Serious Crime Levels Reaching New Heights in Central America NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERSVisit our website: http://www.nafbpo.org Sign up for our report at
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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.
La Hora (Guatemala City, Guatemala) 2/19/08
A profound crisis of violence in Guatemala was denounced in a report presented yesterday to a visiting special representative of the U.N.'s Secretary General. The report by the Myrna Mack Foundation shows there were 25,700 violent deaths in Guatemala in the last five years, an average of 41.8 per 100,000 population, making the area one of the most violent in Latin America.
The report added that the Guatemalan system of justice has become "a fountain of impunity" due to that level of criminality and the resulting diminished governmental performance and corruption of many governmental functionaries.
Guatemala's daily murder rate rose from 9 in 2002 to 17 at the present time.
El Heraldo (Tegucigalpa, Honduras) 2/19/08
January 2008 exceeded 2007's violence in Honduras; just last Sunday there were 16 kidnappings, and last month 133 persons were murdered. The regional director of Forensic Medicine said that, as an institution, their systems are collapsing; dawn brought ten more cadavers.
Last year there were 1,200 homicides in Honduras' Sula valley but only 134 cases have been presented for prosecution since last July and of those only 40 have met prosecutorial requirements..
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La Prensa Grafica (San Salvador, El Salvador) 2/19/08
El Salvador's Central Reserve Bank reported that January's individual monetary remittances into El Salvador from the U.S. reached 272.5 million dollars. These remittances represent 18.1% of El Salvador's GNP.
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Cambio de Michoacan (Morelia, Michoacan) 2/19/08
Two executions yesterday in Michoacan: a car-to-car assault rifle barrage of "at least" 50 impacts ended a man's life in Tocumbo. And in Ziracuaretiro, a 26 yr. old was found on a railroad bridge; his throat had been slashed.
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El Debate (Culiacan Sinaloa) 2/19/08
At Elota, (halfway between Mazatlan and Culiacan) two men were shot to death Sunday evening, Seventeen rounds were found at the site. And in Angostura, a personal bodyguard of the state's governor was found dead, shot in the head.
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El Diario de Coahuila (Torreon, Coahuila), Vanguardia (Saltillo, Coah.) 2/19/08
(apparently all reports are not in on this one:) There was a 2 to 3 hour long shootout in Torreon at a "safe house" this morning, narco traffickers on one side, Mex. federal agents and military on the other. A photo accompanying the article shows a house heavily impacted by gunfire. An unknown number of weapons have been seized and five arrests were made. There were two (or three) dead and three wounded.
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Diario (Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua) 2/19/08
1. At Palomas, Chihuahua (note: right across the border from Columbus, New Mexico) an Escalade SUV was intercepted at 0230 by two other vehicles; then came another car-to-car gunfire barrage which left three men dead in the SUV; a fourth one was taken to Columbus for emergency medical treatment.
This brings to ten the number of executions in that northwest corner of the state of Chihuahua.
2. (note: on 2/16/08 we reported on the disappearance of Juarez police officer Juan Hernandez Sanchez)
Parts of the uniform and other clothing of Juarez city police officer Juan Hernandez Sanchez have now been found in an empty lot. They were bloodstained. There was also some duct tape with the clothing.
3. An editorial page cartoon shows two men talking. The first one says: "How about that ! Narcotraffic is decimated; they just arrested 21 mafiosi, Yeah ! " And the response from the other man: "Hmm...That's the way it goes. Now the only thing we need is that they arrest another ten thousand four hundred ninety of them."
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El Imparcial (Hermosillo, Sonora) 2/19/08
1. In Obregon, Sonora, a judge failed a narcotics detection test; so did two inspectors of the city's "Vigilance and Inspection" section. A fourth city employee who works in the city treasury also flunked.
2. Mexico's Secretary of Defense, Guillermo Galvan Galvan, acknowledged that narcotraffic and organized crime "represent a real danger to everyone's health and safety." During ceremonies marking the "Day of the Mexican Army", Galvan said "they will not take one step backward " against those organizations which aim "to build crime empires."
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El Comercio (Lima, Peru) 2/19/08
At the airport in Lima a 23 year old Mexican was caught trying to leave the country with 13.4 kilos of cocaine. He was arrested and taken to jail but on his way to a cell he managed to grab the jail officer's pistol and shoot him on the shoulder. He then shot himself on the head and died.
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El Universal (Mexico City) 2/19/08
A nationwide summary digest of crime by this paper began: "In the last few hours, the wave of violence which flogs the country resulted in the execution of 14 men executed by firearms."
(note: some of these 14 have already been mentioned in the beginning of today's report; but there's more:)
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Milenio (Mexico City) 2/19/08
Incoming news item headings: - - Body of woman with eight bullet impacts found in Tamaulipas
- - Body of murdered man found in Acapulco
- - Vehicle of ex-Mayor of Jonuta, Tabasco state, shot at. One wounded but no deaths.
- - Eight kidnappers arrested in Mazatlan
- - Five marihuana traffickers caught with 350 kilos of weed in San Luis Rio Colorado (this is just so. of Yuma AZ)
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El Financiero (Mexico City) 2/19/08
In the Cuautehmoc area of mexico City, a man reached his house and got out of his car but at the same time several men in a passing vehicle opened fire on him. He died on the spot.
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O.E.M. (A large nationwide paper chain in Mexico) 2/19/08
In the opinion page, a column (referring to how long President Calderon has been in office) starts :
"Day 446. The mortality index began the week with a slight downturn, reaching a daily average of 7.89 deaths."
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-end of report-
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