Pubdate: Wed, 01 Sep 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: Adriana Gomez Licon JUAREZ VIOLENCE PERSISTS: AUGUST DEADLIEST MONTH WITH 322 KILLED In murderous Juarez, August was especially deadly. The summer month had more homicides than any other month since drug cartels began fighting a turf war in 2008. As of Tuesday night, 322 people had been murdered in August. Before this month, the deadliest had been June, when 313 people were slain, and August 2009, with 315. "It has been a violent month," said Carlos Gonzalez, spokesman for the Chihuahua state attorney general's office. "The statistics unfortunately reflect it." On Tuesday, gunmen attacked a family party about 3 p.m. and killed four people, three of whom were siblings. Chihuahua state police reported that the four killed were Jesus Juarez Lopez, 36; Leticia Corral Nevares, 17; Julio Corral Nevares, between 25 and 30; and Arturo Corral Nevares, between 27 and 30. Gonzalez said more than 90 percent of the city's homicides are related to drugs. The statistics, however, never show whether victims were bystanders. Details surrounding murders are almost always unclear because almost all cases go unresolved. Juarez has been the epicenter of the war on drugs that Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared in December 2006. The murder rate began to rise in 2008, when the Sinaloa drug-cartel kingpin Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman arrived in the border city to fight Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, who heads the Juarez cartel. Brutal attacks and beheadings are now common occurrences in Juarez. The government has used different strategies to curtail drug-cartel violence and crack down on gangs. Thousands of soldiers were deployed to Juarez beginning in March 2008. The military force grew to 7,000 soldiers afterward. They patrolled the city and responded to murder scenes, but the federal government said it was a temporary measure. Calderon visited Juarez three times this year to launch a social plan with 160 promises, including public safety, education and the economy. Because of the presidential visits, Juarez residents formed committees to help solve the crisis of violence. Members of the public-safety committee have said that local, state and federal law enforcement have abused human rights. Chihuahua state representative Victor Quintana Silveyra accused the military of many of the human-rights violations earlier this year. The government then turned to its federal police force to patrol the city. In April, thousands of federal agents arrived in the border city, increasing the corps to 4,500 officers. Since then, they have become the targets of many ambushes. Nationwide, federal police have fired 3,200 agents, almost 10 percent of its force, this year in a housecleaning effort to root out corruption. About 1,000 agents faced disciplinary sanctions. Facing corruption charges are 465 officers, including four commanders in Juarez whose firings were prompted earlier in August by a federal police protest. Jose Ramon Salinas, spokes man for the Mexican federal police, said the agency rotates agents every two months to other cities to prevent corruption within the force. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D