Tag Archive for 'murder'

The violence in Juarez, Mexico just continues to get worse and worse with now even US consulate personnel not safe from attack:

However, after sustaining several gunshots, they drove onto oncoming traffic on Francisco Villa, and crashed into other vehicles. The man and wife were pronounced dead at the scene.

Police who rushed to the scene said they discovered a baby in the backseat of the Toyota; the baby was uninjured.

In the second attack, at almost the same time Saturday, police reported the shooting death of a man who is married to woman who works at the U.S. consulate in Juárez. He was shot at while driving on Avenida Insurgentes in the Segunda Burocrata neighborhood.

Mike Hammer, spokesman for the National Security Council, said in a statement Sunday that President Obama was outraged by the news of three murders.

“(Obama) extends his condolences to the families and condemns these attacks on consular and diplomatic personnel serving at our foreign missions,” he said. “In concert with Mexican authorities, we will work tirelessly to bring their killers to justice.”

A couple of weeks ago, the consulate received a bomb threat, but officials did not find anything after an exhaustive search of the building.

Mexican authorities did not know Sunday whether the attacks are related, or whether the victims were targeted because they worked for the consulate, which is an extension of the U.S. State Department.  [El Paso Times]

What really surprises me about this story is how exposed these consulate personnel are to attack.  You would think considering the violence in Juarez that they would have some kind of security detachment to get them back and forth from work in Juarez to their homes in El Paso?

More on the attack from:

• The New York Times
• Yahoo News

It is incredible to think that such violence like this is happening literally down the street and across a river from me:

GUNMEN drove up to a house where a high school party was in full swing and opened fire killing 13 people and wounding 17 others in Mexico’s murder capital, Ciudad Juarez.

Most of the victims were “youngsters”, the Chihuahua state attorney general’s office said.

Witnesses said the gunmen drove up to the house in several cars, first shooting at people gathered outside the dwelling, then pursuing some of the youngsters who jumped over a fence to get away.

“A young man was celebrating his birthday with his schoolmates … and when the host of the party came out to drop off his girlfriend” the shooting broke out, a neighbour said.

Local press reports said the party host’s father was among the dead.

Other sources said the young people were members of a local soccer team celebrating a championship victory, the Reforma daily said on its website.

The shooting took place in Ciudad Juarez, the city on the border with the US state of Texas that holds Mexico’s record in bloodshed, with more than 2500 people killed last year in drug-related gangland crimes.

It was the third mass shooting of youngsters in Mexico since September when, within two weeks, 28 youths were killed in two separate shootings at drug rehabilitation centres. [AFP]

The violence that continues to go on down in Juarez is getting worse and only the mass murders like this seem to make big headlines.  However, nearly every night I watch the local news before going to bed and it has near daily reports about executions, hangings, beheadings, etc. happening in Juarez.  This recent mass killing will eventually be forgotten as the news cycle moves on, but for those of us who live in El Paso this is just business as usual in Juarez.