NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS
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Foreign News Report
The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers
(NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and
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El Universal
(Mexico City) 5/14/08
1. Operation Culiacán-Navolato
In Culiacán, Sinaloa yesterday, the Mexican Secretary of Government (no U.S. equivalent) Juan Camilo Mouriño set into motion Operation Culiacán-Navolato with 2,723 military forces of the Army, Navy and Federal Police in the battle against organized crime. The Secretary stated that the cartels challenge the State in threatening ways that call for it to break down the criminal organizations' financial and operating structures. In the meeting of the National Security Cabinet, the Secretary of Defense, Guillermo Galván asked for the cooperation of all segments of society to join in the program the federal government has started. The federal Attorney General, Eduardo Medina Mora noted that the violence unleashed in the past few weeks indicates the desperation of organized crime in response to the damage inflicted by the authorities.
On the first day of the operation, the show of military force in Culiacán and Navolato has given the cities the "most tranquil day" in memory. At the outset of the operation, the people are still timid in welcoming the troops and most shy away from making statements to the press. The Secretary of Defense assured the people that the operation does not imply a militarization of national life or public politics.
2. An armed gang attacked a group of police yesterday evening in Zirándaro, Guerrero, (near the border with Michoacán) leaving two police dead and six others abducted by the gunmen who used high-powered armament in the attack. The assault was carried out by some twenty gunmen against the police making a routine patrol in a pickup truck. The police, out-numbered and out-gunned, surrendered after two of them were killed. They were then taken away as prisoners.
In another incident in the same area that morning, two people were executed and their bodies burned inside a vehicle in the town of Arcelia.
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El Debate (Sinaloa) 5/14/08
1. Nearly simultaneously with the meeting of the National Security Cabinet yesterday morning, federal police were confiscating approximately 3 tons of marihuana, packaged and ready for sale, from an unattended house in Culiacán. The seizure was made as a result of information obtained yesterday and owing to efforts of federal police intelligence.
2. Three Mexican police chiefs requested political asylum in the U.S. after an increase in violence in the narco-war taking place along the northern border. In the past few months, Mexican police have arrived at the border fearing for their lives and abandoning their police duties.
3. The state of Coahuila became the first in Mexico to pass legislation safeguarding news journalists. The state congress set higher penalties that do not allow posting bond for those accused of the murder of journalists. "There is no free society without free journalism so it should be protected in a way commensurate with the right of information," stated the initiative presented to congress. The sentence for one convicted of the murder of a journalist in the line of duty is set at 30 to 60 years in prison or more if there is a previous criminal record.
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El Porvenir (Monterrey, Nuevo León) 5/14/08
Ruth Zavaleta, Mexican equivalent of the U.S. Speaker of the House, feels a debate and an integrated policy in which all of society participates is necessary to combat crime. The legislator from the left-leaning PRD party maintains that the use of the Army to combat crime should be only in emergencies and temporary. She urges the executive branch to use great prudence in its actions.
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El Diario en Linea (Chihuahua) 5/14/08
1. Army troops carrying out a search of a residence in Hidalgo del Parral, Chihuahua encountered armed resistance from presumed narcotraffickers inside. Unofficial versions of the fight mentioned one person killed, identified only as a pilot, and more than 10 people arrested.
2. After the assassination of a police chief and of eight executions that occurred in Cd. Juárez, representatives of three political parties, PRI, PAN, PRD, demanded a revision of Joint Operation Chihuahua since the perception is that it's not giving the results hoped for. The presence of the army on the streets has not halted the wave of violence or encounters with drug cartels. They feel that it is time to evaluate the operation. In a related story, the PRD party asked that the Army retire from Chihuahua gradually because the human rights of the citizens is threatened. "The presence of the Army is like when one is using a very strong medicine with certain dangerous side effects," which is why I insist that the Army is to carry out concrete actions, not to take daily charge of the security of the citizens," stated representative Quintana Silveyra.
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El Imparcial (Hermosillo, Sonora) 5/14/08
Five men arrested in connection with a gunfight and other crimes in Nogales, Sonora are being held by military forces after a series of threats of their possible rescue. Military commanders revealed that they have received calls threatening them to move their military forces back because they would fire grenades and rescue the detainees. Until today, they had been detained in a hotel waiting to be arraigned in the next hours. The five were arrested for a homicide and gunbattle with municipal police during which an officer was killed.