TOP STORY OF THE DAY (Updated
Every Weekday)
by the Frontera NorteSur Staff
Fri., June 26: Spontaneous Fiestas Rock Juárez, Nation
Soccer fans in Ciudad Juárez stormed the megabandera (large Mexican flag in Chamizál Park) and the Free Bridge in a spontaneous celebration of Mexico's success in the World Cup championships being held in France. The national Mexico fútbol team tied Holland 2-2 in overtime, making "El Tricolor" one of the final 16 teams remaining in the tournament.
According to a report in El Diario, soccer fans "took to the streets in mass" at 10:30 a.m. following Mexico's game-tying overtime goal, and "took a direct course to the megabandera." The report continued: "Thus between shouts and sombrerazos, tamobrazos and cornetazos, thousands of delirious fans had a spontaneous fiesta in the streets."
The crowd of fútbolistas, their faces painted in the tricolors (red, white, and green), then stormed the Free Bridge, stopping traffic and almost upsetting small cars, until the police intervened. The revellers continued their party with joyful shouts and "cries of robust enthusiasm."
El Diario continued, '"Between a rain of noisemakers and disordered trumpets, shouts and painted faces, next to the megabandera was an abundance of eccentric tattoos, extoic hairdos, crazed faces, accelerating hearts, and driven crazy pulses. . . Who stops a happy town? Not the police!The fearless crowd danced on a patrol car that dared to pass by the place."
"Passion exploded in a wave of fervent enthusiasm, the fans inspired, infected, shocked, poetic, romantic," said El Diario.
"México, I believe in you!" exclaimed Verónica García, with one hand extended to the sky.
"We do not know how to express in words, something that does not stop being spectalucar," El Diario concluded.
In a related story, fútbol fans all over Mexico took the streets in massive celebrations in support of El Tricolor. El Diario summarized the displays of euphoria: "With shouts that could be heard by God Himself, thousands of Mexicans, of all different ideologies, creeds, and social position, took the streets of the main cities of the country . . . The routine in offices, schools, bars, restaurants, hospitals, police stations, assembly plants, corporations, and houses became paralyzed from an early hour all over the country."
In México City, the disturbances left 95 injured and 200 in jail. According to wire reports, there were at least 39 large-scale fiestas reported in Los Angeles, California.
Cars all over the country sported "Lapuente For President" signs.
Lapuente is the coach of the national Mexican soccer team, and is currently not running for office.
Source: El Diario
Thurs., June 25: PRD Leader Says PAN Failed To Take Advantage of Opportunity
Layda Sabsores, former Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) candidate for governor of Campeche, campaigned on behalf of Chihuahua PRD candidates yesterday, and said that the National Action Party (PAN) governments throughout Mexico have "have had many opportunities and they did not know how to take advantage of them. We found out instead that PANista governments just turned their backs and kept silent."
"We had wanted a PAN that would open government to the citizens, but it did not want problems, does not want conflicts and it does not risk, and for that reason it fell into the PRIista game," Sabsores continued, referring to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). "The PAN has lost its honor, and now they must look at themselves critically, because they are not responding to what the citizens want."
When asked how the PRD would handle their possible defeat in the elections of July 5 (the latest polls show the PRD is supported by only 9% of the voters statewide), she replied, "Why are you so pessimistic, compañero? What kind of milk did your mother give you to suck on? There is good milk here--we believe in ourselves."
Sabsores said that "Chihuahua will be painted yellow this July 5," the color of the PRD sun symbol. "Wake up from your doubt," she said. "The PRD has done in nine years what it took the PAN 60 in reaching." She discussed the surprising victory of PRD leader Cuauhtémoc Cardenas last summer, when the PRD took the mayorship of México City by a 2-to-1 margin over the PRI. "When we saw Cardenas had won that sweeping victory, we were filled with optimism, and I am convinced that that influence can arrive here."
In addition, Sabsores claimed that President Ernesto Zedillo and the PRI government have "reached the limits of their mediocrity."
When one person in the audience said to her that the PRD was a "violent party," Sabsores responded: "Yes, it is aggressive to defend your rights, it scares people when someone goes out and tells the truth. But who is more violent? The one that defends his rights or the one that kills presidential candidates, the one who with vengeance murders people in Chiapas, Acteal, Guerrero, or Oaxaca?"
The former PRD gubernatorial candidate also called for strict oversight of the voting process in Chihuahua by the Federal Electoral Institute. "In Campeche, they said I had 22 percent of the vote, but we had 43 percent," she said.
Source: El Diario
Wed., June 24: PAN Suspends City Councilwoman--Labeled "Chismosa"--For Two Years
Olvido Espelosín de Alvarez, National Action Party (PAN) city council representative (regidora) for Juárez, was suspended from the PAN for two years. The National Executive Committee of the PAN issued the sanction because Alvarez "worked against the interests of the administration" and "criticized the PAN government." In particular, Alvarez criticized PAN gubernatorial candidate Ramón Galindo.
The call to sanction Alvarez came from Galindo and Carlos Angulo, temporary president of the PAN Municipal Committee.
A second PAN regidora, Elsa Almeida de Diaz, is still waiting on possible sanctions from The National Executive Committee for the same "indiscipline." Diaz said she thinks she might be "definitely expelled" from the PAN.
The National Executive Council was unanimous in its vote to suspend Alvarez, saying she broke discipline rules set forth in article 13, section 2, of the General Statutes of the party.
Alvarez commented, "If it is undisciplined to speak the truth and disciplined to never criticitize one's own party, then we're doing the exact same things for which we criticize the PRI." The PRI, The Institutional Revolutionary Party, is currently challenging PAN incumbency in both the Chihuahua governor's race and the Juárez mayor's race.
PANista Juárez Mayor Enrique Almeida Flores called the suspended regidora a "chismosa" (gossiper) and "irresponsible," saying she has defamed "many civil employees and other people."
PAN regidor Gerald Soto said "that woman not only must be suspended for two years, but expelled for life."
However, one PANista regidor supported the embattled regidora. Jose Luis Sanchez said he "lamented" the National Executive Council's decision and added: "For me, they (the two regidoras) continue being regidoras panistas, whom I respect."
Alvarez and Diaz have been critical of some municipal expenditures and have raised questions of possible corruption in both the current PAN municipal administration and the former PAN administration, headed by now-gubernatorial candidate Galindo.
Source: El Diario, June 23 and 24
Tues., June 23: Barrio, PANistas Question Credibility Of Diario, Polls
Chihuah
ua Governor Francisco Barrio said that "El Diario has put itself in a situation which jeopardizes its credibility" by publishing the electoral polls conducted by the independent agency, MORI of Mexico.
The polls indicated that the Institutional Ruling Party (PRI) had gained as much as 20 points on the National Action Party (PAN) among voters in Ciudad Juárez in just one month.
PAN candidate for Juárez mayor, Gustavo Elizondo Aguilar, said that PAN has conducted its own surveys which "differ remarkably" from those of MORI of Mexico. Elizondo called the surveys published in Diario "irrelevant," adding that they were not reliable, "but more like a tendency, like a photograph."
Barrio said that the polls on the governor's race, which show PRIista Patricio Martínez leading PANista Ramón Galindo by nine points, are "really saying nothing," because since voter tendencies might swing two or three points either way for either candidate "anything can happen, in favor of either one or the other."
Source: El Diario
Mon., June 22: New Poll Shows PRI Leading In Mayor's Race, 38% to 29%
In a sharp reversal to earlier polls, which indicated that Gustavo Elizondo, National Action Party (PAN) candidate for municipal president of the Ciudad Juárez city council, was leading his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) opponent by a comfortable 17 points, a new poll conducted by the independent agency MORI of Mexico, in conjunction with El Diario and The Dallas Morning News, showed that PRI candidate Jose Eleno Villalva now leads his PANista rival by nine points, 38% to 29%.
The poll was conducted between June 11 and 14, and surveyed 512 registered voters. Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) candidate Nora Yu was third with eight percentage points.Twenty percent of the Juárenses polled said that they were undecided.
In a related story, PAN gubernatorial candidate Ramón Galindo rejected the results of a MORI/Diario/Morning News poll published in the June 21 Diario, which showed him trailing his PRI rival, Patricio Martínez.
"The results [of the poll] do not correspond in any way with the data that we have," said Galindo. "We have data that was generated from very professional studies that puts us substantially in front of the PRI candidate."
PAN Secretary General Cruz Pérez Cuellar substantiated Galindo's statement. "The numbers we have are radically different from what El Diario publishes," the Secretary General said. He added that the surveys ordered by PAN were from "serious companies."
Source: El Diario
Sun., June 21: PRI Leads In Governor's Race By Nine Points, According To Poll
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate for governor, Patricio Martínez, holds a 42% to 33% lead over his National Action Party (PAN) opponent, Ramón Galindo, in a state-wide survey made by independent agency MORI of Mexico, in conjunction with El Diario and The Dallas Morning News. The agency had previously conducted two other polls.
The last poll, conducted in May, showed Martínez with a seven-point lead state-wide, down from 11 points in April.
In general, the PRI has gained strength in urban areas while the PAN is strong in rural areas. The most dramatic results came from Ciudad Juárez, where Martínez gained 17 points in just one month while Galindo dropped 5 points. In May, polls showed Galindo with a 36% to 27% lead in Juárez. In June, the PRI ista Martínez soared ahead of his PANista rival, earning support from 44% of Juárenses polled as compared to Galindo's 31 percent.
Support for the PAN in rural areas of Chihuahua increased from 24 to 37 percent, while support for the PRI declined sharply from 59 to 38 percentage points.
Only nine percent of the 630 registered voters from 40 municipalities said they would vote for The Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) candidate Esther Orozco. In Juárez, the PRD's support is at six percent.
In a related story, Dr. Daniel M. Lund, director of MORI of Mexico, expressed his opinion that the PRI and the PAN are not engaged in a dirty war, or guerra sucia, but "rather an inadequate debate." The current low level of debate, says Lund, "does not clarify the important issues, which are public education, proper governing of the state, and economic development."
When asked for his definition of a guerra sucia, Lund replied: "The pants of President Clinton."
Source: El Diario
Sat., June 20: PJE Captures Four Kidnappers, Including Former Juárez TV Reporter
Agents from the Chihuahua State Police (PJE) apprehended four suspects in connection with the alleged kidnapping of Juárez businessman Jesus Andujo, abducted from his auto parts store on Wednesday, June 17, according to an employee who followed the kidnappers until being turned back by gunfire. The four suspects were Omar González Martínez, former reporter for Channel 44 television news in Juárez; David Chacón Galican, 19; Juan Jose Soto Eyrie, 22; and Julian Ortiz Ojinaga, 25. Three other suspects are still fugitives, according to police.
The kidnappers were seeking $2 million in ransom, but settled for $140,000, which they requested be delivered to and left inside of a red Chevrolet Blazer truck parked at the S-Mart Commercial Center--ironically, the same location where PJE agents caught three kidnappers last month. PJE agents waited until two men came to retrieve the money, then arrested them both, after a foot chase. The arrested kidnappers then led police to Andujo and another suspect in a house in the Divisíon de Norte neighborhood.
According to police, Andujo's kidnappers intended to kill him upon receiving the ransom, so he was never blindfolded. Andujo was handcuffed and tortured. Early reports said his captors had played Russian Roulette against Andujo's head using a loaded weapon, sprayed his eyes with tear gas, and forced him to eat dog food from a dog dish.
Ex-TV reporter González is considered to be the "intellectual author" of the crime, say police investigators. He is also the one who negotiated the ransom settlement over the telephone. Andujo identified him as one of his captors, having seen him before covering politics for Channel 44. Police took Andujo to one of González's brother's manions in the Misión de los Lagos neighborhood, where they waited for and arrested the alleged journalist-kidnapper.
PJE spokespersons said that these kidnappers were not police agents nor working for the police, but were in fact "professional criminals." Of the three fugitives, one is believed to go by the nickname "El Gordo," or The Fat Man.
Source: El Diario
Fri., June 19: Attorney General, Juárez Mayor Called To Account For Actions
In separate but related stories, the state Attorney General and the municipal president of Ciudad Juárez, both of whom are members of the National Action Party (PAN), have been challenged by their critics to explain their response--or lack thereof--to the ongoing investigation into the murders of women in Juárez. According to one citizens' group, Mujeres Por Juárez, over 100 young girls and women have been killed in the city since 1993.
Several citizens' groups, including Mujeres Por Juárez, and a group of city council members--independents as well as those from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Ecological Green Party (PVEM)--have made serious allegations against Mayor Enrique Flores Almeida for official misconduct and misuse of funds. Specifically, the council members, or regidoras, accuse Flores of "usurping the functions of the city council," saying he schemed and conspired against the council when he pulled an "administrative maneuver" which resulted in the municpal administration's being granted an extension on its required response to the report on violence against women written by the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH).
The municipal document which asked for an extension was not numbered, nor did it follow Municipal Code, said the regidoras. The document also lacked the required signature of city council secretary Hernán Rivera Rodriguez, they added.
Citizens' groups also questioned the use of municipal funds during PAN rule. According to documented information from the CNDH, of 5.2 million pesos budgeted for "justice and security" in 1994, the municipal PAN government used less than 100,000. And in 1995, "absolutely none" of the 1.5 million pesos budgeted for justice and security were used for its intended purpose.
Meanwhile, in Chihuahua City, diputados (representatives) from the PAN, PRI, and Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) decided to call Chihuahua State Attorney General Arturo Chávez Chávez before a special session of the state Congress so that he may "inform them of the advances made in the investigation of more than 100 murders of women in Ciudad Juárez," according to a report in El Diario.
The call for Chávez's appearance before Congress was initially made by PRIista diputado Pedro Domínguez Alarcón, who read a letter aloud to his fellow representatives from the State Congress of Guanajuato, in which diputados of the PRI, PRD, and Workers' Party (PT) all expressed their concern "for the high number of homicides of women in Ciudad Juárez."
Domínguez went on to attack Chávez for dedicating his weekends to working for the campaign of Ramón Galindo, PAN candidate for governor of Chihuahua, instead of devoting himself to the duties of state attorney general.
"It is incredible that an attorney general of a state in which there is a high incidence of murdered women works a 'week inglesá,' from nine to three in the afternoon, Monday through Friday," said Domínguez.
PANista diputados requested, "with shouts," according to El Diario, to be given the opportunity to "refute the PRIista with facts," by they were denied by Congressional president Alfonso Luján Gutiérrez. Lawmakers will decide next week when to set a date and time for the attorney general's appearance.
Source: El Diario
Thurs., June 18: PRI, PAN Discuss Conditions for "Civility Pact"
The state leader of the Chihuahua National Action Party (PAN) said that his party would accept a pact that would bring an end to the so-called guerra sucia or "war of words" between candidates of the PAN and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Guillermo Luján Peña, the PAN leader, indicated that if the PRI signs the agreement, then the PAN will "completely drop all negative campaigning, and move swiftly toward a positive campaign which will focus on the parties' political platforms." He added that he hoped that the PRI and all other contenders would do the same.
PRI state leader Jorge Esteban Sandoval said his party has already raised "the level of content" in the campaign, and has no interest in mudslinging (el lodo) or denunciation. However, the PRI can only sign the agreement, he said, if PANista Governor Francisco Barrio Terrazas "stops coordinating the campaign of Ramón Galindo. Because we want a governor for all, mature and responsible, impartial and democratic."
The governor responded by saying that the calumnias priístas--which would literally be translated as "false, malicious, accusatory PRIistas"--have made him "indignant." Barrio said similar PRI lies (mentiras) have influenced past elections. In particular, he cited the most recent election in the state of Jalisco, where PRI accusations caused a "five percent change in the voters' preferences." Barrio went on to list, in general, the kinds of offenses the PRI committed in the past.
In a related story, PANista city councilwoman Martha Adriana Dúran and Ecological Green Party (PVEM) Secretary General Yolanda Villalobos both said they regretted the fight which broke out between them at a candidates' meeting June 16 (see top story June 17), which newspapers are calling el acto bochornoso, the shameful act. However, both Dúran and Villalobos said they were only reacting to the insults hurled by the other. Villalobos added that her public acts should not be confused with those of the "hordes of Galindo" (hordas galindistas) which have "violently destablized the electoral process," she told El Diario.
In other Juárez news, police investigators say they have linked David Anaya Garcia--accused of killing two police officers with an AK-47--to a "criminal group" called "Las Fresas," which, they say, have been responsible for many bank robberies and homicides. Anaya is now being questioned about the assassination of Héctor Lechuga Avila, who worked as a police investigator and who was allegedly executed by members of Las Fresas. (See Top Story, June 14 and 15).
Source: El Diario
Wed., June 17: Fight Breaks Out At Meeting of Gubernatorial Candidates
The same day that the Chihuahua State Electoral Institute met with party leaders to call an end to the guerra sucia, a fight broke out between a National Action Party (PAN) city councilwoman and the Secretary General of the Ecological Green Party of Mexico (PVEM) during a meeting of state gubernatorial candidates.
PAN candidate RamónGalindo, Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Patricio Martínez, PVEM candidate Arturo Límon, and Workers' Party-Committee for Public Defense (PT-CDP) candidate Angel Gurrea met at the Cibeles downtown Juárez convention center to answer questions and discuss their platforms to a Juárez youth group. The event was marked by a "heated duel of booings and insults," according to a report in El Diario, which finally ended in a street fight between PAN regidora Martha Adriana Durán and PVEM Secretary Yolanda Villalobos, who was a former PANista.
The tension in the convention center began to rise when PRI Candidate Martínez took the podium and was immediately shouted down by the boos of "hundreds of panistas," according to the Diario report. Martínez went on the offensive, attacking the PAN party for causing the largest debt in the history of the state.
"It was the PRI's fault!" shouted PAN regidora Adriana Dúran.
"Only one anonymous voice is going to contest me?" Martínez answered.
Martínez also brought up the subject of several land deals in which he said "friends and the brother of the governor" had speculated on and earned sizeable profits.
His statement was greeted by "much booing and shouting."
Immediately after the candidates left the podium, Dúran and Villalobos exchanged "allegations and blows" just outside the convention center. Dúran landed the first blow, a slap to Villalobos' face. Villalobos, in turn, grabbed Dúran by the hair and kicked her in the left shin. Several PANistas intervened in the fight, but the two continued to trade insults, obscenities, and obscene gestures. The PANista councilwoman and the former PANista tried to return to the fight, but Dúran was taken to a car by a PAN party member and driven away.
The attempt by the Chihuahua General Assembly of the State Electoral Institute (IEE) to persuade the political parties to end the guerra sucia was not successful. PAN state representative Rogelio Loya said that first the PRI must "demonstrate the evidence in their series of denunciations." He was supported by legislators from the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) and the PT-CDP who agreed that the enlodamiento (mud-slinging) must play itself out.
PRI State Leader Jorge Esteban Sandoval said his party would like to "elevate the level of the campaign because the one that really loses in this situation is the voter," but, he added, that the PRI must first answer "the PAN's aggression."
IEE advisor Rosa María Gutíerrez suggested that both the PAN and the PRI be punished with fines and possibly "the cancellation of the candidates' registration."
Another advisor, Fernando Avila, called the guerra sucia "undemocratic."
In radio and television ads, PANista Governor Francisco Barrio Terrazas has asked all his critics to bring forth their evidence against him. "In six years my government has been accused of many things, impossible to count and to remember, but everything has fallen by the wayside," Barrio stated.
Current radio ads run by the PRD have criticized the pandemonio in the municpal government of Ciudad Juárez. The word literally means "pandemonium," but, according to Jose Z. García, professor of government at New Mexico State University, the use of the word in the ads contain a "three-way pun. There's the pun on the PAN party in PAN-demonion. There's also a pun on 'demonio' or 'demon' of the PAN. It implies there is a 'PAN demon' inside the city government." García added that the play on words was "probably" not lost upon Juárez radio listeners.
Source: El Diario, NMSU Center for Latin American Studies
Tues., June 16: Electoral Institute To Meet With PAN, PRI To End Guerra Sucia
Sergio Piña Marshall, president of the Chihuahua State Electoral Institute (IEE), has called a meeting with leaders of the National Action Party (PAN) and the Institutional Revoluntionary Party (PRI) in order to persuade them to stop the war of words, or dirty war (guerra sucia), which has become the trademark of the 1998 Chihuahua elections. The IEE President said that the negative campaigning by both parties "has caused people to lose confidence and identify politics with the basest instincts, and, as a consequence, they are not going to vote, and this is gravely serious."
The most recent allegations in the guerra sucia were made by the PRI, which claimed in its advertisements that the PAN had sold land to the Motorola Company for more than its fair price, then pocketed the difference. The PRI specifically named state employee Gustavo Madero as a beneficiary of that deal.
The state government denied the allegations, and denounced the PRI for using "calumnies and rumors" to distract the public. In addition, government officials defended the Motorola deal as an example of the PAN leadership helping new corporations to settle in Ciudad Juárez.
Nevertheless, the PRI pressed on with further allegations, charging that Madero, former Attorney General Francisco Molina, former head of the Institute for the Development of the Family (DIF) Blanca Gámez, and director of JMAS César Reyes Portillo had all wrongfully funnelled resources from the Motorola deal via shady bank loans.
Molina readily agreed that the state had used a bank loan to finance the Motorola deal, but that the loan was being paid by with state money, and the action and specifically Gustavo Madero could not be "denounced by defamation."
PRI radio ads have also attacked various parts of the PAN platform. PAN officials responded to the ads by saying, "Enough already with the lies. The PRI wants to return to the lowest level of political language. Their radio messages on the PAN political platform are only lies. All they [the PRI] are demonstrating is fear. . .We are alerting Chihuahuenses so that they will not be deceived."
On Friday, June 12, municipal advisors from various Electoral Assemblies throughout the state called upon both parties to "stop all expressions of verbal violence."
The IEE responded to the call. President Piña demanded an end to the guerra de las palabras, on the grounds that "it is disrespectful to our citizens, it injures the electoral process, and affects the advance of democracy."
Source: El Diario
Mon., June 15: Strangulation Deaths of Encajuelados Could Be Drug-Related
It what could be the first drug-related homicides in Ciudad Juárez since February 19, the bodies of two men, found strangled, their heads covered by plastic bags, their hands and feet bound by adhesive tape, were discovered in the trunk of a Gran Marquis abandoned by la Cámara Nacional de Comercio near Avenida Henry Dunant and Manuel Díaz.
The manner of their deaths fits a pattern seen often in drug-related executions. The Juárez police term for a corpse found in a trunk is encajuelado. El Norte de Ciudad Juárez speculated that the killings were in done "in vengeance for drugtrafficking reasons," and stated that the murders were the 15th and 16th drug-related executions in the city in 1998.
The victims were identified as Mario Juárez Limones, 40, and Daniel Romero Juárez, 23.
The PJE informed the press that Juárez Limones was a musician who played in bars and also worked for the post office. His nephew Daniel Romero did legal work for the Office of Internal Investigations and various police organizations.
According to the PJE, the car had been abandoned at the business school for several days, and the bodies were beginning to decompose.
El Norte de Ciudad Juárez first reported the discovery of the two tortured encajuelados in their June 14 edition. El Diario confirmed the identities of the two men June 15.
Man Who Killed Police Officers Might Have Drugtrafficking Ties
According to statements he made before the Public Ministry, 23-year-old Danid Anaya García, charged with the murders of two Juárez police officers, may have drug trafficking connections. El Diario reporters were able to obtain a videotape of the suspect's statement, which has not yet officially been released by the Chihuahua state police (PJE).
According to the report in El Diario, Anaya allegedly claimed, in his statement to the MP, that he shot the two officers because he was afraid they would try to victimize him. Anaya's father is currently serving a sentence for "crimes against the public health," that is, organized crime and drug trafficking activities.
Armando Rodriguez, reporting for El Diario, speculated that the PJE would not release Anaya's testimony because it "stained the image of the police." State officials say they hope to know more about Anaya's motives.
Anaya is charged with killing Juárez police officers Jesus Mendoz Cortez, 62, and Roldolfo Bermúdez Ortíz, 29.
Sources: El Diario, El Norte de Ciudad Juárez
Sun., June 14: Two Police Officers Killed By Detainee
Two agents of the Juárez Municipal Police were assassinated Saturday, June 13, when the man they had just arrested and placed in the back seat of their patrol car grabbed an AK-47 assault rifle from the front seat and fired into the officers' backs, killing them both. The prisoner, identified as 23-year-old lawyer David Anaya Garcia, was intoxicated with drugs, according to a report in El Diario, and was not handcuffed. He had been arrested for causing injuring several people in an automobile accident.
The murders occured at 7:30 p.m. at Avenidas Industrias and Tomás Fernandez. Killed were officers Jesus Mendoza Cortez, 62, and Rodolfo Bermúdez Ortíz, 29. Mendoza had served with the Juárez police 27 years and was due to retire in 1998. Bermúdez and his wife had just had their first child.
The patrol car swerved out of control until it hit a pole at a gas station. Anaya attempted to flee, but was caught immediately by police officers who had followed the car to the scene.
Anaya carried a false credential for La Contraloría de la Federacion (Federal Comptroller), according to Chihuahua state police (PJE) officials.
Source: El Diario
Sat., June 13: PRI, Women's Groups Denounce Electoral Truce
Leaders of several Juárez citizens' groups and officials of the Institutional Revoluntionary Party (PRI) attacked the electoral truce granted by the National Commission on Human Rights to the governing authorities in Chihuahua yesterday. The CNDH gave the municipal administration in Juárez and the state government in Chihuahua City an extra month to respond to its report on violence against women (violencia contra mujeres). Both the city of Juárez and the state are currently governed by the National Action Party (PAN).
Vicky Caraveo, leader of Mujeres Por Juárez, called the state government "irresponsible. They prefer to look for political excuses, rather than confront the serious problem of three years of police incapacity." She added that Governor Barrio "shields his face from the people with capricious political pretexts."
Another leader, Astrid González, who headed a civil organization against the violence and is now running for local representative with the PRI, said that the extension is "illegal."
"We are very alarmed by the way in which the city council has committed an irregularity in conspiracy with the municipal president," she said.
PRI Candidate for Mayor of Juárez, Jose Eleno Villalva, said the action taken by PANistas Governor Barrio, Juárez Mayor Enrique Flores, and Attorney General Arturo Chávez Chávez was "shameful and showed a complete lack of political responsibility."
Eleno added, "How many more young dead women do the National Action authorities need before they will begin to investigate?"
PAN official Hernán Rivera Rodriguez defended the extension, saying it would give the council and other authorities more time to consider the report.
However, Mujeres Por Juárez leader Caraveo responded, "These politicians are a joke to the people, but we must endure their capricious and absurd pretenses."
Source: El Diario
Fri., June 12: Human Rights Commission Grants Extension to Government
The state government of Chihuahua, the municipal administration of Ciudad Juárez, and city and state police agencies will now have until July 10 to respond the recommendations of the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH) concerning the issue of violence against women. Governing authorities now have five days after the general elections in which to prepare a response to the Commission's report.
Governor Francisco Barrio Terrazas and Juárez Mayor Enrique Almeida Flores, both members of the National Action Party (PAN), had requested the extension, claiming that CNDH's requiring a response prior to the elections would add a "political ingredient," which they preferred to avoid.
El Diario news reporters J. Fentanes, A. Castañon, and F. Medina labelled this request an "electoral truce."
Almeida said, "Nothing has happened recently, so we consider this recommendation to have a high political-electoral content."
The CNDH report examines the murders of 135 women in Ciudad Juárez and makes specific recommendations for change and action by state and city governments and police agencies. The original deadline for response set by the CNDH was today, June 12.
Esther Chávez Cano, spokesperson for Coordinated Non-Governmental Organizations (ONG) in Ciudad Juárez, challenged the "electoral truce," saying that authorities had plenty of time to deal with the issue before the election, but chose instead to slow the resolution and thus evade any commitment to stop more murders of women.
"It is not an electoral issue, as they have been saying. It's been an issue we've been dealing with since 1993," said Chávez. "The authorities are going down a mistaken path, and they do not see the human side, the pain caused to society."
"I shake and am on the verge of tears when I see pictures of the victims. I can imagine them alive, I can see them smiling, and of course, and now the families," she added.
The CNDH report, which also includes investigatory work and recommendations from Amnesty International and the United Nations Organization (UNO), was delivered to Chihuahua authorities on May 15.
Chihuahua Campaign News
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate for mayor of Ciudad Juárez, José Eleno Villalva Salas, has challenged all his opponents and fellow PRI candidates to submit to a drug test.
PRI candidate for deputy mayor, Jaime Muñoz Reyes, was the first to accept Eleno's challenge, and suggested that all candidates also be tested for AIDS.
Eleno showed members of the press the original document of his own drug test, and handed out copies for interested persons. The PRI candidate said, "I am urging all candidates of all parties to take this same test. The citizens of this city deserve to have people inside the political process who are healthy, with clear minds, and do not have problems with any kind of addiction."
Sources: El Diario
Thurs., June 11: Widow of Slain Candidate Will Run In His Place
Silvia Moreno Leal, widow of Raul Fernandez Villalobos, the former PRI candidate for mayor of Balleza, Chih., is expected to register today as Balleza's new PRI mayoral candidate. Villalobos was assassinated June 3.
Moreno has called for justice in the investigation of her husband's death and for protection from the state for her and her three children. "My mother [of her husband] Silveria Villalobos was crying when she asked me to run, when she asked me to take his place," she said in a telephone interview with El Diario. "I told her, Mother, we are going to go on, even with the pain . . . I have fear, but I want to exalt his name. Everybody knew Raul, they knew that he was dedicated, they knew he was a good man. It is because of that reason that drugtraffickers murdered him, they knew he was a clean man."
"People see the image of him in me," she added.
Moreno said that Fernandez went to state authorities after he was attacked by .45 caliber pistol fire on April 19, but that "nobody did anything."
The new candidate said she would work to fight drugtrafficking. "I do not know what consequences this will bring to me. I don't have much experience in this," she told El Diario.
Moreno managed a banking institution for 16 years and from 1992 to 1995 was president of the Institute for Family Development (DIF) in Balleza, according to the report.
In other campaign news, El Norte de Ciudad Juárez published a poll showing that an overwhelming majority of Juárenses (citizens of Juárez) considered PAN candidate Gustavo Elizondo the winner of the June 9 Juárez mayor's campaign debate.
Forty-five percent of Juárenses polled said PANista candidate Elizondo was the winner, compared to only 29% for PRI candidate José Eleno Villalva. Nora Elena Yu, PRD candidate, was considered the winner by 16% of those polled.
Only ten percent of poll respondents were undecided. Candidates from the Workers' Party (PT) and the Green Party (PVEM) both received 0%.
The poll also asked Juárenses to name the candidate which they felt "did the worst." The perredista Elena Yu topped this poll with 16% of Juárez citizens choosing her as the worst candidate. PRIista Eleno and his Green and Workers' Party rivals all tied at 10%, while PAN standard bearer Elizondo was last at 6%. Forty-eight percent of poll respondents were undecided.
Sources: El Diario, El Norte de Ciudad Juárez
Wed., June 10: State Asks For More Time To Respond To Violence Against Women Report
The state government of Chihuahua has formally requested that the president of the National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH) give the state more time to respond to the CNDH report on violence against women in Ciudad Juárez. The Commission originally set a June 12 deadline for the government's response to the report, which includes specific recommendations on what authorities need to do to ensure the safety of women in the city.
Chihuahua Governor Francisco Barrio Terrazas said the state would prefer to respond to the report after the July 5 elections."The issue has been handled in a political way, and we are concerned that it not be handled in a political way. So we are raising the possibility of deferring the answer, and therefore we will be awaiting the Commission's response," he said.
The secretary of the Juárez city council, Hernán Creek Rodriguez, is also hoping for an extension, saying the council needs more time to analyze the CNDH document, which is over 80 pages long.
"The legal opinion of the municipal administration is currently that this recommendation has serious legal faults," Creek said.
If the municipal government does not receive an extension, Creek said that the city council would hold a special session to determine whether to accept or reject the CNDH recommendations.
Source: El Diario
Tues., June 9: Opposition Parties Ask Barrio To Produce Facts
Chihuahua Governor Francisco Barrio Terrazas, who has strongly implied that drugtrafficking and internal struggles within the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) were important factors in the June 3 assassination of Raul Fernandez Villalobos, PRI candidate for mayor of Balleza, has been challenged by leaders of four opposition parties to bring forth his facts and prove his theory.
Antonio García, secretary of the PRI, said that if Barrio does not take his case to the Public Ministry, then the governor's statements "are nothing more than conjecture bordering on gossip."
Several leaders from the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) also criticized the PANista governor harshly. Nora Elena Yu Hernández, PRD candidate for mayor of Juárez, said that "the governor has demonstrated his inability to resolve the problem of crime."
She said that Barrio, alongwith his Attorney General Arturo Chávez Chávez, has tried to deny there is a problem at the expense of all citizens of the state. The PRDista said, "It is typical of Barrio's administration to look for issues that will help cover up the inefficiency that has angered so many Chihuahuenses."
The PRD mayoral candidate also strongly denounced the governor for the way he has handled the issue of violence against women in Ciudad Juárez. "The first thing we are told is that the women were walking in dangerous streets, and that all the crimes are the result of drugtrafficking or that the victims had connections with some kind of mafia."
She concluded her statement by saying that Barrio has shown "absolute ineptitude." Hernández's statement was supported by PRD gubernatorial candidate Esther Orozco and by PRD state leader Victor Orozco.
Leaders of the Workers' Party (PT) and the Mexican Green Party (PVEM) also challenged Barrio and asked for a "redoubled effort" in the investigation into Fernandez's murder.
Barrio answered his critics by reiterating his claim that preliminary investigations indicate that the persons responsible for the assassination of Fernandez have connections to drugtrafficking.
In addition, state Attorney General Chávez stated that the murder weapon was a .45 caliber pistol, and was the same weapon used in a previous attack on Fernandez on April 19. Chávez added that investigators believe the person or persons responsible for killing Fernandez June 3 were the same people who attacked him April 19. However, at this time, he said that their names could not be revealed.
Source: El Diario
Mon., June 8: Barrio Implicates PRI, Narcos in Murder; PRI Attacks Barrio's Record
Chihuahua Governor Francisco Barrio Terrazas, member of the National Action Party (PAN), said that the murder of Raul Fernandez Villalobos, Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate for mayor in the city of Balleza, is directly related to the struggles within the PRI, as well as to drugtrafficking. Barrio went so far as to compare Balleza's murder to the 1994 assassination of PRI Presidential Candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio.
"We didn't want to mention it, as we did not want people to think we are trying to profit from it politically," the governor said, adding that he thought the inner party struggles and possibility of drugtrafficking connections in the assassination of Colosio "resembled" the murder of Fernandez. "We have wanted to be very prudent, very responsible in relation to this matter, the murder. From the first moment, we saw elements there that made us think it could have been the work of narcotics traffickers."
Chihuahua state president of the PRI, Jorge Sandoval Ochoa, called Governor Barrio "very irresponsible in his attempt to politicize the subject." Sandoval attacked Barrio's record, asking if the governor would like to have an investigator determine "who is responsible for the murders of 130 women in Ciudad Juárez."
The PRI state president went on to suggest that Chihuahuenses (citizens of Juárez) compare the record of Barrio's Attorney General, Arturo Chávez Chávez, with PRI Attorney Generals of the past. Local deputies and other state leaders of the PRI called for Chávez's dismissal on June 6.
Barrio responded that he had compared Chávez's record with those of his PRI predecessors, and that he would be glad to debate the subject in any forum the PRI would like to choose, at any time.
Source: El Diario
Tues., June 7: Electoral Institute Calls For An End To Personal Attacks
Determined that the July 5 election be "peaceful" and "transparent," the General Assembly of the Chihuahua State Electoral Institute (IEE) called upon the "sanity" of all political parties and candidates, asking them to stop personal attacks and return to an atmosphere of "tranquility and mutual respect." The request was put in an formal document approved by a majority of the electoral advisors.
However, representatives of the National Action Party (PAN) and the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) said they would not sign the document. PRI officials did not make any comment upon the document.
PRD Spokesman Miguel Vargas said that "it seems unjust that the complaints are so generalized to all parties and groups, when the facts show that the ones who have used personal attacks and failed to respect the citizens are the candidates of two parties, the PRI and the PAN, and the Chief Executive of the State." His last reference was to Governor Francisco Barrio, member of the PAN.
Vargas continued by saying that the PRD has conducted only positive campaigns and shown respect to both its opponents and the electorate.
Jorge Bermúdez Allande, PAN representative to the IEE, said that PAN will abstain from signing the document because "this situation was generated as a result of a candidate who instead of answering the people's questions resorted to personal attacks." Bermúdez's reference was to PRI candidate for governor, Patricio Martinez, who did not file a financial statement after PAN officials and others had asked him to.
The IEE drew up another document in which it was noted that political campaigns can produce "intense confrontations," however, all candidates must respect the citizens of Chihuahua, be positive, and refrain from personal attacks.
Source: El Diario
Sat., June 6: Police Arrest Three Suspects in Balleza Murder
A forty-year-old man and his two teenage sons were arrested by the Chihuahua State Police (PJE) in the small farm town of Nanaruchi, located 80 kilometers from Parral, and charged with illegal possession of weapons. The weapons, which included two AK-47 assault rifles, and .38 caliber and 9mm pistols, were the property of the Mexican Army, and were sent to Chihuahua City for analysis by experts to determine if they were used in the June 3 murder of Raul Fernandez Villalobos, PRI candidate for mayor of Balleza.
Arrested were Francisco García Loera, 40, and his sons, Francisco García García, 19, and Gustavo García García, 16. They were apprehended while trying to flee PJE officers.
Hugo Valles, spokesman for the state Attorney General's office, said that the three have not been accused of the homicide of Fernandez. They are charged only with illegal possession of weapons, he said.
State Attorney General Arturo Chávez Chávez said "there is nothing conclusive with respect to the investigation of the murder of Raul Fernandez. It would be very premature [to accuse anyone of the crime]."
Source: El Diario
Fri., June 5: Congress Demands Answers for Murder
Chihuahua's State Congress announced an agreement in which they ask authorities for a thorough murder investigation of Balleza's mayor, Raul Fernandez Villalobos, printed in El Diario.
So far nine witnesses to the murder, who were initially scared to come forward, have filed a report with the police department in Balleza. Hugo Valles, official representative for the State Justice Department, commented that the information acquired from the witnesses has been very valuable and will be of great help in the investigation. According to the witnesses' reports there are no clues pointing this crime to be one related to drugs or internal political affairs, which they were raised to be some of the possibilities in this case.
As far as the witnesses go, some are still afraid and will only say that they heard shots and saw two men running, however others have provided some key information which will help solve the murder.
Source: El Diario
Thurs., June 4: PRI Candidate Murdered in South of Chihuahua
Four shots killed the PRI candidate for mayor of Balleza, in far south Chihuahua, near the border with Durango, between 9:00 a.m and 9:30 a.m Wednesday, El Diario reported.
Raul Fernandez Villalobos, 47, had already been mayor of Balleza between 1992 and 1995, and was considered one of the most prestigious cattle dealers in the area, according to the paper. Fernandez Villalobos had emerged unharmed from a previous attack April 19, assistant state attorney general José Manuel Díaz Herrera told El Diario. Prosecutors would not rule out a connection between the two attacks, but would not speculate more.
An investigator raised the possibility the murder was drug-related, however.
"Everybody is scared, because one of the possibilities behind the murder is drug trafficking," Miguel Angel Sáenz, police commander in Balleza, told the paper.
PRI candidates and officials in Chihuahua expressed sorrow for the death, denounced the climate of insecurity in the state under the PAN, and denied the murder was a result of internal PRI conflicts.
Source: El Diario
Wed., June 3: PRI Official Asks Martínez to Suspend Campaign, Visit D.F.
Mexico's Secretary of the Interior, Francisco Labastiada Ochoa, called Patricio Martínez Garcia, Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) gubernatorial candidate for Chihuahua, to the Federal District (D.F.), Mexico City, on Tuesday, June 2. Martínez suspended a campaign trip to Juárez in order to meet with the Secretary, who requested that the candidate stop trading accusations with Chihuahua Governor Francisco Barrio Terrazas concerning each other's personal wealth and campaign financial practices, according to a report in El Diario.
Unofficial sources quoted in El Diario stated that Barrio had sent a letter Monday night to Mexico's Secretary of State, demanding that the federal government intervene in the conflict. The sources allege that Barrio has information about Martínez which, if known, would cause "negative political repercussions" for the entire PRI party.
Although the state's official spokesperson, Eloy Morales, denied that the governor had sent any written communication to the federal government, one source close to the state executive's office confirmed that Barrio had indeed sent a letter to the Secretary of State, El Diario reported.
At the same time, the spokesperson for the Martínez campaign confirmed that the PRI candidate had met with a federal government minister.
Source: El Diario
Tues., June 2: PRI Candidate, PAN Officials Exhange Heated Accusations
Patricio Martínez Garcia, Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate in the race for governor of Chihuahua, denounced a series of accusations made last week by National Action Party (PAN) Governor Francisco Barrio Terrazas and Gubernatorial Candidate Ramón Galindo.
PAN officials challenged Martínez to publish a declaration of his finances last week, then criticized him harshly when he did not.
According to the headline story in El Diario, the PRI candidate responded to the accusations "in an unusually energetic tone." The paper quoted Martínez as saying, "Barrio does not allow anyone to question his honor, but he feels free to question mine. And I say to him this: all the money that I have, I would trade for the money that Federico Barrio has accumulated in the last six years."
The Governor retorted, "If he [Martínez] has any evidence that during my term I have favored my brother Federico in an improper way, and if he can prove it, then I will immediately take leave of my responsibility as governor of this state."
The PRI candidate also criticized Barrio by referring to his and his brother's well-known defection from the PRI. "In 1969, I was a businessman, and Mr. Federico Barrio was an employee of Jaime Bermúdez," Martínez said.
Bermúdez, a PRIista, later served as mayor of Juárez.
Martínez continued, "It is ironic that the blessed ones of God are only in PAN. I guess the only people who have earned all their money by working all their lives are in the PAN party."
Governor Barrio's responded: "As far as his wealth and mine, I would change mine with one-twentieth of what he has, because it is well known that he has infinite wealth."
The PRI party has come under both public and PANista attack after it was alleged that drugtraffickers had contributed money to one of the PRI candidates in the May 9 Juárez mayoral primary.
PAN Candidate Galindo, only two percentage points behind Martínez in the most recent Diario poll, charged that "Mr. Martínez brings with him a very dirty history of dishonesty and corruption. His dishonesty was apparent when he refused to publish a financial statement. He wants to be able to say what he wants from us, but we can't say anything of him--but yes we can say of him: that he is dishonest, immoral, and corrupt."
Martínez responded, "Galindo is going to have to swallow his words. I am going to publish a financial statement the very moment my campaign establishes it. Everything is going to be clarified."
Source: El Diario
Mon., June 1: Consumer Advocate asks for More Coin-Operated Phones
While the Mexican national phone company, Telmex, announced it would install more card-operated public telephones that would not work with coins, the local office of the federal advocate for the consumer (Profeco) called for more coin-operated phones, El Diario reported.
"The apparatuses that function with the card are very good, especially against the 'pirates' of long distance, but there are people who at times do not have anything to eat, much less be able to aquire one of these cards," Francisco Flores Ruelas, local delegate of Profeco told El Diario.
Telmex announced that it would install 472 new phones that work with the Ladatel card, and retire 400 coin-operated phones. Telmex chose the card-operated phones because they are less susceptible to vandalism.
Source: El Diario