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.