July 6, 2008
NAFBPO
Two reports from NAFBPO today:
Mexico’s Organized Crime Death Rate Sets New Records
and 
Narco-related Homicides continue to increase in Mexico and Central American  

Diario de Yucatan (Merida, Yucatan), Diario de Coahuila (Saltillo, Coah.), El Universal (Mexico City) 7/5/08
Mexico’s organized crime death tally has now gone over 2,000 for this year. In comparison, the first semester of 2005 reached 677; in 2006 it was 1,003 in the same period ; and in 2007 the number was 1,410. The first six months of this year reached 1,935 executions. Since President Calderon took office (on Dec. 1, 2006) there have now been 4,867 executions and this year’s current figure is 2,017. Just yesterday there were 21, of whom eight were police officers.

El  Debate  (Culiacan, Sinaloa)  7/5/08 
Nine persons were murdered in the state of Sinaloa yesterday (note: this includes the three decapitated ones mentioned above). Two state police officers and a civilian were executed with “goat’s horns” (read: AK47) on a street corner in Culiacan; elsewhere in town a faith healer was also murdered and in Guamuchil two young men were also killed.

-   Op/Column by Antonio de Mendieta titled “Do you know why there’s corruption in Mexico?” follows:
Perhaps you might not believe it but a psychological study, in which participants were offered anonymity, reached the conclusion that everyday citizens like corruption. That is to say, corruption in this country is very deep, beyond that of immoral public officials.

The Mexican citizen carries corruption within his social, moral and psychological roots. That way I can bribe if I don’t stop at a stop sign, if I want a phony license, if I want a false title, if I need a fake invoice to evade taxes, if I give to the (meter) inspector so I won’t have to pay for my utilities, etc.
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El Heraldo  (Tegucigalpa, Honduras)  7/4/08
 
(Note: the 1st paragraph of a long op/article by Gustavo Leon Gomez titled “A favorable system for corruption” follows):

In Honduras, we ask ourselves every day what we can do to reduce the levels of corruption. We also frequently discuss how we can achieve transparent electoral processes, and we daily question the failure to apply an endless number of laws that are approved in the National Congress and which have as an objective transparency and accountability by public officials.
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El Diario  (Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua)  7/4/08
 
Following are some headlines from today’s “Local” section:
-   El Paso mayor says it’s safe to visit Juarez
-   Man shot in the face during assault
-   Assailants mistake identity and shoot a man
-   Vehicle burned
-   Man riddled by gunfire in the street
-   Another one volleyed by gunfire; that makes two
-   Died strangled
-   Riddled victim owed a murder
-   Two men killed; one was a guard
-   Man chased and killed
-   1,389 cars stolen in June
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Norte  (Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua)  7/4/08
 
The number of homicides taking place in this city (Juarez) has reached nine so far this month, an average of three a day.
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Diario de Yucatan   (Merida, Yucatan) , El Debate  (Culiacan, Sinaloa)  7/4/08
 
Rafael Rivas, who was kidnapped Wednesday and was head of the Sinaloa state police section combating auto theft, was found dead from several .45 cal. impacts. His body was dumped and “wrapped.”

His execution brought Culiacan’s death tally up to six “in the last few hours.” Also in the area, two men were riddled by gunfire and another victim was found tied and wrapped in a blanket. And at noon, between Guasave and Guamuchil, two more victims were found; their faces had been destroyed by gunfire. Elsewhere, in Saltillo, Coahuila, the bodies of two men dressed in army uniforms were found. A warning notice was left with those two, threatening other individuals by name. (The photo attachment to this report shows those last two victims.)
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El Sur  (Acapulco, Guerrero) , El Universal (Mexico City) 7/4/08
 
-    Starting last Wednesday the 2nd there were four executions, including that of a lawyer, in a 14 hour period in Mexico City and surrounding Distrito Federal. And six men were executed in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, in different events.

-    Central American police forces are famous for corruption, torture and abuses which could affect their participation in the Merida Initiative, the U.S. plan to combat organized crime in Mexico and Central America. Besides “soiling” police and security agencies and the military of the isthmus, organized crime has been able to infiltrate sensitive strata of the judicial, customs, immigration and penal systems.

More than 500 men have been expelled from Guatemala’s 19 thousand police force in 2007 and 2008. Costa Rica was shaken a few days ago when three police officers detained four young men and turned them over to a narcomafia which murdered two of them. The El Salvador police of 16,500 has been accused of complicity with gangsters and organized; in Honduras, police is said to be infiltrated by narcomafia.
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La Prensa Grafica  (San Salvador, El Salvador)  7/4/08
 
The daily homicide average in El Salvador is nine. (El Salvador is slightly smaller than Massachusetts)
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La Cronica de Hoy  (Mexico City)  7/4/08   -Notimex-    (Transl.)
 
The “Permanent Committee” (of Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies (House of Representatives)) expressed its energetic condemnation of the anti migratory policy of the United States government, which has violated the human rights of immigrants in the police roundups carried out in that country. For that reason, it asked the federal Executive that the Foreign Relations Dep’t. and the consular offices in the United States act to safeguard the human rights of co-nationals detained in the roundups. It also requested the Hispanic legislators of the United States House of Representatives to continue their efforts of protection for Latin American immigrants.

The Permanent Commission explained that the problem facing the Mexicans have become more acute, “loosening problems every day more serious, and affecting the corporal integrity of thousands of migrants.”

Operation “Streamline” carried out by the Border Patrol is an expression of the hardening of American immigration policy, since it allows the arrest up to 190 days of those who repeat their attempt at crossing the border. For that reason, the Mexican authorities must furnish legal assistance to those co-nationals who may need it and follow up the judicial status of the detainees in the United States to safeguard their fundamental rights.
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Excelsior  (Mexico City)  7/4/08
 
-   A total of 79 persons from Costa Rica, Peru, Honduras and El Salvador and their two smugglers were detained at dawn today (Fri.) in the state of Tabasco when they were attempting to reach Mexico City and then continue their travel to the northern border. The group was in two trucks.
-   Two more city police officers were executed in Aguascalientes, Ags.
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NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS
Visit our website:  http://www.nafbpo.org
The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis.

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