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The family of a Mexican marine who died in the shootout last week which killed Arturo Beltran Leyva was wiped out by more than a dozen hitmen from the drug kingpin's cartel as reported by Sara Miller Llana for The Christian Science Monitor: "This is a new message by organized crime, in which intimidation even reaches the families of those who are fighting them," says Erubiel Tirado, a security expert at the Iberoamerican University in Mexico City. "This is a very worrisome indicator of their behavior, and a new pattern that we might see." Fallen marine Melquisedet Angulo was buried...

MEXICO CITY — It had been an elaborate farewell to one of Mexico's fallen heroes. Ensign Melquisedet Angulo, a special forces sailor killed last week during the government's most successful raid on a top drug lord in years, received a stirring public tribute in which the secretary of the navy presented his mother with the flag that covered her son's casket. Then, the next day, only hours after the grieving family had finished burying him in his hometown, gunmen burst into the family's house and sprayed the rooms with gunfire, killing his mother and three other relatives, officials said Tuesday.

For those interested in exploring one of the greatest internal and transnational threats to the United States, there is a new book out today by Samuel Logan, This is For the Mara Salvatrucha: Inside the MS-13, America's Most Violent Gang. The book traces the history of Brenda Paz, a young Honduran who joins MS-13 and eventually becomes the most effective police witness against the organization, before she was killed. But besides the individual story, the book shows just how powerful and ruthless the MS-13 has become. Given that it now has chapters in thousands of cities across the United States,...

MEXICO CITY – Assailants on Tuesday gunned down the mother, aunt and siblings of a marine killed in a raid that took out one of Mexico's most powerful cartel leaders — sending a chilling message to troops battling the drug war: You go after us, we wipe out your families. The brazen pre-dawn slayings came just hours after the navy honored Melquisedet Angulo as a national hero at a memorial service.

QUINTIN ARAUZ, Mexico - Suspected drug gang hitmen shot dead the grieving mother, brother and sister of an elite Mexican marine who died after a raid that killed a top drug lord, police said on Tuesday. In what appeared to be a revenge attack for last week's navy operation, gunmen burst into the family's house in the town of Quintin Arauz in the southern Mexican state of Tabasco just before midnight on Monday and fired assault rifles. "They broke the door down with a sledgehammer and sprayed them with bullets in the living room and bedrooms," said local deputy police...

Paisanos run for cover as bullets fly between Mexican soldiers and another group of men. It happened about a mile from Bridge Number Two Sunday night. In the shooting one unidentified man was killed, another two were seriously injured. Mexican media is reporting that those shot were paisanos but the vehicle they were riding in clearly had Mexican plates with tinted windows and bulletproof siding. Many locals in Nuevo Laredo have been upset by the military's presence. They say the soldiers’ pursuit of drug traffickers has hurt business and tourism.

Mexico City Lawmakers Approve Gay Marriage City on way to becoming first in Latin America to legalize such unions MEXICO CITY - Mexico City lawmakers have become the first in Latin America to legalize gay marriage. City legislators passed the bill 39-20 on Monday with five lawmakers absent. Leftist Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard is widely expected to sign the decision into law.

Mexican cops train for tourist police force Three cities plan to launch effort in the spring By Sandra Dibble, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERSaturday, December 19, 2009 at 1:18 a.m. Earnie Grafton / Union-TribuneSan Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders congratulated a Mexican police officer at a ceremony yesterday for officers from law enforcement agencies in Tijuana, Ensenada and Rosarito Beach who participated in a training session offered by the San Diego Police Department. Earnie Grafton / Union-TribuneMexican police officers lined up for photos after a ceremony yesterday marking their completion of a training course in San Diego. The officers received instruction in a...

On Wednesday, police in Slidell, LA, arrested an illegal alien for slashing the throat of his 84-year-old neighbor with a razor blade. The attack left an 8-inch gash in the woman’s throat, her assailant stole about $65 in cash. The octogenarian victim survived the attack and later identified the man who did odd jobs for her, Ricardo Tenorio-Palma, 20, as the man who tried to kill her. Slidell Police Capt. Kevin Swann said: "It wasn't like he demanded money; he stabbed her first. He slashed her first, before he robbed her. He intended to kill her,” Police allege that on...

The Zetas, Mexico's notoriously brutal group of paramilitary thugs, are expanding their role as bully businessmen along the Texas-Mexico border, branching out from traditional criminal enterprises such as extortion and drug trafficking and buying legitimate businesses, U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials say. The group, which authorities say operates a weapons and drug distribution hub in North Texas, now calls itself "The Company" and has over the past year evolved from extorting businesses to owning them outright, the officials say. "They own used-car lots on both sides of the border, restaurants, discotheques, liquor stores," said Robert García, a detective with...

Note: The following text is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEThursday, December 17, 2009 Guyanese National Charged with Smuggling Indian Nationals to the United States A Guyanese national has been indicted on charges of conspiracy and alien smuggling in connection with her role in the smuggling or attempted smuggling of four Indian nationals to the United States. Annita Devi Gerald, aka Annita Rampersad, 52, was charged in a nine-count indictment returned yesterday by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Texas. Gerald was arrested by ICE special agents in Houston on Nov. 17, 2009, and has been held without...

The border between El Paso, Texas - population: 600,000 and Juarez, Mexico - population: 1.5 million - is the most dangerous border in America. This border is situated on the southwestern tip /edge of the United States and Mexico. On one side of the border is the second-safest city of its size in the United States - after Honolulu - with only 18 murders in 2008. On the other side of the border is a lawless city ruled by drug lords where the death toll for the last 18 months is more than 2,500 and counting. "I don't think the...

La Prensa Grafica (San Salvador, El Salvador) 12/17/09 “El Salvador applauds Migratory Reform proposal in USA” - full transl. - Subheading: The Salvadoran Chancery has estimated that the initiative that senator (sic) Gutierrez supports is an integral migratory reform, more humane, compassionate and comprehensive. The Ministry of Foreign Relations of El Salvador has applauded the introduction of a law proposal for an Integral Migratory Reform in the United States. The initiative is promoted by the United States congressman for Illinois, Luis Gutierrez. The document was presented yesterday in the Chamber of Representatives of the Congress of the United States of...

Osama Bin Laden's terrorist organization has become increasingly reliant on organized crime, including cocaine smuggling, human trafficking and kidnapping, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Friday in Manhattan's federal court. The charges filed against three alleged al-Qaeda associates by the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan is the latest chilling evidence of a convergence between terrorism and organized crime. Oumar Issa, Harouna Touré and Idriss Abelrahman were snatched in Ghana on Wednesday by a Drug Enforcement Administration sting and shipped to New York, where they arrived on Friday to face charges of conspiracy to commit acts of narco-terrorism and providing material support...

Mexico turns to navy to bolster flagging drug war Robin Emmott MONTERREY, Mexico Fri Dec 18, 2009 2:57pm EST MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - Faced with ever-worsening drug cartel violence, Mexican President Felipe Calderon is turning to elite navy troops to help reignite his floundering army-led drug war. WORLD The navy scored the biggest victory yet of Calderon's three-year struggle to stem drug violence when its special forces killed a top drug lord this week, showing how it is breaking out of its traditional role and moving inland. Naval troops shot dead Arturo Beltran Leyva, aka "The Boss of Bosses," in...

Alarid...... while serving in the Army and the Marines, including two tours in Iraq, and returned to Southern California to fulfill a goal of serving in law enforcement. But, early last year, after just a few months as a customs inspector, he was waving in trucks from Mexico carrying loads of marijuana and illegal immigrants. He pocketed some $200,000 in cash that paid for, as far as the government could tell, a $15,000 motorcycle, flat-screen televisions, a laptop computer and more. Some investigators believe that Mr. Alarid, 32, who was paid off by a Mexican smuggling crew that included several...

[L]aw enforcement officials [are] worried that Mexican traffickers — facing beefed-up security on the border that now includes miles of new fencing, floodlights, drones, motion sensors and cameras — have stepped up their efforts to corrupt the border police. They research potential targets, anticorruption investigators said, exploiting the cross-border clans and relationships that define the region, offering money, sex, whatever it takes. But, with the border police in the midst of a hiring boom, law enforcement officers believe that traffickers are pulling out the stops, even soliciting some of their own operatives to apply for jobs. “In some ways,” said...

MEXICO CITY — Mexico's National Human Rights Commission says more than 5,000 Mexican migrants have died in deserts, rivers and mountains trying to reach the U.S. since 1994. The commission says governments must do more to protect migrants from robbers, smugglers and others who seek to exploit them.

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican prosecutors are requesting that Texas-based norteno singer Ramon Ayala be held pending investigation after he was detained at a drug cartel's Christmas party. Attorney General Arturo Chavez announced Thursday that a judge is considering the request and that any possible charges would be determined by the investigation. Ayala, a Mexican accordionist who lives in Hidalgo, Texas, has been detained in federal police headquarters in Mexico City since the Dec. 11 military raid at a mansion outside the mountain town of Tepoztlan where three gunmen were killed and 11 others suspected members of the Beltran Leyva cartel...

An international manhunt is on for a father whose car was last seen crossing the Texas border into Mexico after he allegedly tricked a court to give him custody of his 10-year-old son. Video shows 10-year-old crying as his father takes him off a bus.The boy can be seen on a videotape pleading with police "please, please, please" to not force him to go with his father. Jean Philippe Lacombe, 41, allegedly fooled the court into helping him get custody of his son by presenting documents in Spanish that he said gave him legal custody of his son Jean Paul....

Houston Mayor Bill White will officially launch a fingerprint-based immigration screening program in the city's jails today, fulfilling his pledge to have the system up and running by the time he leaves office. ...the outgoing mayor and Texas gubernatorial candidate, has faced harsh criticism for perceived flip-flopping on the issue of immigration enforcement in the jails. He previously requested to have the city participate in the controversial 287(g) program that would have trained officers to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents screen for illegal immigrants in the jails, but he backed away from that proposal after negotiations with the federal...

Wednesday, 12/16/09 Diario de Yucatan (Merida, Yucatan) & Excelsior (Mexico City) 12/15/09 Chinese caught en route to the U.S. Odd noises from inside a truck stopped at a highway checkpoint led to the discovery of ten Chinese being smuggled en route to the U.S.; the truck was on a highway between Cosoleacaque, Veracruz, and Nuevo Teapan, Tabasco [an area on the north end of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, near the port city of Coatzocoalcos.] The seven males and three females, all illegally in Mexico, told federal officials that they had traveled from China to Nepal to India and then to...

<p>Two hundred sailors raided an upscale apartment complex and killed one of Mexico's top kingpins in a two-hour gunbattle Wednesday, one of the biggest victories yet in President Felipe Calderon's drug war.</p> <p>Arturo Beltran Leyva, the “boss of bosses,” and three members of his cartel were slain in the shootout in Cuernavaca, just south of Mexico City, according to a navy statement. A fifth cartel member committed suicide during the shootout.</p>

Mysterious Group Buys Building Next to Ground Zero For Mosque Wednesday, December 16, 2009 Jim Hoft A mysterous Muslim group with unknown sponsors has purchased a building steps away from Ground Zero. Hudson New York reported: An identified group with unknown sponsors has purchased building steps away from where the WorldTrade Center once stood — to turn it into potentially one of the largest New York City mosques. At the moment the building, the old Burlington Coat Factory, already serves as a mini-mosque: an iron grill lifts every Friday afternoon for a little known Imam leading prayers a few yards...

An alleged hitman for the Zetas and the Mexican Mafia may be hiding out in the Rio Grande Valley. The U.S. Marshal’s Service told Action 4 News that Joseph Allen Garcia is wanted for murder and a number of other crimes in Laredo. A local agency spokesman said 22-year-old murder hitman is known to frequent South Padre Island and is asking for the public’s help in catching him. Garcia is wanted for a December 13, 2003 shooting in Laredo where one person was killed and three others injured. The accused hitman was 16-years-old at the time of the shooting. Authorities...

Reports of heavy violence in Mexico should not deter tourists, said U.S. Consul Michael Barkin. “Really, Mexico is no worse than the south side of Chicago,” Barkin assured the McAllen (Texas) Chamber of Commerce. “Your odds of coming through without being robbed, kidnapped or murdered are relatively good. There’s probably less than 10% chance you will be a victim.” The Consul advised that “if you are one of the unfortunate minority who is victimized and are still alive afterwards, please contact the Consulate so we can fill out the proper ‘after-incident’ reports.” Barkin expressed the hope that immigration reform would...

The Municipal authoritiees are expecting more than 100 thosuand vehicles of "paisanos" to start crossing through this land port into Mexico. LAREDO, Tx.- Local authorities are expecting over 100 thousand paisanos to arrive next weekend to this land port. "We are ready to receive them, we have established a plan together with the Mexican Consulate General in Laredo, with the Police Department, the Sherriff's Office, the Bridge System and the Customs Port of Laredo, as well as with the Texas Department of Transportation and Nuevo Laredo authorities, in order to assist the paisanos," Salinas mentioned. The first part of the...

Police Find Body of Unborn Baby Killed in Abortion in Christmas Gift Box Mission, TX -- In a bizarre case that is beginning to draw national attention, police in a city in south Texas say they have found the remains of an unborn baby victimized by abortion placed in a Christmas gift box. The incident took place in this city near McAllen, on the Texas side of the Mexican border. http://www.LifeNews.com/state4645.html

If you needed a reason to buy today's deja vu listless and volumeless tape, here it is. Mexico cut by S&P from BBB+/A-2 to BBB/A-3. Outlook is "stable"... absent a hyperinflationary collapse. Expect a rebuttal from Goldman Sachs, which has been axed the wrong way for quite a while.

The government announced that it will begin implementing a new series of social programs in Ciudad Juarez (Chihuahua state) that will help the police and army battle narcotics cartels. If it sounds a bit like a classic Counter-insurgency (COIN) “political and social warfare” (where social and economic programs integrate with security operations), well, it is. One of the programs will be directed at impoverished Juarez teenagers. The narcotics gangs throw around money and have bought support in several neighborhoods. Some of the kids eventually “move up” and join the gang. The government intends to attack this “recruitment” process. There will...

MCALLEN - The U.S Consul General at Matamoros visited McAllen today. U.S. Consul Michael Barkin says Mexico is a safe place visit, but security is also the number one concern for Americans traveling there. Barkin was honored today at a reception at the McAllen Chamber of Commerce. He has been on the job as U.S. Consul General in Matamoros since September. CHANNEL 5 NEWS asked him, given the ongoing shoot-outs and violence in Mexico, is it safe to visit? We wanted to know what people who call his office are most concerned about. Barkin says, "People are concerned about the...

Anderson Cooper from CNN takes a tour through a sophisticated tunnel route discovered by law enforcement running under the Mexico-U.S. border for drug smuggling: The tunnel, complete with an elevator, electricity and a ventilation system, extends from Tijuana, Mexico to Otay Mesa, Calif., in San Diego. The tunnel was discovered by Mexican law enforcement working with the San Diego Tunnel Task Force, which includes agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Border Patrol. Meanwhile, blood still freely flows over in Juarez, Mexico -- you know, casual massacres of women & children type stuff --...

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has secured $4.85 million in funding to be used by border sheriffs to stop drug and human trafficking. The money is coming from the fiscal year 2010 Omnibus Appropriations bill. It will help border sheriffs pay for overtime, hire additional deputies, and purchase equipment. This project supports Operation Linebacker, an initiative of the Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition. "Our law enforcement personnel along the border are regularly under assault, and drug and human traffickers continue to threaten the safety of our communities," Hutchison said in a news release. "Sheriffs patrolling the border need additional reinforcements to...

HAVANA — Suspected drug smugglers used spikes to deflate the tires of a U.S. Border Patrol unit during a pursuit Tuesday night — at least the second incident in which area authorities have discovered the devices in a week. Border Patrol would not confirm whether the spikes deflated the tires of an agency vehicle Tuesday night, but court documents reveal agents also found the homemade devices after an agent fired gunshots during a confrontation last week. Meanwhile, authorities are concerned the spikes could cause further incidents on Rio Grande Valley roadways. The spikes, or caltrops, consist of several metal points...

Honduras' interim government says it has authorized ousted President Manuel Zelaya to leave the country and go to Mexico. Foreign Ministry spokesman Milton Mateo says the safe-conduct pass was signed and would be delivered to the Brazilian Embassy, where Zelaya has been holed up since sneaking back into the country Sept. 21. Mateo said Wednesday night that the Mexican government has sent an airplane to pick up Zelaya and his family. Another official of the interim government's Foreign Ministry said Mexico requested that Zelaya be given safe conduct to leave. A Mexican government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, says...

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Mexican prosecutors say gunmen shot and killed a university student in the deadly border city of Ciudad Juarez. Chihuahua state prosecutor's spokesman Arturo Sandoval says the student's body was found in a truck Tuesday at an intersection. He is the second student from the Autonomous University of Chihuahua to be killed since Saturday.

FALLS CITY -- A group of 14 suspected illegal immigrants apprehended north of here Dec.4 is now in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement officials, said Trooper Craig Semlinger of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Highway Patrol. Semlinger said nine of the men and women captured by DPS troopers, sheriff's deputies from Wilson and Karnes counties, and some local ranchers are from Mexico. The remaining five, the trooper said are from China. Three others said to be with the group were still at large as of press time Dec. 7.

Presumed members of Los Zetas staged a brazen prison raid Dec. 4 in Escobedo, Nuevo Leon state, killing two state police officers guarding the prison and freeing 23 inmates. At the same time in nearby Juarez, Zetas engaged a Mexican military unit in a firefight in an apparent attempt to distract the superior security force away from the prison. While details are still coming in, the incident highlights the uphill battle the Mexican government is fighting as it tries to professionalize its law enforcement ranks. Los Zetas have shown before that they will go to great lengths to protect and...

Shepard BarbashHelping Mexico Help Itself A more prosperous, democratic southern neighbor would reduce crime and illegal immigration. Autumn 2009 Two crises have deepened America’s anxieties over immigration since Congress tried to reform the law two years ago: the global recession and an outburst of murder and mayhem in northern Mexico. The recession has aroused antipathy for foreigners who compete for jobs. The violence along the border, which stems from a high-stakes campaign by Mexican president Felipe Calderón to bust apart several large drug cartels, has inflamed fears that our borders aren’t secure. Americans differ on what to do about...

NUEVO PROGRESO — Mexican authorities refused to release details Monday of the deadly weekend shooting that sent hundreds of American tourists scurrying for cover as at least two people were gunned down. No U.S. casualties have been reported in the Saturday afternoon gun battle that erupted at the end of a city-organized celebration to welcome Winter Texans back to this popular tourist spot. While two people were reportedly killed, it is unclear whether rumors of higher death tolls are unfounded or if any bystanders were harmed in the volley of gunfire. U.S. authorities offered few details of their own, saying...

GUADALAJARA, Mexico — Organizers of the Mexican tour of the "Walking With Dinosaurs" show say someone has walked off with a robotic baby Plateosaurus. Spokeswoman Karla Arrollo says the 1.5-meter (5-foot), remote-controlled dinosaur worth $25,000 disappeared after Friday's performance. Police say they are investigating the alleged theft. Arrollo says the show — which features 10 species of large, mechanized dinosaurs lumbering across an arena stage — will continue touring.

El Paso, Texas - A Mexican Army Humvee with a machine gun and several soldiers on foot entered into the U.S. through the Columbus Port of Entry early Saturday morning. The incident happened at about 2:35 a.m. Saturday when the Mexican soldiers were chasing three U.S. citizens, according to Customs and Border Patrol spokesperson Roger Maier. The group of soldiers was confronted by CBP inspectors and the soldiers quickly turned around on orders from one of their officers. A few minutes later, a Mexican Army commander arrived and apologized to the U.S. inspectors, claiming the soldiers had been pursuing a...

A recent round of posts between Gubernatorial candidate Dan Proft and Chicago Examiner website columnist Robert Moon of Macon County, Illinois shows the difficulty of trying to discuss immigration in Illinois today. Passions are high and it is hard to get past all the suspicion imbued in it all. It all began with a segment of a Chicago radio broadcast in which Dan Proft addressed some of the more demagogic treatments of the immigration problem and echoed the worry made by many Republicans that the more wild-eyed treatments of the immigration problem is bound to force the GOP into permanent...

Albert Einstein declared, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” He wasn’t describing the federal government’s nearly century-long war on drugs but he might as well have been. Despite ample lip-service for “hope” and “change,” the Obama administration’s cynical response to the escalating drug prohibition-related violence around the Mexican border epitomizes Einstein’s oft-quoted observation. Since 2008 more than 7,000 people—over 1,000 last January alone, including Mexican civilians, journalists, police, and public officials—have been killed in clashes with warring drug traffickers. Wire-service reports estimate that Mexico’s drug lords employ over 100,000...

American college prof develops cell-phone tool to help illegals cross borderIllegal aliens crossing the U.S.-Mexico border now have a cell phone tool to chart the best route, find food and locate people who will help them enter the country – courtesy of a professor at a state-funded university. Ricardo Dominguez, a University of California, San Diego tenured visual arts professor and activist, designed the Transborder Immigrant Tool, an application much like a global-positioning system used in cars, to help illegals find the best locations for food, water and groups to assist them as they sneak into America. Dominguez is also...

MEXICO CITY — A pair of shootouts between troops and gunmen in northern Mexico have killed 13 people, including a bystander and a drug trafficker linked to the killing of a retired army officer. Navy spokesman Adm. Jose Luis Vergara said troops were searching a villa Friday in a suburb of Monterrey named Juarez when they were ambushed by a group of heavily armed men. Eight gunmen were killed and nine more were arrested in the initial shootout, Vergara said. Television images showed a garden littered with bloodied corpses. Several handcuffed men sat on the ground with shirts pulled over...

Unconfirmed reports of fatalities but no reports of American casualties PROGRESO —The international bridge here was closed Saturday afternoon after a shooting across the border in Nuevo Progreso. There were unconfirmed reports from witnesses crossing back from Mexico that one to five people were dead after gunfire among soldiers and other armed individuals. Identities of the victims remain unknown. A representative at the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey confirmed there was gunfire in Nuevo Progreso and said the consulate had received unconfirmed reports of two fatalities. However, the consulate had received no notification of any American casualties as of about 6...

In an indictment handed down Nov. 20 ....accused 15 individuals of being involved in the trafficking of cocaine and other narcotics in the Chicago area. .... aimed at dismantling the drug trafficking network of La Familia Michoacana (LFM), a mid-sized and relatively new drug cartel based in Michoacan state in southwestern Mexico. The U.S. investigation of LFM has revealed many details about the operation of the group in the United States and answered some important questions about the nature of Mexican drug trafficking and distribution north of the border. .....leaders are known to distribute documents to the group’s members that...

Three Houston residents have been arrested and accused of transporting illegal immigrants after a pickup truck carrying the people plunged 40 feet from a roadway and injured them in Jim Wells County in South Texas. Patricio Rebollar Jr., 28, Herman Valdez, 29, and Nancy Martinez, 25, are charged in a criminal complaint with transporting undocumented immigrants, according to federal authorities. Of the 17 undocumented immigrants in the accident, five remain hospitalized with serious injuries and the others have been treated at hospitals and released into federal custody. Rebollar, who was allegedly driving the pickup, was hospitalized with unknown injuries.

Seven women were murdered in Mexico, including one who was beheaded in the southern beach resort of Cancun, authorities reported Monday. Four of the women were killed in Ciudad Juarez, where two were shot to death, another beaten with a baseball bat and a fourth, a school teacher, also was beaten to death. The northern border city is at the center of a raging drug war that has claimed 2,300 lives so far this year. In Baja California state, two women were found shot to death in Mexicali, also on the US border, the Attorney General's office said. In the...