Borderfire Report

National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers
The Honduran Chancellor (Secretary of State) has announced that some ten countries have been moved from the “consulted visa” category to the “consular visa” list.

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.

El Heraldo (Tegucigalpa, Honduras)  4/2/09

(Honduras has a two-tier system for issuing visas to foreigners: a “consular visa” is issued at the discretion of Honduran consuls to persons of certain countries. A “consulted visa” requires that visas for persons of certain other countries must first be approved by the Department of Foreign Relations in Honduras)

The Honduran Chancellor (Secretary of State) has announced that some ten countries have been moved from the “consulted visa” category to the “consular visa” list. They include India, China, Russia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Arab Emirates “and other African countries with which we have fundamental relations.” (The policy change was widely condemned in readers’ commentaries; they are seen as one more opportunity for corruption at the consular offices and for the facilitation of means of access for persons from those countries to reach the United States.)

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Cambio de Michoacan  (Morelia, Michoacan)  4/2/09

*    Referring to the “violent events” which have been taking place lately in Michoacan, the new president of Michoacan’s chapter of Mexico’s Managers’ Assoc. refrained from recommending Michoacan as a destination for tourists and said “May God find them after they have recently gone to confession.”

*    A passing driver alerted police in Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan, that there was a “practically destroyed” body on the city’s approach highway. The body had fallen after having been hung from an overhead bridge and had then been run over by a truck. A second dead victim, previously tortured, was still hanging from the bridge. Michoacan has now had ten homicides in the first two days of the month

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Reforma  (Mexico City)  4/2/09

Vicente Carrillo Leyva, “The Engineer”, one of the heads of the Juarez Cartel and son of the legendary crime boss Amado Carrillo Fuentes, “The Lord of the Heavens”, was arrested yesterday by 120 army and Mex. Dep’t. of Justice personnel. He was one of the country’s recently advertised “most wanted” and there was a 30 million pesos reward for information leading to his capture.

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Entorno a Tamaulipas  (Matamoros, Tamps.)  4/2/09

When the Mayor of Tampico, Tamps., was questioned at a press conference regarding recent shootouts in the city, he replied that far from being detrimental they can be beneficial for Tampico because in this way the citizenry and the tourists can realize the work that federal forces carry out in the area.

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Frontera (Tijuana, Baja Calif.)  4/2/09

*  Rommel Moreno, Baja Calif.’s Attorney General said that homicides and kidnappings carried out by minors are ever more numerous and have increased 15% in the last few months.

*  After Mexican Army officials summoned some Tijuana police officers for questioning four of them fled and a temporary detention order is being prepared for two others because of their links with organized crime. Six others are already in a maximum security prison. Two others resigned in late March and eight others late in 2008.

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La Jornada (Mexico City)  4/2/09

“Nine executions are reported in four states due to organized crime battles.” Today at least nine persons were murdered in events which took place in the states of Mexico, Veracruz, Sinaloa and Chihuahua. Three of them died in Veracruz; in the state of Mexico the two victims were found with hands and feet tied. They’d been finished off with a coup de grace.

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Norte (Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua)  4/2/09

*  In Juarez 80 percent of robbers and assailants are between 16 and 18 years of age; 204 minors were arrested for a variety of crimes during the first quarter of the year. Criminologist Oscar Maynez said “ The criminals of tomorrow are already here, they are the young men, the problem is that this city is designed to make criminals out of the young.” “The youths are not the cause of the problem but just a symptom of the lack of interest by society for several decades.” “The youths are not the problem but they are growing up in very unfavorable surroundings and with lack of education.”

*  The month of March ended in Juarez with 74 homicides, 43 less than in the same month of 2008 but still higher than the total for the first quarter of last year.

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Novedades de Quintana Roo (Cancun, Q.R.)  4/2/09

*  Beginning April 15 new security measures will be carried out in Cancun including the detention of vehicles occupied by three men, or vehicles with out-of-state plates or with tinted windows. The Mayor said these measures are to reinforce the battle against organized crime and to combat it within the city.

*   “We have your daughter, if you value her life you have to deposit ten thousand pesos in the account number we’ll give you, do not inform the authorities because otherwise we’ll kill her…..” This is one of the threats that have increased drastically in the city. Extortion attempts reached 1,160 cases in 2008 and during the first quarter of this year they have already reached 511.

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