Pubdate: Mon, 16 Aug 2010
Source: El Paso Times (TX)
Copyright: 2010 El Paso Times
Contact: http://www.elpasotimes.com/townhall/ci_14227323
Website: http://www.elpasotimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/829
Author: Diana Washington Valdez, Daniel Borunda

BULLETIN WARNED OF DRUG VIOLENCE IN EL PASO

City police radio dispatchers Sunday alerted officers about potential
violence in El Paso stemming from Mexican drug cartel rivalries.

Detective Mike Baranyay said the bulletin sent out over the police
radio frequency was based on unconfirmed intelligence that police
received from the Alliance for Combating Transnational Threats.

Baranyay said he could not release what was in the bulletin because it
was coded "law enforcement sensitive," but the broadcast that
dispatchers repeated several times on Sunday mentioned Joaquin "Chapo"
Guzman Loera, plans for a kidnapping in El Paso, the Aztecas gang and
an alleged hit man nicknamed "Carnicero" (butcher).

Officials have linked the Aztecas gang to the Carrillo Fuentes drug
cartel, which is battling Guzman's drug organization for control of
Juarez and the rest of Chihuahua state.

According to the just-released "2010 Mid-Year Report on Drug
Violence," Chihuahua state has the highest number of murders that
officials have attributed to the drug wars.

Between January and June, Chihuahua state had the highest number of
slayings (1,665), and Sinaloa state had the second highest number
(1,221), according to the report. Last year, Chihuahua accounted for
31 percent of the drug violence, Sinaloa 12 percent, while the states
of Guerrero and Durango states each reported 10 percent of the crimes.

The report said it is difficult to verify the Mexican government's
claim that 90 percent of all murders involve people with some kind of
role in the drug trade because officials will not release details
about the victims.

Part of the problem is that "not all homicide victims are properly
identified, since authorities often fail to fully investigate
drug-related homicides and (drug-trafficking organizations) sometimes
eliminate all evidence of murders," the report said.

Researchers for the report relied on official statistics, plus a
database compiled by Mexico's Reforma newspaper.

The report also tracked data from 1950 to 2007, and noted an overall
decline in Mexico's homicide rates. This trend changed when the
current drug wars began.

Drug-related violence also increased, from 27.5 percent of all violent
crimes in 2007 to 36.8 percent in 2009 and to 42.7 percent in 2009.
"This is a staggering shift," the report said. "This is a development
that presents serious concerns for policymakers and the Mexican public
at large."

Recently, two federal government agencies reported significantly
different figures for the country's death toll from the drug wars.

For example, the Mexican Center for Research and National Security
(CISEN) reported about 28,000 deaths, compared to the federal Attorney
General's Office (PGR) figure of 24,826 -- a difference of 3,174.
Neither agency explained the discrepancy.

The violence raged on during the weekend in Juarez with more than 40
people killed, including 19 on Friday. Sunday's violence included mass
shootings at two separate gatherings at homes.

At about 1 a.m. Sunday, gunmen stormed into a party firing 72 rounds,
killing five people and wounding three others at a home in the
Infonavit Solidaridad neighborhood, Chihuahua state police said.

Three victims died at the scene and two others died at a hospital.
Police identified the victims in that attack as Jesus Manuel Reyna
Lopez, 23, Aristeo Reyna Martinez, 47, Luis Gerardo Soto Lopez, 18,
Marcelo Sida Ruiz, 30, and Ricardo Rayos Hernandez, 19.

Gunmen attacked a second gathering on Sunday afternoon, shooting
several men and women, but the exact number of dead had not been confirmed.

Elsewhere in Chihuahua, authorities reported the shooting death of
Jose Luis Amaya Portillo, the mayor-elect of Jimenez. He belonged to
the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

In Chihuahua City, the capital, police found two human heads in ice
chests tied with red ribbons. One was found Friday and the second one
early Sunday.
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MAP posted-by: Matt