Monthly Archives: December 2014

Kidnapped Priest Found Dead In Southern Guerrero

A priest from the town of Ciudad Altamirano in southern Guerrero state was kidnapped several days ago and yesterday he was found dead from a gunshot to the head. People in the town staged protests after Father Gregorio López Gorostieta was abducted from the Catholic seminary in Altamirano on Dec 21.  The article notes that “these events took place despite the federal government deployment of a special operation in the area one month ago with the participation of the National Gendarmeria, the Navy, the Army and the Federal Police.”

An earlier report on the priest’s abduction is posted below from the AP. -Molly

Hallan Con Tiro De Gracia A Sacerdote Secuestrado (El Diario)

Mexicans Rally After a Priest Is Kidnapped (AP/New York Times)

Shootouts In The Valle De Juarez At Least 2 Dead

December 14, 2014

There was a confrontation [on Sunday] between armed groups lasting several hours […] in the town of Praxedis G. Guerrero in the Valle de Juarez.  The latest posting in El Diario was at about 4pm [on Sunday] and confirmed 2 people killed, 3 injured and several are reported disappeared.  One victim remained in a car at a checkpoint–his relatives were trying to take him to the hospital, but he died in the car.

Also below…it was reported in the morning paper that several members of the Archuleta family had fled their homes after three young men in the family were killed earlier this week.

Confirman 2 muertos y 3 heridos por enfrentamiento en Praxedis G. Guerrero (El Diario)

Reportan enfrentamientos en Praxedis G. Guerrero (El Diario)

Dos muertos por enfrentamientos en Praxedis G. Guerrero (El Diario)

Huyen de Guadalupe los familiares de los 3 ejecutados (El Diario)

December 15, 2014

More detailed account of the violence yesterday in the Valle de Juarez…The aggressions began about 3 weeks ago and people have been taken from their houses and disappeared. Some who return have been beaten or their bodies are dumped.

“Here there is no authority, we are less than nothing and mean nothing to anybody,” said a resident who has already lost a son to the violence in the Valle de Juarez.”No one, not one single authority came, no one has paid attention to this problem. We have been living with this for a year already and the people are more afraid than angry and for this reason, they do not denounce the situation to authorities. And it doesn’t do any good to complain anyway because there are no investigations.”

One of the complaints of the residents that exemplifies the official abandonment was the absence of medical services on Sunday. Not one medical institution was open and so those who were injured in the attacks had to rely on their own resources to get to Juarez. The family members of the injured people met the ambulances on the road. “Forced disappearances have returned, murders, many people are afraid and are fleeing.”

Consider this from the precis of Dawn Paley’s new book”… The communities in the Valle de Juarez have been extraordinarily violent since 2008 and the major state “law enforcement” presence in the area is the Mexican army… The Valle de Juarez is a gateway to cross-border development as well as bordering the western edge of new petroleum exploration and development in Texas, northern Chihuahua and Coahuila states in Mexico … molly

“This unprecedented book chronicles how terror is used against the population at large in cities and rural areas, generating panic and facilitating policy changes that benefit the international private sector, particularly extractive industries like petroleum and mining. This is what is really going on. This is drug war capitalism.”

Hora y media de balacera en Praxedis: al menos 2 muertos (El Diario)

5 murders yesterday in Juarez; total of 424 so far in 2014

There were at least 5 murders reported yesterday in Juarez–the three bodies left near the highway outside of Los Arenales in the Valle de Juarez and two more incidents. A man was killed early in the morning near the state offices of the Federal Attorney General (PGR) in Juarez. He was shot as he was getting into his car after leaving the bar El Museo located in the Pronaf tourist zone. The victim has not been officially identified. This crime occurred 5 days after a multiple homicide was reported at another Pronaf bar, 7 Pecados (7 Sins). Also yesterday, the body of a woman was found inside of a vehicle in the colonia Morelos II. It appeared that the body had been inside the car since Wednesday…

The article says that a total of 424 homicides have occurred so far in 2014. The total at the end of November was 401, so that would leave a count of 23 so far in the first 11 days of December. So far, 45 of the victims are women — almost exactly 10 percent. -Molly

Asesinan a hombre a unos metros de la PGR

3 members of a family found murdered today in the Valle de Juarez

Three young men were murdered and their bodies were dumped a few meters from the Juarez-Porvenir highway outside of the village of San Agustin in the Valle de Juarez this morning. It was reported that a “narco-mensaje” was left with the bodies.
A second story says that family members have identified the victims but the identities are not officially confirmed.

One is Élmer García Archuleta, a psychology student at the UACJ who worked for a USAID-funded project: Youth: Work México. The other victims were his brother Édgar Iván and cousin Gabriel Gándara Archuleta. Gabriel was the brother of Érika Gandara, a young woman who worked as a policewoman in Guadalupe before she was kidnapped and murdered in late 2010. Her body was eventually found some weeks later in a sewerage canal near the town. [An article about the disappearance of Erika Gandara from the El Paso Times in early January 2011 is posted below from my archive.] The news this morning means that three more members of the same extended family in the Valle de Juarez have been murdered. For a long piece on what was in 2010-2011 the most violent place in Mexico, see: http://www.texasobserver.org/the-deadliest-place-in-mexico/

It is good to keep reminding ourselves and the international news media that before Ayotzinapa, there was Juarez and the Valle de Juarez… molly

Ejecutan a tres y los tiran en la salida de San Agustín

Identifican a asesinados; uno era estudiante de la UACJ

Armed men terrorize Mexican town across from Tornillo; homes set on fire

2 killed in Pronaf attack in Juarez early Sunday…El Diario

Two men were killed and 2 others injured in an attacked by an armed group inside of a bar in the Pronaf tourist zone in Juarez early Sunday morning. The bar was later closed by the Secretariat of Gobernacion. The attack took place in front of security cameras financed by the US government as part of the Merida Initiative–cameras intended to provide a safer environment and to help the state of Chihuahua fight narco-trafficking.

Ataque armado en bar del Pronaf deja dos muertos (El Diario)

Clausura Gobernación bar del Pronaf por asesinatos

30 Homicides in Juarez in November; 401 For the Year So Far

There were 30 homicides–an average of 1 per day in November in Ciudad Juarez.  A total of 401 people have been murdered in Juarez so far in 2014:

Jan 30; Feb 40; March 39; April 30; May 52; June 29; July 39; Sept 35; Oct 38; Nov 30.  The daily average so for for the year is 1.2 per day.
Three of the November victims were women and one child was beaten to death by his stepfather.
Below are the yearly tallies and averages. -molly molloy
Murders in Ciudad Juárez, 1993-2014 *

Total 1993-2007 = 3,538 (0.7 per day)

2007 = 320

2008 = 1,623 (4.4 per day)

2009 = 2,754 (7.5 per day)

2010 = 3,622 (9.9 per day) **

2011 = 2,086 (5.7 per day)

2012 = 797 (2 per day)

2013 = 497 (1.36 per day)

2014 = 401 (as of 30 Nov 1.2 per day)

Total killed since 2008 = 11,780

Total killed since 2007 = 12,100

Average of 4.6 people per day since Jan 2008

* Figures compiled from data reported by the State Attorney General (Fiscalia) for Chihuahua and reported in El Diario de Juárez

**original media tally for 2010=3,111; March 2011 Fiscalia report = 3,951; Fiscalia spokesman gave new figure of 3,622 to Reuters reporter in October 2011. Mica Rosenberg and Julian Cardona, Special Report: Federal Forces sully Mexico’s war on drugs, Reuters, December 27, 2011.

Fleeing Violence in Mexico; Living in Migration Limbo in the U.S.

A long article in El Diario on the problems confronting asylum seekers from Mexico in the US. “They flee violence and in the US they live in migration limbo.” The article includes data on asylum cases–#filed, #granted, #denied. This document from the US Dept of Justice Executive Office of Immigration Review provides some data: http://www.justice.gov/eoir/statspub/fy13syb.pdf

Some families who came to the US to seek asylum in 2007 and 2008 are still awaiting hearings–some set for 2016 and 2017.  More details on several cases below of families from Juarez, now living in El Paso and awaiting decisions on their cases. Many have had family members killed. -molly

Commentary on current Mexican crisis…by John Ackerman

The articles highlighted below by John Ackerman have recently been published in English… Some may have been posted before on the list, but here’s another chance to read great commentary from this scholar. See John’s website for updates: http://www.johnackerman.blogspot.com/

“Why America is to Blame for Mexico’s Carnage and Corruption” (Foreign Policy, November 26th, 2014) 

“The End of Mexican Democracy” (Al Jazeera America, November 25th, 2014)

(Translation to French: http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/article.asp?reference=14008)

Television debate on France 24 (in English) with a representative of the Peña Nieto administration: http://www.france24.com/en/20141211-the-debate-outrage-in-mexico-part-one/

Fear growing among street vendors and parking attendants in the historic district (El Diario)

From [Sunday’s] El Diario:  Fear growing among street vendors and parking attendants in the historic district. While some may benefit from the renovations in the old downtown areas of Juarez, many of the poorest vendors, parking attendants and others trying to make a living on the street have been displaced and buildings continue to be torn down. I walked through the downtown from the Santa Fe bridge to several bus stops west of the cathedral on Thursday. One block west of Avenida Juarez, shells of buildings that were once bars and hotels/brothels are still standing but are completely gutted. In terms of the crossing, though I walked over Thursday morning, I took a ride back to El Paso that evening.  A demonstration was partly blocking Avenida Juarez so we decided to drive over to the Free Bridge (Bridge of the Americas) near the UACJ.  The traffic was backed up for many blocks and our waiting time to cross back to El Paso was about 3 hours. -molly

Crece temor entre ambulantes y parqueros con rehabilitación del Centro Histórico (El Diario)