Bomb Found on U.S.-Mexico Border Bridge

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – One of the four international bridges linking this northern Mexican city and El Paso, Texas, was closed for nearly two hours Tuesday after a bomb was found and detonated on the Mexican side of the border, a police spokesman told Efe.

The bomb was spotted just after 8:00 a.m. on the Lerdo Bridge, which was immediately closed to traffic.

Several of the main avenues in Ciudad Juarez leading to the bridge were also closed, causing massive traffic jams in Mexico’s murder capital.

Army troops, Federal Police officers, municipal police and transit police went to the bridge to secure the area and direct traffic.

The flow of traffic across the border resumed two hours after the controlled detonation, but officials have not said what type of explosive was used.

Assailants suspected of having links to an organized crime group threw a bomb Saturday at one of the bridges connecting Nuevo Laredo, a city in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, with Laredo, Texas.

No injuries or damage were reported in Saturday’s attack, the Nuevo Laredo city government said in a statement posted on an official Web site.

The blast occurred on the access ramp to International Bridge One, officials said.

A car bombing in Ciudad Juarez targeting Federal Police officers killed four people – a physician, two officers and a firefighter – on July 15.

A car packed with 10 kilos (22 pounds) of C-4 plastic explosives was apparently detonated with a cell phone on a busy street in the border city.

The attack was in retaliation for the arrest of Jesus Armando Acosta Guerrero, 35, reputed leader of the armed wing of the Juarez drug cartel, the Federal Police said.

Acosta was behind at least 25 murders, including the June 25 slayings of two federal officers in Juarez, officials said.

The Attorney General’s Office, however, has not issued an official finding on the incident, which would be the first confirmed use of a car bomb by an organized crime group in Mexico.

Ciudad Juarez, where nearly 6,000 people have been murdered since 2008, has been plagued by drug-related violence for years.

A total of 1,700 gangland killings occurred in Ciudad Juarez during the first seven months of the year, a figure that was up 47.6 percent from the same period in 2009, when 1,150 people were murdered, officials and press reports said earlier this week.

July was the second-most-violent month of 2010 in the border city, with 291 homicides, or an average of eight per day, being registered.

June ranks as the most violent month of the year, with 313 homicides, followed by May, with 262; March, with 240; January, with 227; April, with 205; and February, with 163. EFE

The latest NAFBPO foreign news report:

ROUTINE DAY IN MEXICO

La Cronica De Hoy (Mexico City) 8-2-10

Four people freed from kidnapping

Monterrey, N. L. – State authorities reported that this morning, elements from a reaction force freed four victims of a kidnapping found in a house in Colonia Sierra Ventana in the southern part of this city.

Responding to an anonymous tip, elements of the military, federal and state authorities raided a house and found the four victims, all men, who had been beaten all about the body, with hands and feet tied and blindfolded.

http://www.cronica.com.mx/nota.php?id_nota=522922

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Commandant of State Police murdered

Hermosillo, Sonora – The Commandant of the State Investigative Police, Jesus Fernando de la Cruz Rojo, was killed by gunfire as he walked in a park with his family.

At least three men got out of a Jeep Cherokee and fired 9mm and 38 Super rounds into the Chief.

http://www.cronica.com.mx/nota.php?id_nota=522928

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Correo (Leon, Guanajuato) 8-2-10

More than 400,000 Mexicans in Arizona are without papers

Mexico, D.F. (7-30-10) – A full 88.6 percent of the Hispanic population of the state (Arizona) was born in Mexico.

Between 400,000 and 530,000 residents of Arizona are residing without documents, according to the Secretary of Foreign Relations (SRE). One million, eight hundred thousand Arizonans are of Mexican origin.

Officially responding to the implication of SB-1070, SRE states that 88.6% of the Hispanic population is originally from Mexico.

As of this date, there have been 7 requests for injunctions against the law. Included are requests from the Department of Justice, ACLU and MALDEF.

The Secretary of Foreign Relations reports that between January and June of this year, 1,047 unaccompanied minors were deported from Arizona to Mexico.

Authorities in Arizona, such as Sheriff Joe Arpaio, are continuing operations against Mexicans although SB-1070 has been stopped.

Many of our countrymen have decided to leave jobs, to abandon homes they are paying for, and to leave the lives they have in the American Union.

Ramiro Hernandez, originally from Guanajuato, says that in light of what’s happening, he is thinking of returning to Guanajuato because for the last two years it has been difficult to find work.

http://correo-gto.com.mx/notas.asp?id=174720

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El Debate (Culiacan, Sinaloa) 8-2-10

Culiacan tops the list of women murdered

Culiacan – According to the Sinaloa Institute for Women, as of the 15th of July, there have been 65 women murdered in Sinaloa this year. Culiacan heads the list with 26 homicides of women.

Since 2009, the number of female homicides declined with a total of 73 for the whole year of 2009. The report showed that the ages of the women ranged from 17 to 58 years and that the primary cause of death was from gunshot wounds.

http://www.debate.com.mx/eldebate/Articulos/ArticuloGeneral.asp?IdArt=10075826&IdCat=6087

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Two executed; message left

Los Mochis – The bodies of two executed individuals were found on the side of Mexican Highway 15 approximately one kilometer from Juan Jose Rios.

The bodies were dead from gunshots and are unidentified.

Authorities found a message left at the scene which read, “For robbing convenience stores and gasoline stations.”

http://www.debate.com.mx/eldebate/Articulos/ArticuloPrimera.asp?IdArt=10076478&IdCat=6087

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Police request .50 caliber barrets

Culiacan – The Secretary of the Public Security Police is preparing a new request for arms for seven cities in the struggle against organized crime and violence.

The Director of The Co-ordination of Federal, State and Municipal Law Enforcement Agencies, Luis Alberto Sainz Fierro, asked that police be included in the federal law to allow police to use high caliber arms such as the anti-aircraft Barret .50 Caliber Rifle.

The government official explained that the acquisition of this type of weapon is justified for state special elite forces and reaction groups.

He acknowledged that the law already allows for the purchase of grenades and Barrets but as of this moment has not offered a proposal to obtain these sophisticated arms.

Sainz Fierro stated that the purchase of rifles and pistols is just in the first phase.

http://www.debate.com.mx/eldebate/Articulos/ArticuloGeneral.asp?IdArt=10075936&IdCat=6087

El Diario De Juarez (Cd. Juarez, Chihuahua) 8-2-10

Remittances down 4.07 percent

Mexico, D. F. –Remittances from Mexicans outside the country declined 4.07 percent in the first half of this year, reported the Central Bank.

Funds sent to Mexico from January to June of this year amounted to 10.627 billion dollars compared to this same period last year which was 11.078 billion dollars, according to a Monday report issued by the Banco de Mexico on its internet site.

The remittances are from all over the United States and the amount of money is second only to the exportation of petroleum.

Mexico is the principal recipient of remittances in Latin America.

http://www.diario.com.mx/nota.php?notaid=1edee8e480453cbdb7fd904740e650ed

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-end of report-

http://m3report.wordpress.com/

I still haven’t found much on this ‘incident’ except by the original source.

There is this today:

Car bomb rocks government offices in Tamaulipas, Mexico
By the CNN Wire Staff
August 6, 2010

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/08/05/mexico.bomb/#fbid=erNRB5z5PRB&wom=true

(CNN) — A car bomb rocked the headquarters of the Tamaulipas State Public Safety complex in Ciudad Victoria, Mexico, the agency said Thursday. No one was hurt; two police cars were damaged, it said in a news release.

Authorities said the explosion, which occurred at 5:20 p.m., appeared to have emanated from inside a white compact car in a parking lot behind the building, near the offices of the Rural Police.

Agents with the Mexican federal police are investigating the blast, which was felt inside the building.

Thursday’s incident marks at least the third recent incident involving explosives near the Mexico-U.S. border. Last month, a car bomb killed four people in Juarez, where police and rescuers had responded to assist an injured person dressed in a police uniform.

Last Friday, an explosion rocked the parking lot of a TV station in Nuevo Laredo on the night that Televisa TV network faded its signal to black for almost an hour to call attention to the escalating violence in Mexico.

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