El Diario de Coahuila (Saltillo, Coahuila) 4/1/08
Organized Mexican narco traffic has succeeded in virtually occupying Guatemala after creating powerful and dangerous organizations of Guatemalans to smuggle Colombian cocaine to Mexico and the U.S. and by penetrating a series of strategic political, business, police, security and judicial systems. Allied in the multimillion dollar business of narco traffic, Mexicans and Guatemalans have cast a web of corruption that brought death, fear and silence in Guatemala. “If we say that Mexico is a narco state, Guatemala is a criminal state,” said Iduvina Hernandez, director of Security in Democracy, a nongovernmental organization. “Guatemala suffers a transnational siege by organized crime.” The crisis of the incursion in Guatemala by the Sinaloa, Tijuana, Gulf and Juarez cartels, among others, was revealed last Tuesday with the gun battle between narco groups in a town east of Guatemala City that left 11 dead. “The slaughter put in headlines a reality that was a secret for too long,” added Hernandez.
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El Universal (Mexico City) 4/1/08
1. Four municipal police and a public official died of gunshots in an ambush by an armed group in Ayutla, Guerrero. The public Security and Protection Agency (SSPPC) reported that five police officers and two public officials traveling in a patrol vehicle were fired upon yesterday resulting in the five deaths and two wounded. The attackers then took their money and firearms.
2. In Ocampo, Guanajuato, after an 18-hour search, police and military located the bodies of three executed smugglers after a fourth one reported the killings. The group of four had been attacked by an armed group and left for dead. However, one was only wounded and made the report. The police later arrested two suspects. “The victims and the aggressors were involved in the illegal traffic of people destined to the U.S.,” the official noted.
3. In crimes related to organized crime yesterday, four people, one of them a 15-year-old, were killed in Sinaloa, two in Durango, two in Morelos and another who died from a shooting last Friday, and six in Chihuahua. In Tabasco, a police chief was wounded and his neighbors’ houses shot up when gunmen fired some 80 rounds at him.
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El Imparcial (Hermosillo, Sonora) 4/1/08
1. The Mexican government will send a delegation to Nicaragua to plan the transfer of eight members of the Sinaloa drug cartel confined in a maximum security prison near Managua. The “special commission” will arrive in Managua within the next 20 days to coordinate the transfer of the prisoners to Mexico to complete their sentences. Some 21 members of the Sinaloa cartel, including the eight Mexicans, have been confined since last April serving sentences of 10 to 22 years. The group was convicted of drug trafficking and possession of restricted firearms. The Sinaloa cartel had bought a ranch 40 miles north of Managua where they constructed a clandestine landing strip to transport drugs from South America. The petition for the transfer was made by the Mexican government which has great interest in having their nationals complete their sentences in Mexico where they are considered “high risk.” The group had failed in an escape attempt last October.
2. The Mexican government sent a diplomatic note of protest to the U.S. regarding the Supreme Court decision rejecting the judgment of the International Court of Justice to revise the death sentences of 51 Mexicans in the U.S. The message informed the U.S. that Mexico reserves the right to continue pursuing, by all means available, respect for the international Court’s decision.
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La Voz de la Frontera (Mexicali, Baja California) 4/1/08
The states of Jalisco and Zacatecas are Mexico’s principal suppliers of cheap underage labor to the U.S. In the past five years, the flight of minors has continued to increase due to a lack of economic opportunity as well as the lack of hope for improved conditions. These kids often cross the border intending to work a few months, but then do not return home until after they become adults. An investigative report by the University of Guadalajara stated, “unfortunately, when minors cross the border they nearly always end up in juvenile prostitution, drugs and frequently kidnapped by smugglers. Some return, but others die and no one knows under what circumstances.”
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Excelsior (Mexico City) 4/1/08
An encounter between police and military in Juarez, Chihuahua resulted in one policeman gravely wounded. In the confrontation, six municipal police were arrested for transporting marihuana and use of unauthorized firearms. The incident took place shortly after midnight today when the police vehicle refused to stop for a military inspection. The soldiers then opened fire.
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Norte (Cd. Juarez) 4/1/08
In an op/ed, a columnist who goes by the name Don Mirone writes, in part, that along with the military operation in Juarez, there will be more attention given to the importation of firearms from the U.S. The port of entry into Juarez is one of the principal points of crossing of such weapons. He claims that “hundreds of assault rifles, pistols and even .50 caliber machine guns pass through the port. He refers to an arrest of three men in El Paso on March 23 having to do with a load of 24 firearms they had acquired in different sales places that they intended to cross over the border. He also cites two men arrested in Mexico on March 25 who had come through the crossing at Santa Teresa with 17 firearms and thousands of cartridges without incident at customs. He calls for increased vigilance by Mexican authorities.
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