Posted on 03/04/2009 12:50:20 PM PST by AuntB
A prison riot Wednesday near the troubled Mexican border town of Juarez has left an unconfirmed number of fatalities, news reports said.
El Diario de Juarez newspaper reported 17 people were killed, including two federal agents. Ten people were wounded, the newspaper said.
The tallies could not be independently verified with state and federal officials.
Police official Carlos Gonzalez said the uprising occurred among members of the Aztecas drug gang housed in Module 3, according to El Diario. Some inmates were armed, the newspaper said.
The prison is located in a semi-desert area 17 miles (28 kilometers) south of Ciudad Juarez, which is across the border from El Paso, Texas.
Juarez is one of the major battlegrounds as drug cartels fight each other and Mexican authorities.
"The situation in Ciudad Juarez is of special concern," the U.S. State Department said in a travel warning issued February 20. "Mexican authorities report that more than 1,800 people have been killed in the city since January 2008. Additionally, this city of 1.6 million people experienced more than 17,000 car thefts and 1,650 carjackings in 2008."
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
EXCLUSIVE: 100,000 foot soldiers in Mexican cartels Numbers rival country's army
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/03/100000-foot-soldiers-in-cartels/
[snip]"It's moving to crisis proportions," a senior U.S. defense official told The Washington Times. The official... said the cartels' "foot soldiers" are on a par with Mexico's army of about 130,000.
The disclosure underlines the enormity of the challenge Mexico and the United States face as they struggle to contain what is increasingly looking like a civil war or an insurgency along the U.S.-Mexico border. In the past year, about 7,000 people have died - more than 1,000 in January alone. The conflict has become increasingly brutal, with victims beheaded and bodies dissolved in vats of acid.
The death toll dwarfs that in Afghanistan, where about 200 fatalities, including 29 U.S. troops, were reported in the first two months of 2009. About 400 people, including 31 U.S. military personnel, died in Iraq during the same period.
The two cartels appear to be negotiating a truce or merger to defeat rivals and better withstand government pressure. U.S. officials say the consequences of such a pact would be grave.
"I think if they merge or decide to cooperate in a greater way, Mexico could potentially have a national security crisis," the defense official said.
As a result, Mexico is behind only Pakistan and Iran as a top U.S. national security concern, ranking above Afghanistan and Iraq, the defense official added.
Mexico!
I wouldn’t want to be near El Paso when/if this thing blows clear out of control. Does the state or fed have any forces down there yet in case chaos spill over the border ?
Ft. Bliss
“I wouldn’t want to be near El Paso when/if this thing blows clear out of control. Does the state or fed have any forces down there yet in case chaos spill over the border ?”
Yes, I often wonder how our old friend FITZ is doing down there these days. Our new DHS Secretary doesn’t think there is a problem. I did read that Texas has its guard on ready.
Sorry the agents are dead! Glad to see that the inmate population has been reduced!
Holy Moley.
Mexico is becoming Somalia south...
Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
I used to go to Juarez pretty often, as a college student back in the 70’s. It was pretty rough back then, but not really all that dangerous, at least compared to like it is now. The worst thing that ever happened was that the cops picked up a group of us once, and stole everything we had at gunpoint. They drove us down south of town and showed us the prison where we would go if we made a fuss about the robbery. It might have even been the prison where this riot took place, assuming it’s more than 30 years old.
“The worst thing that ever happened was that the cops picked up a group of us once, and stole everything we had at gunpoint. They drove us down south of town and showed us the prison where we would go if we made a fuss about the robbery. It might have even been the prison where this riot took place, assuming it’s more than 30 years old.”
You were lucky. I hope you never told your mother that story!
I used to love to visit Mexico, but I wouldn’t go there now.
Today’s NAFBPO M3Report:
Monday 3/2/09
El Nuevo Diario (Managua, Nicaragua) 3/1/09
“50 illegal immigrants from the African countries of Eritrea, Ethiopia and Ghana, and from the Asian nation of Nepal, on the way to the United States, were captured by Nicaragua’s Naval Forces Friday afternoon after having been abandoned by Colombian ‘coyotes’ between Punta Gorda and the mouth of the Maiz River, in the South Atlantic Autonomous Region. Frigate Captain Angel Fonseca, chief of the Atlantic Naval Region, said that “It was 27 Eritreans, 12 Ethiopians, 8 Nepalese and 2 Ghanans” and added that the undocumented persons are 38 men 11 women and a three year old boy.”
“They left the coasts of Kenya 40 days ago in a fishing vessel, they arrived in Colombia and remained seven days in that country, said David Guisa, one of the immigrants, who then added, “then the smugglers took us in a sailing vessel to these shores where they abandoned us saying that it was Honduras.” Guisa pointed out that they had each paid U.S. $ 2,500 for them to take us to the United States, although if they cannot arrive in that country, they prefer to stay in any other as political exiles due to the fact they do not wish to return to their countries.”
Captain Fonseca ruled out that the Colombian coyotes that transported the illegals may have a connection with persons in Nicaragua, since “it’s an international ring and it appears that its base was in Honduras.”
(The “South Atlantic Autonomous Region” is Nicaragua’s southeastern coastal area)
———————
Prensa Libre (Guatemala City, Guatemala) 3/1/09
A number of unrelated events brought death by gunfire to ten persons around Guatemala on Saturday. Among the victims were a bus driver, a taxi driver and an anti-narcotics agent.
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El Universal (Mexico City) 3/1/09
For the fourth time this year, a City Hall has been attacked by armed groups in the state of Durango. Some 20 men fired at the offices of the city government of Guanacevi, north of the capital of Durango city, in an attack that was carried out at 4 a.m. During the attack, the group robbed an ATM. No deaths or injuries were reported.
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Under orders of President Felipe Calderón, nearly 8,000 military troops will confront an “undetermined number” of hired killers of the Juarez, Sinaloa and La Familia drug cartels in Cd. Juarez, Chihuahua. The troops have been arriving in the area for the past few days with full combat equipment in a major operation hoping to end criminal activities in the troubled border area. In the past 14 months, the state of Chihuahua has had at least 2,750 narco-executions.
——————–
El Imparcial (Hermosillo, Sonora) 3/1/09
The National Civil Police of Guatemala (PNC) reported today that they have received a telephone threat of death against the president of Guatemala, Alvaro Colom, apparently from the Los Zetas militant arm of the Mexican Gulf cartel. No further information has yet been released.
——————–
La Cronica de Hoy (Mexico City) 3/1/09
Mexican federal police arrested two alleged members of the Arellano Felix drug cartel in Tijuana, Baja California. The two, traveling in a Jeep Cherokee, ignored police orders to stop and tried to flee, but were stopped in a few blocks. Both men opened fire on the arresting officers, but were quickly captured. Along with the arrest, police also seized two AK-47 rifles and one AR-15, two pistols, a bulletproof vest, two communication radios and six packets of marihuana.
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A summary of the names and positions of those arrested in the Mexican Attorney General’s “Operation Cleansing” has been released. The operation to root out officials linked to organized crime has ended. Among the 25 arrested during the operation were six officers of the Federal Agency of Investigation (AFI); three high ranking members of the federal anti-drug agency, SIEDO; seven members of the federal police (PFP); and six high ranking army officers.
——————–
-end of report-
” Does the state or fed have any forces down there yet in case chaos spill over the border ?”
That’s hard to say- this is Johnny Sutton territory, and he was busy sending the border patrol we did have to prison.
near the troubled Mexican border town of Juarezby "troubled" they mean, the cartels murdered over 2000 people in 2008, and that's just the estimate of *known* dead.
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