Joint Security Operations Begin in Juárez

170 federal law-enforcement agents from the Policía Federal Preventiva (PFP) were put to duty in Ciudad Juárez on joint anti-crime operations with local and state police. The operations' primary objectives are stopping contraband and car theft and seizing firearms. The PFP agents wear black uniforms with bullet-proof vests and carry assault rifles.

At least ten PFP agents are participating in a patrol of the city's main street Avenida Juárez. A PFP official who wished to remain anonymous told El Diario, "We will be making our presence known and will act against violations of the law in addition to gathering intelligence." This street action will consist primarily of cruising both sides of the street, inspecting vehicles and searching suspicious-looking individuals.

Other PFP agents assisted PJE state police in apprehending people named in arrest warrants. Thirteen people have been arrested on out-standing warrants so far. The PFP agents involved in these operations wore civilian clothing.

Along Avenida Juárez one man, Martín del Campo, was arrested for carrying many passports which he allegedly rents out to others.

The Attorney's General Office (PGR) is also participating in the operations by flying over the city in helicopter.

Source: El Diario, September 14, 2000.  Article by Luz del Carmen Sosa.
 
Matamoros Drug War Update

The Misterial State Police (Policia Ministerial del Estado, PME) resumed an operation that targets sidewalk vendors for the possible sale of illegal drugs and substances to minors outside of elementary and secondary schools, and fights the local drug addiction problem.  Commander Sergio Puig Canales stated that under the operation the booths/carts and bodies of the vendors are searched to insure that no illegal substances are present.  These searches occur on a periodic basis.  Canales heads the operation in which various school sites have already been searched.

Problematic Replacement

The Secretary of Public Safety  (Secretaria de Seguridad Publica) will need to replace close to 40 police officers after they failed their drug tests last week.  Employees question what selection process will be used since municpal and public safety officials closed the police academy three months ago.

Source: El Bravo, Augusts 29, 2000. Articles by Fedérico Castillo and Nora González.

Mothers Demand Justice for Arrested Students

The mothers of the incarcerated students from the Matamoros Technological Institute along with numerous youth organized a peaceful protest in front of city hall demanding justice for their children and fellow students. They also voiced their disapproval of actions taken by authorities.  A commision headed by the mothers of Jimmi de la Hoz, Osman Barrera, Carlos Alberto Cruz, and Jose Luis Valdez was received by the mayor after an hour of protest.  The mayor expressed support and offered his help to the extent of his capabilities.

At approximately 6:30 p.m. the mothers arrived at the plaza Hidalgo in front of the city hall where they remained alone for several minutes until a bus with approximately 80 young women from the technology institute arrived.  The protest was deemed a peaceful one by the women.  After an hour and a half they stopped their protest but not before they had been assured that the mayor would act as their spokesperson before their fellow students' judges.

Crime on Rise in Méxicali

Ten vehicles are stolen daily from Méxicali and the Méxicali Valley. This amounts to nearly 300 cars per month. Other crimes such as armed assaults on inhabited homes and street vendors have also been on the rise.

"Crime will rise without authorities summoning citizens to actively participate in well-defined actions against crime," said social activist Eduardo Andrade Cisneros. Andrade himself has had car batteries and gas stolen from his car and his family's toy store has been robbed.

Others are upset with the crime level in Méxicali and with the police's failure to respond to calls for help. Andrade says that in working-class neighborhoods the police never come to stop young people from destroying cars and playing their stereos loudly on weekends. Neighborhood
Watch (Policía de Barrio) are also useless as the police do not respond to those calls either.

Source: La Voz de la Frontera, September 22, 2000. Article By Aarón Santiago.

Méxicali Citizen Caught with Drugs in Calexico, Overall Youth Arrests Down

Ramón Humberto Rosete, 24, of Méxicali was arrested for possession of almost 100 pounds of marijuana after being stopped for a traffic violation by a California Highway Patrol officer.

Rosete was stopped on Highway 86 in Imperial County.  The officer indicated that the suspect was extremely nervous and that the odor of the drug had penetrated the car's cabin.  The car was searched and approximately pounds of marijuana were found in a secret compartment.  The suspect and vehicle were then turned over to agents from the Imperial Valley Narcotic Task Force.  Rosete was taken to the county jail for transporting and possessing illegal drugs with the intent to sell or traffic.  Bond was set at $25,000 

Almost 2,080 Mexicans (mostly Méxicali citizens of adult age) have been arrested trying to cross illegal substances into the U.S.  Arrests of minors have dropped significantly.  In 1999, dozens of adolescents were arrested trying to cross illegal substances into the U.S.  This year there have been only five arrests of minors.

Source: La Voz de la Frontera, September 17, 2000.  Article by Juan Galvan and César Valdez.

Prison Escape Raises Questions

Agents from the Ministerial State Police (Policia Ministerial del Estado, PME) managed to take back into custody a total of seven of 13 fugitive prisoners after a jailbreak late Sunday night.  Four of the prisoners were captured that same night with the remaining three and an accomplice taken into custody on Monday. Some of the prisoners escaped with guns brought in by outside visitors.

The four prisoners captured Sunday night were taken into custody after trying to escape via the city's public transportation system.  The three other prisoners were found Monday at a ranch west of the Rivera Campestre colonia.  The PME stated that that the prisoners greeted with gun shots the arrival of law-enforcement groups from Anti-Kidknapping, Apprehensions, and Bravo Group.  No injuries were reported from the shots fired.

All the prisoners are under custody of the local Ministerio Público.  In the meantime the three government branches of public safety along with the aid of military officers from the Mixed Operation Groups (Bases De Operaciones Mixta, BOM) continue to patrol the city and reinforce security around the prison.

This news comes after citizens petitioned authorities to relocate the prison. Citizens in the vicinity stated that they live in a constant state of fear as they are so close to an overpopulated prison that is known to be under contstant tension.  Residents say that the problem is an old one, accusing authorities of letting the prison's population grow over occupancy limist.  "It's a joke that they escape with weapons from the inside," commented a resident.

Increased security measures have already been taken after the recent jail break.  The new measures restrict the number of visitors for each inmate to four at a time and there will be a change in visiting hours.  This past weekend 2,400 people visited the facility's 3,100 prisoners.

Authorities have also taken security measures in the downtown Méxicali Plaza Cachanilla area.  These measure should protect area merchants and their customers when a jailbreak occurs.  These measures include installing a "security screen" comprised of 34 security personnel.

Source: La Crónica, Méxicali by Marco Vinicio Blanco and Eneida Sánchez Zembrano.

City to Execute Arrest Warrants

Ricardo Vásquez Santiesteban, Assistant State Attorney General (Subprocurador de Justicia del Estado) issued a report stating that 1,700 arrest warrants issued by local judges have not been acted upon. The warrants were issued for a variety of crimes and at this time over 1,000 still remain active and current. Santiesteban stated all three levels of government will begin operations to carry out the warrants.

The Cd. Juárez newspaper El Norte obtained documents from recent public safety meetings that indicated the large number of unexecuted arrest warrants.  At these meetings it was also noted that for each unexecuted arrest warrant, there was a a suspected criminal on the streets.

The report states that of the 757 arrest warrants which were issued by judges between January and July, 2000, 544 had been carried out by police. In 1999, 1,469 arrest warrants were issued of which 914 were executed. 

Source: El Norte, September 6, 2000. Article by Salvador Castro.

To Report Nudes in Public Dial 060

Ciudad Juárez has implemented a new emergency response number in addition to the already existing 060.  The new 061 anti-violence line will only take calls of the most urgent and threatening nature. Homicides, kidnappings, burglaries, assaults, suicides, rapes, bomb threats and requests for ambulances or firefighters should all be made to the new 061 line.

According to an El Diario article the existing 060 will only take calls of lesser importance for problems like the disruption of public order, vehicular accidents, people drunk in public and people that are naked within the public view.

Pedro Torres Estrada, spokesperson for the local police said that 061 will operate as a pilot project to unify ties between officials from all three government branches and to measure the amount of work put in by emergency response operators. Efficiency and better public service were also noted as reasons for the establishment of the program.

The Public Safety Department (Dirección General de Seguridad Pública) and other local, state, and federal agencies will be in charge of operating the new line. Torres added that phone operators would need to take pertinent information from callers such as their names, address, phone number, the incident they wish to report, the location of the event, and a description of those involved.  All information reported to the line will be confidential.

Source:  El Diario, September 21, 2000.  Article by Javier Saucedo Alcalá.

Prison has Independence Day Party for Inmates and Families

The Juárez-area prison or Cereso (Centro de Readaptación Social para Adultos) recently held an Independence Day celebration for inmates and their families.  There was no traditional September 16th "grito" but there was an art show, music, dancing and food.  Security personnel said that the celebration is an annual one intended to let the inmates celebrate patriotic and religious holidays almost as if they were on the outside. The event began at 10 a.m. and carried on until 2 p.m.

The celebration began with folkloric dancing by a group of male inmates and women. Two norteño groups composed of inmates performed traditional Independence Day music.

David Antonio Cervantes, assistant director of the Cereso, stated that no special time was set aside for the event and that it was a lot like a traditional Saturday.

In a separate story El Diario wrote that Cervantes announced that from now on the Cereso will prohibit all personnel from introducing cellular phones into the prison's interior. Recently, a search of the prison turned up one cell phone in an inmate's cell. It is believed that there are phones in other cells and searches will be carried out to locate them.

Cervantes said that the ban was part of a new security measure to prevent inmates from using phones for bad purposes. 

Phones are available for inmates' use in the prison's patio areas. Use is limited to day-light hours however.

Cervantes also announced that closed-circuit cameras will be installed in the prison giving authorities more control over the facility.

Source:  El Diario, September 16, 2000.  Articles by Roberto Ramos.

Drunk Drivers Fined in Juárez, El Paso Minors Not Allowed Across Bridges

Ninety-nine drunk drivers, twenty-five of them from El Paso, were stopped, arrested and fined over the Labor Day weekend in Ciudad Juárez. The crackdown on drunk driving is part of the city's Drunks at the Wheel program (Ebrios al Volante) run by the city Traffic Department. The aim of the program is to reduce the number of drunk drivers in Cd. Juárez.

Twelve law-enforcement agencies participated in this coordinated program over the weekend including police departments from Chihuahua, Texas and New Mexico. According to Lázaro Padilla Hernández, operations coordinator for the Cd. Juárez Traffic Department, 41 arrests were made on Friday, 47 on Saturday and 11 on Sunday. No minors were arrested which Padilla said shows that parents are doing a good job of keeping their children from drinking and driving.

In El Paso, US police officers stationed on the bridges turned back young people that could not show proof of age to cross into Cd. Juárez. Others were taken to the police station and their parents were fined when they were discovered to be out after curfew.

Source: El Diario, September 5, 2000. Article by Javier Saucedo and Hugo Chávez.

Training Exercises To Help Tijuana in Natural Disasters
 
Tijuana has begun training exercises to prepare the community for natural or human disasters.  Antonio Rosquillas Navarro, head of the Civil Protection Department, indicated that a 6.5 magnitude earthquake is likely to occur in the region at sometime.

Rosquillas indicated that from 1932 to 1970 more than 500 earthquakes have been documented. Every year the magnitude of the quakes has grown and Méxicali is the area in greatest danger from earthquakes.

At a series of conferences and workshops many suggestions were made on how to coordinate the media and alert the community of possible dangers. Also, to better prepare Tijuana for earthquakes, a civil protection system is being established and yearly practice evacuations of the city are performed.

San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego Closed Due to Bomb Threat

The most transited port of entry in the world was temporarily closed on Tuesday September 12, 2000 due to a bomb threat.  The port of entry was shut down for approximately an hour during peak transit time.  Border agents went on alert when an anonymous caller told agents of a supposed explosive device that would detonate during peak transit time.    Traffic was restored after agents searched buildings with specially trained bomb dogs and found nothing.

The San Ysidro port of entry registers 45,000 vehicular entries daily into the U.S.  During the weekend that number can be as high as 80,000.  This is the second time that the San Ysidro gate has closed to traffic due to bomb threats.  Prior threats have also resulted in no found bombs.  In 1998 another port of entry was closed at Otay, 10 kilometers from San Ysidro. The Otay port of entry was closed due to a chemical spill near the commercial inspection zone.

Mexico and US Attorneys General Meet

Attorneys General from the western US-Mexico border met yesterday and agreed to an increased exchange of information as to better their abilities to fight crime.

The Baja California State Attorney General Juan Manuel Salazar Pimentel said that all of the meetings participants are committed to forming a group which will analyze their shared problems. It is also hoped that group will find new mechanisms with which to resolve criminal activity.

Salazar went on to say that organized crime can be found throughout the region comprised of Nayarit, Sinaloa, Sonora, Baja California, Arizona and California. This obliges authorities to unify their forces and exchange information.

Janet Napolitano, the Arizona State Attorney General, pointed out that a western border alliance is necessary as the one between Sonora and Arizona has already had such good results. In the next ten years, she said, the border between Mexico and the US will be a very different place. Because of this the western states of both nations will have to change with this change and work together to increase the well-being of the area's residents.

Bill Lockyer, the California State Attorney General, said that the international drug trade is the region's biggest concern. To deal with this his office is doing everything it can to prevent the arrival of drugs to the US because drug demand is so high in that country. He added that everyone must teach youth not to use drugs and that the western border states must look for better cooperative systems to end narcotrafficking.

Lockyer said that the biggest drug problem in the western border states is amphetamines and other lab-made drugs like crack and crystal. Marijuana growing in Mexico is also a problem as that drug is being brought into the US.

Lockyer added that Mexican authorities are collaborating with the US especially in the areas of car thefts and drug trafficking.