Election day violence in Chihuahua

[Alpha Mare]

On election day, Sunday, Chihuahua recorded 10 executions in the capital city of the same name and another 12 in Ciudad Juarez. At least 24 murders were attributed to organized crime through out the state.

Between 3:00 and 4:00 AM in the state capital of Chihuahua 2 men were found hung from an overpass at the Tecnológico and Los Nogales intersection. One of the victims was identified by authorities as José Scott González, assistant warden of the CERESO prison in Chihuahua who had been abducted on Saturday.

Individual victims were also found hung from two other overpasses on the R.Almada expressway at the intersections with Zoología St. and Buena Vista St.

Also on Sunday the execution-style murder of 6 men occurred at the outskirts of the city of Chihuahua. The bodies were observed by passing motorists at 12 noon on the highway to the city of Delicias. All bore signs of torture before being shot.

The 12 murders in Ciudad Juarez were committed in 5 separate shooting incidents. In the Infonavit Mil Cumbres neighborhood a 90 year old passerby was caught in a crossfire and killed in a shooting where 3 other victims were targeted by gunmen.

In another of the shootings in Ciudad Juarez a 15 year old girl was targeted and killed by a group of gunmen.

In the town of Batopilas located in the Copper Canyon area of the Sierra Madre in Chuhuahua the brother of the PAN candidate for mayor was murdered in an armed encounter.

At least 13 other execution style murders attributed to organized crime were committed throughout the country of Mexico on Sunday. Several of the killings occurred in states holding elections.

In Culiacan, Sinaloa, a retired teacher and PRI committee member, Casimiro Meza Benitez, was shot after being thrown out of and run over by a group of gunmen in a pick-up after the polls had closed.

In the state of Hidalgo, the state prosecutor’s office released a statement confirming the executions Sunday morning of the chief and assistant chief of police in the municipality of Actopan.

In the state of Chiapas, a PRD party official was murdered Sunday morning in the town of Tenejapa by gunmen after ending his shift reviewing and accrediting the locations of polling stations .

700 Polling officials did not show up to their stations and only 25 percent of voters went to the polls because of rumors that there would be attacks by armed groups.

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/07/election-day-violence-in-chihuahua.html#comments



I read "Murder City: Ciudad Juarez" last night. It's a view of the city from the people's perspective. Very interesting; and asks a great question- if (as the Mex. govt. claims) all these killings are cartel vs. cartel, or Army vs. cartels-why are all the victims journalists, cops, city officials (and their families) and street people?

[longview]

I've been wondering the same thing. 

[Alpha Mare]

Stupid move, Gov.

Gulf Cartel Hitman Guards Tamaulipas Governor

On Saturday, July 3, the Mexican newspaper “Reforma” published an article that identifies a bodyguard of current Tamaulipas state governor Eugenio Hernandez Flores as wanted by U.S. and Mexican authorities for his membership in either the Gulf Cartel or Los Zetas.

The bodyguard, Ismael Marino Ortega Galicia, is identified by the U.S. Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control as a perpetrator of Mexican drug trafficking violence and a key member of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas organizations under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act of March 2010.

http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/programs/narco/charts/perp_zetas.pdf

Ives Soberon Tijerina, Director of Public Security for the state of Tamaulipas, denied that Ortega Galicia has any ties to organized crime.
The official explained that Ismael Ortega Galicia was a member of the Army from 1991 to 1999, then enter the Federal Bureau of Investigation (now disbanded) and later entered the Tamaulipas state police to escort the Governor and other public officials.
Public Security Director Soberon Tijerina also revealed that Galicia Ortega has a U.S. laser visa and has traveled to the U.S. several times without being stopped or detained.

Ricardo Najera, a spokesman for the PGR, the federal Attorney General’s office, announced that upon arrival in Mexico City Ortega Galicia was transferred to the custody of SIEDO, Mexico’s Office of the Assistant Attorney General for Specialized Investigation of Organized Crime.
Governor Hernandez has acknowledged that on three occasions his bodyguard had been on a Treasury Department drug kingpin list and said that each time he was exonerated by the PGR.
However, the Governor did not talk about why the U.S. Treasury Department insists on Ortega Galicia’s inclusion in the list of suspected assassins and drug traffickers.

Corruption in Governor Hernandez Flores' Administration

The Ismael Ortega Galicia affair is only the tip of the iceburg of corruption in Tamaulipas.

Eugenio Hernandez’s administration has been marred by corruption within his cabinet and throughout his government and political circle. Many top people in his government have used their positions to illegally amass wealth through manipulation and sale of influences.

Of particular interest is Hernandez’s top advisor, right hand man and cabinet level Communication Secretary, Mario Ruiz Pachuca, who dominates PRI party politics in Tamaulipas and has shown an uncanny ability to influence investigations by the state prosecutor’s office.

Ruiz Pachuca is currently under investigation by the DEA, FBI and SIEDO for his inexplicable accumulation of wealth during his time in the Hernandez administration.

There is also Jose Guadalupe Herrera Bustamante who has served twice as Tamaulipas Attorney General and Assistant Attorney General during the Hernandez administration and is currently serving as a state government coordinator.

It is inexplicable that a man with family links to the Gulf Cartel would be chosen for posts in the Attorney General’s office. Herrera Bustamante has 2 brothers associated with the Gulf Cartel. One brother, Erick, was murdered in McAllen, Texas. Another brother, Ariel, is reputed to be a hitman for the Gulf Cartel.

Herrera Bustamante was also convicted of lying about his age to obtain a post as a Federal District Judge in 1991-1992 and was linked previously to at least one murder, that of a brother of a federal policeman in the border city of Matamoros in the late 1990’s while also serving in the Tamaulipas Attorney General’s office under a previous administration.

Then there is the Secretary General of the state government, Jose Eugenio Benavides Benavides, previously the long time head of the Tamaulipas Cattleman’s Association.
From 1994 to 2008 Benavides was the highest recipient of Procampo funds in the state of Tamaulipas. Procampo is a federal agricultural subsidy program that provides direct cash payments to farmers and ranchers.
Procampo was initially created to help the poorest in Mexico’s agricultural sector adjust to the changing market under NAFTA but has been widely abused through fraud by corrupt politicians, bureaucrats, rich agro-business owners and drug cartels.

Governor Hernandez’s Department of Education, in particular, has become a black hole of corruption as teacher’s and administrator’s positions are put on sale to the highest bidder. Some people within the education system manipulate the bureaucracy to “double dip” and receive both a municipal and state income.

During his administration the Gulf Cartel (and Los Zetas before the open warfare between both groups began) has been incorporated into the state PRI apparatus and in fact have become financial contributors.

The power of the drug cartels under the Hernandez Flores administration has grown to the point where the most unthinkable has become reality according to the DEA: virtually every municipal policeman and the majority of state law enforcement agents in Tamaulipas are now controlled by either the Gulf Cartel or Los Zetas.

One of the theories behind the assassination of the PRI candidate for Governor, Rodolfo Torre Cantu, was that this was a revenge hit by Los Zetas against the PRI in Tamaulipas for their collusion with the Gulf Cartel. As such, a reminder to Eugenio Hernandez and the Gulf Cartel that Los Zetas are still players and are not to be taken lightly.
Hernandez is infamous for his statements that Tamaulipas is a peaceful land “nada pasa en Tamaulipas” and that most of the instability is caused by rumors of violence. “Son rumores y psicosis de la poblacion” says Hernandez “ it is based on rumors and a collective psychosis of the population”.
 
This is 6 more years of what the voiceless and powerless citizens of Tamaulipas face. They are burdened by a state government that exploits them and is mute to their demands for security.
This is precisely what occurs with the interference of drug cartels in the electoral process, to intimidate the voters through threats of extreme violence that will be carried out if necessary to ensure the elections of their preferred candidates. This is what a 25 percent voter turnout will get you.

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/07/gulf-cartel-hitman-guards-tamaulipas.html

1 Borderland Beat Comments:
Anonymous said...
Either there were some insanely courageous people out to vote or, a bunch of sickening cartel donkeys. Ones that knew whether or not spraying into the crowd would occur and where, if so.