Isn't That The Truth?

News From Behind The Front

It's not unusual for "hitmen" to go to a hospital to finish the job when someone is only wounded and survives the assassination attempt. When the military arrived in Juarez they were protecting the hospital that was treating the wounded police commander. Now that he has been transferred to a U.S. level 1 trauma center, law enforcement here has gone on alert and are guarding the commander.

Thomason Hospital was placed on "lockdown" Wednesday by El Paso and federal law enforcement authorities guarding a Chihuahua police commander who survived an assassination attempt.

El Paso police and sheriff's deputies stood guard outside the hospital with assault rifles. Doors were locked, and all visitors went through a metal detector in unusually tight security for the county hospital.

Cmdr. Fernando Lozano Sandoval of the Chihuahua State Investigations Agency is being treated at Thomason after surviving a mob-style ambush that occurred Monday night while he drove on a Juárez street.

Lozano, 51, had been in critical but stable condition in a Juárez hospital, where he was guarded by heavily armed Mexican soldiers. Tuesday evening, at the request of his family, he was transferred by ambulance to Thomason, Juárez authorities said.

The lockdown, which will continue for an undetermined amount of time, was ordered early Wednesday by officials with the El Paso Police Department, the El Paso County Sheriff's Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

You can read the entire story here. I think I'll watch Traffic tonight.

Dilbert Fans Rejoice

This is a great widget for Dilbert lovers. Plus it's "official" and the strips are in full color. This will replace my "unofficial" widget.

More News From The Front

Not an uncommon occurrence but also not just a coincidence.

Slaying of Juárez police official is 2nd in two days
Article Launched: 01/22/2008 12:12:13 AM MST

A Juárez police commander was gunned down and killed Monday morning when more than 35 shots were fired during a mob-style shooting outside his home, police said.

Francisco Ledezma Salazar was the second municipal police official killed in Juárez in two days. On Sunday morning, Lt. Julian Chairez Hernandez was fatally shot by men who strafed his patrol car.

Late Monday, another police commander was hospitalized after being shot, Channel 26-KINT (cable Channel 2) reported.

At 7:44 a.m., Ledezma Salazar had gotten into the driver seat of a Ford Expedition to go to work when shooters in a minivan opened fire with a "cuerno de chivo" -- the nickname for an AK-47, Chihuahua state investigators said in news release. He died at the scene. Police said Ledezma Salazar's wife, who was inside the home, was shot in a foot.

Juárez police spokesman Jaime Torres said that Ledezma Salazar was in uniform and on his way to a morning meeting of police commanders. Ledezma Salazar was director of operations for the city public safety office.

"Unfortunately, it's a situation where working as part of the police force is a constant danger," Torres said.

Torres said it was unknown if there is a link between the shootings of Ledezma Salazar and Chairez Hernandez. The homicides come a week after U.S. federal agents arrested former Juárez police director Saulo Reyes Gamboa on drug-trafficking charges in El Paso.

The killings have Juárez police being asked to take "extreme precautions," including reporting any threats, suspicious vehicles and making sure no officers patrol alone.

Resistance

This is what I've been doing when everyone else goes to bed for the evening. No wonder I'm tired.

Blue Harvest

Since I missed this last year, I may have to break down and buy this DVD.

Rudy 0 Pundits 1

From Mercury

As MESSENGER approached Mercury on January 14, 2008, the spacecraft’s Narrow-Angle Camera on the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) instrument captured this view of the planet’s rugged, cratered landscape illuminated obliquely by the Sun. The large, shadow-filled, double ringed crater to the upper right was glimpsed by Mariner 10 more than three decades ago and named Vivaldi, after the Italian composer. Its outer ring has a diameter of about 200 kilometers (about 125 miles). MESSENGER’s modern camera has revealed detail that was not well seen by Mariner 10, including the broad ancient depression overlapped by the lower-left part of the Vivaldi crater. The MESSENGER science team is in the process of evaluating later images snapped from even closer range showing features on the side of Mercury never seen by Mariner 10. It is already clear that MESSENGER’s superior camera will tell us much that could not be resolved even on the side of Mercury viewed by Mariner’s vidicon camera in the mid-1970s.

This MESSENGER image was taken from a distance of about 18,000 kilometers (11,000 miles), about 56 minutes before the spacecraft's closest encounter with Mercury. It shows a region roughly 500 kilometers (300 miles) across, and craters as small as 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) can be seen in this image.

I wish I could snap my fingers and be able to actually jump to any location such as another planet to take in the sites. Kind of like in Contact but without the machine.

News From The Front

Sometimes I think no news is good news.

Juárez's Homicide Rate Doubles In New Year
El Paso Times
Article Launched: 01/15/2008 12:00:00 AM MST

Four men were killed in Juárez early Monday, continuing what has been a particularly bloody beginning of the year in Juárez.

With the shootings, there have been 24 homicides in Juárez in the first 14 days of 2008 -- or 1.7 homicide per day, double the average of 0.8 homicides per day last year. In comparison, there has only been one homicide in El Paso since Jan. 1.

Many of the victims in Juárez were young men and died in what appeared to be drug- and gang-related incidents.

"These problems between organized groups of criminals are very difficult to prevent. It's something going on between them," said Juárez municipal police spokesman Jaime Torres.

The last four homicides stem from two separate incidents Monday.

In the first, Juárez police said that they were called to the scene of a gun fight on Zafra and Cruz streets at about 4:40 a.m. They said they found the bodies of three unidentified men next to a blue, 1991 Plymouth Voyager. The men ranged in age from about 17 to about 30. Police said they think two of the three men were brothers. They died of bullet wounds.

At about 5 a.m., police went to the scene of another reported gun fight and found the body of a 30- to 35-year-old man wrapped in a brown blanket at the corner of Cotija and Caracuaro streets. The man, also unidentified Monday afternoon, died of gunshot wounds.

And this sounds like a Clint Eastwood or Akira Kurosawa movie hero should intervene since it seems the police or government aren't doing anything.

Juarenses Protest Neighborhood's Treatment
El Paso Times
Article Launched: 01/15/2008 12:00:00 AM MST

Four years after Juarenses and a Mexican industrialist squared off over a patch of land called Lomas de Poleo, little has changed, residents and supporters said Monday at a protest in front of the Mexican Consulate in El Paso.

The neighborhood on a mesa in west Juárez is still topped by a guard tower, surrounded by barbed wire, guarded by hired men and left without electricity. Residents and media reports blamed Juárez industrialist Pedro Zaragoza for harassing the residents, with whom he has a legal battle over the land.

Petra Medrano, who has been living in Lomas de Poleo for 15 years, said she lives in fear of the volatile young men who are acting as guards, denying entry to the neighborhood to anyone they please.

"We are afraid to leave Lomas de Poleo because nobody would be looking after our house. Recently, they have been robbing us," she said. "When we leave, they let in some young men who take everything from our houses."

About 35 people protested in El Paso, while a similar protest took place at the U.S. Consulate in Juárez. In El Paso, protesters gave a letter to Mexican consular officials who said they would pass it on to the federal agency in charge of land deals.

You can read an older story about Lomas de Poleo here.

Time To Go Back To Work

After an extended vacation, it has been difficult getting back into the correct mindset for work. Read "I really don't want to be here." But there are bills to be paid and mouths to be fed, and since I still haven't struck it rich on the Lotto, it's back to the grindstone and blogging of course.

This just in...how about taking your next vacation here?