Drug cartels ambush American photographer south of Nogales

On January 25, an American photographer narrowly escaped death when he was ambushed by cartel members and led the henchmen on a high-speed chase to the International Border Zone, just south of Nogales, Arizona.

Matthew Besinger, a Los Angeles-based photographer was working on a photograph book about the Sonoran desert when he was ambushed by four young men. His vehicle suffered significant damage during his daring escape which ended at the U.S./Mexico border near Nogales.

Nogales Department of Homeland Security spokesman, Juan Osorio confirmed an incident took place regarding Besinger, but would not comment on the details.

The Tucson Sector DHS Public Affairs officer, Brian Levin also confirmed Besinger came through the Nogales port, went through secondary, had his car searched and listened to his story. However, since the incident took place in Mexico Levin says they have no way of proving what may or may not have happened.

In related news, American missionary, Nancy Davis was not as lucky as Besinger. She was murdered as her husband fled the scene of heavily-armed drug cartel gangsters. Davis was shot in the head, taken to a hospital near Reynosa and was pronounced dead 90-minutes later.

"The gunmen were attempting to stop them and the victims accelerated in efforts of getting away from them," a police statement read. "At a certain point the gunmen discharged a weapon at the victim's vehicle and a bullet struck the victim Nancy Shuman Davis in the head."

According to a CNN report, Davis' husband, immediately drove his truck "at high rate of speed" to the Pharr International Bridge near the Rio Grande. Pharr Police said, "They had been in touch with Mexican authorities, who said they were investigating the shooting. The Texas Department of Public Safety, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection are also assisting police.”

The following is an account of the horrifying cartel ambush as told by Matt Besinger;

“Last night I was ambushed in my car by four men at gunpoint in Nogales, Sonora (Mexico). I managed to elude them and make my way back to the International Zone before I was robbed or murdered. This occurred within blocks of the Arizona border.

I'm a fine art photographer from Los Angeles working on a book about the Sonoran Desert. I lived in Tucson for 14 years and studied Poetry at University of Arizona. The photographs are being shot at night and I've visited many of Arizona border towns.

I was driving up the hill on the east side of the border (in Mexico). There's a street that climbs the hill named Buenos Aires. The hilltop offers a view of the wall and the landscape of Southern Arizona. After passing the lone hot dog stand, an approaching white sedan veered toward my car. There were four guys in the car and a fifth trailing on foot. They put a hand-held police light (blue/red) on their dash and screamed at me to get out of the car. Their behavior was totally erratic, especially since the rest of the town was dead.

Luckily, I had seen Nogales Police on Adolfo López Mateos and I remembered they wore green jackets, patches, badges, etc. These guys did not match. I angled my car around theirs and sped up the hill. Knowing that I would just rise deeper into the Buenos Aries neighborhood, I turned around. The street is super-tight and it requires a three-point U-turn. By the time I was going back down the hill, they were within 100-feet of me.

This time they aimed their car straight for mine. We both stopped short of a head-on collision. There were just the four guys at this point and they all jumped out of the car. Some had handguns on belts and a few had homemade bullet-proof vests. There wasn't one signifier or uniform, no camouflage, they were all super-young, and some wore T-Shirts and street clothes. They looked like high-schoolers dressed for Paramilitary Day.

When the last guy made his way from the sedan- he aimed a machine gun at my windshield- I dropped my torso under all of the windows and pressed on the gas as hard as I could. I managed to avoid all four guys and squeeze between their sedan and the block wall on the street's edge. My car launched down the side of Buenos Aires, the undercarriage hitting everything. I knew (I had) to get on Adolfo Ruiz Cortines heading south in order to eventually get back to the International Exit.

Lucky again, Buenos Aires is so tight that I had a decent lead on the sedan- they lost a good 15 seconds regrouping, turning around. After I made a few more U-turns I was headed north on Plutarco Elías Calles (the International Exit road), about a half-mile from the border. The sedan sped by on the other side of the street but they still had a couple of U-turns before they'd catch me. When I got close to the border I was doing almost 70mph. Then a van started to trail me with police lights. It looked like the Nogales Police, but I wasn't about to stop and find out.

I slowed-up near the International Exit traffic and drove straight through all of the speed bumps/plastic barricades to the booth of a Homeland Security Officer. I asked if he was American- he said "yes." I threw my hands in the air, told him I had almost been murdered, was handcuffed and brought to their Detention Room. There was some light questioning, my car was searched- none of it bothered me. I was happy to be alive.

Homeland Security said a drug cartel runs the Buenos Aires neighborhood. The cartel is so violent that the Nogales Police no longer monitors or patrols those streets. They recognized my description of the events and said that it was definitely the cartel. They also claimed that if I had stepped out of my car, I would have been robbed or murdered.

The US Department of State raises plenty of warnings about the border areas and virtually describes exactly what happened to me here. But the US Embassy only warns of "unnecessary travel to Michoacán and Tamaulipas, to parts of Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango, and Coahuila." These ambushes probably happen more than they're ever reported. No report of my incident was made. Homeland Security did not allow the Nogales Police to gain access to me- and nothing will be done about what happened. There have been horrific murders of Americans in Sonora and I think the local news should press its viewers to stop visiting Nogales altogether- I was very lucky.”

According to the U.S. Department of State, a travel advisory was removed in September of 2010 and only warns Americans traveling south of the border to exercise caution.

A month later, in October, David Hartley was murdered on Falcon Lake, which straddles the U.S./Mexico border. He and his wife were trying to escape heavily-armed drug cartel members on Jet Skis-David was struck by a bullet and his body was never recovered.

Mexico doesn't CARE about US citizens being attacked, in fact our own government doesn't care.

The victim "The US Department of State raises plenty of warnings about the border areas and virtually describes exactly what happened to me here. But the US Embassy only warns of "unnecessary travel to Michoacán and Tamaulipas, to parts of Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango, and Coahuila." These ambushes probably happen more than they're ever reported. No report of my incident was made. Homeland Security did not allow the Nogales Police to gain access to me- and nothing will be done about what happened. There have been horrific murders of Americans in Sonora and I think the local news should press its viewers to stop visiting Nogales altogether- I was very lucky.”

Story was reported by several local venues. It came to us by way of NAFBPO.

More here:

www.desertconservative.com/2011/01/28

McALLEN — Pharr police are still waiting — hoping to find out soon which Mexican authorities will be investigating the death of a 59-year-old American missionary south of the border.

Nancy Davis was shot Wednesday as her husband tried to speed away from an impromptu roadblock in Mexico. Sam Davis raced to the Pharr International Bridge border checkpoint with his wife bleeding beside him, but she was declared dead at a McAllen hospital.

Police Chief Ruben Villescas says in Saturday’s McAllen Monitor that he has spoken by Mexican officials by phone but not met with them in person.

“The Mexican military has not been in contact with us,” he said. “We were told from the offset that the military was investigating, but the military has not shared any information with us.”

Villescas said he was told federal investigators from Mexico would be working with them to determine who is responsible for the death of Davis, but he said he did not know which agency it would be.

“We’re ready to meet with them,” he said. “But we have to work with them and be patient as they themselves determine whose jurisdiction it is and who’s going to be the lead agency in the investigation.”

Villescas did not return a phone message from The Associated Press on Saturday or respond to an e-mail.

Sam and Nancy Davis had taken their missionary work to Mexico for 30 years, but relatives say the Texas couple recently put off trips because of spiraling drug cartel violence. Nancy Davis even stopped making some of those trips because of the risks.

Francille Davis told the AP that her son and daughter-in-law were in Mexico on Wednesday to pay pastors in some of the village churches the family had established. She said the drug war had prevented Sam Davis from reaching the churches earlier in the month.

There was to be a viewing for Davis at the couple’s home in Monte Alto, Texas, on Saturday. The family asked for privacy.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7404170.html

about time for Obama to invite, the Mexican President back -last time he was here, Slamming Arizona Laws, the White House, Democrats Applaud
WASHINGTON — As Mexican President Felipe Calderon ripped Arizona’s new law clamping down on illegal immigrants in front of Congress on Thursday, Democrats and White House officials rose to their feet to cheer, including Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano — two officials who have confessed to not even reading the law.

And that isn’t sitting well with officials from states along the border.

“It was extremely disappointing to have a foreign head of state on the floor of the U.S. Congress exhibiting willful ignorance” over the new law, Arizona House Speaker Kirk Adams told Fox News.

“But I’ll tell you what’s even more galling is to have members of the White House staff standing and applauding something that is absolutely wrong,” he said. “Arizona’s law does not introduce racial profiling. Quite the contrary.”

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said “those who encourage criticism of the Arizona law are on the wrong side of the American people.””When you peel back the inflammatory rhetoric and the baseless accusations of those who oppose the Arizona law, you find that Arizona has taken a reasonable, constitutional approach to dealing with a problem that the federal government hasn’t,” he said.

Despite confessing to not reading the law, Holder and Napolitano are among those who have criticized it, saying the law would promote racial profiling and may be unconstitutional.

In the first address to Congress by a foreign national leader this year, Calderon delivered a message Thursday that the two countries must cooperate to improve security along the often-violent border and control the flow of immigrants into the United States.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/05/20/mexicos-calderon-takes-case-congress/
Memories , Memories , Don’t look to Obama or big sis to help out here. Their to busy Applauding Mexico.

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