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 Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis. You are free to disseminate this information, but we request that you credit NAFBPO as being the provider.
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El Imparcial (Hermosillo, Sonora) 9-6-10
Cloning priests!
Monterrey, N.L. – Members of criminal organizations not only wear military type garments to disguise their activities but also dress as religious figures, the Cardinal of Monterrey, Francisco Robles Ortega, revealed yesterday.
Over the two days that the Army has operated a checkpoint on the Reynosa Highway, numbers of people dressed as priests have been detained. The hierarchy of the Catholic Church has assured that the presumed priests are imposters.
In an interview after a mass, the Cardinal said, “People dressed as priests have been detained at checkpoints. They say, ‘See how I am dressed? I am a priest’, don’t believe them.” “The collars they wear are not valid.” The Cardinal said that real priests have identification issued by the church. “Criminal organizations are ready to use whatever tactics they can to perpetrate the harm they are causing,” said the Cardinal.
http://www.elimparcial.com/EdicionEnLinea/Notas/Nacional/06092010/467137.aspx
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Squabble between gangs leaves one dead
San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora – One person is dead and another wounded after a squabble between gangs in this border city.
The dead man was identified as Rodolfo Aguilar Felix, 23, also known as “El Ato”. He was a member of the gang known as “Los Traviesos.” The wounded man was Israel Aguilar Medina, 21, AKA: “El Isra.”
According to State Investigative Police, the men had engaged in a gunfight with one another in which a .22 caliber revolver and a .38 caliber revolver were used.
Translator’s Note: Under the comments section one reader wrote, “Perfect! One less cholo!
http://www.elimparcial.com/EdicionEnLinea/Notas/Noticias/06092010/467135.aspx
El Debate (Culiacan, Sinaloa) 9-6-10
Two more die from the attack on a city jail in Neuvo Leon
Monterrey – A second man died hours after being admitted to a hospital from gunshots coming from the military fired at an automobile in which two families were riding in Monterrey.
On Sunday night, soldiers killed a minor and wounded another two minors and two adult women in another attack which resulted in the death of children.
One adult woman, who was wounded, said she didn’t pay attention until a military vehicle chased them and started firing at them with large caliber weapons after they failed to notice a stop sign put up by the military.
She said they were returning home after attending a party when their car was suddenly impacted by bullets.
Paramedics from the Red Cross attended to the five wounded which were transported to hospitals.
On the 31st of July the military pursued a white Mercury in which two minors were riding in the back seat. The soldiers fired on the car and a six year old was killed and a three year old was wounded.
http://www.debate.com.mx/eldebate/Articulos/ArticuloGeneral.asp?IdArt=10172727&IdCat=6087
La Voz de la Frontera, (Mexicali, B.C.) 9-6-10
Police alert: The line to cross into Calexico 4 hours long
Mexicali – Due to intense scrutiny by North American authorities at the Port of Calexico, the line was four hours long streaming along Avenida Reforma yesterday morning. Municipal Police Agents detained a man who was selling a “place in line” in the pedestrian lane.
http://www.oem.com.mx/lavozdelafrontera/notas/n1770720.htm
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Saturday 9/4/10
El Universal (Mexico City) and Frontera (Tijuana, Baja California) 9/3/10
A day’s work: Mexican Army 32, Los Zetas 0
In less than 24 hours, the Mexican Army in Nuevo Leon reduced the ranks of the mercenary killer group, Los Zetas, by 32. The first event in the thinning of the criminal organization took place in the municipality of General Trevino, Nuevo Leon, when 27 of the militant criminal group were killed in a gun battle in which the Army suffered two wounded. In that operation, three kidnap victims were freed. Less than 24 hours later, a vehicle with five gunmen was reported parked along a highway. The military responded and the ensuing gun battle ended with the five Zetas dead and the military no worse for the wear.
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/706221.html
http://www.frontera.info/EdicionEnLinea/Notas/Nacional/03092010/466831.aspx
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Four survivors of last week’s massacre now reported
A pregnant woman and her daughter survived the massacre of 72 Central Americans last week in Tamaulipas, according to an Ecuadorian who also survived, along with a Honduran. There were 76 which included a pregnant woman and her daughter that they didn’t kill, related the Ecuadorian. He didn’t know what they did with them. “There were four of us who survived. The rest were all killed,” he said. The witness, under protection in Ecuador, was wounded in the neck and left for dead at the scene of the massacre. [A video accompanies the link to this story and its narrative follows below under the next heading.]
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/706290.html
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Mexican hospitality
[Narrative of the video taped in Ecuador, as related:]
The route
I traveled from Ecuador to Honduras, from Honduras I went to Guatemala – everything was okay. I stayed in Guatemala about 15 days. It was okay. From there I went to Santa Elena. From there I crossed in a boat into Mexico.
The kidnapping
Saturday night about 10 p.m. they rounded us up into three cars. About eight well armed people came out. They rounded up all of us. We got out of the car and they put us in another car. We traveled in two cars. They took us to a house. They tied us up, hands and feet, the hands behind. They kept us there overnight.
The massacre
Afterward, they threw us face down and then I heard a sound of them shooting. I thought they were shooting off to the side, but no. I heard that they shot my friends and then they came shooting me and killed all the others. They finished shooting and left. They killed all of them.
The escape
When they left, I waited two minutes, got up and left the house. I walked all night and arrived at a light that was very far. I asked for help. Two men came out and wouldn’t help me. I went away and saw a light far off. I ran about 10 kilometers. I walked and walked in pain, asking for help. No one would help me. I walked and walked until daylight. At daylight I walked more. About 7 a.m. I saw the Marines that were there, the migra [immigration]. I went where they were and asked for help.
The Zetas
What would you say to Ecuadorians who want to leave?
That they don’t come, there are many bad people who won’t let them pass, that they don’t come anymore. Seventy-six came with me and they killed them all. I say to all Ecuadorians not to travel anymore because the Zetas are killing many people.
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El Financiero (Mexico City) 9/3/10
Investor donates $1.5 million to SB 1070 defense
Phoenix, Arizona (Notimex) – Timothy Mellon, a multimillionaire investor from Wyoming, donated more than 1.5 million dollars to the fund created by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer to pay the cost of legal defense of the “anti-immigrant” law SB 1070. Mellon’s contribution is the largest so far and raises the amount of defense funds to 3.6 million dollars. Arizona’s legal defense [against the United States Attorney General ] in the past two months cost more than $400,000.
http://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/ElFi...cId=283357&docTipo=1&orderby=docid&sortby=ASC
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La Jornada (Mexico City) 9/3/10
Mexico urged to turn from kidnapping and extortion to aiding and abetting
Guatemala – Central American countries urged Mexico to observe human rights to protect the security of migrants who seek to cross its border en route to the US. The Guatemalan Minister of Foreign Relations reported by joint communique that he and his counterparts in El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Belize and the Dominican Republic request that Mexico adopt, within the short term, mechanisms for preventing violence against Central American migrants during their journey to the US.
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/ultimas/...-instalar-un-observatorio-de-derechos-humanos
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La Prensa Grafica (San Salvador, El Salvador) 9/3/10
A barrel of money
A search for drugs and arms by Salvadoran authorities in the rural areas of the central Pacific coast department [state] of La Paz resulted in the discovery of a barrel filled with packets of mostly $100 bills. After hours of counting, the official total amount was over $9.2 million. An investigation continues on suspicion that the money is connected with organized crime.
http://www.laprensagrafica.com/el-s...ill-en-barril-encontrado-en-zacatecoluca.html
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El Espectador (Bogota, Colombia) 9/2/10
Panama active in intercepting drugs
Cocaine is the major drug coming from Colombia through Panama en route to the US market. Between July 2009 and August 2010 Panamanian officials have confiscated 71.2 metric tons of the drug. [Trivial data: 1 ton = approx. 1 million snorts ] According to the Minister of Public Security, Jose Raul Mulino, drug interception is Panama’s most important police function and has distinguished the country in this respect. Marihuana and heroin are also intercepted in much smaller quantities.
http://www.elespectador.com/articul...-toneladas-de-cocaina-procedentes-de-colombia
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La Hora (Guatemala, Guatemala) 9/3/10
Temporary Protected Status urged for undocumented Guatemalans in US
An opinion column in La Hora concerns an appeal by a number of Guatemalan organizations requesting President Alvaro Colom to convey to the US government the necessity for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for undocumented Guatemalan migrants living in the US. The column points out, “the support of US personalities who have considered TPS to be a minimum measure of solidarity with Guatemala.”
http://www.lahora.com.gt/notas.php?key=72724&fch=2010-09-03
[Excerpt from USCIS publication: The Secretary of Homeland Security may designate a foreign country for TPS due to conditions in the country that temporarily prevent the country's nationals from returning safely, or in certain circumstances, where the country is unable to handle the return of its nationals adequately. USCIS may grant TPS to eligible nationals of certain countries (or parts of countries), who are already in the United States. The full publication can be accessed at
http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/us...M100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=848f7f2ef07
45210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD
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Sunday 9/5/10
El Tiempo (Bogota, Colombia) 9/4/10
Ton of cocaine seized
Colombian police stopped two dump trucks at a highway checkpoint in the department [state] of Santander, Colombia, transporting a total of one ton of cocaine. The load was presumed to belong to Jesus Ovidio Isaza, alias “Roque,” son of Ramon Isaza, the ex-chief of the demobilized paramilitary group AUC. The drug was hidden in a double bottom of the dump trucks under sand and construction material.
http://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/justicia/incautan-mil-kilos-de-cocaina-en-dos-volquetas_7891420-1
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Prensa Libre (Guatemala, Guatemala) 9/4/10
Deported Guatemalans without work
A study by a Guatemalan human rights organization of those deported from the meat packing plant in Potsville, Iowa in May of 2008, 64% remain without work and 36% have only temporary employment. This is a reflection of the status of most Guatemalans deported back to their own country because of Guatemala’s lack of development opportunities, the study found. “They emigrate and are exploited for their labor. On returning they are victims of the incapability of the State to reestablish them.” The study also showed that 98% of those deported from Iowa were in debt [assumption: smuggling fees], but only 12% have already paid them.
http://www.prensalibre.com/noticias/Deportados-trabajo_0_329367102.html
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Guatemalan youth migration a worry
A Guatemalan youth study indicates that 50% of Guatemalan youths have either tried to travel illegally to the US or have thought of trying. Those that try go into debt to pay between the equivalent of $5,000 to $7,000 to “coyotes” to smuggle them north, but often are abandoned in Mexico and left to their own luck. Those who make it back home are left with huge debts and no way to pay them off. Those experiences do not seem to dissuade others from trying.
http://www.prensalibre.com/noticias/comunitario/Preocupa-migracion-jovenes_0_329367116.html
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Monday 9/6/10
La Jornada (Mexico City) 9/5/10
News silence in Tamaulipas explained
Mexico, D.F. (IPS) – The Mexican northeastern state of Tamaulipas has become a black hole of organized crime. The “social disintegration” has been going on there for the past six months, but the local press is totally silenced. “We have no option, simply no option,” a reporter of a national newspaper, who asked that his identity not be revealed, said by phone to the Inter Press Service news agency. Like other reporters in the state bordering Texas, he refuses to report any criminal activities in the area.
Tamaulipas is the operating area of the Gulf drug cartel and of the violent gang known as Los Zetas, formed from military deserters previously trained in combat techniques and counterinsurgency by the CIA. “The original Zetas began executing select targets with military efficiency and economy of bullets,” said IPS reporter Jorge Luis Sierra, a specialist in security and militarization. “But the excesses began and now Los Zetas are no longer old army deserters, but mixed units of civilians, police, ex-military and hired killers from other groups that carry out three strategies together: as narcos, as terrorists and as guerrillas, all at the same time,” he added.
In reference to the recent massacre of 72 Central and South American migrants in Tamaulipas, presumably by Los Zetas, Sierra explains that Los Zetas never justify their actions. Their “communicational policy” is the act itself. On the other hand, their enemies are using psychological tactics of combat, like car bombs. In this sense, he conjectures, it is possible that a rival gang “killing 72 immigrants and attributing it to Los Zetas could be an act of propaganda and form part of a strategy of psychological warfare,” to exterminate Los Zetas from the area.
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/ultimas/...cion-social-y-prensa-silenciada-en-tamaulipas
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El Sol de Mexico (Mexico City) 9/5/10
Mexican intelligence center unveiled
Mexico City – The Mexican government is expanding its intelligence capabilities in a subterranean bunker equipped with up to date technology aimed at the anti-organized crime struggle. “In this center resides all of Mexico’s criminal information,” said Francisco Niembro, head of intelligence operations for the federal Public Security Agency, as he guided the press for the first time through the underground facilities that were inaugurated 10 months ago. The center’s equipment allows real-time surveillance of petroleum, hydraulic, telecommunications and electrical buildings and installations. The data banks are kept current and allow for effective real-time analyses from police reports throughout the Republic.
http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldemexico/notas/n1771655.htm
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-end of report-