Federal intelligence reports indicate that the Arellano Félix gang is backed by the Juárez cartel and the Beltrán Leyva brothers who are associated with Los Zetas, the paramilitary hit men. - 

A national poll of attitudes in Mexico regarding security and the war on drug traffic was conducted by El Universal with the following results:
- 52% feel that general crime has increased in the past six months;
- 74% consider that drug traffic crime has increased during the same period;
- 31% have experienced some crime against them or their families in the past year;
- 55% consider it likely that some member of their family will be a crime victim in the coming year;
- 53% feel that if they become a victim of crime, no one will be arrested;
- 63% feel that if the criminal is caught, the chance of punishment is "little to none".
        Regarding the government strategy against crime:
- 25 % feel it has had a positive effect;
- 27% believe it has had no effect;
- 42% believe it has created more insecurity. Nevertheless, there is a vote of confidence toward the authorities with half feeling they should persevere in the war against drug traffic, but 27% believe it would be better to negotiate with the narcotraffickers.
 
------- El Universo  (Guayaquil, Ecuador)  10/4/08
 
October's first charter flight of deportees arrived at the airport in Guayaquil, Ecuador on Oct. 3rd and  brought ninety-one Ecuadorans who had been deported from the United States.  [Note: a continuing considerable figure for a rather small country.]
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El Heraldo  (Tegucigalpa, Honduras)  10/4/08
 
The article begins : "Honduran families continue to suffer mourning because of the "American dream" ."
Milenio (Mexico City) 10/4/08
Gulf Cartel narco-banners appeared in the city of Oaxaca, state of Oaxaca, offering rewards for locating members of the rival cartel "La Familia" and threatening vengeance for the September 15 bombing in Morelia, Michoacán.  State officials are concerned and hope to avoid Oaxaca becoming a "new Michoacán," a state with a high level of crime violence.
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Sunday 10/5/08
La Hora  (Guatemala City, Guatemala)  10/5/08
 
[The last paragraph of the main editorial follows]:
Without a doubt, the most important issue is to break the umbilical cord between the National Civil Police and the gangs of criminals who operate in the country; there's no doubt that there has been at least cooperation and protection for them on the part of agents and chiefs of police, and that allows them to be able to operate not only without punishment but even in a high handed way because they know that they have in their favor the backing of those who ought to be prosecuting them. This is the first and most important step that a plan that offers security to the citizenry must have. Many things can be expected after that, but the first thing is that our agents not be people working on behalf of crime.
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El Universal (Mexico city) 10/5/08
Mexican authorities at the airport in Guadalajara, Jalisco seized a shipment of 7.2 million pseudoephedrine pills from an Air France plane arriving from Calcutta, India.  The drug is a component that can be used in making methamphetamine and was ordered eliminated last year by Mexico.
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La Crónica de Hoy (Mexico City) 10/5/08
Federal Police in Mexico City arrested Pedro Antonio Bermúdez, alias El Arquitecto, the presumed leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and linked to the trafficking of drugs from Colombia to Mexico.  Bermúdez, who has at least nine aliases, is linked to the jet plane that crashed in Yucatán in September, 2007 loaded with nearly four tons of cocaine.
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Monday 10/6/08
El Universal (Mexico City) 9/6/08
Gonzalo Marroquín, president of the Commission of Free Press and Information of the Inter-America Press Society (SIP) is calling for Mexican authorities to approve laws that punish crimes against journalists at the federal level.  Mexico is the most dangerous country in the Western Hemisphere to practice journalism, he asserts.  Juan Fernando Healy, director of the Healy News Group, pointed out during the assembly of the SIP in Madrid, Spain, that in six months, three journalists have become victims of murders because of the crime violence in Mexico.  The opening statement in today's editorial read: "Would Mexico be better if the activities of organized crime were not reported?  That is what criminals seek who assassinate journalists ..."  It continues in part, "It is not that we in the news media claim an impossible status of impunity from criminals, it is that they seek to destroy a substantive freedom that is a constitutional right: free press and the right of the citizenship to know what is happening, why it occurred and what is being done to correct the situation, that is, to restore order and live in peace."
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El Diario en Línea (Chihuahua) 10/6/08
Federal Police agents destroyed three fields containing 900,000 marihuana plants near Namiquipa, Chihuahua [center of the state].  The fields covered a total of 25 acres.
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El Porvenir (Monterrey, Nuevo León) 10/6/08
Mexico's National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH) reports an increase in kidnappings of undocumented migrants.  They assert that the kidnappings are linked to ex-police and crime groups who count on the complicity of the authorities of the states of Tabasco, Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas for impunity.  In many cases, the families of the migrants are subjected to extortion in order to gain freedom for their relatives.
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Milenio (Mexico City) 10/6/08
In 12 cities in the state of México, extortion and the selling of protection to business owners is a daily event.  Investigations indicate most of the crime is committed by the crime organization "La Famiia."  State enforcement officials estimate that there are up to 50 calls per day to business owners demanding money in exchange for security.  According to police, restaurants will likely become the next victims.  [the state surrounds the Federal District. ]
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Norte (Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua) 10/6/08
A rise in crime is anticipated by border towns such as Cd. Juárez as a result of increased deportations from the US and voluntary repatriations due to the financial insecurity in the US.  Unemployment rates of undocumented Latinos has increased in the US, causing many to return home.
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NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS Visit our website: http://www.nafbpo.org Foreign News Report 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. You are free to disseminate this information, but we request that you credit NAFBPO as being the provider. Saturday 10/4/08