Timeline Mexico 2003-2013
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2003
Jan 6, In Mexico a bus with failing brakes
swerved off a mountain highway and into a deep ravine in Zacatecas
state, killing 18 people and injuring 23.
(AP, 1/7/03)
2003 Jan 15, Former New York
City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani ended a two-day visit to Mexico's
capital, declaring that fighting government corruption will be
crucial in lowering crime.
(AP, 1/15/03)
2003 Jan 19, Alfredo Zalce
(b.1908), Mexican revolutionary artist, died.
(www.zalce.com/)
2003 Jan 21, A 7.6-7.8
earthquake ripped through western and central Mexico, killing at
least 29 people and leaving 10,000 homeless.
(SFC, 1/23/03, p.A1)(AP, 1/21/04)
2003 Jan 21, Mexico appealed to
the World Court to stop the execution of 51 of its citizens in the
United States.
(AP, 1/21/03)
2003 Jan 28, In Mexico, gunmen
in San Juan Chamula ambushed police trying to arrest murder
suspects, sparking a gunbattle that left 5 people dead.
(AP, 1/28/03)
2003 Jan 31, In Mexico City
tens of thousands of farmers clogged main streets, demanding greater
protection against U.S. imports and seeking more government aid.
(AP, 1/31/03)
2003 Feb 5, The World Court
ruled that the United States must temporarily stay the execution of
three Mexican citizens on U.S. death rows.
(AP, 2/5/03)
2003 Feb 10, Mexican army
troops seized 2.2 tons of cocaine from a plane that landed in
northern Mexico after it reported mechanical problems. The three men
onboard were arrested.
(AP, 2/11/03)
2003 Feb 13, Thailand officials
arrested SF financier Thomas Frank White at the request of the
Mexican government for the rape of a teenage boy. In 2004 White was
indicted in SF on 2 counts of sex tourism.
(SSFC, 9/11/05, p.A2)
2003 Feb 14, Popocatepetl
volcano southeast of Mexico City erupted but caused no significant
damage.
(AP, 2/14/03)
2003 Feb 16, In Mexico’s
central Mexico state voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum in
support of executing kidnappers, armed robbers and murderers.
(AP, 2/17/03)
2003 Feb 17, In Mexico
the bodies of 3 women were found in the desert outside of Ciudad
Juarez, the latest victims in a string of killings in the border
city.
(AP, 2/18/03)
2003 Feb 25, In Mexico a
court upheld the conviction of an Egyptian man, Abdel Latif
Sharif, for one of the first in a series of murders of women in the
border city of Ciudad Juarez, but lowered the man’s prison sentence
to 20 years.
(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Mar 10, Two
helicopters from Mexico’s Attorney General’s office were shot down
near Tlapa, Guerrero, in the nation’s western mountains during an
anti-narcotics operation, killing all 5 officials on board.
(AP, 3/11/03)
2003 Mar 14, In Matamoros,
Mexico, police arrested drug lord Osiel Cardenas Guillen (35), aka
"El Loco."
(SFC, 3/15/03, p.A7)
2003 Mar 24, Mexico City police
chief Marcelo Ebrard said that Leoluca Orlando, former mayor of
Palermo, Italy, will be hired to combat crime. His work will
complement Rudolph Giuliani's who hired on for $4.3 million.
(AP, 3/25/03)
2003 Mar 24, In Texas a fire in
a sugar-cane field killed 5 illegal Mexican immigrants hiding there.
(WSJ, 3/25/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 27, Mexican federal
agents killed 2 suspected drug runners in a shootout near the Texas
border.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Mar 29, In Mexico a small
government plane crashed in the mountains of southern Mexico,
killing all five people aboard. Passengers included Porfirio Encino
Hernandez, state sec. for Indian affairs; his son and brother;
Berenice Lopez, the daughter of former Gov. Javier Lopez; and pilot
Guadalupe Gil.
(AP, 4/1/03)
2003 Apr 2, In Mexico 9 people
were found tortured and killed near the border city of Nuevo Laredo
in apparent drug-related violence.
(AP, 4/2/03)
2003 Apr 4, Mexican police over
the last 2 days arrested 9 members of the powerful Juarez Cartel
during raids across the country.
(AP, 4/4/03)
2003 Apr 4, Adalberto Martinez
(87), song and dance actor, died. He appeared in over 100 Mexican
films and TV series from 1947-2000.
(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.A23)
2003 Apr 7, Mexico said it
would prepay $3.84 billion in the last outstanding Brady par bonds.
They originally totaled $34 billion.
(WSJ, 4/9/03, p.A10)
2003 Apr 9, Abraham Zabludovsky
(78), Polish-born Mexican architect, died. His projects included the
Rufino Tamayo Museum in Mexico City.
(SFC, 4/11/03, p.A28)
2003 Apr 12, Mexican army
troops manning a roadblock near the Arizona border seized a truck
packed with more than four tons of marijuana.
(AP, 4/13/03)
2003 Apr 21, In Uruapan,
western Mexico, gunmen disguised as police killed six members of a
family in a suspected drug gang dispute.
(AP, 4/21/03)
2003 May 21, The Mexican
Justice Department said that 258 women had been killed since 1993 in
Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 5/22/03)
2003 Jun 6, In Balastrera,
Mexico, a landslide followed by the blast of a ruptured gas pipeline
hit a truck-stop town between Mexico City and Veracruz. 15 people
were missing from the area.
(AP, 6/6/03)
2003 Jun 12, The first-ever
Mexican freedom of information law took effect, designed to expose
the government and its once guarded records and secrets to greater
public scrutiny.
(AP, 6/12/03)
2003 Jun 18, Andrew Luster, a
convicted rapist who is heir to the Max Factor fortune, was arrested
after 5 months on the run. He was picked up by Mexican police in
Puerto Vallarta as he scuffled with bounty hunters who had trailed
him from California.
(AP, 6/18/03)
2003 Jul 4, In Mexico gunmen in
Las Choapas, Veracruz, killed a man believed to be a migrant
trafficker and then fatally shot four bystanders, including a
12-year-old boy, apparently to avoid leaving witnesses.
(AP, 7/5/03)
2003 Jul 6, Mexican voters
issued a severe judgment on Pres. Vicente Fox's first three years in
office, electing another divided Congress in which his party will
have fewer seats and increasing the power of the former ruling party
and the leftist opposition.
(AP, 7/7/03)
2003 Jul 17, A US company
launched Mexican sales of microchips that can be implanted under a
person's skin and used to confirm health history and identity.
(AP, 7/17/03)
2003 Jul 17, In Mexico a
landslide triggered by heavy rains in the southern state of Oaxaca
swept away two houses and killed nine people, including five
children.
(AP, 7/18/03)
2003 Jul 30, The last
Volkswagen Beetle was produced in Puebla, Mexico. The first Beetles
had arrived in 1956. Mexico had begun producing its own version of
the Beetle in 1964.
(WSJ, 7/31/03, p.A1)(SSFC, 9/14/08, p.A10)
2003 Aug 1, Mexican soldiers
used a bazooka to return fire against cars believed to be carrying
drug traffickers during a wild pre-dawn battle, killing three
suspects.
(AP, 8/1/03)
2003 Aug 4, Mexico's federal
government dispatched some 650 federal agents to Tijuana in the
latest attempt to curb smuggling and corruption in the rough border
city.
(AP, 8/4/03)
2003 Aug 15, Mexican troops
arrested one of the country's most-wanted drug-traffic suspects,
Armando Valencia, along with seven top figures in his ring in
Tlajomulco near Guadalajara.
(AP, 8/16/03)
2003 Aug 24, Hurricane
Ignacio sideswiped the southern tip of the Baja California
peninsula.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2003 Aug 29, In central Mexico
a truck carrying sulphuric acid collided head-on with a
sport-utility vehicle on a mountain road, killing five people and
forcing dozens of people to hospitals after they inhaled the fumes.
(AP, 8/30/03)
2003 Sep 3, It was reported
that Lake Chapala in Jalisco state had lost some 80% of its water
over the last 10 years due to heavy development in central Mexico
and agricultural diversion of water from the Rio Lerma.
(WSJ, 9/3/03, p.B1)
2003 Sep 10, In Cancun, Mexico,
the WTO began its fifth ministerial meeting, with trade ministers
from 146 countries expected to attend a five-day gathering to thrash
out many problems surrounding the latest "round" of trade
liberalization talks.
(AP, 9/10/03)
2003 Sep 10, In Puebla, Mexico,
a clandestine fireworks factory exploded, killing at least six
people and injuring 12 others.
(AP, 9/10/03)
2003 Sep 14, In Cancun, Mexico,
the WTO talks collapsed when delegates from Africa, the Caribbean
and Asia walked out accusing wealthy nations of failing to offer
sufficient compromises on agriculture and other issues.
(SFC, 9/15/03, p.A3)(AP, 9/14/08)
2003 Sep, British scientists
found 40,000-year-old human footprints in central Mexico, shattering
theories that mankind arrived in the Americas tens of thousands of
years later from Asia. The footprints were found in an abandoned
quarry close to the Cerro Toluquilla volcano and were subsequently
studied and dated by a multinational team of scientists.
(AFP, 7/5/05)
2003 Oct 10, It was reported
that members of an elite Mexican army unit have deserted and formed
a drug gang, using their military training to launch a violent
battle for control of Nuevo Laredo. An estimated 31 of 350 members
of the Special Air Mobile Force Group, posted to the border state of
Tamaulipas in the 1990s, had deserted and joined the drug turf war.
(AP, 10/10/03)
2003 Oct 20, Pres. Bush met
with Mexico's Pres. Vicente Fox in Thailand and asked him to set
aside disputes over immigration and Iraq.
(AP, 10/20/03)
2003 Oct 24, In Mexico Mariano
Diaz Mendez, a Pentecostal pastor of Indian descent, was shot twice
inside the car in a roadside ditch in San Juan Chamula, a majority
Catholic township just outside San Cristobal.
(AP, 10/25/03)
2003 Oct 27, The southern
California fires crossed into Mexico. The death toll climbed to 15
and damages were estimated to top $500 million.
(SFC, 10/28/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/28/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 28, In Mexico City
high-level officials of the Organization of American States ended
two day of talks with a new security agenda.
(AP, 10/29/03)
2003 Oct 29, A Mexican
electoral court annulled the results of the July 6 elections for the
governorship of the southern state of Colima after concluding that
the outgoing governor interfered in the race.
(AP, 10/30/03)
2003 Nov 4, In Arizona Mexican
President Vicente Fox stressed the importance of continuing a
dialogue on immigration issues with the United States as he started
a tour of 3 border states.
(AP, 11/5/03)
2003 Nov 5, Mexican President
Vicente Fox asked New Mexico state leaders for better treatment of
illegal immigrants from his country.
(AP, 11/5/03)
2003 Nov 7, The defending
champion US baseball team failed to qualify for the 2004 Athens
Olympics, losing to Mexico 2-1 in the quarterfinals of a qualifying
tournament in Panama City, Panama.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2003 Nov 11, Mexican diplomat
Adolfo Aguilar Zinser (1949-2005), gave a speech to students at
Mexico City's Ibero-American University, in which he claimed that
the political and intellectual class of the United States sees
Mexico as "a country whose position is that of a back yard" (patio
trasero) and that Washington was only interested in "a relationship
of convenience and subordination" and "a weekend fling" (un noviazgo
de fin de semana). President Fox requested his resignation on 18
November.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolfo_Aguilar_Z%C3%Adnser)
2003 Nov 12, Imelda Ortiz
Abdala, a former Mexican consul to Lebanon, was arrested on charges
of helping a smuggling ring move Arab migrants into the United
States from Mexico. Federal agents over the previous 2 days arrested
alleged ring leader Salim Boughader Mucharrafille along with alleged
collaborators Melissa Ataja Valdez and Orlando Alfaro, in Tijuana.
Ortiz Abdala was released in Feb 2005 after Foreign Relations
Department officials testified that she acted properly and was never
in a position to authorize visas on her own, according to Mexican
court documents.
(AP, 11/13/03)(AP, 7/15/05)
2003 Nov 17, Mexico dismissed
UN Ambassador Adolfo Aguilar following his comments that the US
regards Mexico as a 2nd-class country.
(SFC, 11/19/03, p.A17)
2003 Nov 25, Sales of Mexican
green onions plunged after a hepatitis outbreak in the US was traced
to northwestern Mexico, forcing farmers in this valley to defend the
safety of their produce and find ways to stay afloat financially.
(AP, 11/25/03)
2003 Nov 27, Mexican government
prosecutors said that they've uncovered a document showing that
soldiers tortured suspected rebel prisoners during the 1970s,
sometimes forcing them to drink gasoline and then setting them
afire.
(AP, 11/27/03)
2003 Nov 27, In Mexico City
union members, left-wing activists and farmers by the thousand
marched to the central plaza in a major display of opposition to the
president's plans to raise taxes on food and medicine and sell
state-owned assets.
(AP, 11/27/03)
2003 Nov, Mexico broke a
decades-old tradition of rejecting U.S. aid workers and decided to
grant permission for the first group of U.S. Peace Corps volunteers
ever to work there.
(AP, 1/26/04)
2003 Dec 1, In Mexico Isidro
Galeana (65), a former state judicials police commander, was
declared a fugitive after a judge ordered his arrest on suspicion of
kidnapping alleged leftists during the Mexican government's campaign
against radical activists in 1974.
(AP, 12/2/03)
2003 Dec 5, A bus plunged into
a valley in the northern Mexico state of Zacatecas, killing 15
people and injuring 15 others.
(AP, 12/6/03)
2003 Dec 9, In southern Mexico
Salvatrucha gang members attacked illegal immigrants from Central
America on a train, killing three people and wounding four in the
latest in a series of violent incidents in the region. The Mara
Salvatrucha spanned Central America. It was named for its Salvadoran
founders, who claimed to be as wise as trout.
(AP, 12/10/03)(Econ, 5/22/04, p.31)
2003 Dec 12, Chinese Premier
Wen Jiabao arrived in Mexico in a bid to extend a string of recent
diplomatic and economic successes in North America. In 2002 China
shipped $6.3 billion in goods to Mexico, undercutting many local
goods.
(SFC, 12/4/03, p.A22)(AP, 12/12/03)
2003 Dec 13, Chinese Premier
Web Jiabao sought to assure Mexican leaders that their country's
economy is not threatened by China's lower wages and cheaper goods,
saying the two nations are partners, not rivals.
(AP, 12/13/03)
2003 Dec 27, Juan Garcia Ponce
(71), a renowned Mexican art critic, translator and prize-winning
novelist, died. Ponce was born in Merida, the capital of Yucatan
state, on Sept. 22, 1932. The author of at least 50 books, Ponce
wrote novels, plays, screenplays and essays and was considered a
master of erotic literature.
(AP, 12/28/03)(SFC, 12/29/03, p.A12)
2003 The Mexican housing
industry built some 450,000 new homes, many of them near the town of
Tecamac, north-east of Mexico City.
(Econ, 8/28/04, p.33)
2003 Ricardo Salinas Pliego
beat administrative insider-trading charges in Mexico on procedural
grounds. Later he and a partner set up a shell company to buy Unefon
debt for pennies and then resold the debt to Unefon, which they
controlled, for the full price. The move netted them $109 million
each at Unefon’s expense.
(WSJ, 12/8/05, p.A11)
2003 Mexico passed legislation
calling for native languages to be recognized as official languages
of the state along with Spanish. Mexico also created a National
Institute of Indigenous Languages, which began mapping where
different indigenous languages were spoken.
(WSJ, 2/24/06, p.A8)
2004 Jan 3, Isidro Galeana
(65), a former state police commander and the first former
government official to face arrest for his role in Mexico's "dirty
war" of the 1960s and 1970s, died of a heart attack.
(AP, 1/4/04)
2004 Jan 5, In Mexico heavily
armed men in military and police-style uniforms raided the western
prison at Apatzingan in Michoacan state and freed 25 inmates.
(AP, 1/6/04)
2004 Jan 12, A 2-day meeting
began for leaders of the 34 members of the Organization of American
States opened in Monterrey, Mexico.
(AP, 1/12/04)
2004 Jan 13, In Mexico the
34-nation Summit of the Americas ended. The United States reached
out to its neighbors on free trade and battling corruption,
smoothing tense relations with Latin American leaders.
(AP, 1/13/04)(SFC, 1/14/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 20, In Mexico gunmen
ambushed and shot to death two federal agents and an army captain as
they drove along a Mexico City expressway.
(AP, 1/21/04)
2004 Jan 27, Mexican Army
troops arrested Javier Torres Felix, an alleged leader of one of the
largest drug trafficking organizations in western Mexico.
(AP, 1/28/04)
2004 Jan 27, Mexican
authorities in Ciudad Juarez said at least 11 bodies were found at a
house that had been occupied by alleged drug lord Humberto Santillan
Tabares.
(ST, 1/28/04, p.A8)
2004 Jan, La Gloria English
School opened on Isla Mujeres, Mexico. Maggie and Tom Washa of
Wisconsin opened the school to help the local Mayan children.
(SSFC, 9/25/05, E5)
2004 Feb 1, In Tepeyac, Mexico,
a fight broke out between two families at an illegal cockfighting
den, and seven people were killed.
(AP, 2/3/04)
2004 Feb 6, In Mexico deputy
ministers from 34 nations in the Americas failed to reach agreement
on a framework for the Free Trade Area of the Americas, stymied by
differences on the contentious issue of U.S. farm subsidies.
(AP, 2/6/04)
2004 Feb 11, The bodies of 2
Americans, Francisco A. Antonielli (33) and James F. Bowtte (43),
were discovered in a parking garage at the airport in Tijuana,
Mexico, the apparent victims of a drug-related gunbattle.
(AP, 2/11/04)
2004 Feb 17, Jose Lopez
Portillo (83), former Mexican president (1976-1982) who governed
through an oil-driven boom to a debt-induced bust, died of
complications from pneumonia.
(AP, 2/18/04)
2004 Mar 5, Pres. Bush welcomed
Mexican Pres. Fox to his Texas ranch for a 2-day visit.
(SFC, 3/06/04, p.A3)
2004 Mar 5, Mexican Air Force
pilots filmed 11 unidentified flying objects in the skies over
southern Campeche state. The video was publicly aired May10.
(AP, 5/11/04)
2004 Mar 6, It was reported
that 4 compromising videos have been released showing Mexican
political party leaders and public servants accepting briefcases
full of cash, gambling at the high rollers' table in Las Vegas and
offering to procure business contracts for millions of dollars.
(AP, 3/6/04)
2004 Mar 16, It was announced
that Carlos Slim, owner of Mexico’s Telmex, planned to buy a
controlling interest in Brazil’s biggest long distance operator,
Embratel.
(Econ, 3/20/04, p.64)
2004 Mar 19, A Mexican police
raid led to the arrests of 42 immigration agents and other
government employees accused of running a network that smuggled
migrants into the US.
(AP, 3/23/04)(SFC, 3/24/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 27, Adan Sanchez (19),
Mexican-American singer, died in a car crash in Sinaloa, Mexico. He
was the son of narco-ballad singer Chalino Sanchez, murdered in
1992.
(WSJ, 4/9/04, p.B1)
2004 Mar 29, In Mexico Pres.
Fox unveiled a sweeping revision of the legal system.
(WSJ, 3/30/04, p.A16)
2004 Mar 30, Cuba arrested
Carlos Ahumada, a Mexican businessman, wanted in Mexico for his role
in a graft scandal involving Mexico City Mayor Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Ahumada was soon deported to Mexico.
(WSJ, 4/29/04, p.A14)
2004 Mar 31, The International
Court of Justice ruled that the United States violated the rights of
51 Mexicans on death row and ordered their cases be reviewed.
(AP, 3/31/04)
2004 Mar, A biology professor
said the monarch butterfly population wintering in Morelia, Mexico,
was down 75%. Logging had severely impacted the area.
(SFC, 2/24/05, p.A10)
2004 Apr 5, A flash flood swept
through two border communities in northern Mexico, flooding rivers,
washing away houses and killing 15 people. Dozens more were reported
missing.
(AP, 4/5/04)
2004 Apr 10, In Mexico a gas
explosion leveled two buildings, killed at least six people and
injured more than a dozen others in the border town of Nuevo
Progreso.
(AP, 4/11/04)
2004 Apr 12, In Mexico Morelos
state Gov. Sergio Estrada ordered the firing of all 552 state police
officers following charges that commanders provided protection to
drug traffickers.
(SFC, 4/13/04, p.A2)
2004 Apr 15, In western Mexico,
an explosion tore through a small fireworks store in Tonala, killing
seven people including a small child.
(AP, 4/16/04)
2004 Apr 21, Otto Herrera (39),
a Guatemalan man described by U.S. authorities as Central America's
most-wanted drug smuggler, was captured by Mexican agents at Mexico
City's Juarez Int'l. Airport. Mexico made the arrest at the request
of U.S. authorities who had offered a $5 million reward for his
capture.
(AP, 4/22/04)
2004 May 2, In Mexico a small
plane carrying federal anti-narcotics agents crashed, killing all
seven people on board.
(AP, 5/4/04)
2004 May 5, Mexico celebrated
the 142nd anniversary of its victory over French forces.
(AP, 5/6/04)
2004 May 6, A Mexican court
sentenced eight drug-gang members to 40 years each in prison for
their roles in the 1993 shooting of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas
Ocampo and 6 others at a Guadalajara airport.
(AP, 5/7/04)
2004 May 10, In Matamoros,
Mexico, drug outlaw Alberto Guerrero, his bodyguard and 3 teenage
girls were killed by a spray of bullets outside the Wild West dance
hall. Ex-army commandos turned traffickers, known as Zetas, were
responsible.
(SFC, 6/22/04, p.D3)
2004 May 22, Bombs exploded
outside three banks in Jiutepec, central Mexico, heavily damaging
them but causing no injuries. A note near the bombing sites signed
by a group calling itself the Comando Jaramillista Morelense 23 de
Mayo — in tribute to the peasant leader Ruben Jaramillo, who was
murdered along with his family by state forces on May 23, 1962.
(AP, 5/23/04)
2004 May 27, Cuba and Mexico
agreed to return their respective ambassadors following a dispute
earlier this month.
(WSJ, 5/28/04, p.A1)
2004 May 31, Felipe Calderon,
Mexico's energy secretary resigned, a day after President Vicente
Fox criticized him for an early jump into the 2006 presidential
races.
(AP, 5/31/04)
2004 May, A small poll of
Mexicans ranked Mexico’s Congress as the worst government
institution. Lawmakers met for only 2 days a weeks and 21 weeks a
year. The average deputy earned $146,000 plus benefits. 200 of 500
lower house deputies were picked by party leaders.
(WSJ, 7/8/04, p.A10)
2004 Jun 7, Russian President
Vladimir Putin flew to Mexico for talks with his Pres. Fox, who has
said he hoped to increase military cooperation with Moscow. Putin,
the 1st Russian head-of-state to visit Mexico, said the two major
oil producing nations should share knowledge on oil exploration and
the energy sector.
(AP, 6/7/04)
2004 Jun 7, The US Supreme
court ordered US highways to be opened to long-haul Mexican trucks,
rejecting objections by labor and environmental groups.
(SFC, 6/8/04, A1)
2004 Jun 16, Jose Fernando
Jimenez Lecona, Mexico City police official, was shot to death
outside his home. Lecona, head of a high-risk crimes unit, was
investigating a string of brazen kidnappings.
(SFC, 6/18/04, p.A3)
2004 Jun 22, Francisco Ortiz
Franco, Mexican newspaper, editor was shot to death in Tijuana.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2004 Jun 27, Hundreds of
thousands of Mexicans wearing white staged a silent march through
the heart of their nation's capital to protest kidnappings, violent
crimes and the failures of law enforcement to curb them.
(AP, 6/27/04)
2004 Jul 5, Pres. Fox named
Emilio Goicoechea Luna, a business chamber leader and senator, as
the new chief of staff, and Ruben Aguilar Valenzuela, a presidential
analyst, as media relations chief. The 2 positions were held by
Alfonso Durazo who resigned saying that the first lady's political
ambitions are out of control and Fox is acting like the autocrats he
replaced.
(AP, 7/6/04)
2004 Jul 5, Voters in
Zacatecas, Mexico, elected Amalia Garcia (PRD), the country's first
female governor since the end of one-party dominance. Pres. Fox's
National Action Party lost badly in Chihuahua and Durango. It
finished a distant third in Zacatecas,
(AP, 7/5/04)
2004 Jul 18, Mexico and Cuba
said they will reinstate ambassadors in each other's countries at
the end of the month.
(AP, 7/18/04)
2004 Jul 25, Carmen Gutierrez,
a doctor who won Mexico's Woman of the Year award (1997), was found
dead in a canal on the outskirts of Mexico City. She was kidnapped
Jul 22.
(AP, 7/29/04)
2004 Jul, The ship Mary Nour,
filled with Russian cement, was denied permission to unload its
cargo in Mexican ports under pressure from Cemex SA.
(WSJ, 12/14/04, p.A12)
2004 Aug 1, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz
(b.1958) was elected governor of Oaxaca, Mexico, by a narrow 2%
margin. Defeated candidate Gabino Cue, nominated by an alliance
mainly of Convergencia and the Party of the Democratic Revolution
(PRD), repeatedly alleged electoral fraud.
(http://tinyurl.com/jnpk8)(Econ, 9/30/06, p.48)
2004 Aug 8, In San Juan
Chamula, Mexico, hundreds of enraged residents of this impoverished
Indian community locked the mayor and three other municipal
officials in jail, claiming they embezzled funds from public works
projects.
(AP, 8/8/04)
2004 Aug 22, Gilberto Higuera
Guerrero, alleged leader of the powerful Arellano Felix drug gang,
was arrested before dawn at a house in the border city of Mexicali.
(AP, 8/23/04)
2004 Aug 29, Mexico City's
leftist Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador led more than 150,000
demonstrators in a march to protest efforts to impeach him.
(AP, 8/30/04)
2004 Aug 30, Mexico’s state oil
company said it believes that vast untapped oil reserves lie in the
deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
(WSJ, 8/31/04, p.A10)
2004 Aug 31, In Mexico suspects
beat to death Francisco Arratia Saldierna (55), a newspaper
columnist and dumped his body outside the offices of the Red Cross
in the border city of Matamoros.
(AP, 8/31/04)
2004 Sep 1, Capping a day of
angry street protests and a strike by some 200,000 health care
workers, President Vicente Fox spent much of his state-of-the-nation
speech urging Mexicans to not give up on democracy, saying its
"inherent problems are not cause for discouragement.
(AP, 9/1/04)
2004 Sep 17, Mexico and Japan
signed a free trade agreement that Mexicans hope will ease their
reliance on the United States while encouraging Japan to build more
factories there. PM Junichiro Koizumi wrapped up a four-day Latin
American trip then headed for New York to pitch for a permanent
Japanese seat on the UN Security Council.
(AP, 9/17/04)
2004 Oct 13, A Mexican judge
found bus driver Victor Garcia Uribe, guilty of eight slayings,
giving prosecutors their second conviction in the decade-long series
of murders of women in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 10/13/04)
2004 Oct 21, Four gunmen
abducted three U.S. citizens on a rural highway in southern Mexico,
shot and killed two of them and left the third, a pregnant woman,
bound and gagged. Her testimony led to arrests the next day of
Isidro Diaz Pineda, Reynaldo Hernandez Ramirez, Francisco Velazquez
Paredes and David Gaona Mondragon, all of Tierra Caliente.
(AP, 10/23/04)
2004 Oct 29, Mexican police and
federal agents alleged Zetas leader Rogelio Gonzalez Pizana, alias
"El Kelin," a top drug hit man during a fierce shootout in the
border city of Matamoros. Scores of suspected assassins and drug
smugglers used hand grenades and assault rifles to fire back at
authorities.
(AP, 10/30/04)
2004 Nov 7, In central Mexico
gunmen, identified as local police officers, opened fire on a group
of revelers returning from a weekend dance, killing 7 people,
including 2 children.
(AP, 11/9/04)
2004 Nov 12, Mexico and a US
environmental group agreed on a plan to protect 370,000 acres of
tropical forest on the Yucatan Peninsula. Officials said it was the
largest conservation project in the country's history.
(AP, 11/12/04)
2004 Nov 15, Mexico's former
ruling party, trying to fight its way back to the presidency,
overwhelmingly won two gubernatorial elections and held razor-thin
leads in two other races.
(AP, 11/16/04)
2004 Nov 23, In Mexico City a
mob angry about recent child abductions cornered plainclothes
federal agents taking photos of students at a school and burned the
officers alive, mistaking the agents for kidnappers.
(AP, 11/24/04)
2004 Nov 25, In Mexico the
bodies of 9 people, including three federal agents, were discovered
at two sites outside Cancun, and police are blaming the killings on
a drug turf war.
(AP, 11/26/04)
2004 Nov 25, Mexican federal
investigators said that two Mexico City police and 27 other people
face homicide charges in the horrific vigilante killings of two
federal agents this week.
(AP, 11/26/04)
2004 Nov 28, In Mexico gunmen
killed Gregorio Rodriguez, a newspaper photographer, as he and his
family ate in a restaurant the state of Sinaloa, the home turf of
nearly all of Mexico's top drug bosses.
(AP, 11/29/04)
2004 Dec 2, Interior Secretary
Santiago Creel announced authorities had arrested 224 street gang
members during a weeklong sweep across Mexico.
(AP, 12/3/04)
2004 Dec 5, Authorities outside
Mexico City found the body of Enrique Salinas (51), the former Pres.
Salinas’ brother, with a bag tied around his head. 2 federal police
officers were arrested in 2005 for trying to extort money Salinas
prior to his murder.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2004 Dec 6, President Vicente
Fox fired Mexico City's police chief for allegedly bungling the
response to a mob attack that killed two federal police officers.
(AP, 12/6/04)(WSJ, 12/7/04, p.A1)(SFC, 7/15/05,
p.A3)
2004 Dec 19, It was reported
that Pres. Vicente Fox’s administration had failed thus far to
dent corruption inside Mexico’s 445 prisons and jails.
(SSFC, 12/19/04, p.A21)
2004 Dec 22, In Mexico an
explosion at a pumping station near Santiago Tuxtla caused a burst
of high pressure that ruptured the oil line 70 miles away in
Nanchital. 210,000 gallons of oil flowed into the Coatzacoalcos
River, creating a 10-mile-long slick extending into the gulf.
(AP, 12/24/04)
2004 Dec 23, Mexico's
state-owned oil monopoly will be fined as much as $200,000 and could
face criminal charges for spilling 5,000 barrels of crude into a
river leading to the Gulf of Mexico a day earlier.
(AP, 12/23/04)
2004 Dec, The Mexican
government began distributing a comic-book guide that warns would-be
migrants about the perils of crossing illegally into the US and
offers tips to stay safe.
(AP, 1/5/05)
2004 Jorge Hank (48) was
elected major of Tijuana. His father was a former mayor of Mexico
City and Jorge himself had amassed an estimated $1 billion fortune
through hundreds of casinos and betting parlors throughout Latin
America.
(SSFC, 8/5/07, p.A15)
2004 Development began of the
new Film Colony on the edge of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico’s 1st
privately financed film studio complex.
(Econ, 1/10/04, p.31)
2004 Mexico’s population grew
almost 1.1 million in 2004 to 105,909,000.
(SFC, 12/29/04, p.A3)
2004 Earl Shorris authored “The
Life and Times of Mexico,” a collective biography of the country’s
people.
(SSFC, 12/12/04, p.E6)
2005 Jan 1, Mexico was forecast
for 3.1% annual GDP growth with a population at 106.2 million and
GDP per head at $6,300.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.92)
2005 Jan 6, President Vicente
Fox announced that all Mexican children with cancer will receive
free treatment as long as they need it.
(AP, 1/6/05)
2005 Jan 6, In Ciudad Juarez,
Mexico, 10 alleged gang members were convicted in the killings of 12
women, some of the hundreds who have been found slain there in
recent years. The Los Toltecas members were arrested in 1999, after
the reputed leader of their group, Jesus Manuel Guardado, alias "El
Tolteca," was identified by a 14-year-old girl as the man who
sexually assaulted and tried to kill her.
(AP, 1/7/05)
2005 Jan 11, Mudslides in
Tijuana, Mexico, killed 3 children and damaged 140 homes.
(SFC, 1/13/05, p.A3)
2005 Jan 14, Over 750 Mexican
federal police and soldiers seized control over the nation's
top-security prison amid reports of a planned escape, possible
murder plots and a jailhouse alliance between two reputed drug
trafficking kingpins.
(AP, 1/14/05)(SFC, 1/15/05, p.A3)
2005 Jan 20, In Mexico 6 prison
workers were shot to death and left outside their lockup in
Matamoros, following a federal crackdown against drug gangs at
lockups across the nation.
(AP, 1/20/05)
2005 Jan 22, Consuelo Velazquez
(84), whose song "Besame Mucho" became a standard in many languages
and styles of music, died in Mexico City.
(AP, 1/25/05)
2005 Jan 24, China's vice
president expressed a strong desire to increase economic and
diplomatic cooperation with Mexico while meeting with Mexican
lawmakers.
(AP, 1/24/05)
2005 Feb 5, In Mexico
assailants staged 3 nearly simultaneous guerrilla-style attacks in
Acapulco, killing 3 police officers and a teenage boy a day before a
tense gubernatorial election.
(AP, 2/6/05)
2005 Feb 6, Mexico's main
leftist party, the Democratic Revolution Party, ended 76 years of
rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, in the
Pacific coast state of Guerrero. Democratic Revolution held on to
the governorship of Baja California Sur, while the PRI held on to
Quintana Roo, the site of Cancun.
(AP, 2/7/05)
2005 Feb 15, In Mexico the
bodies of 12 men killed by hitmen believed linked to drug gangs were
found in the northern state of Sinaloa, in what appears to be one of
the deadliest one-day tolls in violent drug battles in recent years.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2005 Feb 17, Two US Border
Patrol agents in Texas stopped a van carrying 743 pounds of
marijuana and shot Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, an admitted Mexican drug
smuggler, as he fled back across the Rio Grande. In 2006 agents
Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were sentenced to 11 and 12 years in
prison for offenses that included violating the smuggler’s civil
rights and failure to report the shooting to superiors. In 2007
Latino gang members beat Ignacio Ramos at the Yazoo City Federal
Correctional Complex in Mississippi. Both agents were freed in 2009
following a commute of their sentences by outgoing Pres. George
Bush.
(SFC, 10/20/06, p.A6)(SSFC, 2/18/07, p.A11)(SFC,
2/18/09, p.A6)
2005 Feb 23, Mexico’s high
court blocked prosecution of ex-President Echeverria for “dirty war”
crimes in the 1970s ruling that the statute of limitations has run
out.
(WSJ, 2/24/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 24, In western Mexico
an executive jet crashed, killing the governor of Colima state and
all five other people aboard.
(AP, 2/24/05)
2005 Feb 28, Mexican
prosecutors charged 27 state, federal and local police in Cancun
with running a drug ring or aiding in the murder of their fellow
officers, busting one of Mexico's largest police-protection rackets
and solving the mystery behind the killing of three federal agents
in November.
(AP, 3/1/05)
2005 Mar 9, In southern Mexico
a federal government helicopter searching for gunmen protecting drug
plantations crashed into a mountain, killing all nine soldiers and
two pilots onboard.
(AP, 3/10/05)
2005 Mar 13, Vigilantes in
Oaxaca, Mexico, killed a state police officer setting him on fire in
revenge for the shooting of a taxi driver in a barroom brawl.
(AP, 3/13/05)
2005 Mar 23, Pres. Bush, Pres.
Fox, and PM Paul Martin at a one-day summit in Texas signed a deal
that provides for sweeping co-operation between Canada, Mexico and
the US on security, economic and health issues. There was no sign of
progress on touchy trade disputes. They agreed to boost border
security and forge common approaches on everything from cargo
inspection to maritime and aviation safety.
(AP, 3/24/05)
2005 Apr 5, Guadalupe Garcia
Escamilla (39), radio reporter, was wounded in the chest, abdomen,
legs and arms during an attack in the Mexican border city of Nuevo
Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas. She died from her wounds April
16.
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 7, Mexico City's
leftist mayor formally declared his intention to run for president
next year even as Congress was to decide whether he should face
criminal charges for allegedly disobeying a court order in a
land-use case.
(AP, 4/8/05)
2005 Apr 8, Lawmakers stripped
Mexico City's mayor of immunity from prosecution, clearing the way
for criminal charges. The shaky legal case against Lopez Obrador
alleges that in 2001, the city government failed for 11 months to
obey a court order to vacate contested land that it had expropriated
for the purpose of building a road.
(AP, 4/8/05)
2005 Apr 8, Raul Gibb Guerrero,
director of La Opinion of Poza Rica newspaper, was shot to death in
an apparent ambush by drug hit men, the 2nd attack on Mexican
journalists in a week.
(AP, 4/9/05)
2005 Apr 14, In Mexico 3
would-be casino developers were killed outside a popular Monterrey
restaurant. The murders delayed a congressional vote to amend a
gambling ban and sparked calls for stricter controls on the few
places Mexicans are allowed to place bets.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 Apr 18, The annual Goldman
Environmental Prizes were awarded in San Francisco. Recipients
included Isidro Baldenegro (39) of Mexico for his efforts on land
rights and forest protection for the Tarahumara Indians
(SFC, 4/18/05, p.B2)
2005 Apr 20, Mexican
prosecutors charged Mexico City's popular leftist mayor with abuse
of authority in a case that could knock him out of the 2006
presidential race.
(AP, 4/21/05)(WSJ, 4/21/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 24, Hundreds of
thousands of demonstrators thronged Mexico City's central square and
surrounding streets to protest the federal prosecution of the
capital city mayor, a leading contender for president in 2006.
(AP, 4/25/05)
2005 May 4, Mexico's government
cleared the capital's mayor of wrongdoing, conceding defeat in a
nasty political fight that ousted an attorney general and raised
criticisms that President Vicente Fox was trying to block his top
rival from running for president.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 9, Leftist Mexico City
Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced that he will resign on
July 31 to run for president.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 13, Pres. Fox praised
the dedication of Mexicans working in the US, saying they're willing
to take jobs that "even blacks" won't do. Pres. Fox apologized for
his comments a few days later saying he regretted any hurt feelings
his statements may have caused.
(AP, 5/17/05)(SFC, 5/17/05, p.A3)
2005 May 16, Mexican President
Vicente Fox regretted any hurt feelings for saying that Mexicans in
the United States were doing the work that even blacks wouldn't.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2005 May 24, In Mexico Eduardo
Villalobos, the director of a state prison in the border city of
Mexicali, was shot to death in an ambush outside his home.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 Jun 3, Oscar Espinosa
Villarreal, former Mexico City mayor (1994-1998) and tourism
secretary, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for
embezzling government funds and ordered to pay more than $26 million
in reparations.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 5, Adolfo Aguilar
Zinser (b.1949), Mexican scholar and diplomat, died.
(Econ, 6/18/05,
p.83)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolfo_Aguilar_Z%C3%Adnser)
2005 Jun 8, In Mexico Alejandro
Dominguez took office as police chief of Nuevo Laredo, saying he
wasn't afraid of anything. Nine hours later, he was ambushed and
killed by gunmen who fired some three dozen times.
(AP, 6/9/05)
2005 Jun 10, In Mexico lawyers
for the brother of a former Mexican president sought his release on
bail after an appeals court threw out his 27-year murder sentence.
(AP, 6/10/05)
2005 Jun 11, In Mexico a plain
clothes federal officer, sent to investigate the killing of the
police chief of Nuevo Laredo, was shot and killed a local policeman.
In response the government announced new program dubbed “Safe
Mexico” to curb drug related violence and corruption.
(Econ, 6/18/05, p.34)
2005 Jun 14, Raul Salinas, the
brother of former Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari, was
released on bail after 10 years in prison on charges he masterminded
the 1994 killing of a political rival.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jun 15, Mexico's Supreme
Court ruled that former Mexican President Luis Echeverria can be
charged with genocide for his alleged involvement in the 1971
massacre of student protesters.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 19, Mexico City
introduced metrobus, a new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system.
(SSFC, 8/7/05, p.A11)
2005 Jun 21, Nuevo Laredo Mayor
Daniel Pena said that 150 police officers will be fired after
failing a screening process that included background checks and drug
testing. Former Mexican soldiers, turned into drug hit men (Zetas),
have taken the border city to the brink of anarchy, infiltrating
local police and threatening anyone who gets in their way.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 22, Consuelo Velazquez
(b.1916), Mexican pianist and composer, died. Her music included
Besame Mucho, first recorded in 1941 by Emilio Tuero. It was the
romantic vision of a chaste, convent-educated teenager growing up in
1930s Mexico, and was inspired by the sight of a smooching couple in
the street.
(www.guardian.co.uk/news/2005/jan/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries1)
2005 Jun 26, In Nuevo Laredo,
Mexico, 44 kidnap victims were freed in a series of raids by
soldiers and federal agents. Deputy Attorney General Gilberto
Higuera said those rescued were apparently "involved in criminal
activities and were not victims of kidnappings" for ransom.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jun 28, Lawmakers
overwhelming approved a law allowing millions of Mexicans living
abroad to vote by mail in next year's presidential election.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 28, Mexico's Zapatista
rebels suggested they would seek to open a political front with
workers, farmers and students, a decision the government interpreted
as a move toward joining mainstream politics and away from armed
struggle.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 29, Mexico released a
series of five stamps depicting a child character from a comic book
started in the 1940s that is still published in Mexico. The stamps
depicted an exaggerated black cartoon character known as Memin
Pinguin.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jun 30, Pres. Fox
signed a bill allowing millions of Mexicans living abroad to vote by
mail in next year's presidential election.
(AP, 7/1/05)
2005 Jun 30, In Honduras
Central American leaders agreed to create a regional special forces
unit to fight drug trafficking, gang violence and terrorism within
their borders. The 2-day regional meeting included the presidents of
Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico,
Nicaragua, and Panama.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jul 3, In Mexico State the
former ruling party (PRI) added momentum for the upcoming
presidential race with a crushing victory.
(AP, 7/4/05)
2005 Jul 6, In Mexico Omar
Pimentel (37), Nuevo Laredo's new police chief, survived his 1st day
on the job with 3 bodyguards shadowing his every move, but one of
his police officers was killed and 2 other policemen badly wounded
by shots fired from a truck at their private car.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 6, In Acapulco,
Mexico, gunmen fired a spray of bullets at Jose Ruben Robles
Catalan, a former Guerrero state official as he entered a hotel
lobby with his 6-year-old grandson, killing him and his chauffeur.
(AP, 7/6/05)
2005 Jul 8, In rural
southeastern Mexico a series of explosions at a natural gas pipeline
killed two people and set fire to houses, cars and cattle near
Cunduacan.
(AP, 7/10/05)
2005 Jul 11, Hugo Alberto
Wallace (36), a divorced entrepreneur, was kidnapped as he left a
movie theater in Mexico City. In 2007 Brenda Quevedo was arrested in
Louisville, Kentucky, after Maria Isabel Miranda, the mother of
Wallace, received a tip and tracked her down. Frustrated with
investigators' lack of progress in her son's 2005 kidnapping,
Miranda launched her own investigation, tracking down five suspects.
In 2009 Quevedo was extradited to Mexico.
(www.nytimes.com/2006/04/04/world/americas/04kidnapping.html)(AP,
9/26/09)
2005 Jul 18, Hurricane Emily
slammed into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula as a powerful Category 4
storm.
(AP, 7/18/05)
2005 Jul 20, In Mexico more
than 1,000 people marched through the streets of the colonial
capital of southern Oaxaca state to demand that picketers disband a
blockade that has trapped journalists inside a newspaper building
for about a month.
(AP, 7/21/05)
2005 Jul 20, Hurricane Emily
slammed into northeastern Mexico with 125 mph winds.
(AP, 7/20/05)
2005 Jul 22, Mexican
authorities raided a kidnapping ring that filmed its victims being
held inside a cage and beaten. An abducted businessman was freed and
five people were arrested. The gang operated in Mexico City and
outlying areas in Puebla and Mexico State.
(AP, 7/23/05)
2005 Jul 31, In southern Mexico
former soldier Oscar Flores (35) killed his wife, infant nephew and
a police officer in a vicious rampage that left 10 people dead
before being wounded by police and killed by an angry crowd.
(AP, 8/1/05)
2005 Aug 1, In Tonala, Mexico,
assailants threw grenades into a crowded cockfighting ring before
dawn, killing four people and wounding 25 others.
(AP, 8/2/05)
2005 Aug 6, Leonardo Rodriguez
Alcaine (b.1919), Mexican trade union leader and a long-serving
legislator of the Revolutionary Institutional Party, died. He
presided over the Workers' Confederation of Mexico (CTM) from July
21, 1997 until his death.
(Econ, 11/12/05,
p.39)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_Rodr%C3%ADguez_Alcaine)
2005 Aug 12, A Mexican judge
issued an arrest warrant for Gen. Francisco Quiros, accused of
ordering the disappearance of leftist folk singer Rosendo Radilla on
Aug 25, 1974. Quiros was already in prison serving a drug sentence.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 12, New regulations in
Tijuana, Mexico, called for the city to issue electronic cards to
replace pink, pocket-size health history books given to Tijuana's
4,700 registered prostitutes. The new standards were modeled after
those in the Mexican cities of Monterrey and Acapulco.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Aug 12, Peter Hommerson, a
fugitive charged with killing a wealthy Illinois couple on Jan 23,
1996, was captured at a Mexican resort after tourists recognized him
from a crime watch television program.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 25, In central Mexico
a rain-swollen river overflowed its banks and flooded the town of
Aguililla, leaving five people dead and five others missing.
(AP, 8/26/05)
2005 Aug, Judi Werthein (38),
Argentine-born artist, introduced special shoes at Insite, an art
exhibition in San Diego and Tijuana, designed to help migrants cross
the US-Mexico border. The “Brinco” sneakers were equipped with a
compass, flashlight and other special features.
(SFC, 11/18/05, p.A2)
2005 Sep 1, President Vicente
Fox, in his last state-of-the-nation address, urged citizens to stay
committed to Mexico's newfound democracy and to remind them that
they are in charge of the nation's future.
(AP, 9/2/05)
2005 Sep 3, In Tlacotepec,
Mexico, 75 miles north of Acapulco, fireworks stored at a building
that also illicitly sold gasoline exploded, killing seven people and
injuring four.
(AP, 9/3/05)
2005 Sep 8, A Mexican army
convoy began crossing into the US to bring aid to victims of
Hurricane Katrina.
(AP, 9/8/05)
2005 Sep 8, El Salvador said
that “Operation International” simultaneous raids this week in El
Salvador, the US, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico netted 660
dangerous gang members.
(AP, 9/9/05)
2005 Sep 10, In Mexico 7
Guatemala men were caught near the Guatemalan border with six
large-caliber rifles and 1,600 rounds of ammunition. They faced
charges of weapons trafficking.
(AP, 9/30/05)
2005 Sep 11, Mexico's ruling
National Action Party gave former Energy Secretary Felipe Calderon a
surprise victory in the first round of its three-part presidential
primary.
(AP, 9/11/05)
2005 Sep 12, In Mexico Chinese
President Hu Jintao promised Mexican leaders that he would crack
down on the millions of dollars worth of Chinese contraband entering
their nation, goods that undermine Mexican businesses ranging from
sandal makers to religious icon sellers.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 15, A fire engulfed
Mexico's most famous fireworks market, setting off a chain of
explosions in Tultepec, a town northeast of the nation's capital.
The fire destroyed hundreds of open-air stands just ahead of
Independence Day celebrations.
(AP, 9/15/05)
2005 Sep 16, The Volcano of
Fire in western Mexico blasted ash and gas three miles high, with an
explosion that was heard in villages 10 miles from the crater.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 19, In Mexico a
special federal prosecutor sought the arrest of ex-President Luis
Echeverria and other former officials for their alleged involvement
in the massacre of student protesters in 1968.
(AP, 9/19/05)
2005 Sep 21, A cabinet minister
who helped lead Mexico's anti-drug fight, his deputy and seven
others died in a helicopter crash in the mountains west of Mexico
City. The helicopter, carrying Public Safety Secretary Ramon Martin
Huerta, Federal Preventive Police Chief Tomas Valencia, five other
passengers and a crew of two, had taken off from a military parade
ground in Mexico City.
(AP, 9/22/05)
2005 Sep 26-2005 Sep 27,
Intense rains throughout southern Mexico and parts of Central
America caused rivers to overflow, killing at least 3 people and
forcing thousands to flee their homes.
(AP, 9/28/05)
2005 Sep, In Mexico Bishop
Ramon Godinez declared that drug traffickers often donate to the
church. He argued that the money is "purified" once it passes
through parish doors.
(AP, 10/5/05)
2005 Oct 1, The outer bands of
Hurricane Otis lashed the coast of western Mexico as the storm
crawled toward the Baja California peninsula, forcing hundreds of
families to evacuate their homes and flooding roads in Cabo San
Lucas.
(AP, 10/2/05)
2005 Oct 2, Felipe Calderon,
Mexico's former energy secretary, appeared headed toward another
victory in the 2nd round of the ruling National Action Party's
3-part presidential primary.
(AP, 10/2/05)
2005 Oct 4, Hurricane Stan
slammed into Mexico’s Gulf coast.
(AP, 10/4/06)
2005 Oct 5, Hurricane Stan
knocked down trees, ripped roofs off homes and washed out bridges in
southeastern Mexico, but it was the storms it helped spawn that were
far more destructive, killing more than 65 people in Central
America. Officials in El Salvador said 49 people had been killed,
mostly due to two days of mudslides sparked by rains. 9 people died
in Nicaragua, including six migrants believed to be Ecuadorians
killed in a boat accident. Four deaths were reported in Honduras,
three in Guatemala and one in Costa Rica.
(AP, 10/5/05)
2005 Oct 6-2005 Oct 8, In
Guatemala rescue workers searched for victims of a mudslide near
Lake Atitlan, a volcano-ringed lake popular with tourists. Panabaj
and Tzanchaz were entombed by a mudflow half a mile wide. The death
toll in the region from flooding sparked by Hurricane Stan soon
climbed to 617 with 42 dead in Mexico, 72 dead in El Salvador and 11
dead in Nicaragua.
(SFC, 10/7/05, p.A3)(AP, 10/9/05)(Econ, 10/15/05,
p.43)
2005 Oct 11, It was reported
that a serial killer, dubbed the "Mataviejitas," or "Little Old Lady
Killer," was stalking Mexico City. The killer was said to wear
women's clothes and strangled and battered old ladies in their
homes.
(AP, 10/11/05)
2005 Oct 21, Hurricane Wilma
slammed into the island of Cozumel, starting a long, grinding march
across Mexico's resort-studded coastline. Wilma flooded streets,
knocked out power and stranded thousands of tourists in sweltering
shelters. Hurricane Wilma tore into Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula,
after killing 13 people in Haiti and Jamaica.
(AP, 10/21/05)(AP, 10/22/06)
2005 Oct 22, Hurricane Wilma
crawled over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, keeping some 30,000
tourists huddled in hotels and shelters amid shrieking winds and
shattering glass.
(AP, 10/22/05)
2005 Oct 23, Mexico's ruling
party chose Felipe Calderon, the nation's former energy secretary,
as its candidate for presidential elections next July.
(AP, 10/23/05)
2005 Oct 23, Hurricane Wilma
drifted northward away from Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula where the
storm left 8 people dead. In 2006 insurers put the damage from Wilma
at $3 billion, the largest insured losses in Mexican history.
(AP, 10/23/05)(Econ, 10/29/05, p.38)(AP,
10/19/06)
2005 Oct 24, Luis Velasquez
(51), A Roman Catholic parish priest was found shot to death in his
car with his hands cuffed in the rough border city of Tijuana, in
what police said appeared to be an organized-crime killing.
(AP, 10/24/05)
2005 Oct 27, The Mexican
government announced that former "bracero" guest workers, who
labored in the United States between the 1942 and 1964, will get a
one-time payment of about $3,500. The aging workers, who have
protested for years, described the payment as insulting and said it
should be at least $9,175.
(AP, 10/27/05)(SFC, 10/28/05, p.A22)
2005 Oct 28, Mexico became the
100th country to ratify the treaty founding the world's first
permanent war crimes tribunal, which the United States has opposed.
(AP, 10/28/05)
2005 Nov 4, In Argentina
Mexico’s Pres. Vicente Fox said that a majority of nations in the
Western Hemisphere will consider moving forward with negotiations to
create a huge new free trade zone without the participation of
dissenting countries like Venezuela.
(AP, 11/4/05)
2005 Nov 9, Mexico reported
that consumer prices fell to a record low in October and that
inflation was rapidly approaching the central bank’s target of 3%.
(WSJ, 11/10/05, p.A15)
2005 Nov 10, Mexican
prosecutors announced they have filed kidnapping and organize crime
charges against seven police officers accused of protecting hit men
working for the feared Tijuana-based Arellano Felix drug cartel.
(AP, 11/11/05)
2005 Nov 11, Mexican agents
arrested Ricardo Garcia Urquiza, a former medical student, who
seized control of the remnants of the Juarez cartel.
(AP, 11/21/05)
2005 Nov 14, Mexico said it
will sever diplomatic ties with Venezuela if Pres. Chavez doesn't
apologize for warning Mexican leader Vicente Fox: "Don't mess with
me." Mexico and Venezuela called their ambassadors home in a sharp
dispute between presidents Hugo Chavez and Vicente Fox over the
latter's relations with Washington.
(AP, 11/14/05)(AP, 11/15/05)
2005 Nov 15, In northwest
Mexico a tanker truck hauling toxic ammonium chloride slammed into a
passenger bus, killing 38 people as both vehicles plunged down an
embankment.
(AP, 11/16/05)
2005 Nov 16, Mexico’s Supreme
Court ruled that rape within marriage is a crime.
(SFC, 11/17/05, p.A12)
2005 Nov 17, Mexico's Supreme
Court voted 11-1 that the Pascual Cooperative, a bottler
specializing in Mexico's traditional fruit-flavored and fruit-based
soft drinks, did not rate protection as a public interest.
(AP, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 20, The Vatican
beatified 13 Mexicans who died during a Roman Catholic uprising in
the late 1920s that was crushed by the Mexican government.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 28, Mexico changed its
constitution to allow state and local police to pursue drug
traffickers, removing a major stumbling block in anti-drug efforts
that had long been the exclusive realm of federal officers.
(AP, 11/28/05)
2005 Nov 29, Mexico's Supreme
Court ruled that suspects facing life in prison can be extradited,
overturning a 4-year-old ban that had prevented many of the
country's most notorious criminals from being sent to the United
States.
(AP, 11/29/05)
2005 Nov 29, CINTRA sold
Mexicana airlines and its subsidiary, Click Mexicana, to the Mexican
hotel chain Grupo Posadas for USD$165.5 million.
(Econ, 8/14/10,
p.53)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexicana_de_Aviaci%C3%B3n)
2005 Nov 30, Mexican officials
said that they are investigating a homemade DVD purporting to show
four drug hitmen for the Gulf Cartel being beaten and interrogated,
then one of them being shot in the head.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 1, The Mexican
Attorney General's office said 11 federal agents were charged with
kidnapping for picking up four alleged drug hit men and possibly
helping kill them.
(AP, 12/02/05)
2005 Dec 2, The Mexico City
government said 5 federal agents arrested in connection with the
videotaped torture and killing of drug hitmen have been released
from prison for lack of evidence.
(AP, 12/03/05)
2005 Dec 10, Mexican police
raided a house outside Mexico City, capturing two alleged kidnappers
and rescuing three people, including an 8-year-old girl, who had
been held for more than two months. Police detained Israel Vallarta,
a Mexican, and Marie Louise Cassez Florence, a Frenchwoman. The two
allegedly belonged to a gang called "The Zodiac," tied to at least
10 kidnappings and one murder. Florence Cassez was later sentenced
to 60 years in prison for 3 kidnappings. In 2010 Florence Cassez
released a book about her case. It describes a series of
inconsistencies in the case that she says weren't taken into
account.
(AP, 12/10/05)(AP, 3/10/09)(AP, 9/23/10)
2005 Dec 14, Officials said
Mexico and the US broke up a counterfeiting ring that printed an
estimated $5 million in fake $100 bills in Mexico and sold them
across the border.
(AP, 12/15/05)
2005 Dec 14, Carlos Delgadillo
Martinez died after losing his grip on an inner tube while trying to
cross the Rio Grande near Laredo, Texas. In 2011 jurors acquitted
helicopter pilot James Peters (41) of lying about his role in
Delgadillo’s death.
(SFC, 9/3/11, p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/3nzc2z7)
2005 Dec 15, A Mexican judge
committed 8 relatives to the psychiatric ward of a prison for the
ritualistic slayings of two young family members that shocked Mexico
with their brutality. Officials said the parents, grandparents and
aunts of a 7-month-old and 13-year-old hacked a baby to death and
fatally stoned a teenager earlier this month after they became
convinced the girls were demons or possessed by the devil.
(AP, 12/16/05)
2005 Dec 17, The Mexican
government slammed the US Congress for approving an immigration bill
that would tighten border controls and make it harder for
undocumented immigrants to get jobs.
(AP, 12/17/05)
2005 Dec 17, In Mexico 6 people
were stabbed or battered to death during a prison gang fight in
Ciudad Juarez, across the US border from El Paso, Texas.
(AP, 12/17/05)
2005 Dec 20, The Mexican
government, angered by a U.S. proposal to extend a wall along the
border to keep out migrants, pledged to block the plan and organize
an international campaign against it.
(AP, 12/21/05)
2005 Dec 29, Seven policemen in
the southern Mexican state of Chiapas were detained on suspicion of
stealing relief packages intended for hurricane victims.
(AP, 12/29/05)
2005 Dec 31, Guillermo Martinez
(18) died in a Tijuana hospital one day after he was shot by a US
Border Patrol agent near a metal wall separating that city from San
Diego. On Jan 2 Mexico opened an investigation into the killing
saying he was shot while sneaking into California, using the death
to draw attention to a contentious US anti-immigration measure. In
2008 the US Dept. of Justice cleared the Border Patrol agent of any
wrongdoing.
(AP, 1/3/06)(SFC, 2/16/08, p.A4)
2005 Dec, Mexico’s attorney
general’s office released a report that said 1,493 of 7,000 federal
agents had been investigated for possible wrongdoing and that 457
had been indicted.
(SFC, 12/28/05, p.A9)
2005 Dec, In Mexico Lydia
Cacho, a journalist who wrote a book about pedophilia in Cancun, was
arrested and charged with libel. Titled "The Demons of Eden," the
book linked Jean Succar Kuri to a prominent businessman in the
central state of Puebla. Cacho was freed on bail and Kuri was
extradited from the US in 2006 to face charges in Mexico.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2005 The US SEC filed civil
fraud charges against Ricardo Salinas Pliego and 2 other top
executives at TV Azteca for allegedly failing to disclose their
involvement in Unefon under a provision of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley
law. Salinas pulled his companies from the NYSE.
(WSJ, 12/8/05, p.A11)
2005 Mexico counted 1,600
murders this year linked to organized crime.
(Econ, 6/16/07, p.45)
2006 Jan 1, Subcomandante
Marcos (b.1957), identified by the Mexican government as Rafael
Guillen, began a tour of 31 Mexican states under the name “Delegate
Zero.” The leader of Mexico's Zapatista rebels, wearing a ski mask
to protect his identity, railed against the government and free
trade to kick off a six-month tour of Mexico aimed at reshaping the
nation's politics.
(WSJ, 1/5/06, p.A12)(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 6, Comandante Ramona
(47), a leader of Mexico's Zapatista rebel movement and an advocate
for women's rights, died after a decade-long struggle with a kidney
disease.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 9, Diplomats from
Mexico and Central America demanded guest worker programs and the
legalization of undocumented migrants in the United States, while
criticizing a US proposal for tougher border enforcement.
(AP, 1/10/06)
2006 Jan 11, Felipe Calderon,
ruling-party presidential hopeful, registered his campaign with
election officials, saying he understands the problems facing common
Mexicans and will stem the flow of migrants who head north in search
of higher-paying jobs.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 13, Raul Anguiano
(b.1915), Mexican painter, sculptor and muralist, died in Mexico
City.
(SFC, 1/17/06, p.B5)
2006 Jan 23, Raul Osiel
Marroquin was arrested in Mexico City. On Jan 26 he described
killing four gay men. His arrest was the 1st confirmation of a
serial killer targeting homosexuals.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 24, A Mexican
government commission said it will distribute at least 70,000 maps
showing highways, rescue beacons and water tanks in the Arizona
desert to curb the death toll among illegal border crossers.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 24, At least 10 men in
Mexican military-style uniforms crossed the Rio Grande into the
United States on a marijuana-smuggling foray, leading to an armed
confrontation with Texas law officers near Neely's Crossing, Texas.
The three sport utility vehicles made a quick U-turn and headed
south toward the border, a few miles away.
(AP, 9/6/09)
2006 Jan 25, Juana Barraza (48)
was arrested while fleeing from a home where an elderly woman was
slain. She was suspected to be the serial murderer known as the
"Mataviejitas," or "Little Old Lady Killer." Barraza's fingerprints
matched those left at the scene of 10 other murders, plus at the
scene of an attempted murder.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 25, US authorities
discovered what they say is the largest and most sophisticated
tunnel under their border with Mexico, one that was used by drug
trafficking gangs. The tunnel began near Tijuana’s airport and ended
2,400 feet away in a warehouse on the US side of the border. The
find included 2 tons of marijuana.
(AFP, 1/27/06)(SFC, 1/27/06, p.B14)
2006 Jan 26, Mexico said it
will suspend its plan to distribute maps to migrants wanting to
cross the US border illegally. An official said the decision was
made because the maps would show anti-immigrant groups where
migrants likely would gather.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 27, Angel Hidalgo
Espinosa, the leader of a farmers' group in Mexico's southern
Chiapas state, was convicted in the 2001 slayings of 8 peasants and
sentenced to 37 years in prison.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Jan 27, In Mexico
authorities got into a shootout with drug traffickers in Acapulco
and at least 4 people were killed.
(SFC, 1/28/06, p.A6)
2006 Jan 29, The Mexican
government said the US Border Patrol in New Mexico arrested
Francisco Javier Gutierrez, a Mexican immigration official, who was
allegedly trying to help a group of undocumented migrants sneak into
the US.
(AP, 1/30/06)
2006 Feb 2, Mexican authorities
captured Oscar Arriola Marquez, leader of the Arriola Marquez
cartel, wanted in the US on cocaine trafficking and money laundering
charges, and ranked among the world's most-wanted fugitives.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 4, A three-day energy
meeting in Mexico City wrapped up after moving to a Mexican-owned
hotel. It was the first private-sector oil summit between Cuba and
the US. The meeting between Cuban officials and US energy executives
was moved to another hotel after the Hotel Maria Isabel Sheraton
asked the Cubans to leave. On Feb 6 Mexico launched an investigation
into whether the US government pressured the American-owned hotel
into expelling Cuban guests.
(AP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 7, The owner of a
Mexican newspaper in Nuevo Laredo said there will be no more
investigative coverage of drug gangs, a day after the paper's
offices were sprayed with bullets and a reporter hospitalized with
five gunshots.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 13, In Monterrey,
Mexico, 2 police chiefs, Hector Ayala and Javier Garcia, were shot
and killed within hours of each other in a violence-plagued region
near the US where drug smugglers have been battling for control of
key routes across the border.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, In Nuevo Laredo,
Mexico, armed men forced their way into a hospital and killed a
teenager under treatment for an earlier attempt on his life.
(SFC, 2/18/06, p.A10)
2006 Feb 15, In central Mexico
a bus careened off a windy highway and into a ravine in the Sierra
Gorda mountains, killing 23 people and injuring 14.
(AP, 2/16/06)
2006 Feb 19, A gas explosion in
a northern Mexico coal mine trapped 65 miners some 600 feet below
ground with a limited supply of oxygen. In 2007 a judge ordered the
arrest of 5 mine managers and inspectors on charges of negligent
homicide in the deaths of the miners.
(AP, 2/19/06)(WSJ, 2/21/06, p.A1)(AP, 3/20/07)
2006 Feb 21, In Cancun, Mexico,
Domenico Ianiero, 59, and his wife, Annunziata, 55, of Woodbridge,
Ont., were found in their hotel rooms at the all-inclusive five-star
resort on the Mayan Riviera in the early morning. Their throats had
been slashed. The crime apparently took place after a rehearsal
dinner ahead of a wedding in which the Lily, one of the Ianieros'
twin girls, was to be married at the resort. Prosecutors in Cancun
said two Canadian women were suspected in the killing and had fled
to Canada.
(CP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 25, In Mexico mining
officials said there was little hope of finding any of miners alive
from the Feb 19 gas explosion at the Industrial Minera Mexico mine
near San Juan Sabinas.
(SSFC, 2/26/06, p.A3)
2006 Feb 28, Mexico City
officials moved to shut down a US-owned hotel that angered many
Mexicans when it kicked out a Cuban delegation under pressure from
Washington. The Sheraton Maria Isabel Hotel would be closed because
it was in violation of building codes. The hotel could reopen when
it had corrected the violations and paid a $15,000 fine. The threat
of closure was dropped the next day.
(AP, 3/1/06)(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Feb 28, Some 4,000 Mexican
miners struck copper mines owned by the operator of the coal mine
where 65 men died in an explosion last week.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Mar 6, In Mexico Diego
Santoy (21) was captured at a police roadblock in the southern state
of Oaxaca, four days after he allegedly stabbed his ex-girlfriend,
Erika Pena, 18, strangled her 3-year-old sister and stabbed to death
her 7-year-old brother.
(AP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 7, More than 20,000
union workers marched in downtown Mexico City, accusing the
government of meddling in the affairs of the national miners union
by seeking to oust its leader.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 7, In Nuevo Laredo,
Mexico, heavily armed assailants killed a state police chief and an
officer and wounded two more officers in a brazen midmorning ambush.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 10, An anchorman for a
Mexican radio station was shot to death by gunmen waiting for him in
the bushes in front of his house in the border city of Nuevo Laredo.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 13, Mexico’s attorney
general said he will close a special prosecutor's office dedicated
to investigating atrocities committed by the government during its
two-decade campaign to weed out suspected guerrillas and leftists.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 14, Mexico announced a
new deepwater oil discovery that could exceed the declining reserves
at the giant offshore Cantarell field.
(WSJ, 3/14/06, p.A11)
2006 Mar 16, The 4th World
Water Forum opened in Mexico City.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 16, In Nuevo Laredo,
Mexico, 4 plainclothes federal police agents were killed after an
unknown number of gunmen sprayed the unmarked pickup truck they were
riding in with more than 30 bullets. The slayings came a day after
600 new members of the Federal Preventative Police arrived in Nuevo
Laredo as part of extra-security efforts.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 17, A bus carrying
dozens of teenagers on a school field trip toppled off a bridge on
the outskirts of Mexico's capital, killing 7 people and injuring at
least 28.
(AP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 22, In Mexico Omar
Pimentel (38), the police chief of the border city of Nuevo Laredo,
resigned. He said he was tired from the stress of working in a city
dominated by drug cartels fighting a bloody turf war.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 24, The Mexican
government said a US-owned hotel that expelled Cuban guests under
pressure from the Treasury Department must pay $112,000 in fines for
violating Mexican commerce law.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 26, In Mexico the
bodies of six men, blindfolded, handcuffed and shot to death, were
found packed inside a pickup truck on the side of a highway leading
to the Texas border.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 27, The US Senate
Judiciary Committee approved a proposal to legalize undocumented
migrants and provide temporary work visas. Mexicans cheered the
approval and credited huge marches of migrants across the US as the
decisive factor behind the vote.
(AP, 3/28/06)
2006 Mar 28, A Mexican judge
ordered an Argentine journalist to remove references to one of the
first lady's sons in a book that claims he benefited financially
from his family's political connections. The book "Cronicas
Malditas," or roughly "Accursed Chronicles" (2005), alleged that two
of Sahagun's three sons, principally Manuel Bribiesca, had used
their connections to get preferential treatment on federal
government work contracts during the administration of President
Vicente Fox, which began in December 2000.
(AP, 3/28/06)
2006 Mar 30, Pres. Bush arrived
in Cancun, Mexico, for 2 days of North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) talks with Canadian PM Stephen Harper and Mexico’s Pres.
Fox.
(Reuters, 3/30/06)(WSJ, 3/30/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 30, Mexico’s Congress
passed legislation dubbed the Televisa Law” confirming the country’s
longstanding TV duopoly. President Vicente Fox officially signed off
on controversial reforms to the country’s Federal Radio and
Television law on April 11. In 2007 the legislation faced court
actions.
(http://cbrayton.wordpress.com/2007/05/11/mexico-the-birth-of-the-televisa-law/)
2006 Mar 31, President Bush,
closing a three-nation NAFTA summit, defended requiring secure
documents from border-crossing Canadians and pushed Mexico to
prevent more of its people from illegally entering America.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Apr 3, Dozens of Mexican
newspapers, frustrated by fruitless police probes of slain and
missing journalists, simultaneously published the first in a series
of reports on the cases.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 6, In Mexico hundreds
of machete-wielding farmers opposed to a hydroelectric dam project
briefly seized a pumping plant, cutting off much of the water supply
to Acapulco just days before tourists flock to the Pacific resort
for their Easter vacations.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 7, The US Court of
International Law ruled that US Customs violated a provision of the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in applying a law known
as the Byrd amendment to antidumping and countervailing duties on
goods from Canada and Mexico.
(Reuters, 4/7/06)
2006 Apr 10, Mexican soldiers
seized 128 suitcases packed with 5.6 metric tons of cocaine worth
more than $100 million from a commercial plane arriving from
Venezuela. Smugglers had purchased the DC-9 plane with laundered
funds transferred through US banks Wachovia Corp. and Bank of
America. In 2010 court papers said a gang under Walid Makled
operated the DC-9 and flew the cocaine from Simon Bolivar
International to Campeche, Mexico. Makled was arrested Aug 19, 2010
in Colombia in the border city of Cucuta. In Nov 2010 Colombia
denied an extradition request for Makled by the US, saying that the
suspect will be sent back to face charges in his home country.
(AP, 4/12/06)(SFC, 6/30/10, p.D1)(AP, 11/17/10)
2006 Apr 12, Two people were
killed in a grenade attack on a restaurant and a shop owner was
gunned down as violence shook towns on Mexico's resort-studded
Pacific coast.
(AP, 4/13/06)
2006 Apr 16, The Rev. Cesar
Torres (42) killed Veronica Andrade Salinas (22), who was pregnant,
at his parish on Mexico City's eastern outskirts. He used a kitchen
knife to cut off her head and hack her body to pieces, which he
packed the pieces into plastic bags and dumped near a cemetery in
Chimalhuacan. The couple had an 18-month-old daughter. Torres
admitted to the murder on April 19.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 17, In Mexico an
overcrowded bus speeding home from a religious festival veered off a
highway emergency ramp and crashed through a metal barrier, plunging
more than 650 feet into a ravine near Maltrata, a town about 125
miles east of the capital. 58 people were killed. There were 2
survivors.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, The Mexican
Congress enacted a law that allows journalists to protect the
confidentiality of their sources.
(SFC, 4/20/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 20, In Mexico a
violent confrontation between 800 federal and state police agents
and more than 500 striking steelworkers left two workers dead and
dozens of workers and police agents injured at the Siderurgica
Lazaro Cardenas-Las Truchas, SA (Sicartsa) steel plant in the port
city of Lazaro Cardenas in the state of Michoacan. The decapitated
heads of two police officials were found dumped in front of a
government building in Acapulco.
(http://ww4report.com/node/1879)(AP, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 26, A Mexican boycott
urged people to shun all products from U.S. businesses on May 1, a
sort of "Day Without Americans," timed to coincide with the "Day
Without Immigrants" boycott planned by activists north of the
border.
(AP, 4/26/06)
2006 Apr 26, In southern Mexico
a speeding truck loaded with Guatemalan migrants en route to the
United States collided head-on with another truck, killing 10
migrants and injuring 16.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 28, Mexican lawmakers
approved a bill that would allow people to possess small amounts of
cocaine, heroin, even ecstasy for their personal use.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 Apr 28, Mexican police in
Tijuana found the body of a US citizen kidnapped nearly 3 weeks
earlier. They said he had been beaten, strangled, stripped naked and
stashed in the trunk of a car. George Kwok Choi Chu, a seafood
wholesaler, worked in Tijuana but lived across the border in San
Diego.
(AP, 4/29/06)
2006 May 1, A day-long protest
dubbed "A Day Without Gringos" drew thousands of Mexicans into the
streets and kept many away from US-owned supermarkets and fast-food
restaurants to support rallies in the United States demanding
immigration reform.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 3, Mexican President
Vicente Fox refused to sign a drug decriminalization bill, hours
after US officials warned the plan could encourage "drug tourism."
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, In Mexico one
person was killed as machete-wielding protesters near Mexico City
clashed with police, blocking highways, throwing molotov cocktails
and briefly seizing six officers. The residents attacked police
after several of their companions were arrested in the nearby town
of Texcoco.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Just before dawn
hundreds of law enforcement officials fired tear gas and crashed
through human barricades to take control of San Salvador Atenco, a
rebellious town outside Mexico City, hours after protesters released
six badly beaten police hostages.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 9, Mexican lawmakers
handed federal investigators a box of evidence that they claim shows
that two of President Vicente Fox's stepsons were involved in fraud
and illicit enrichment through real estate deals.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 14, Mexican President
Vicente Fox telephoned President Bush to express his concern about
the border between the two nations, a day before Bush's planned Oval
Office speech on immigration.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2006 May 15, Pres. Bush
endorsed a guest worker program and a program for citizenship for
many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. He also called
for the development of a tamper-proof ID card for workers and
pledged to send the National Guard to tighten security along the US
border with Mexico.
(SFC, 5/16/06, p.A1)
2006 May 19, The Vatican said
it had asked Rev. Marcial Maciel, the Mexican founder of the
conservative order Legionaries of Christ (1941), to renounce
celebrating public Masses and live a life of "prayer and repentance"
following its investigation into allegations he sexually abused
seminarians.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 23, Mexico’s Pres. Fox
began a five-day trip to the US in Utah before moving on to
Washington state and California. Immigration was the major focus of
Fox's trip as the US Senate considered legislation to strengthen
border security
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 23, In Mexico 3 men
were shot to death in two different attacks in the border city of
Nuevo Laredo, bringing to at least 115 the number of people slain by
violence this year.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 25, Mexican President
Vicente Fox addressed the California legislature. He praised a US
Senate which had just approved sweeping immigration reforms as a
"monumental step forward" in the relationship between his country
and the United States.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 Jun 1, California Gov.
Schwarzenegger reluctantly reached an agreement with the federal
government to deploy 1,000 members of the California National Guard
along the US-Mexico border.
(SFC, 6/2/06, p.B1)
2006 Jun 5, Mexico proposed
creating an environmental reserve (the Rio Bravo del Norte proposal)
about 30 feet wide and 600 miles long on the Texas border, a "green
wall" to protect the Rio Grande from the roads and staging areas
that smugglers use to ferry drugs and migrants across the frontier.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 8, The US offered a
reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the capture of
Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez, a reputed Mexican drug cartel
chieftain, whose group allegedly smuggles tons of cocaine and
marijuana north each year.
(AP, 6/9/06)
2006 Jun 14, In Mexico some
3000 elements of the state ministerial police, preventive police and
Oaxaca state firemen began to violently remove a sit-in of 70,000
workers from Section 22 of the National Union of Education Workers
(SNTE) with tear gas, smoke grenades, stun grenades and firearms.
Thus far there have been 13 reported arrests, 4 injuries, 5 bullet
wounds, and between 6 and 9 deaths, as well as a break-in to the
Teachers' Union building and the destruction of the installations of
Radio Plantón (a free/non-licensed community radio station that has
been a point of reference for social movements in Oaxaca).
(www.indymedia.org/en/2006/06/840911.shtml)
2006 Jun 17, Mexican
authorities in Guadalajara arrested Pedro Castorena, the leader of a
far-flung ring that allegedly made and distributed forged
immigration and identification documents in the US. Castorena was
indicted in Denver last July on charges of conspiracy, fraud, misuse
of visas and money laundering.
(AP, 6/19/06)
2006 Jun 23, In Mexico Enrique
Rueda Pacheco, the leader of about 70,000 striking teachers in
southern Oaxaca state, said they won't interfere with the July 2
presidential election, and promised to meet with a civic commission
to try to resolve their pay demands. The monthlong strike has left
1.3 million children in grade and high schools in Oaxaca without
classes.
(AP, 6/23/06)
2006 Jun 26, In Mexico
assailants armed with automatic rifles shot and killed a top
policeman and his bodyguard as they drove home in the resort city of
Cancun.
(AP, 6/27/06)
2006 Jun 28, Gunmen shot and
killed Ignacio Perales Gomez, a prominent Mexico City police
investigator, outside his home. Perales was a lead investigator in
several of the city's notable cases including that of jailed
businessman Carlos Ahumada, a Mexico City construction mogul linked
to a bribery scandal that rocked the country in 2004.
(AP, 6/29/06)
2006 Jun 29, Mexican police
found a human head by the main entrance to Acapulco’s City Hall, the
fourth such grisly discovery this year.
(AP, 6/30/06)
2006 Jun 30, Former Mexican
President Luis Echeverria was placed under house arrest on genocide
charges stemming from a 1968 student massacre, an unprecedented move
coming just two days before the country elects a new president.
Authorities found two more human heads in front of a government
office in Acapulco, accompanied with threatening messages linked to
the drug trade.
(AP, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 2, Mexico held
presidential elections. Felipe Calderon (43) calling himself “the
candidate of jobs,” faced Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador: “For
everyone’s good, the poor first.” Lopez Villanueva, head of the
Francisco Villa Popular Front, arranged to have 10,000 members as
poll watchers for Lopez Obrador. A tight race delayed the results to
July 5. The per capita GDP was $10,000. Oil production was 3.35
million barrels per day. On July 6 Calderon was named the winner by
234,000 votes. The final outcome rested with the electoral court,
Trife, and its decision was due by September 6.
(Econ, 6/10/06, p.36)(WSJ, 6/28/06, p.A1)(Econ,
7/15/06, p.35)(AP, 7/7/07)
2006 Jul 3, Two bitter rivals
declared themselves Mexico's next president, sparking fears of
violence. Electoral officials said they wouldn't name a winner until
a vote-by-vote hand count.
(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 4, Lopez Obrador,
Mexico’s leftist presidential candidate, called for a recount of
election results that showed him trailing his conservative rival by
1 percentage point.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 5, Mexico’s recount of
election results put Lopez Obrador ahead of Louis Calderon with 83%
of the votes tallied.
(WSJ, 7/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 6, Felipe Calderon won
the official count in Mexico's disputed presidential race, a
come-from-behind victory for the stiff technocrat. But his leftist
rival refused to concede and said he'd fight the results in court.
Calderon won 35.9% of the vote against Obrador’s 35.3%.
(AP, 7/7/06)(Econ, 11/18/06, Survey p.4)
2006 Jul 8, Leftist
presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged his
supporters to take to the streets, claiming the governing party
stole his victory in Mexico's extremely narrow elections. Obrador
called on a huge crowd of supporters to keep peacefully protesting
as he goes to court to challenge what he called his fraudulent
electoral defeat.
(AP, 7/8/06)(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 8, A Mexican federal
judge threw out genocide charges against former President Luis
Echeverria, ruling that a 30-year statute of limitations had run
out.
(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 8, In western Mexico 4
children, who won an airplane ride for good grades at school, were
killed along with the pilot when the small aircraft crashed near
Tepic.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 11, In Mexico a man
was shot to death in front of Acapulco's City Hall and a naval
officer was abducted, the latest violence in this resort city hit by
a wave of drug-related crime. The 2 men slain were later identified
as military officers responsible for the mayor's security.
(AP, 7/11/06)(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 12, Tens of thousands
of supporters of leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez
Obrador headed to Mexico City, leaving mountain towns and sprawling
industrial cities to demand a ballot-by-ballot recount.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 15, US authorities
extradited Jean Succar Kuri, a Mexican businessman with alleged ties
to associates of a powerful state governor, to face charges in
Mexico of child pornography, statutory rape and corruption of
minors.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 16, In Mexico City
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador led hundreds of thousands of marchers
demanding a full recount of in the disputed election.
(SFC, 7/17/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 21, In Oaxaca, Mexico,
protests initiated by striking teachers continued. Protest leaders
said their fight is not with the tourists but with Gov. Ulises Ruiz,
whom they accuse of rigging the state election in 2004 and using
force to repress dissent.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 24, Gunmen raided a
pharmaceutical laboratory in Mexico City, killing four guards and
stealing about a ton of ephedrine, a key ingredient in making
methamphetamine.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 31, In Mexico
supporters of the country’s leftist presidential candidate paralyzed
the Mexico City’s financial district and said they won’t leave until
the top electoral court rules on their demands for a recount in the
disputed race.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, Mexican police
found the body of a woman on a dirt road in the border city of
Ciudad Juarez. Abigail Rodriguez (29), who apparently had been
killed by a blow to the head and thrown out of a moving car, was the
14th woman found dead in Juarez so far this year.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 2, In Oaxaca, Mexico,
about 500 women banging spoons against pots and pans seized a
state-run television station and broadcast a homemade video that
showed police kicking protesters out of Oaxaca's main square last
month. In southern Monte Orden village heavy rains caused a
mountainside to give way, burying 2 homes and killing 11 people, 4
of them children.
(AP, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 2, Production at
Cantarell, Mexico’s biggest oil field, was reported to be declining.
The site accounted for about 60% of Mexico’s oil. A third of
Mexico’s federal budget depended on oil sales.
(WSJ, 8/2/06, p.A4)
2006 Aug 3, In Mexico Mrs.
Alberta Alcantara Juan and Mrs. Teresa Gonzalez Cornelio were
arrested (along with Jacinta Francisco Marcial) for events that
supposedly occurred on March 26, 2006 when Federal Investigation
Agents attempted to confiscate local merchants’ goods and damaged
some of them. In 2010 Mexico's Supreme Court overturned kidnapping
convictions and ordered the release of the two Otomi Indian market
vendors whose case received international attention. Marcial was
freed last year.
(http://tinyurl.com/373f25t)(AP, 4/28/10)
2006 Aug 4, In Mexico's
southernmost Chiapas state a 7-year-old boy and his father died,
bringing to 10 the number of people killed after eating poisonous
mushrooms. Officials said recent genetic mutations have made some
mushrooms, consumed for years in Indian communities, newly
poisonous.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 5, Mexico's top
electoral court rejected a full recount in the disputed presidential
election, ordering a 9% partial count instead, angering leftist
protesters camped in the capital demanding a new vote-by-vote tally
over their fraud allegations.
(AP, 8/5/06)(WSJ, 8/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 9, In Mexico the body
of Enrique Perea Quintanilla (50), publisher of the magazine Dos
Caras, Una Verdad (Two Faces, One Truth) was found on a dirt road
about 10 miles from Chihuahua City. Authorities said that organized
crime was likely behind the killing.
(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 10, In Mexico leftist
activists blockaded bank headquarters and called for a march on the
offices of federal prosecutors, as officials recounted some of the
ballots from the disputed presidential election.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 12, A passenger bus
skidded off a highway in central Mexico and rolled down a 320-foot
slope, killing 13 people and injuring a dozen others.
(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 13, In Mexico a
recount confirmed Calderon as the next president. Lopez Obrador
vowed to mount new legal challenges.
(WSJ, 8/14/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 14, US authorities
arrested Tijuana drug lord Francisco Javier Arellano Felix (38)
aboard a boat off Mexico's Pacific coast. Mexican analysts doubted
the significance of Arellano Felix's arrest as the gang has
effectively lost much of its influence over the years. In 2007 Felix
pleaded guilty to federal crimes that carried a mandatory life
sentence. He agreed to forfeit $50 million and the yacht on which he
was captured.
(AP, 8/17/06)(SFC, 9/18/07, p.A3)
2006 Aug 15, US officials
arrested Edgar Alvarez Cruz on immigration violations in Denver. He
was suspected of participating in the rapes and killings of at least
10 women in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, where more than 100
young women have been killed since 1993.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 19, Mexican
prosecutors announced that they have charged two policemen with
protecting the Arellano Felix drug trafficking gang. Mexican police
said they had broken up a vote-buying scheme in Chiapas on the eve
of state elections.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 21, In Mexico’s
Chiapas state Juan Sabines, of Lopez Obrador's Democratic Revolution
Party (PRD), held a razor-thin lead over Jose Antonio Aguilar
Bodegas, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who also is
backed by President Vicente Fox's National Action Party. Oaxaca sank
further into chaos as protesters armed with machetes, pipes and
clubs seized 12 private radio stations, cut off highways, and
blockaded bus terminals and newspaper offices.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 23, Assailants threw
grenades at the offices of a newspaper in the resort city of Cancun
in the latest in a series of attacks on news outlets across Mexico.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 27, Mexican electoral
officials said Juan Sabines, a leftist candidate, won the governor's
race in Mexico's volatile southernmost state of Chiapas, edging out
Jose Antonio Aguilar, backed by President Vicente Fox's party by
about 6,300 votes.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 28, Mexico’s top
electoral court announced that a partial recount found no widespread
evidence of fraud.
(SFC, 8/29/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 29, Andres Manuel
Lopez Obrador, Mexico's leftist presidential candidate, rejected a
court decision upholding his rival's slim lead in the disputed July
2 race and called on his supporters not to recognize a government
led by Felipe Calderon.
(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 30, Hurricane John
lashed tourist resorts with heavy winds and rain as the dangerous
Category 4 storm marched up Mexico's Pacific coast.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2006 Aug 31, Hurricane John
pummeled Mexico's resort-studded Pacific Coast with wind and rain.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Sep 1, In Mexico City riot
police, steel barriers, and water cannons surrounded Mexico's
Congress as protesters vowed to stop President Vicente Fox from
delivering his final state-of-the-nation address. Mexican lawmakers,
protesting conservative Felipe Calderon's victory in the July 2
presidential election, stormed the congressional stage and refused
to yield, making Fox the first president in modern Mexican history
not to deliver his annual address to Congress. Fox handed in a
written copy of his report and delivered it over television.
(AP, 9/1/06)(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 5, The president of
Mexico's top electoral court recommended that the full tribunal
uphold the slim lead of ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon.
Marcelo Garza, the top police investigator for Nuevo Leon, a
northern Mexican state that borders Texas, was shot to death by a
lone gunman outside an art gallery.
(AP, 9/5/06)(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 6, Mexico’s newly
declared President-elect Felipe Calderon began building his
government and his supporters called on backers of leftist Andres
Manuel Lopez Obrador to end weeks of national protests over the
disputed July 2 election. Gunmen barged into a bar in central Mexico
and tossed five human heads on the dance floor. An avalanche left 10
villagers dead in northern Mexico.
(AP, 9/6/06)(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 7, In Mexico a
landslide buried buses and cars on a highway in the central state of
Puebla and killed at least four travelers.
(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 8, In Mexico a small
plane crash near Ensenada on the US-Mexico border killed three
American medical volunteers.
(AP, 9/10/06)
2006 Sep 12, In Mexico gunmen
ambushed and killed Enrique Barrera, police chief of the town of
Linares in the border state of Nuevo Leon, in the latest slaying of
a law officer in a region ravaged by a war between drug gangs.
(AP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 15, Mexico’s President
Vicente Fox backed down from a confrontation with thousands of
leftist sympathizers of Manuel Lopez Obrador, moving the annual
Independence Day celebration away from Mexico City's main square to
avoid protesters. Fox decided to move the ceremony to the central
town of Dolores Hidalgo, where Miguel Hidalgo made the first call
for independence from Spain in 1810. Supporters of leftist Andres
Manuel Lopez Obrador ended the street protest that clogged the heart
of the capital for nearly seven weeks, but they vowed to find other
ways to resist the incoming conservative president.
(AP, 9/15/06)
2006 Sep 16, In Mexico hundreds
of thousands of supporters of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
elected him the leader of a "parallel government" opposed to
President-elect Felipe Calderon's administration. Mexico extradited
accused drug kingpin Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix to the US,
making him the first major Mexican drug lord to be sent north to
face trial on drug charges. He later pleaded guilty to federal
charges of selling cocaine in a San Diego motel. Hurricane Lane, a
Category 3 storm, battered Mazatlan.
(SFC, 9/18/06, p.A7)(AP, 9/17/07)
2006 Sep 18, The 184-nation IMF
approved reforms to increase the voice of China, South Korea,
Turkey, and Mexico to reflect their growing economic sway.
(SFC, 9/19/06, p.D2)
2006 Sep 19, A group of sexual
abuse survivors filed a lawsuit against Mexican Cardinal Norberto
Rivera, claiming he hid evidence to protect a priest accused of
molesting boys. A lawyer for the Chicago-based Survivors Network of
Those Abused by Priests filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior
Court. Rivera, now Mexico's top-ranking cardinal, helped cover up
abuse by the Rev. Nicolas Aguilar involving 50 boys when Aguilar
served as a parish priest in central Puebla state in 1987. Rivera
was bishop of Tehuacan in Puebla state at the time.
(AP, 9/19/06)
2006 Sep 23, In Mexico the
governor of Oaxaca state warned 70,000 striking teachers that they
would be replaced and lose their pay unless they immediately
returned to work.
(AP, 9/24/06)
2006 Sep 28, Mexico’s
President-elect Felipe Calderon asked Congress to get tougher on
criminals, create a universal health care system and generate jobs
so millions of Mexicans do not have to migrate to the US to find
work. Calderon also called for reducing the gap between rich and
poor and called for a return to life sentences for hardened
criminals, including violent kidnappers.
(AP, 9/28/06)
2006 Sep 29, In Mexico a judge
and four jail guards were killed in separate attacks in the Pacific
resort city of Acapulco.
(AP, 9/29/06)
2006 Oct 5, In Oaxaca, Mexico,
a teacher was hacked to death. A colleague claimed the man was
killed for opposing a teachers' strike. Jaime Rene Calva Aragon was
on his way to a meeting when he was killed by two assailants
wielding hefty ice picks.
(AP, 10/6/06)
2006 Oct 14, In Mexico at least
one man opened fire on protesters manning a roadblock in Oaxaca
paralyzed by months of conflict, killing one demonstrator and
wounding another.
(AP, 10/15/06)
2006 Oct 15, Mexican
authorities arrested a soldier accused of opening fire on a street
barricade in Oaxaca, killing one demonstrator and wounding another.
Elections in Mexico’s Tabasco state showed Andres Rafael Granier of
the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) defeating Democratic
Revolution candidate Cesar Raul Ojeda by 10 points. The next day the
PRD accused its rivals of fraud.
(AP, 10/15/06)(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 17, In central Mexico
an explosion in an area packed with small fireworks factories
Capulhuac, 20 miles west of Mexico City, left four people dead and a
man with severe burns. In western Mexico 14 people were killed when
a passenger bus crashed into the back of a tractor trailer. A spark
touched off an explosion aboard a gasoline tanker ship at Pemex's
Pajarito marine terminal in the city of Coatzacoalcos, killing eight
people and injuring nine others.
(AP, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 18, Mexican police
discovered two human heads in a backpack in the Pacific state of
Guerrero, the latest decapitation victims in a continuing wave of
violence.
(AP, 10/19/06)
2006 Oct 19, Mexico's Senate
ruled there was no reason to oust Oaxaca's embattled state governor,
eliminating the last formal legal recourse for thousands of
protesters who for months have demanded the resignation of Gov.
Ulises Ruiz. Jorge Bustos, a commander with the defunct Federal
Security Directorate, was arrested in Mexico City in connection with
the 1974 disappearance of six alleged guerrilla members. Bustos had
arrested six members of the Brigada Lacandona, a 1970s guerrilla
faction, who disappeared after Hidalgo state authorities turned them
over to the federal intelligence agency.
(AP, 10/19/06)(AP, 10/20/06)
2006 Oct 20, In Mexico radical
protesters and teachers, who have taken over the city of Oaxaca,
appeared to be parting ways after the teachers' leaders agreed to
end a strike and return to work.
(AP, 10/21/06)
2006 Oct 21, In Mexico’s
Michoacan state, the home state of President-elect Felipe Calderon,
420 homicides were reported for this year, including 19 police
chiefs and commanders. Juan Antonio Magana, the state's attorney
general, said well over half the killings were drug-related.
(AP, 10/21/06)
2006 Oct 26, Teachers in the
southern Mexican state of Oaxaca voted to end a five-month-old
strike, allowing 1.3 million children to return to classes and
potentially taking the sting out of anti-government protests
besieging this historic city.
(AP, 10/26/06)
2006 Oct 26, President Bush
signed a bill authorizing 700 miles of new fencing along the
U.S.-Mexico border, hoping to give Republican candidates a
pre-election platform for asserting they're tough on illegal
immigration.
(AP, 10/26/06)
2006 Oct 27, In Oaxaca, Mexico,
Bradley Roland Will (36), a US journalist and two Mexican men were
shot to death. The clashes occurred as leftist protesters barricaded
streets as part of a five-month-old campaign to oust the governor.
In 2008 two supporters of a protest movement in southern Mexico were
arrested for the fatal shooting of the US journalist. Officials said
Juan Manuel Martinez, was the gunman, and Octavio Perez was an
accomplice who helped cover up the crime. Eight other alleged
accomplices were still sought. In 2010 Juan Martinez Moreno was
cleared by a federal court.
(AP, 10/28/06)(Econ, 11/4/06, p.48)(AP,
10/18/08)(AP, 2/17/10)
2006 Oct 28, Mexico’s President
Vicente Fox announced he was sending federal police into the
violence-wracked southern state capital of Oaxaca after a US
journalist and two Mexican men were shot to death. The bodies of 3
state police officers, one of whom had been decapitated, were found
in a sport utility vehicle abandoned outside the resort city of
Acapulco.
(AP, 10/28/06)(AP, 10/28/06)
2006 Oct 29, In Mexico federal
forces stormed Oaxaca and pushed protesters and striking teachers
out of the city center they had occupied for five months, leaving
the colonial city resembling a battleground, with riot police and
burned vehicles lining the streets. At least one demonstrator was
killed.
(AP, 10/30/06)
2006 Oct 30, The Mexican
government authorized the extradition of ex-Guatemalan President
Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004) to face embezzlement charges in his
country.
(AP, 10/31/06)
2006 Oct 31, In Mexico youths
roamed the streets of Oaxaca tossing gasoline bombs, hijacking
vehicles and vowing to keep fighting for the state governor's
ouster. Congress urged the governor to resign and leftist leaders
urged national support for the movement.
(AP, 10/31/06)
2006 Nov 2, In Mexico,
protesters besieging Oaxaca City forced federal police to retreat
from the gates of the state university after six hours of pitched
fighting and the rector's call for an end to the government
"attack."
(AP, 11/3/06)
2006 Nov 3, In Mexico Andres
Manuel Lopez Obrador, who refused to accept an election tribunal's
decision that his opponent narrowly won the presidential election,
named his "resistance" government Cabinet.
(AP, 11/3/06)
2006 Nov 6, In Mexico City
simultaneous explosions hit the Federal Electoral Tribunal, a bank
branch and the headquarters of the former ruling party early in the
day. Authorities deactivated a homemade explosive device at a second
bank branch.
(AP, 11/6/06)
2006 Nov 7, More than 15,000
white-clad supporters of Oaxaca's embattled governor marched through
Oaxaca in their biggest show of strength in a six-month conflict
that has left at least nine people dead.
(AP, 11/7/06)
2006 Nov 9, Mexico City's
assembly passed legislation to legally recognize gay civil unions in
the capital, the first such vote by a legislative body in the
history of the conservative country.
(AP, 11/9/06)
2006 Nov 10, In Mexico Misael
Tamayo Hernandez, editor of El Despertar de la Costa, was found dead
in a hotel room in Zihuatanejo, a day after running stories about
organized crime and corruption in the city government. Hector
Gaxiola, a district police chief in the border city of Tijuana, was
shot and killed a day after surviving another attempt on his life.
His brother was found next to him. Both had been shot dozens of
times.
(AP, 11/11/06)
2006 Nov 14, Second-grader Saul
Arellano, a US citizen, appeared in Mexico's 500-member Chamber of
Deputies to plead for help in lobbying Washington to stop the
deportation of his mother, an illegal immigrant who has taken refuge
in a Chicago church. His efforts paid off with a resolution calling
on the US Congress to suspend the deportation of Elvira Arellano
(31) and any other illegal immigrant parents of US citizens. US
officials said there is no right to sanctuary in a church under US
law, and nothing to prevent them from arresting Elvira Arellano, who
has lived at the church since Aug. 15, the day she was supposed to
surrender for deportation.
(AP, 11/14/06)
2006 Nov 15, Aides to former
leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he
will seek contributions from ordinary Mexicans to support a
parallel, "legitimate" administration he declared after losing the
July 2 elections to President-elect Felipe Calderon by a razor-thin
margin.
(AP, 11/16/06)
2006 Nov 16, Jose Manuel Nava
(53), a former general manager of one of Mexico's oldest newspapers,
was found slain in his apartment in the capital, officials said, a
week after he went public with his book criticizing the federal
government, the business community and newspaper employees.
(AP, 11/16/06)
2006 Nov 18, The Mexican
government released a long-awaited report that for the first time
officially blamed "the highest command levels" of three former
presidencies for the massacres, tortures and slayings of hundreds of
leftists from the 1960s to the 1980s. In Michoacan state at least
three of 10 lawyers being held hostage by inmates were killed after
police raided the Mil Cumbres prison in Morelia to try to rescue
them.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 19, In Mexico a public
defender died of his injuries after being shot by inmates who took a
group of lawyers hostage near the central Mexican city of Morelia,
bringing the death toll in the incident to five.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 19, Mexican Gen.
Francisco Quiros, imprisoned for drug trafficking and implicated in
the disappearance of leftists during Mexico's "dirty war," died from
cancer. In 2005 a judge ordered Quiros arrested for the 1974
kidnapping of singer Rosendo Radilla, who disappeared after being
seized by soldiers at a roadblock.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, Mexico’s defeated
presidential candidate Lopez Obrador planned to be sworn in as the
country's "legitimate president" as Mexico celebrated its 1910
revolution.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 21, Roberto Marcos
Garcia (50), chief reporter for the weekly Testimonio crime magazine
in Mexico’s port city of Veracruz, was toppled from his motorcycle
and run over by unidentified assailants who then shot him at close
range.
(AP, 11/21/06)(SSFC, 12/10/06, p.A21)
2006 Nov 22, In Mexico a
violent Mexican drug gang took out a rare, half-page ad in
newspapers in which they claimed to be anti-crime vigilantes who
wanted to stop kidnapping, robbery and the sale of methamphetamine
in the western state of Michoacan.
(AP, 11/23/06)
2006 Nov 23, In Mexico Police
chief Baltazar Gomez and Osvaldo Rodriguez, both of the Monterrey
suburb of Santa Catarina, were killed just after midnight by a
gunman who followed them inside a convenience store where they had
gone after attending a funeral. Crusading journalist Jesus
Blancornelas, who relentlessly investigated drug cartels and
government corruption despite an attempt on his life and the killing
of colleagues, died of a chronic illness in Tijuana.
(AP, 11/23/06)
2006 Nov 25, In Mexico singer
Valentin Elizalde (27) was ambushed and gunned down along with his
manager and driver following a performance in Reynosa. His ballads
included narco-corridos, which honored the exploits of drug dealers.
(SSFC, 11/26/06, p.A19)
2006 Nov 26, In Mexico bands of
youths rampaged through downtown Oaxaca, torching buildings and cars
hours after federal police used tear gas to drive off a violent mob
of leftists in the latest spasm of protests against the state
governor. 30 to 40 armed men entered the La Barranca hunting ranch
near the US border and kidnapped five men including 3 Texans.
Librado Pina Jr. (49), owns the popular deer-hunting ranch near
Hidalgo, was released on Dec 18. His son and 2 others had been
released earlier. There was no word on the ranch's Mexican cook,
Marco Ortiz.
(AP, 11/26/06)(AP, 11/29/06)(AP, 12/18/06)
2006 Nov 26, Raul Velasco (73),
who hosted one of Mexico's most popular and enduring television
programs, "Siempre en Domingo," died at his home in Acapulco.
(AP, 11/26/06)
2006 Nov 28, In Mexico gunmen
attacked a police car in the border city of Tijuana, killing Gerardo
Santiago Prado, the police chief of Mesa de Otay, his bodyguard and
a secretary.
(AP, 11/30/06)
2006 Nov 29, A Mexican court
reinstated an arrest warrant for former President Luis Echeverria,
just four months after a federal judge had dismissed the same
charges of genocide in connection with a 1968 student massacre.
(AP, 11/29/06)
2006 Nov 30, Mexican police
found the bullet-ridden bodies of two men, including a missing
journalist, just days after the body of another slain reporter was
found in the area. Police discovered the body of reporter Adolfo
Sanchez Guzman (32) near Ciudad Mendoza, 75 miles west of Veracruz,
not far from where his car was found abandoned on Nov 28. Police on
Dec 1 arrested Juan Carlos Palestino (30) and Julian Rosas Palestino
(34) after witnesses said the two brothers had been looking for
Martinez. The brothers had accused Martinez of stealing their truck.
(AP, 12/1/06)(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Nov, In Mexico credit card
interest rates averaged over 30% despite efforts by Guillermo Ortiz,
head of the Central Bank, to get banks to lower their costs. 80% of
the country’s banking assets were foreign owned.
(Econ, 11/25/06, p.76)
2006 Dec 1, Felipe Calderon
took the oath of office as Mexico's president amid jeers and
whistles, in a chaotic ceremony before congress preceded by a brawl
between lawmakers still divided over the nation's tight presidential
election.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 2, Mexico's new
president pledged to substantially raise the wages of the armed
forces, calling them a crucial weapon against heavily armed drug
gangs terrorizing the nation.
(AP, 12/2/06)
2006 Dec 3, Mexico’s newly
sworn-in president Felipe Calderon decreed a 10% pay cut for himself
and his cabinet members, echoing a central campaign promise of the
leftist rival he beat by a razor-thin margin.
(AP, 12/3/06)
2006 Dec 5, Mexico’s Pres.
Calderon, under pressure to promote the social programs his leftist
rival championed, presented an austere budget that increases
spending for social programs to help the country's poorest. Mexican
police arrested Flavio Sosa, the symbolic leader of a six-month-long
protest movement that took over southern Oaxaca city, hours after he
gave a news conference saying he had come to the capital to start
talks with the government.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 6, Mexico’s President
Felipe Calderon announced a program to help Mexico's 100 poorest
communities, responding to leftist critics who accuse the
conservative leader of wanting to help only the rich.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 8, In Mexico more than
100 prisoners escaped from a state penitentiary a few miles from
Cancun's resort zone after hundreds of inmates overpowered guards
with knives and bats. Police quickly recaptured most of the men, but
there were still 17 at large. More than 250 federal police agents
surrounded the offices of the Oaxaca state police force and seized
its weapons to determine whether any were used in shootings during
six months of demonstrations in Oaxaca City. Assailants shot dead an
Indian activist in Mexico's conflict-ridden state of Oaxaca. The
bullet-ridden corpse of Raul Marcial Perez was found on a road near
the Mixtec Indian community of Agua Fria about 120 miles north of
Oaxaca City.
(AP, 12/9/06)(AP, 12/10/06)
2006 Dec 10, Leonel Cota,
president of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), Mexico's largest
leftist party, led thousands of protesters in a march to the center
Oaxaca, demanding the resignation of the state governor and the
withdrawal of thousands of federal police.
(AP, 12/11/06)
2006 Dec 12, Mexico's new
president launched his first major offensive against drug gangs,
sending more than 6,500 federal forces to Michoacan, his
violence-plagued home state, to crack down on turf wars that have
left hundreds dead in a wave of execution-style killings and
beheadings. The body of Luis Felipe Zavala, cousin of Mexico's first
lady Margarita Zavala, was found in his minivan in the city of
Naucalpan in Mexico State.
(AP, 12/12/06)(AP, 12/14/06)
2006 Dec 13, A group of about
300 Mazahua Indians briefly seized a water treatment plant on Mexico
City's western outskirts and temporarily cut off one of the main
sources of water for the metropolis of 18 million people. The
protest was motivated by demands for more government development
aid. The government teamed up with doctors, academics and a US-based
drug company to announce a campaign to reduce the number of smokers
in Mexico by more than 10 percent in three years.
(AP, 12/14/06)
2006 Dec 15, In Mexico Elias
Valencia, a suspected head of the Valencia cartel, was arrested
along with four other people at a mountain ranch near the town of
Aguililla in Michoacan state.
(AP, 12/17/06)
2006 Dec 16, In Mexico hundreds
of federal police officers packed up their tents and marched out of
Oaxaca’s central square, ending their seven-week occupation to put
down a lengthy protest by leftists that had left nine people dead. A
Mexican air force plane crashed into the sea near the resort city of
Acapulco and rescue teams were searching for its four crew members.
(AP, 12/16/06)
2006 Dec 19, Officials said
thousands of soldiers sent to seize control of one of Mexico's top
drug-producing regions have discovered widespread cultivation of a
hybrid marijuana plant that is easy to grow and difficult to kill.
(AP, 12/19/06)
2006 Dec 28, In central Mexico
a passenger bus collided with a freight train, killing 22 people.
(AP, 12/28/06)
2006 Mexico’s Transportation
and Communications Secretary Luis Tellez alleged in a recorded
conversation that former President Carlos Salinas (1988-1994) stole
from a secret government fund. The contents of the conversation were
made public in February, 2009. Tellez resigned 2 weeks later
following threats that other recordings would be revealed.
(SFC, 3/4/09, p.A2)
2006 In Mexico some Zetas,
former military special-forces members, broke away from their Gulf
cartel associations to form the La Familia organized crime group. La
Familia was formed when the gang, then known as "The Business,"
broke off from the Gulf cartel and declared its independence by
rolling the severed heads into a disco in the mountain city of
Uruapan.
(Econ, 7/25/09, p.34)(AP, 12/11/10)
2006 Mexico, the world’s
largest Spanish-speaking country, counted a population of some 106
million people. An estimated 500,000 Mexicans left the country each
year in search of better opportunities.
(Econ, 11/18/06, Survey p.3,16)
2006 Mexico counted 2,200
murders this year linked to organized crime. Reporters Without
Borders later counted 9 journalists killed this year in Mexico along
with 3 missing.
(Econ, 6/16/07, p.45)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.47)
2006-2010 Mexico seized some 55,000 assault
weapons, most of which were bought legally in the United States.
(Econ, 10/16/10, p.16)
2007 Jan 2, Mexico said it is
sending some 3,300 soldiers and federal police officers to fight
drug gangs in the crime-plagued border city of Tijuana, which has
become a major smuggling route for cocaine and methamphetamine
entering the United States.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 4, Jorge Bajos
Valverde, a Mexican state legislator, was gunned down in the center
of Acapulco on his way to an interview at a radio and TV station.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 5, Mexican officials
in Michoacan state said they had found nine bodies in a shallow
grave in the city of Uruapan.
(AP, 1/6/07)
2007 Jan 6, Mexican federal and
state police manned checkpoints within Tijuana’s city limits as
local police suspended their patrols because soldiers sent to crack
down on drug gangs and corruption seized most of their guns on
suspicion they aided traffickers.
(AP, 1/6/07)
2007 Jan 9, In Mexico Andres
Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has refused to accept his slim loss to
President Felipe Calderon in July's election, launched a weekly TV
show mocking the government's battle against crime and unemployment
and promising to promote a law targeting Mexico's monopolies.
(AP, 1/10/07)
2007 Jan 12, Francisco Javier
Dominguez-Rivera (22) of Puebla, Mexico, was killed in a
confrontation with the unidentified agent north of the US-Mexico
border in Arizona between Bisbee and Douglas. On Jan 16 the Mexican
government sent a diplomatic note to the United States protesting
the fatal shooting.
(AP, 1/16/07)
2007 Jan 13, It was reported
that swarms of locusts had descended on the Mexican state of Yucatan
and threatened over 12,000 acres of vegetation.
(SFC, 1/13/07, p.B8)
2007 Jan 14, Gunmen burst into
the home of Jaime Meraz Martinez, a political leader in the northern
Mexican state of Durango, and fatally shot him, two family members
and an employee.
(AP, 1/15/07)
2007 Jan 15, President Felipe
Calderon launched a program to create jobs for young Mexicans and
curb the flow of millions of migrants to the United States.
(AP, 1/15/07)
2007 Jan 16, Pedro Diaz Parada,
a drug cartel leader, was arrested in the southern state of Oaxaca
and taken to Mexico City. This was the first major drug arrest under
the administration of President Felipe Calderon.
(AP, 1/18/07)
2007 Jan 18, President Felipe
Calderon signed an accord with businesses to curb soaring tortilla
prices and protect Mexico's poor from speculative sellers and a
surge in the cost of corn driven by the US ethanol industry.
(AP, 1/18/07)
2007 Jan 18, Truck driver
Albano Ramirez Santos tried to commit suicide by throwing himself
onto the tracks of the Mexico City subway and was later beaten to
death by police. Santos was reportedly despondent over the theft of
his truck.
(AP, 1/21/07)
2007 Jan 19, Mexico extradited
four major drug traffickers to the US, including Osiel Cardenas,
head of the so-called Gulf Cartel. President Felipe Calderon
announced that 7,600 soldiers have massed in the Pacific coast state
of Guerrero to go after drug gangs that have committed beheadings
and other violence in the resort city of Acapulco in recent months.
(AP, 1/19/07)(AP, 1/20/07)(Econ, 1/27/07, p.p33)
2007 Jan 20, In Mexico Rodolfo
Rincon (54), who worked for the newspaper Tabasco Hoy, was last seen
after he reported on local drug dealers. In 2010 Mexican authorities
said he was killed by a drug cartel's hit men who dissolved his body
in acid.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2007 Jan 24, In southern Mexico
a bus plunged into a ravine in remote mountains, killing at least 29
people.
(AP, 1/25/07)
2007 Jan 26, Six federal police
officers involved in President Felipe Calderon's anti-drug operation
were being investigated for extortion after they were videotaped
taking money from a driver in the border city of Tijuana.
(AP, 1/27/07)
2007 Jan 27, Police in Tijuana,
Mexico, got their guns back three weeks after they were forced to
turn over weapons to federal authorities because of allegations they
were colluding with drug traffickers.
(AP, 1/27/07)
2007 Jan 31, In Mexico City
some 75,000 unionists, farmers and leftists marched to protest price
increases in basic foodstuffs like tortillas, a direct challenge to
the new president's market-oriented economic policies blamed by some
for widening the gulf between rich and poor.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Jan 31, In Mexico a
lesbian couple registered what officials called Mexico's first gay
civil union in the northern city of Saltillo.
(AP, 1/31/07)
2007 Feb 1, Mexico’s President
Felipe Calderon praised a new law that obligates federal and local
authorities to prevent, punish and eradicate violence against women,
and he promised a "relentless" fight against gender-related
abuse.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Feb 3, In Mexico thousands
of protesters marched in Oaxaca to demand the resignation of the
state governor. A man's chopped up body was discovered in Acapulco
dumped in plastic garbage bags.
(AP, 2/3/07)(Reuters, 2/5/07)
2007 Feb 6, In Mexico more than
a dozen armed assailants staged and videotaped simultaneous attacks
against two offices of the state attorney general in Acapulco,
killing five agents and two secretaries.
(AP, 2/6/07)
2007 Feb 14, Mexican
immigration agents allegedly locked 10 Guatemalan and two Salvadoran
migrants in a trailer after they refused to pay a bribe against of
$110 each. In late 2008 the country's National Human Rights
Commission called for a government investigation.
(AP, 12/31/08)
2007 Feb 15, Assailants shot
dead four police officers in the western Mexican city of
Aguascalientes, the latest in a wave of slayings of law enforcement
officers across Mexico.
(AP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 18, Officials said the
Mexican government will expand its anti-drug raids to two states
across the border from Texas, deploying more than 3,000 soldiers,
sailors and federal police.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 19, Mexican President
Felipe Calderon announced that soldiers waging an offensive against
drug traffickers will get a pay hike of 45 percent this year in a
bid to insulate them from corruption. This coincided with a decision
to lower his own pay by 10% and abolish pensions for Mexican
presidents.
(AP, 2/19/07)(SSFC, 7/8/07, p.A7)
2007 Feb 22, The Bush
administration announced its plan to have US inspectors oversee
Mexican trucking companies that carry cargo across the border.
Mexico responded to the US announcement by saying it will allow
trucks from 100 US companies to travel across the border. The news
that Mexican trucks will be allowed to haul freight deeper into the
US drew an angry reaction the next day from labor leaders, safety
advocates and members of Congress.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 26, Four Mexican
soldiers were arrested and accused of raping and murdering a
73-year-old woman a day earlier in a case that outraged Indian
groups in Soledad Atzompa in Veracruz state. In May a special
prosecutor found no evidence that soldiers beat and raped Ernestina
Ascensio Rosario. An autopsy on Ascensio's body showed that she died
of acute anemia from internal bleeding in her digestive tract.
(AP, 3/1/07)(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 Feb 27, Mexico's Supreme
Court ruled that the armed forces cannot kick out HIV-positive
members because doing so is discriminatory and unconstitutional.
Mexico's head of migration pledged to improve the agency's detention
centers in response to criticism that Mexico fails to give Central
American immigrants the same respect it demands for its own citizens
in the United States.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 27, CompUSA said it
will close 126 retail stores by the end of May. The restructure
would leave 103 stores and include a $440 million cash infusion from
parent company US Commercial Corp., a holding company in Mexico City
controlled by Carlos Slim.
(SFC, 2/28/07, p.C3)
2007 Feb, Marcelo Ebrard,
Mexico City’s newly elected mayor, sent 600 police on a raid to
evict residents from 73 apartments in a building in Tepito, said to
be a drug-dealing center. Raids there and nearby netted 2 kilos of
cocaine, 30 tons of DVDs and 90 kilos of marijuana.
(Econ, 3/10/07, p.34)
2007 Feb, Mexican customs agent
Jorge Santillan seized a truck crossing from Brownsville, Texas, to
Matamoros, Mexico, carrying a grenade launcher and 17 grenades along
with 18 rifles and 17 pistols. Days later, the agent was shot to
death with a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Mar 3, In southern Mexico
gunmen killed two members of Mexico's former ruling party in the
mountain city of Tlapa in Guerrero state.
(AP, 3/3/07)
2007 Mar 6, In Mexico gunmen
wounded Gen. Francisco Fernandez, the top security official in the
Gulf coast state of Tabasco, and killed his driver.
(AP, 3/7/07)
2007 Mar 9, President Felipe
Calderon proposed sweeping reforms to Mexico's justice system,
including US-style trials and a unified criminal code. Mexican
federal police detained 81 Chinese immigrants and 22 immigration
agents after the Chinese were discovered hiding in the Cancun
airport terminal, possibly with the protection of Mexican
immigration officers.
(AP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 10, In northern Mexico
8 people were killed and 11 were injured when a bus slammed into a
tractor trailer carrying aluminum beams.
(AP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 13, In Mexico Pres.
Bush met with Pres. Felipe Calderon in Merida. Bush sought to soothe
strained ties by promising to prod Congress to overhaul tough US
immigration policies, but Mexican President Felipe Calderon
criticized US plans for a 700-mile border fence. Hundreds of
demonstrators marched to the US Embassy in Mexico City, attacking
riot police with concrete blocks, metal bars and tearing down
barricades to protest Bush's visit.
(AP, 3/14/07)(AP, 3/13/08)
2007 Mar 15, Mexican Federal
agents seized the cash, eight luxury vehicles, seven weapons and a
machine to make pills during a raid at a house in Lomas de
Chapultepec. The attorney general later said the $206 million in
cash seized was connected to one of the hemisphere's largest
networks for trafficking pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in
methamphetamines. The ring had been operating since 2004 and was run
by a native of China who had gained Mexican citizenship. A recount
put the cashed seized to over $207 million.
(AP, 3/17/07)(AP, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 16, In Mexico an
economist and a journalist became the first couple united under
Mexico City's new gay civil union law.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 17, Hundreds of
Mexican federal police and soldiers surrounded the headquarters of
Tabasco's state police and arrested top current and former
commanders in a raid apparently linked to an assassination attempt
against the state's public safety secretary. Mireya Lopez Portillo,
the daughter of a retired Mexican general, and her husband, a
television network executive, were shot to death while traveling in
a sport utility vehicle in Mexico City. This raised fears the army
is being targeted for attacks because of its broadening role in law
enforcement.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 17, The Arenitas waste
water treatment plant, that Mexican officials say will help prevent
pollution of US waterways, was inaugurated in the city of Mexicali,
across the border from Calexico, Calif.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 26, An American border
inspector was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for taking
cash and cars from smugglers, allowing them to shuttle illegal
immigrants from Mexico into the United States.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 27, Police in Mexico
City kicked off a campaign to exchange guns for computers and other
gifts in an attempt to reduce firearm deaths. Two bodies were found
wrapped in plastic bags and sheets behind a television station in
Mexico's port city of Veracruz, apparent victims of drug-related
violence.
(AP, 3/27/07)(AP, 3/28/07)
2007 Mar 29, In northern Mexico
gunmen killed two police officers and six other people in less than
48 hours, the latest victims in a wave of drug-related violence.
(AP, 3/30/07)
2007 Mar 30, A video
purportedly showing the beheading of a drug cartel hit man appeared
on video-sharing Web site YouTube, and its makers called on Mexicans
to kill more members of the gang.
(AP, 4/1/07)
2007 Apr 1, In Monterrey,
Mexico, a tractor-trailer lost its brakes and killed nine people as
it plowed through a residential area. The driver of a
tractor-trailer was charged with homicide after testing positive for
drugs.
(AP, 4/2/07)(AP, 4/5/07)
2007 Apr 6, Amado Ramirez, the
Acapulco correspondent for Mexico's top television news network, was
shot to death.
(AP, 4/7/07)
2007 Apr 11, A Mexican court
ordered the reinstatement of ousted mineworkers union leader
Napoleon Gomez Urrutia, more than a year after the government turned
him out of office based on complaints of corruption.
(AP, 4/11/07)
2007 Apr 12, Mexican President
Felipe Calderon signed a law eliminating prison sentences for libel
or defamation, drawing praise from media watchdog groups.
(AP, 4/12/07)
2007 Apr 14, In Mexico a
speeding bus crashed into a tractor-trailer outside the border city
of Ciudad Juarez, killing 28 people and injuring 11 others.
(AP, 4/15/07)(AP, 4/15/07)
2007 Apr 15, A 14-year-old
matador who left Spain to escape his home country's ban on young
bullfighters was nearly gored to death in a Mexican City ring, his
lung punctured by a 900-pound bull.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 16, Police found 17
bodies stuffed in cars or dumped on streets in garbage bags across
Mexico in the latest wave of violence apparently triggered by
warring drug gangs.
(AP, 4/17/07)
2007 Apr 16, Nicaraguan police
announced the arrest of more than two dozen local members of
Mexico's powerful Sinaloa drug cartel but said they were still
seeking the group's leader.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 18, Mexican police and
soldiers battled gunmen at a hospital in Tijuana in violence that
left at least three people dead before the authorities subdued the
attackers. Authorities said next day that the gunmen were hit men
for the city's Arellano Felix drug cartel.
(AP, 4/18/07)(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 21, In Mexico a
Durango state police commander was kidnapped and killed and two
other officers were shot dead in a gun battle with his abductors.
(AP, 4/22/07)
2007 Apr 22, Marcos Leyes
Perez, the son of the US consul in southern Oaxaca state, was
stabbed during an apparent mugging.
(AP, 4/23/07)
2007 Apr 23, Eleazar Medina
Rojas, described as a key member of the powerful Gulf drug cartel,
was arrested in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, along with his
father, four other cartel members and four women. Authorities
reported the killing of Jorge Gonzalez, police chief of Cardenas, in
the southern Gulf coast state of Tabasco. Mexican police found the
body of Saul Noe Martinez Ortega (36), a newspaper editor abducted
last week in the border city of Agua Prieta. He had been dead at
least six days and was found in neighboring Chihuahua state.
(AP, 4/23/07)
2007 Apr 24, Mexico City
lawmakers voted to legalize abortion during the first three months
of pregnancy, a landmark decision likely to heighten church-state
tensions in the Roman Catholic nation and lead to a bitter court
battle.
(AP, 4/25/07)
2007 Apr 26, A new measure
legalizing abortions in Mexico City was published into law, allowing
doctors to almost immediately begin terminating pregnancies in their
first trimester.
(AP, 4/26/07)
2007 Apr 30, US and Mexican law
enforcement officials said Mexican druglords are taking over the
business of smuggling migrants into the United States, using them as
human decoys to divert authorities from billions of dollars in
cocaine shipments across the same border.
(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 Apr, Mexico’s
CompartamosBanco went public as a lender to the poor. It was created
in 1990 as a non-Governmental Organization (NGO). ACCION Int’l., a
charity that has helped to spread microfinance since the 1970s, was
an early investor and banked $140 million in the IPO, while
retaining a 9% stake. ACCION had received funding from USAID.
(Econ, 5/17/08, p.93)(http://tinyurl.com/46esnp)
2007 May 1, In Mexico 5
soldiers, including a colonel, and a suspected drug cartel enforcer
were killed in a shootout in the western state of Michoacan, which
has been plagued by drug violence and is the target of a
military-led anti-drug offensive.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 6, More than 18,000
people stripped down and bared it all in Mexico City's vast main
square for US photographer Spencer Tunick's biggest nude shoot yet.
(AP, 5/6/07)
2007 May 7, In western Mexico 4
purported drug smugglers were killed in a shootout with soldiers in
Apatzingan, Michoacan state, the second deadly clash in a week
between traffickers and troops in the same remote, mountainous
region.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 9, In Mexico gunmen
opened fire on a naval commander in the Pacific resort city of
Ixtapa and killed his bodyguard. Suspected drug traffickers attacked
a military checkpoint in the Pacific resort of Huatulco. One
attacker was killed.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 12, In Mexico a
severed head accompanied by a note of defiance from organized crime
gangs and two hand grenades was found outside a military barracks in
Veracruz state.
(AP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 14, In Mexico City
gunmen fatally shot Jose Nemesio Lugo, Mexico’s new federal
narcotics intelligence chief, as he was on his way to work at the
Attorney General's Office.
(AP, 5/14/07)(SFC, 5/25/07, p.A1)
2007 May 15, A top Mexican
anti-drug official said the US must do more to stop weapons from
being smuggled into the hands of drug traffickers who are using them
to kill Mexican soldiers and police.
(AP, 5/15/07)
2007 May 16, In Mexico over 40
armed men abducted and killed 4 police officers south of the Arizona
border.
(SFC, 5/17/07, p.A3)
2007 May 16, Thomas Frank
White, a US businessman, was convicted of raping a teenage boy and
sentenced to more than 7 years in jail in Mexico. White, who founded
the brokerage firm Thomas White & Co. in 1978, was arrested in
Thailand in 2003 at the behest of Mexican officials and later
extradited.
(AP, 5/16/07)
2007 May 17, Mexican police
chased the remnants of a criminal assault force through the
mountains of Sonora near the Arizona border after kidnappings and
gunbattles that left at least 22 people dead.
(AP, 5/17/07)(Econ, 6/16/07, p.45)
2007 May 19, Assailants shot
dead a police commander in a wealthy Monterrey suburb, the latest in
a wave of killings of law enforcement officials across Mexico.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 23, In western Mexico
a tractor-trailer loaded with sand smashed into a toll booth and
rebounded into other vehicles, setting off a blaze that killed 10
people.
(AP, 5/24/07)
2007 May 25, In Mexico 2
members of the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), a Marxist guerrilla
group, disappeared. A week later the group blamed the government and
called for their safe return and warned of dire consequences. In
July the group began blowing up natural gas pipelines. Attacks took
place on July 6,10 and Sep 10.
(WSJ, 11/14/07, p.A1)
2007 May 27, In southern Mexico
assailants armed with Kalashnikov rifles shot dead six family
members, including three children, as they ambushed a minivan on a
country road.
(AP, 5/27/07)
2007 May 28, In Mexico City
Riyo Mori, a 20-year-old dancer from Japan who hopes to someday open
an international dance school, was crowned Miss Universe 2007.
(AP, 5/28/07)
2007 May 31, Mexico's Televisa
network, known around the world for its soap operas, said it plans
to expand in China, following the lead of taco chains and other
Mexican businesses looking for a slice of the Asian nation's market.
(AP, 5/31/07)
2007 Jun 1, Mexican soldiers
fired on a family traveling to a funeral when they failed to stop
after being ordered to do so at the checkpoint near the village of
La Joya. 19 Mexican soldiers were sent to a military prison June 4
for the shooting that killed two women and three children. In 2011
the commanding officer received a 40-year sentence in a court
martial and another officer received 38 years. A judge gave 12
enlisted soldiers 16-year sentences.
(AP, 6/5/07)(AP, 11/3/11)
2007 Jun 3, In southern Mexico
tons of bananas collapsed the false floor of a tractor-trailer
smuggling migrants, killing 6 people hidden inside a secret
compartment and wounding a dozen others.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 11, Mexican police and
soldiers arrested three men during an operation to fight illegal
logging in a mountain region south of Mexico City where
environmentalist Aldo Zamora (21) was killed on May 15.
(AP, 6/11/07)
2007 Jun 14, Abel Diaz Lucas,
also known as Jorge Guevara-Perez, was arrested in El Paso, Texas.
The next day he was handed to Mexican authorities, who had been
trying to find Diaz for five years. They accused him of running a
central Mexico gang notorious for cutting off the fingers and ears
of their victims and sending them to their families to demand ransom
money.
(AP, 6/15/07)
2007 Jun 15, In Mexico the
government of Oaxaca apologized for the first time for a police raid
on protesters last year that led to the country's worst political
unrest in years.
(AP, 6/15/07)
2007 Jun 19, Antonio Aguilar
(88), Mexican mariachi singer and actor, died. He recorded more than
150 albums and began his acting career during Mexico's "Golden Era"
of cinema. He appeared in 167 films, including "The Undefeated"
starring John Wayne.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007 Jun 21, Mario Villanueva,
the former Mexican governor of Quintana Roo, was freed after six
years behind bars and immediately re-arrested on a US extradition
request in which he is accused of helping smuggle 200 tons of
cocaine into the United States.
(AP, 6/21/07)
2007 Jun 25, Mexico temporarily
removed all 284 of its top federal police officers from their jobs
and is forcing them to undergo psychological reviews to prove they
will not be corrupted in the fight against drug trafficking.
(AP, 6/25/07)
2007 Jul 4, In Mexico heavy
rains triggered the landslide on a remote winding road near the town
of Eloxochitlan in the state of Puebla. As many as 60 passengers
were thought to be buried in a bus on the rural road. 32 bodies were
recovered.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 4, Mexico’s financial
website Sentido Comun reported that telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helu
(67) has overtaken Microsoft founder Bill Gates as the richest
person on the planet.
(AFP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 5, Mine workers across
Mexico waged a 24-hour strike, hoping to achieve better safety
standards and to improve collective labor's footing in the industry.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 5, In Mexico a small
cargo jet failed to take off in Culiacan and barreled onto an
adjacent highway, killing at least 9 people, including two soldiers
assigned to the Mexican president's security detail.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 7, A global poll
picked the Great Wall of China, Rome's Colosseum, India's Taj Mahal,
Peru’s Macchu Picchu, Jordan’s Petra, Brazil's Statue of Christ
Redeemer and Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid as the new seven wonders
of the world. The campaign to name the new wonders was launched in
1999 by the Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 10, Mexico's
government called a series of gas pipeline explosions a threat to
the nation's democratic institutions and vowed to step up security
after a guerrilla group claimed responsibility for the blasts.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, In western Mexico
Honda, Hershey's and other multinational companies temporarily shut
down their factories after rebels attacked a key natural gas
pipeline.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, News reports said
Mexico’s Pres. Felipe Calderon has dispatched a new 5,000- strong
elite military unit to guard strategic sites, including oil
refineries and dams in the wake of recent guerrilla attacks on
pipelines operated by Pemex.
(SFC, 7/13/07, p.A10)
2007 Jul 13, Roman Robles-Cota
(32), a police chief in the northern Mexican town of Sonoyta pleaded
guilty to charges that he bribed a US Border Patrol agent in 2005 in
an effort to help a smuggling operation.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 16, In Mexico police
fired tear gas to prevent hundreds of leftist protesters from
reaching the venue of an international folk festival in Oaxaca, in
the worst outbreak of violence in the troubled Mexican city since
November.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 23, Zhenli Ye Gon was
arrested in a Maryland restaurant, four months after police
discovered $207 million at his Mexico City mansion in what US
officials have called the world's biggest seizure of drug cash.
Mexican officials had 60 days to file their legal arguments for Ye
Gon's extradition. Ye Gon has claimed that $150 million of the money
belonged to Mexico's ruling party, and that he was forced to store
it for party officials in his mansion under threat of death during
the 2006 presidential race. Ye Gon later told US prosecutors he had
sold tons of a chemical used to make methamphetamine on the black
market.
(AP, 7/24/07)(AP, 10/23/09)
2007 Jul 30, The body of Luis
Lazaro Lara Morejon, a Cuban-American who was under investigation in
a migrant smuggling case, was found riddled with bullets along a
road outside Cancun, Mexico.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Jul 30, The Mexican Miners
and Metalworkers Union (SNTMMRM) struck Grupo Mexico to demand wage
increases and improved safety conditions. Striking workers occupied
the Cananea copper mine in the northern state of Sonora and
continued into 2010.
(Econ, 4/24/10,
p.59)(www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1819816120100218)
2007 Jul 31, In Mexico the
bodies of Josue Hernandez (32) and Anibal Sanchez (30), both agents
with Mexico's Federal Agency of Investigation, were found in
Guerrero state, where they were gathering intelligence on drug
traffickers. The agents had taken part in a raid that discovered
$205 million in cash in a Mexico City mansion.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 5, Jose Guadalupe
Osuna (51) of Mexico’s National Action Party won the elections for
governor in Baha California. He defeated PRI candidate Jorge Hank, a
former mayor of Tijuana and self-proclaimed billionaire with links
to organized crime.
(SFC, 8/7/07, p.A9)
2007 Aug 18, Hurricane Dean
barreled across the eastern Caribbean and took aim at Hispaniola,
Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, with forecasters saying it
could turn into a monster Category 5 storm within 72 hours. Dean
claimed at least six lives as it began sweeping past the Dominican
Republic and Haiti.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 19, Elvira Arellano
(32), an illegal immigrant who took refuge in a Chicago church for a
year to avoid being separated from her American-born son, was
deported from the US to Mexico, where she vowed to continue her
campaign to change US immigration laws.
(AP, 8/21/07)(AP, 8/19/08)
2007 Aug 20, Tens of thousands
of tourists fled the beaches of the Mayan Riviera as Hurricane Dean
roared toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2007 Aug 21, Hurricane Dean
slammed into the Caribbean coast of Mexico as a roaring Category 5
hurricane, the most intense Atlantic storm to make landfall in two
decades. Dean made landfall after killing 13 people in the
Caribbean.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, Hurricane Dean
closed in on the Mexican mainland, battering oil platforms on the
Bay of Campeche. Dean was downgraded to a tropical storm as it
drenched central Mexico.
(AP, 8/22/07)(WSJ, 8/23/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 23, The remnants of
Hurricane Dean dumped heavy rain across central Mexico, drenching
mudslide-prone mountains as it pushed its way inland after slamming
into the nation's Gulf Coast as a Category 2 storm. Thousands of
Mayan Indians lost homes as Hurricane Dean blew through the Yucatan
peninsula, but their real wealth was the trees, now scattered and
broken in the storm's wake. Village after village is carpeted with
fallen mangoes, oranges, guanabanas and mameys that will never be
harvested. Across Mexico at least 10 people died from the storm.
(AP, 8/23/07)(WSJ, 8/24/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 31, The World Trade
Organization opened a formal investigation into allegations by the
US and Mexico that China is providing illegal subsidies for a range
of industries.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Sep 1, In Mexico Tropical
Storm Henriette dumped heavy rains on Acapulco, flooding streets and
prompting officials to close more than 1,000 schools, while Tropical
Storm Felix formed in the Caribbean.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 5, Hurricane Henriette
threatened Mexico's mainland after punishing the Los Cabos resorts.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 6, Martin Villegas,
Mexican boot maker to world leaders, including President Bush and
Vicente Fox, was arrested in Colorado along with two other Mexican
nationals and two US residents following a three-year undercover
operation by US Fish and Wildlife Service agents. The five allegedly
made 25 illegal shipments of banned skins into the US since 2005.
(AP, 9/22/07)
2007 Sep 9, In northern Mexico
a truck carrying 25 tons of ammonium nitrate blew up after colliding
with another vehicle, killing at least 37 people, including three
reporters who came to the scene near Sacramento.
(AP, 9/10/07)(Econ, 9/15/07, p.40)
2007 Sep 10, Several explosions
in Veracruz state, believed to be the work of saboteurs, ripped
apart natural gas pipelines for Mexico's state oil monopoly. The
explosions forced the evacuation of some 12,000 people. The
so-called People's Revolutionary Army (EPR) claimed responsibility.
(AP, 9/11/07)
2007 Sep 10, In central Mexico
a bus carrying worshippers on a pilgrimage to a famous shrine
plunged into a valley, killing nine passengers and leaving 38
injured.
(AP, 9/11/07)
2007 Sep 11, Mexican President
Felipe Calderon visited India's technology hub of Bangalore to get a
feel for the success of its outsourcing companies, and to encourage
them to invest more in Mexico.
(AP, 9/11/07)
2007 Sep 15, In western Mexico
a bus carrying tourists including passengers of a flight from
Phoenix crashed, killing at least 17 people.
(AP, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 28, In Mexico City
more than 30 federal agents arrested Avila Beltran (46), who
allegedly spent more than a decade working her way to the top
echelons of Mexico's male-dominated drug trade.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Sep 28, Hurricane Lorenzo
crashed into Mexico's Gulf coast before dawn, ripping apart shacks,
uprooting trees and sending billboards flying through the air. At
least 5 people died.
(AP, 9/28/07)(AP, 9/29/07)
2007 Oct 8, Police in Mexico
City arrested Jose Luis Calva, an aspiring horror novelist, after
discovering his girlfriend's torso in his closet, a leg in the
refrigerator and bones in a cereal box. Police had come to Calva's
apartment to investigate the disappearance of his girlfriend,
Alejandra Galeana, a 30-year-old pharmacy clerk and single mother.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 12, In Mexico more
than 1,000 police officers in riot gear blocked street vendors from
setting up stands selling knockoff purses and pirated DVDs, clearing
Mexico City's clogged historic center for the first time in more
than a decade.
(AP, 10/13/07)
2007 Oct 18, Teenage pop star
Belinda (18), who starred in the Disney Channel's "Cheetah Girls 2,"
won the video of the year award at the MTV Video Music Awards Latin
America in Mexico City. The native of Madrid, Spain, who grew up in
Mexico, also won best solo artist.
(AP, 10/19/07)
2007 Oct 16, A boat from
Guatemala with over 20 migrants capsized. Mexican authorities by the
end of the week recovered the bodies of 15 migrants. The vessel was
believed to be carrying more than 20 people. There were 2 survivors.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 22, The US announced
the Merida Initiative. It was signed into law on June 30, 2008. It
is a security cooperation between the United States and the
government of Mexico and the countries of Central America, with the
aim of combating the threats of drug trafficking, transnational
crime and money laundering. The assistance includes training,
equipment and intelligence.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9rida_Initiative)
2007 Oct 22,
Pres. Bush asked Congress for $196.4 billion for the Iraq war.
This included $500 million to help Mexico fight drug traffickers as
Mexico and the US announced plans for a $1.4 billion aid package to
fight drug trafficking and other organized crime south of the
border.
(SFC, 10/23/07, p.A7)(WSJ, 10/23/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 23, At least 21 oil
workers were killed when a drilling rig hit an oil platform in
stormy weather, spilling gas and oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Pemex
said the workers who died included four Pemex employees, seven
employees of the subcontractor company that operated the rig, at
least one rescue boat crew member, and six others who worked for
other companies. On Dec 16 Pemex announced that the well was finally
capped. Roughly 420 barrels of oil per day had spilled from the
damaged platform since the accident.
(AP, 10/25/07)(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Oct, Mexican officials
seized 23.5 tons of cocaine this month, the largest seizure ever
reported in Mexico. A US report, commissioned by Sen. Lugar, later
estimated that 530-710 tons of cocaine crossed annually into the US.
(Econ, 2/2/08, p.45)
2007 Nov 2, Rescuers in boats
and helicopters worked to evacuate people stranded by a flood the
president called "one of the worst natural disasters" to hit Mexico.
A week of heavy rains caused rivers to overflow, leaving 70 percent
of the Gulf state of Tabasco underwater. Gov. Andres Granier
estimated the damage at $5 billion. The death toll reached to about
25.
(AP, 11/2/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.45)
2007 Nov 4, In Mexico a
landslide hit a rain-swollen river, triggering what officials called
a "mini-tsunami" that wiped San Juan Grijalva, in Chiapas near the
Tabasco border, off the map. 15 bodies were later recovered with 9
left missing. The floods killed at least 8 others in Tabasco and
elsewhere in Chiapas.
(AP, 11/6/07)(AP, 11/13/07)(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 14, A broad electoral
reform that infuriated Mexico's broadcast industry by barring
political parties from buying radio and television advertisements
took effect.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Dec 2, In Mexico Sergio
Gomez, lead performer for the top-selling group K-Paz de la Sierra,
was abducted, tortured and strangled to death. His body was found
the next day. A day earlier Zayda Pena of the group Zayda and the
Guilty Ones was killed execution-style at the hospital where she was
recovering from neck surgery for a shooting on Nov 30, in which 2
other people were killed. Fears rose that singers, whether
they have any links to drug cartels or not, get routinely "adopted"
by drug gangs, which post Internet videos showing their members
torturing and executing rivals to soundtracks of popular tunes.
(AP, 12/5/07)(SFC, 12/5/07, p.E3)
2007 Dec 4, In Mexico gunmen
shot and killed a deputy police chief inside his house in the border
city of Tecate.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 5, Mexican police
conducted the biggest anti-logging raid in the nation's history at
clandestine sawmills that cut timber on a threatened nature reserve
where Monarch butterflies nest in the winter. Authorities in the
Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez said that they plan to exhume
the remains of more than 4,000 unidentified people buried in common
graves and take DNA samples in an attempt to identify them.
(AP, 12/5/07)(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 6, In southern Mexico
Jose Luis Aquino (33), a trumpet player, was found dead with his
hands and feet bound and a nylon bag over his head, in what
authorities said was apparently the country's third murder of a
musician in less than a week.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Former Mexican Pres. Fox
authored his ghost-written memoir “Revolution of Hope.” It was
published in English prior to a Spanish version.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.42)
2007 Sam Quinines authored
“Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream: True Tales of Mexican
Migration.”
(SSFC, 4/22/07, p.M1)
2007 Gregory Rodriguez authored
“Mongrels, Bastards, Orphans, and Vagabonds: Mexican Immigration and
the Future of Race in America.”
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.102)
2008 Jan 1, In Mexico import
tariffs on maize, beans, sugar and milk were eliminated.
(Econ, 1/26/08, p.38)
2008 Jan 7, A shootout between
Mexican authorities and suspected criminals just across the border
from Texas left three people dead and eight injured.
(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 8, In Mexico 3 US
residents and seven others linked to the powerful Gulf drug cartel
were arrested following a deadly shootout in Rio Bravo just across
the border from Texas. In a second shootout, two federal agents were
killed and three more injured when they clashed with a group of
suspects in the nearby city of Reynosa.
(AP, 1/9/08)
2008 Jan 10, In Mexico gunmen
shot dead two federal agents and a civilian in the central state of
Michoacan.
(AP, 1/11/08)
2008 Jan 11, In central Mexico
a helicopter carrying volunteers on a mission to distribute toys to
needy children crashed, killing eight people, including a government
official.
(AP, 1/12/08)
2008 Jan 14, In Mexico Tijuana
District Commander Jose de Jesus Arias Rico and his assistant Elbert
Escobedo Marquez were riddled with bullets as they traveled in a
private vehicle after finishing their shift. A car chase and
shootout between Tijuana municipal police and at least two people
who allegedly tried to rob an armored car after it made a cash
pickup at a bank. One suspect was killed and another was wounded.
(AP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 15, In Mexico before
dawn Margarito Saldana, Tijuana district commander, was shot dead
while he slept in his home.
(AP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 17, In Mexico
officials found six bodies inside a Tijuana house where gunmen took
refuge during a shootout with soldiers and police.
(AP, 1/17/08)
2008 Jan 19, In southern
California a Hummer, suspected of carrying drugs and heading to
Mexico, cut through a campground and hit and killed Luis Aguilar
(32), a US Border Patrol, as he threw a spike strip in front of the
vehicle. On Jan 23 Jesus Navarro Montes (22) was arrested in the
northern state of Sonora for hitting Aguilar. On April 12, 2011,
Navarro was found guilty of drug charges and second degree murder
for killing Aguilar. On July 1 Navarro was sentenced to life in
prison and was given an additional 80 years in prison on drug
charges.
(SFC, 1/21/08, p.A3)(AP, 1/23/08)(Reuters,
4/13/11)(SFC, 7/2/11, p.A5)
2008 Jan 21, Mexico's army
captured Alfredo Beltran Leyva, a top lieutenant of the Sinaloa
cartel. He allegedly commanded squads of hit men and organized drug
shipments north.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 22, In Mexico 11
alleged hit men for a powerful drug cartel were captured at two
Mexico City mansions stocked with grenades and automatic weapons, a
day after Mexican authorities reported nabbing one of the cartel's
reputed leaders.
(AP, 1/22/08)
2008 Jan 29, In Mexico City
Elvira Arellano, a deported Mexican migrant who holed up in a
Chicago church to fight for immigrants' rights, rallied support for
Flor Crisostomo (28), another woman now seeking refuge in the same
building. Four Mexican military officers and one soldier, were
turned over to prosecutors for alleged links to Alfredo Beltran
Leyva, but their cases weren't made public until Oct 31.
(AP, 1/30/08)(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Jan 30, Fr. Marcial Maciel
Degollado (b.1920), Mexican Roman Catholic priest who founded the
Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christi movement (1941), died in
Texas.
(www.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/world/americas/01maciel.html)
2008 Jan 31, In Mexico tens of
thousands of demonstrators marched through downtown Mexico City to
protest recent trade openings that removed the last tariff
protections for ancestral Mexican crops like corn and beans.
(AP, 1/31/08)
2008 Feb 7, Mexican soldiers
seized nearly 10 tons of marijuana, a machine gun, scores of assault
rifles and three grenades in a raid just across the border from
Texas.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 15, In Mexico City a
bomb exploded near the police headquarters killing one man. A singer
and two members of his staff were tortured and killed just south of
the California border, apparently the latest victims in a string of
slayings of Mexican musicians. The border killings were not reported
until Feb 20.
(WSJ, 2/16/08, p.A1)(AP, 2/20/08)
2008 Feb 26, Mexican lawmakers
approved judicial reform that would introduce public, oral trials
and guarantee the presumption of innocence, even as lawmakers
deleted a proposal to allow police to search homes without a
warrant. Mexico's Senate approved a law that would ban smoking in
workplaces, public buildings and public transportation across the
country, allowing it in private businesses only if special,
ventilated smoking areas are set up. Investigators found parts from
at least 8 bodies in a series of backyard pits at a house in Ciudad
Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. In March the body
count increased to 36.
(AP, 2/27/08)(AP, 2/26/08)(AP, 3/3/08)(AP,
3/16/08)
2008 Mar 7, Mexican soldiers
seized assault rifles, grenades, marijuana and bulletproof vests
bearing police insignia after a brief shootout in the border city of
Tijuana. Police commander Ricardo Rodriguez was shot dead in a city
plaza by gunmen who opened fire with assault rifles from a moving
car. Six gunmen were also killed in the shootout.
(AP, 3/7/08)(SFC, 3/10/08, p.A3)
2008 Mar 10, In Mexico a
researcher said satellite photographs show illegal loggers have
clear-cut large swathes of trees in the heart of a monarch butterfly
reserve, threatening the insects' habitat. The images show illegal
loggers chopped 1,100 acres of trees since 2004 in the core of a
wooded park in Michoacan state.
(AP, 3/11/08)
2008 Mar 10, In central Mexico
a sports utility vehicle fell into a canal, killing nine small
children but leaving their teacher unharmed.
(AP, 3/11/08)
2008 Mar 11, Mexico's federal
attorney general's office announced an investigation into
allegations of corruption against Interior Secretary Juan Camilo
Mourino, a confidant of the president who holds the government's
second highest profile job.
(AP, 3/12/08)
2008 Mar 13, Cuba and Mexico
declared their once-chilly relations fully restored, and Cuba's
foreign minister said he will soon deliver a formal invitation for
Mexico's president to visit the island.
(AP, 3/14/08)
2008 Mar 13, In central Mexico
6 people were shot and killed inside a private law office in
Guadalajara.
(AP, 3/14/08)
2008 Mar 25, In eastern
Guatemala at least nine people were killed and seven wounded in a
shootout that is likely tied to drug traffickers. Guatemalan drug
boss Juan Jose "Juancho" Leon was summoned by Mexican traffickers
for what he was told was business. Instead, dozens of attackers
ambushed his entourage with grenades and assault rifles, killing
Leon and 10 others in a brazen demonstration of power.
(AP, 3/25/08)(AP, 7/21/09)
2008 Mar 26, In Mexico a
confrontation in Sinaloa state left four civilians and two soldiers
dead. A military judge later issued an arrest warrant for 5 soldiers
considered as suspects.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Mar 27, The Mexican
government said it has sent more than 2,500 soldiers and federal
police to curb soaring violence in a border state across from Texas
and New Mexico.
(AP, 3/28/08)
2008 Mar 31, In Mexico Juana
Barraza (50), a former female wrestler who terrorized Mexico City as
the "Little Old Lady Killer," was sentenced to 759 years in jail for
killing 16 elderly women.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Apr 4, In Mexico two
soldiers deserted and were later killed during a gunbattle with
police in the state of Nuevo Leon. 3 state police officers and a
civilian also died in the violence. The Mexican army said soldiers
looking for drug traffickers found $6 million in cash inside a truck
near the US border and arrested five men at the scene. The daily El
Universal reported that five soldiers had been arrested for passing
information to the Sinaloa alliance of Pacific Coast smugglers.
(AP, 4/5/08)(Reuters, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 6, In southern Mexico
a truck carrying Central American migrants in a hidden compartment
plunged into a reservoir, killing at least eight people. Most of the
migrants were believed to be from Guatemala.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 8, In Mexico Pres.
Calderon said he would ease some bureaucratic barriers, and allow
Pemex to pay outside contractors a "bonus," not a percentage cut,
for oil found in deep-water reserves.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 10, Leftist lawmakers
took over both chambers of Mexico's Congress to protest President
Felipe Calderon's energy reform bill, which would make it easier for
the state oil company to seek outside help to develop oil fields.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 10, In Mexico police,
working with FBI agents in the small town of Tacambaro, arrested
Cpl. Cesar Laurean (21). He is charged with first-degree murder in
the December, 2007, death at Camp Lejeune, NC, of Marine Lance Cpl.
Maria Lauterbach, who had accused him of rape.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 13, The winners of
this year’s Goldman Awards were reported to be: Feliciano dos Santos
(43) of Mozambique, the director of Estamos, an environmental group
promoting sanitation, sustainable development and reforestation;
Marina Rikhvanova (46), founder of Baikal Environmental Wave, which
forced the rerouting of an oil pipeline in the Baikal basin; Pablo
Fajardo (35) and Luis Yanza (48) of Ecuador, co-founders of the
Amazon Defense Front, which accused Texaco (now Chevron) of dumping
oil and wastewater into local streams; Rosa Hilda Ramos (63) of
Puerto Rico, head of a movement to protect the Las Cicharillas
Marsh; Ignace Schops (43) of Belgium, head of a movement to
establish Belgium’s 1st and only national park; Jesus Leon (42) of
Mexico, co-founder of the Center for Integral Small Farmer
Development of the Mixtec (CEDICAM).
(SSFC, 4/13/08, p.A4)
2008 Apr 15, In Mexico gunmen
held up a family of US tourists in Baha and made off with their
small plane from a hotel airstrip in Mulege.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 17, Chief Juan Muniz,
the Mexican police chief of the border city of Reynosa, was arrested
for allegedly protecting members of the Gulf drug cartel.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 18, In western Mexico
a military helicopter crashed, killing 11 soldiers and seriously
injuring another.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 22, In New Orleans
Pres. Bush ended a 2-day meeting with PM Harper of Canada and Pres.
Calderon of Mexico as all three defended NAFTA. Bush denied the US
is in recession calling the current economic situation a slowdown.
(SFC, 4/23/08, p.A3)(WSJ, 4/23/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 23, Officials said the
US is scrapping a $20 million virtual fence, developed by Boeing
Corp., on the Arizona-Mexico border because the system failed to
adequately alert border patrol agents to illegal crossings.
(SFC, 4/24/08, p.A7)
2008 Apr 26, In Mexico running
gunbattles between suspected drug traffickers broke out on the
streets of the border city of Tijuana, killing 13 people and
wounding nine.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 Apr 29, Migrant rights
activists applauded a vote by Mexico's Congress to remove
long-standing criminal penalties for undocumented migrants found in
the country. President Felipe Calderon's office declined to say
whether he would sign the popular measure into law.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 May 1, Roberto Velasco,
head of Mexico’s federal police organized crime division, was
murdered. Police later said the murder was likely ordered by Arturo
Beltran Leyva, a capo in the Sinaloa drug cartel.
(Econ, 5/17/08, p.45)
2008 May 5, In southern Mexico
a prominent cattle rancher hid from gunmen who killed two of his
sons and kidnapped his daughter in weekend attacks that left 17
people dead.
(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 7, In Mexico a leftist
rebel group (EPR) linked to a series of oil pipeline blasts on
rejected an offer from Mexico's government to hold talks. The
People's Revolutionary Army dismissed a proposal by President Felipe
Calderon because it said the offer showed no willingness to solve
crimes allegedly committed by current and past administrations
against its members.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 8, Edgar Millan Gomez
(42), Mexico's acting federal police chief, was shot dead outside
his Mexico City apartment complex, as drug traffickers increasingly
lashed back at a nationwide crackdown on organized crime. Bodyguards
at the scene arrested Alejandro Ramirez (34). Edgar Guzman, the son
of Sinaloa cartel chief Joaquin Guzman, was shot dead in Culiacan,
Sinaloa state. Also killed in the attack was Arturo Meza Cazares,
the son of Blanca Margarita Cazares, whom the US has identified as a
key money launderer for the cartel. Police later said Millan’s
murder was likely ordered by Arturo Beltran Leyva, a capo in the
Sinaloa drug cartel.
(AP, 5/9/08)(SFC, 5/9/08,
p.A16)(http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/xarticle/ajc8708.htm)(Econ,
5/17/08, p.45)
2008 May 10, Juan Antonio Roman
Garcia, the No. 2 police officer in a Mexican border city across
from Texas, was shot dead, the latest high-ranking official killed
in an onslaught of attacks blamed on gangs resisting a crackdown.
Gunman sprayed Garcia's car with bullets outside his home in Ciudad
Juarez.
(AP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 12, Mexican
authorities said a police officer and four other people, with
suspected ties to a powerful drug cartel, have been arrested in the
May 8 assassination of Edgar Millan Gomez, the acting federal police
chief.
(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 13, In Mexico more
than 2,700 soldiers and federal agents were sent to Sinaloa state as
part of a crackdown on drug-related violence.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 14, In Mexico 2 police
officers were shot and killed in Torreon, Coahuila state, when they
tried to stop gunmen from kidnapping a family. Assailants opened
fire and threw grenades at a police station in Guamuchil in the
northern state of Sinaloa.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 15, In Mexico Pres.
Calderon held a signing ceremony for an agreement with Elba Esther
Gordillo, head of the national teacher’s union, to promote the
“Alliance for Educational Quality, an effort to improve teacher
quality.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.55)
2008 May 18, An American woman
(28) was among four people found dead in the Mexican beach town of
Playas de Rosarito, near border with California.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 19, In Mexico the
military took over the town of Zirandaro near Texas after all 20 of
its police officers were either killed, run out of town or quit.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 20, In Mexico’s
Durango state two rival groups opened fire at each other with
pistols and assault rifles on a highway, killing eight people.
Officials said the Mexican military took over the police department
of Villa Ahumada this week because all 20 officers on the force have
either been killed, run out of town or quit. The body of Victor
Enrique Payan, 2nd in command of police in Morelos, was found with a
second, unidentified Morelos state police officer in the trunk of a
car south of Mexico City.
(AP, 5/20/08)(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 23, Mexico's attorney
general said homicides related to organized crime jumped 47 percent
in 2008, in a rare confirmation of how bad violence has become.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 23, Mexican federal
officials said they plan to clean up Acapulco's bay, where an
estimated 400 gallons (1,700 liters) of sewage spews into the
Pacific ocean every second.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 27, In Mexico 7
federal police and a suspected hit man were killed in a shootout as
authorities surrounded a suspected drug safe house in Culiacan, home
to the Sinaloa drug cartel.
(AP, 5/27/08)
2008 May 31, Tropical Storm
Arthur the first named storm of the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season,
kicked up surf when it made landfall at the Belize-Mexico border and
headed west.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 Jun 1, In western Mexico
Marcelo Ibarra, the mayor of Villa Madero, was forced from his car
and shot dead. Officials believed the killing was an attempted
robbery, although they haven't ruled out other motives.
(AP, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 3, In Mexico Claudio
Conti (53) was reportedly kidnapped along Zicatela beach in Puerto
Escondido, where he operated the Da Claudio restaurant and a hotel.
On Feb 28, 2009, Mexican police said they had captured four men
suspected of kidnapping the Italian businessman, and that one of the
men told police the victim had been ordered killed, though it was
not clear if the slaying was carried out.
(AP, 3/1/09)
2008 Jun 4, A Mexican court
sentenced Mario Villanueva, a former Quintana Roo state governor
(1993-1996), to 36 years in prison for fomenting drug trafficking,
overturning an earlier ruling that had imposed six years on lesser
charges. A husband and wife, both state police officers, were shot
dead while leaving their home in Ciudad Juarez, the border city
where drug gangs have stepped up attacks against security forces.
(AP, 6/5/08)(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 9, A note threatening
a Mexican journalist was found outside the office of a newspaper in
southern Mexico, two days after someone left a severed head there.
The letter was directed at Juan Padilla, editor of El Correo de
Tabasco, which recently carried reports about migrant smuggling and
kidnapping in the area.
(AP, 6/10/08)
2008 Jun 11, In southern Mexico
armed men hijacked a bus carrying 33 Cubans and four Central
American migrants detained after forcing immigration agents away at
gunpoint. The seized Cubans and Central Americans were being taken
to an immigration processing center in the nearby city of Tapachula
when the attack occurred. Mexican immigration agents are normally
unarmed on such assignments.
(AP, 6/13/08)
2008 Jun 15, In Sonora, Mexico,
one state police officer and two federal agents were killed in a
running battle with dozens of gunmen that lasted several hours. One
of the gunmen was wounded.
(AP, 6/17/08)
2008 Jun 17, Mexico’s Pres.
Felipe Calderon signed a constitutional amendment that threw open
the doors to its judicial system, allowing US-style public trials
and creating a presumption of innocence.
(AP, 6/18/08)(WSJ, 6/18/08, p.A8)
2008 Jun 18, Food manufacturers
promised Mexico's government that they would freeze prices on more
than 150 food products to help families cope with rising costs.
(AP, 6/19/08)
2008 Jun 20, Panicked youths
rushed for the exits during a police raid on a Mexico City
nightclub, leaving 12 people dead in the crush of bodies. The dead
included 3 underage teens and 3 police officers. Prosecutors later
charged the police commander who led a botched raid with 12 counts
of homicide.
(AP, 6/21/08)(SSFC, 6/22/08, p.A11)(AP, 6/25/08)
2008 Jun 21, Mexican soldiers
captured at least 10 suspected members of a Tijuana-based drug
cartel in a raid on a child's baptism party in Tijuana. A total of
61 people were arrested in the sweep, including the band hired to
play the party and three city police officers.
(AP, 6/23/08)
2008 Jun 25, In Mexico state
police spokesman Cesar Ramirez said 20 people have been killed in
less than three days in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. Guerrero
state authorities agreed to pay 490,000 pesos (US$48,000) in
compensation to 14 indigenous Mexican men coerced into having
vasectomies. The men said that state health workers showed up in the
southern village of El Camalote in 1998 and demanded that men with
more than four children must have vasectomies.
(AP, 6/25/08)(AP, 6/27/08)
2008 Jun 26, In Mexico gunmen
killed Igor Labastida, a top federal police official, and his
bodyguard as they ate lunch in Mexico City.
(AP, 6/27/08)
2008 Jun 27, In Piedras Negras,
Mexico, Chad Foster, the mayor of Eagle Pass, Texas, attended a tree
planting ceremony for the first of 400,000 trees which will form a
"green wall" in protest of the fence the US is building along the
border with Mexico.
(AP, 6/28/08)
2008 Jul 1, In Mexico videos
showing Leon police practicing torture techniques on a fellow
officer and dragging another through vomit at the instruction of a
US adviser created an uproar, which has struggled to eliminate
torture in law enforcement.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 2, In Mexico 4
decapitated bodies were found on a street in Culiacan, blocks away
from their severed heads. Four gunmen were killed hours later, after
opening fire on federal police patrolling Culiacan, a center for the
powerful Sinaloa drug cartel. Under attack, police shot back at the
home where the gunmen were holed up, killing the four assailants and
capturing two others.
(AP, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 6, In northern Mexico
a plane carrying a load of auto parts crashed s it was trying to
land, killing the pilot and severely injuring the co-pilot.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 7, Mexican police
found six charred bodies on a Tijuana street following a bloody
weekend that left 14 people dead.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 8, The Mexican
government said UNESCO has added a Monarch butterfly reserve in
southern Mexico to its list of World Heritage sites.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 10, In northern
Mexico, 6 bullet-ridden bodies were found inside the auto body shop
in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, and three more bodies
were found on the street just outside the business. A police
investigator was found shot to death in his truck near Culiacan's
police headquarters.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 13, In Mexico gunmen
opened fire on four cars on a busy street in Guamuchil, killing
eight people. Among the victims were a girl (11), two 17-year-old
boys and two women aged 18 and 19. On July 16 Mexico's government
offered a reward of nearly US$100,000 for information leading to the
capture of the gunmen.
(AP, 7/14/08)(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 14, In Mexico
commander Gerardo Valdes, the head of kidnapping and organized crime
investigations in the border state of Coahuila, was seized by at
least six men when he was driving in Saltillo. An unidentified man
called police and said that Valdes had been grabbed by the Juarez
Cartel.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 16, Mexico's navy
seized a homemade submarine carrying a drug shipment off the Pacific
coast and arrested its four-man crew.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 18, Mexico's president
replaced a 1791 time capsule discovered atop Mexico City's cathedral
with a new one containing messages from golf star Lorena Ochoa,
novelist Carlos Fuentes and a boy genius.
(AP, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 21, The US FDA issued
an advisory for consumers to avoid eating uncooked jalapeno peppers
after it found a jalapeno grown in Mexico in a Texas border town
warehouse that tested positive with the same strain of salmonella
that was earlier associated with tomatoes.
(SFC, 7/22/08, p.A10)
2008 Jul 22, In Mexico a
measure took effect eliminating jail times for illegal immigrants
caught in Mexico.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 22, Dolly was upgraded
to hurricane status as it headed toward the US-Mexican border.
(WSJ, 7/23/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 23, Hurricane Dolly
toppled trees and sent billboards flying in the Mexican city of
Matamoros, and authorities south of the US border warned of possible
flooding. Dolly also hit south Texas, but by evening it had weakened
to a tropical storm.
(AP, 7/24/08)(SFC, 7/24/08, p.A3)
2008 Jul 24, In Mexico state
prison chief Salvador Barreno was shot and killed as he drove in
Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas. His bodyguard was also
killed. 3 other men died in a separate shooting minutes later.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 27, Mexico City
residents voted against the president's proposal to give private
companies a bigger role in the country's state-run oil industry in a
nonbinding referendum.
(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 29, In Mexico a family
of six was found dead in their home in western Jalisco state,
allegedly targeted by kidnappers aided by corrupt cops. Four
victims, including two children, were shot in the head. A teenage
boy's throat was slashed. His mother was asphyxiated with a plastic
bag.
(AP, 8/21/08)
2008 Jul 30, Mexican police
captured Ever Villafane Martinez, a Colombian cartel operative who
represented Colombia's Norte del Valle drug cartel in dealings with
Mexico's Beltran Leyva gang. He had escaped from a Colombian prison
in 2001 and was wanted on drug charges in the US.
(AP, 8/1/08)
2008 Jul 30, US federal health
officials said the salmonella strain linked to a nationwide outbreak
has been found in irrigation water and in a sample from a batch of
serrano peppers at a Mexican farm in Nuevo Leon. Mexico's
Agriculture Department rejected the FDA's conclusion saying "The
farm unit in question ended its harvest more than a month ago, so
the sample they say they have lacks scientific validity" because the
sample "was taken recently from a tank holding rain water that was
not used in production."
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Aug 1, The body of
Fernando Marti, the 14-year-old son of a prominent businessman, was
found in the trunk of a car in Mexico City. He had been kidnapped in
June. The kidnap and murder prompted a wave of anti-crime protests
across the nation. In September police detained five suspects
including Sergio Ortiz, a former agent of a now-disbanded city
detective force, who led the "Flower Gang" responsible for
kidnapping Marti in June. In July, 2009, Jose Montiel (34) and Noe
Robles (31) were arrested for the kidnapping. They were believed to
be members of a Mexico City gang responsible for at least 23
abductions.
(AP, 9/8/08)(AP, 7/18/09)
2008 Aug 4, A shootout between
Mexican police and smugglers driving a truck carrying illegal
immigrants left 2 people dead near Agua Dulce.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 5, Texas executed Jose
Medellin (33) for the 1993 rape and killing of two teenage girls in
Houston. Mexico protested the execution, which took place despite a
world court ruling for a new hearing, and expressed concern for the
rights of other Mexicans detained in the US. On Jan 19, 2009, the
International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled that the US defied
its order when authorities in Texas last year executed a Mexican
convicted of rape and murder.
(AP, 8/6/08)(AP, 1/19/09)
2008 Aug 11, In Acapulco,
Mexico, gunmen traveling in a sport utility vehicle fired at a
hardware store killing a girl (14) and a man (35).
(AP,
8/12/08)(www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,402108,00.html)
2008 Aug 13, In Mexico a
spokesman for the Attorney General's Office said 6 federal agents
have been arrested on suspicion of passing information to a group of
powerful drug lords.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 16, In Mexico gunmen
killed 13 people at a family party in the border state of Chihuahua.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 18, Mexican soldiers
rescued 25 Central Americans kidnapped in the Gulf coast state of
Veracruz. One man was arrested in the raid in Tierra Blanca.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 18, Mexico’s Cemex SAB
rejected Venezuela’s $500 bid for the companies assets in Venezuela.
At midnight oil workers and Venezuelan soldiers occupied Cemex
facilities around the country.
(WSJ, 8/19/08, p.A10)
2008 Aug 21, In Mexico Pres.
Calderon, congressional leaders, all state governors and a bevy of
others signed a “National Agreement for Security.”
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.44)
2008 Aug 22, Mexican police
captured a man believed to be Ruben Rios Estrada, a key gunman for
the Arellano-Felix cocaine cartel, at the Caliente racetrack casino
in Tijuana after a chase through the city streets. Another suspected
gang member also was arrested. The bullet-riddled body of Jesus
Blanco Cano (40) was found at a ranch near Villa Ahumada in
Chihuahua state. He had just been on the job for one day as police
chief of Villa Ahumada.
(AP, 8/23/08)(SFC, 8/23/08, p.A3)
2008 Aug 26, In Mexico 3
decapitated bodies were found in an empty lot on the eastern
outskirts of Tijuana. The bodies had messages written on their backs
in permanent marker saying they worked for "the weakened
'engineer,'" a nickname for Francisco Sanchez Arellano, a top
lieutenant in Tijuana's powerful Arellano Felix drug cartel. A day
earlier 2 bodies were found in Tijuana, one with the head placed on
the upper back.
(AP, 8/27/08)(SFC, 8/27/08, p.A11)
2008 Aug 27, In Mexico a
38-year-old man from Oregon was arrested in San Jose del Cabo
following a fight at an apartment complex. He died in jail hours
later. On Aug 31 six Mexican officers placed under house
arrest on suspicion of homicide.
(AP, 9/2/08)
2008 Aug 28, Mexico's Supreme
Court upheld the capital's abortion law, setting a precedent for the
rest of the country that could inspire other Latin American cities.
Twelve decapitated bodies bearing signs of torture were found in
eastern Mexico and authorities were still looking for the heads. 11
of the bodies were found in a suburb of Merida, a 12th in Buctzotz,
70 km to the northeast.
(AFP, 8/29/08)
2008 Aug 30, Hundreds of
thousands of frustrated Mexicans, many carrying pictures of
kidnapped loved ones, marched across the country to demand
government action against a relentless tide of killings, abductions
and shootouts. Hours before the protests, the severed heads of two
women were found near the attorney general's offices in the city of
Durango.
(AP, 8/31/08)(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Aug 30, Gilberto Rincon
Gallardo (69), a former socialist presidential candidate who gained
respect in Mexico for defending the rights of the disabled, gays and
other marginalized groups, died in Mexico City.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 31, Mexico’s President
Felipe Calderon promised to adopt several proposals from civic
groups who led more than 100,000 Mexicans in marches against daily
kidnappings and killings.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 5, In Mexico two 18th
century paintings, "The Adoration of the Three Kings" and "The Birth
of the Virgin," were stolen from the Santa Matilde church in
Pachuca, the capital of central Hidalgo state. In February, 2010,
they were found in an art gallery in Tlaquepaque, a town near the
city of Guadalajara, where they were on sale for $35,000.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2008 Sep 10, A regulatory
filing revealed that Carlos Slim, Mexican businessman, and his
family had purchased a 6.4% stake in the New York Times.
(Econ, 9/20/08, p.78)
2008 Sep 12, Mexican police
found the bodies of 24 men with their hands bound and shot to death
execution-style outside the capital. On Nov 27 prosecutors charged a
municipal police commander and an alleged drug cartel member with
homicide in the September massacre.
(AP, 9/13/08)(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Sep 14, Mexico's military
seized US$26.2 million in cash believed to belong to members of the
Sinaloa drug cartel. This was the 2nd biggest seizure since March
2007, when police seized US$207 million linked to a trafficking ring
for pseudoephedrine.
(AP, 9/18/08)
2008 Sep 15, Mexican police and
soldiers quelled a riot at a Tijuana prison that left 4 inmates dead
and at least 31 prisoners and officials injured.
(AP, 9/16/08)(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 15, In Oaxaca, Mexico,
Omar Yoguez Singu (32) allegedly had consensual sex with Marcella
Grace Eiler (20) of Eugene, Oregon. He then killed her with a
machete after an argument. Her badly decomposed body was found Sep
24 in a shack 80 miles south of Oaxaca City. Friends of Singu beat
him up after he confessed to the crime and on Sep 24 turned him over
to police.
(AP, 9/28/08)
2008 Sep 16, In Mexico
explosions at an Independence Day celebration killed 7 people and
injured 101 in the city of Morelia. Michoacan Gov. Leonel Godoy said
organized crime was responsible.
(AP, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 17, A second riot in
three days at an infamous Tijuana prison left close to 2 dozen
people dead and 12 injured. 2 American inmates were among the dead.
Inmates at La Mesa prison rioted again because they have not been
given food or water since Sep 14, when a separate riot led to the
deaths of at least three inmates.
(AP, 9/18/08)(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 20, It was reported
that Mexican officers and prison guards in Michoacan state can now
get special deals on houses and financing through a pilot program
designed to keep them out of the pockets of organized crime.
(AP, 9/20/08)
2008 Sep 23, Mexico said it
plans to search 10 percent of all vehicles entering the country from
the United States in an effort to curb arms smuggling.
(AP, 9/24/08)
2008 Sep 25, Mexican federal
prosecutors in Apatzingan, a drug stronghold in the western state of
Michoacan, arrested three drug gang members accused of throwing
grenades into crowds of Independence Day revelers. They belonged to
a group of infamous Gulf Cartel hit men known as the Zetas.
(AP, 9/27/08)
2008 Sep 25, In southeastern
Mexico storms flooded hundreds of people out of their homes and
caused the death of a woman and 4 children whose car plunged into a
swollen irrigation ditch in Nanchital, Veracruz state.
(AP, 9/26/08)
2008 Sep 29, In Mexico the
bodies of 11 men and one woman, some with their tongues cut out,
were found dumped in an empty lot next to a Tijuana elementary
school, an hour before children were scheduled to arrive. A message
nearby, written on a white piece of cardboard, read: "This is going
to happen to all of those who are with 'The Engineer' for being
blabbermouths." Minutes later four other bodies were found in
another empty lot in Tijuana. Two other bodies were discovered the
day before in a lot next to a factory.
(AP, 9/30/08)
2008 Sep 30, In Mexico 20
heavily armed men in Sinaloa state stole five small planes that the
army had seized in anti-drug operations. Officials on Oct 3 said the
planes were found on a ranch in the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa,
a hotbed of drug trafficking.
(AP, 10/1/08)(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Sep 30, In Mexico Ramiro
Guillen Tapia (65), leader of a farmers' group seeking government
mediation in a dispute over 620 acres (250 hectares) of land in the
Gulf coast state of Veracruz, set himself on fire. Tapia died the
next day with third-degree burns over 70 percent of his body.
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 3, Mexican police
clashed with hundreds of villagers who seized the entrance to a
Mayan archaeological site and six protesters were killed. Hundreds
of villagers had occupied the entrance to the Chinkultic ruins for
nearly a month, saying they were protesting excessive entrance fees
and a lack of investment in the area. 2 men were found shot to death
in Tijuana in the same empty lot near the elementary school where
the 12 bodies were found on sep 29.
(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Oct 4, In Mexico gunmen
killed Salvador Vegara, the mayor of Ixtapan de la Sal, a resort
town southwest of Mexico City. Vegara was in a car with two other
people when the gunmen opened fire from another vehicle. The bodies
of 5 men were found asphyxiated in a car in the eastern part of
Tijuana. The men were beaten and had their hands bound. The bodies
of two beheaded men were found wrapped in blankets on a road
elsewhere in the city. The heads were in black plastic bags nearby.
(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Oct 5, In southern Mexico
5 state police officers were arrested in connection with a deadly
raid to dislodge protesters from a Mayan archaeological site.
Mexican authorities seized 7 million pills of pseudoephedrine, the
main ingredient used to make methamphetamine, at the Guadalajara
airport. More than 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) of the pills were
found packed in 24 boxes on a shipment from Calcutta, India. Three
separate shipments of more than a ton each were confiscated last
month at Mexico City's airport. Those also originated in Calcutta.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 7, Mexico extradited
former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004) to face
corruption charges, and the ex-leader told a judge there is no
evidence to support the allegations against him.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 7, In Ciudad Juarez,
Mexico, across the border from El Paso, Texas, gunmen killed police
commander Rodolfo Barragan (38) in a hail of bullets at a hotel
parking lot.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 7, Tropical Storm
Marco roared ashore on Mexico's Gulf coast with near-hurricane force
winds, prompting a shutdown of some oil platforms and forcing the
evacuation of some 3,000 people.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 8, President Felipe
Calderon unveiled plans for 53 billion pesos ($4.4 billion) in
emergency spending on roads, schools, hospitals and an oil refinery
next year to help Mexico combat the world financial crisis. Mexican
authorities said that 16 people were killed over the last 24 hours
in Baha California across the US border from California. State
officials blamed warring cells of the Arellano-Felix drug cartel for
the killings and other homicides plaguing the area in recent weeks.
5 state police officers were killed in the western state of Jalisco
by grenade-lobbing gunmen who fired more than 800 bullets in the
attack.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 9, In northern Mexico
gunmen opened fire in a bar in Chihuahua, killing 11 people. The
body of Miguel Angel Villagomez, editor of La Noticia newspaper in
the western state of Michoacan, was found shot dead on the side of a
highway in neighboring Guerrero state.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 10, Mexico's central
bank auctioned foreign reserves in 3 auctions in an increasingly
aggressive bid to push the peso stronger. In all, the bank sold off
$6.4 billion.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 10, In Mexico
authorities in Tijuana reported that a total of 91 people had been
killed in a wave of gangland homicides since Sept. 26.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 11, In Mexico gunmen
killed six young men at a family party in the gang-plagued border
city of Ciudad Juarez. In Tijuana federal police arrested seven
reputed members of a cell of the Arellano Felix drug cartel,
including a city police officer.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 11, Hurricane Norbert
hit Mexico as a Category 1 storm and left 4 people dead in the Baha
peninsula and Sonora state.
(SFC, 10/18/08, p.B6)
2008 Oct 12, An angry crowd in
central Mexico attacked police and helped nearly three dozen illegal
Central American immigrants escape from custody after hearing that
officers had allegedly sold the migrants to human smugglers in the
farming town of Rafael Lara Grajales, Puebla state. Federal police
managed to round up 21 migrants.
(AP, 10/14/08)(SSFC, 10/26/08, p.A23)
2008 Oct 16, In Mexico six
people were lined up and gunned down outside a business in the
border city of Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 17, In Mexico 334
police officers were ousted in ciudad Juarez after they failed
psychological, background and other checks as part of a clean-up
campaign meant to root out officers who are corrupt or cooperating
with drug traffickers. The border city sent police recruiters across
the country as it tries to replace nearly half a police force gutted
by firings and retirements.
(AP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 17, The UN added
Japan, Austria, Turkey, Mexico and Uganda as members to the 10
non-permanent seats of the Security Council, replacing Belgium,
Indonesia, Italy, Panama and South Africa.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 18, Mexican federal
authorities raided a “narco-mansion” in Mexico City and arrested 15
alleged traffickers during the middle of a party. A mini menagerie
was also found at the site that included 2 African lions, 2 white
tigers and 2 black panthers.
(www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/21/mexico-wildlife)
2008 Oct 20, Mexico agreed to
deport Cubans who sneak illegally through Mexican territory to reach
the US, a step toward cutting off an increasingly violent and
heavily used human trafficking route. 21 prisoners died in a fight
between inmates at a prison across the border from McAllen, Texas.
Police said two soldiers and a security guard were found stabbed to
death at a housing construction site in the village of Las
Margaritas, northern Mexico. The body of a federal policeman was
found riddled with gunshot wounds in Tijuana.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 21, Police in northern
Mexico reported receiving an ice chest packed with four human heads.
The chest arrived at the Ascencion police station in Chihuahua state
was marked "vaccines," but wasn't claimed for a week. Jesus Zambada
was among 16 members of the Sinaloa drug cartel arrested after a
shootout in Mexico City. Zambada is the brother of Ismael Zambada,
who allegedly heads the Sinaloa cartel along with one of Mexico's
most wanted men, Joaquin Guzman.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 22, In Ciudad Juarez,
across the border from El Paso, Texas, four men were shot inside a
go-cart rental at the Xtreme amusement park. Elsewhere in the city,
a used car salesman was shot to death while driving down a main
boulevard hours after leading hundreds of other business owners in a
protest against kidnappings and extortion. In Tijuana a 1-year-old
boy was killed when the car he was riding in crashed as the driver
tried to flee a gunbattle. In northern Mexico 10 gunmen were killed
in running battles with state police in the city of Nogales. Outside
the northeastern city of Monterrey, a soldier, the director of a
security firm and third man were found stabbed to death alongside a
highway.
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 23, In Mexico 2 people
were found dead in Tijuana, across the border from San Diego,
California, including a badly burned corpse left in a trash bin.
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 24, In central Mexico
2 human heads were found with threatening messages. 2 adults were
killed when assailants riddled their pickup truck with bullets on a
Tijuana street. A 1-year-old girl riding with them was hit by
multiple rounds from an assault rifle and was hospitalized in
critical condition. Police also found nine people shot to death in
Playas de Rosarito, just south of Tijuana.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 25, In Mexico soldiers
and federal police arrested Eduardo Arellano Felix (52), a reputed
leader of the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix cartel, after a shootout
in the border city across from San Diego.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2008 Oct 26, In Mexico City
kidnappers grabbed Javier Morena (5), the son of poor fruit sellers,
with the intent to ask for a $23,000 ransom. The boy was killed with
an injection of acid and buried outside the city. 5 suspects in the
kidnapping were later arrested and confessed to the killing.
(SFC, 11/4/08, p.11)
2008 Oct 27, Mexican
prosecutors said a major drug cartel has infiltrated the Mexican
attorney general's office and may have paid a spy inside the US
Embassy for details of DEA operations. 5 officials of the attorney
general’s organized crime unit were arrested on allegations they
served as informants for the Beltran-Leyva Cartel.
(AP, 10/27/08)(SFC, 10/28/08, p.A11)
2008 Oct 27, A US officials
announced that Francisco Celaya Carrilo, a Mexican immigration
officer, had been caught in Arizona with 170 pounds of marijuana.
(SFC, 10/28/08, p.A11)
2008 Oct 28, Mexico's Congress
passed a watered-down energy industry reform that enables private
contractors to participate in the state-owned oil business but won't
likely draw enough investment to reverse declining production.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 31, In Mexico police
arrested Antonio Galarza, the reputed leader of the violent Gulf
drug cartel for the border city of Reynosa, in the northern city of
Monterrey on suspicion of weapons violations and organized crime.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 1, The top officer of
Mexico's federal police force quit amid allegations that drug gangs
have infiltrated senior levels of crime-fighting agencies. Acting
federal police Commissioner Gerardo Garay said he was stepping aside
"to place myself at the orders of legal judicial authorities to
clear up any accusation against me."
(AP, 11/1/08)
2008 Nov 2, Mexican prosecutors
said 11 policemen have been shot to death near Mexico City in a
three-day string of drug-gang attacks. In Tijuana, across the border
from San Diego, California, police found two decapitated bodies
wrapped in blankets in a vacant lot.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 4, One of Mexico's top
pointmen in the war against drug trafficking died when a government
jet crashed into a Mexico City street, setting fire to dozens of
vehicles. The loss of Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino, former
anti-drug prosecutor Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos and six others
thinned the ranks of Mexico's already embattled leadership. 9 people
on the plane were killed as well as 5 people on the ground. A 15th
victim died 2 weeks later. A 16th victim died in On Dec 11. Three
alleged hitmen suspected in the killing of a top border-state police
official died in a gunbattle with police in Nogales. They were
suspected of having helped kill Sonora state police chief Juan
Manuel Pavon on Nov 2. One Sonora state police officer died in the
shootout. A suspect in Pavon's killing was taken into custody.
(AP, 11/5/08)(AP, 11/6/08)(AP, 11/18/08)(AP,
12/11/08)
2008 Nov 6, Mexican authorities
detained Rodolfo de la Guardia Garcia, the No. 2 official in the
Federal Agency of Investigation from 2003-2005, suspected of aiding
drug traffickers, and Jaime Gonzalez Duran, alleged founder of a
vicious gang of drug-cartel hit men. A cache of 540 rifles, 165
grenades, 500,000 rounds of ammunition and 14 sticks of TNT were
seized at a house in the city of Reynosa, across the border from
McAllen, Texas. This was the largest seizure of drug-cartel weapons
in Mexico's history. In the northeast, police mistakenly opened fire
on a family of six, seriously wounding a teenage girl. In the west,
inmates rioted, killing six. And police in Tijuana found three more
bodies accompanied by messages that appeared to be from drug
traffickers.
(AP, 11/8/08)
2008 Nov 10, Mexico’s President
Felipe Calderon chose Fernando Gomez-Mont as the new Secretary of
the Interior. 7 people were found dead in a string of gruesome
attacks in the border city of Juarez. Police there chased a truck
that opened fire on a state vehicle, causing a car crash that killed
a bystander and injured four others. In northwestern Mexico 27
farmworkers who were kidnapped by dozens of heavily armed men
wearing military-style uniforms. Local news media reported that a
drug gang may have kidnapped the men to make them work growing
marijuana.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 11, In Mexico 21
police were arrested in the northern border city of Tijuana on
suspicion of working with criminal gangs. The body of a 28-year-old
man was dumped in an empty lot in the beach resort of Rosarito,
outside Tijuana.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 13, In Mexico Armando
Rodriguez, a crime reporter in the border city of Juarez, was
killed, adding to dozens of journalist deaths in a country where
newspapers are so fearful, many refuse to cover drug violence. With
his death, 24 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000, at
least seven of them in direct reprisal for their reports on crime,
and seven others have disappeared since 2005.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 13, Mexico City Health
Secretary Armando Ahued said that the government will start handing
out doses of one or two Viagra, Levitra or Cialis pills on Dec. 1.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 14, In Mexico 2
bullet-ridden bodies were found at the foot of a monument in Ciudad
Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, one of them partially stuffed
into a large pot. Four scuba divers died while performing
maintenance in an aqueduct that supplies Mexico City.
(AP, 11/14/08)(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 15, In Mexico more
than 1,500 demonstrators marched through the violence-plagued border
city of Tijuana to protest the current of killings and kidnappings.
Two people were shot to death at a Tijuana taco restaurant. 4 men
and a woman were shot to death at a pool hall. A girl (14) and two
men were shot down in a Tijuana street just before midnight.
(AP, 11/15/08)(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 17, A Mexican
newspaper's offices were damaged by two grenades in the
violence-plagued city of Culiacan in northwestern Mexico.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 21, In Mexico Attorney
General Eduardo Medina Mora told reporters that Noe Ramirez,
Mexico’s former drug czar, accepted $450,000 from drug traffickers,
and that cartel leaders offered to pay him monthly for alerting them
to planned police operations. In 2013 the case against Ramirez was
dropped due to lack of evidence. In Tijuana 3 gunmen burst into the
Bar Utopia, a bar popular with university students and opened fire.
2 men and a woman died instantly and 3 others died the next day.
(AP, 11/21/08)(AP, 11/22/08)(AP, 4/24/13)
2008 Nov 25, In Mexico 7 bodies
were dumped before dawn at a school soccer field in the border city
of Juarez.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 27, A sport utility
vehicle carrying 8 people from Texas plunged off an unfinished
bridge into a river in northern Mexico, causing the death of three
adults and four children.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 28, In Mexico at least
12 masked gunmen opened fire inside a restaurant in the northern
border city of Ciudad Juarez, killing eight.
(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Nov 30, Mexico’s President
Felipe Calderon pledged to clean up corruption within his
administration and vowed that his government would never negotiate
with drug lords. The bodies of 9 decapitated men were found in a
vacant lot in Tijuana, part of a wave of violence that claimed at
least 23 lives over the weekend in this border city plagued by
warring traffickers.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Nov 30, In Guatemala
Mexican and Guatemalan drug traffickers, arguing about a horse race
in the rural border town of Santa Ana Huista, began a series of
gunbattles in which 17 people died.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, In Mexico Tijuana's
anti-corruption police chief was fired and replaced with an army
officer, following three days of violence that left 37 people dead
in this border city plagued by warring drug gangs. In southern
Mexico Fabian Ramirez shot his 50-year-old mother in the back
Monday, wounding her. He then allegedly killed three police officers
who arrived at the scene, including Iguala's police chief. Police
captured Ramirez, but four armed men broke into the jail and took
him away by force. The next day Ramirez was found beheaded.
(AP, 12/1/08)(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 3, The US government
released the first part of a $400 million aid package to support
Mexico's police and soldiers in their fight against drug cartels.
Jesus Martin Huerta, the No. 2 federal prosecutor in the border city
of Ciudad Juarez, was shot dead.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 5, Gerardo Garay,
Mexico's former acting federal police chief, was accused of
collaborating with a notorious cartel and stealing money from a
mansion during a raid to bust a drug trafficking ring. Victor
Serrano (24), a hit team chief, was wounded and 3 alleged gang
members died in a shootout in Mexicali. 14 others were arrested.
(AP, 12/5/08)(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 6, Mexican soldiers
found at least eight bodies buried in a shallow grave in Michoacan
state.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 7, In Mexico 10
suspected drug traffickers and a soldier were killed in gunbattles
in southern Guerrero state. 6 people were killed when assailants
opened fire inside a pool hall in Ciudad Juarez, across the border
from El Paso, Texas.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 7, A Mexican
government Learjet plunged into Atlangatepec lake in central Mexico,
killing two pilots in the second deadly crash in a month involving a
federally owned plane.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 8, Victor Hugo Moneda,
a senior Mexico City police commander, was slain in a drive-by
shooting outside his home. He had overseen raids in the capital's
gang-filled Tepito neighborhood.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 9, Mexico's Congress
voted to broaden police powers, allowing law enforcement agencies to
use undercover agents and taped conversations as evidence in a bid
to help them fight increasingly bloody drug cartels. In the Gulf
coast state of Tabasco, soldiers detained 11 police officers from
four towns for questioning on suspicion of aiding the Gulf drug
cartel. In the northern city of Tijuana four bodies were found.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 10, In Mexico a
shootout between rival gangs killed 10 people in Sinaloa state, home
of the powerful cartel of the same name. US security consultant
Felix Batista was kidnapped in Saltillo, Coahuila state, while there
to offer advice on how to confront abductions for ransom. He claimed
to have helped resolve nearly 100 kidnap and ransom cases.
(AP, 12/11/08)(AP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec 11, Esther Chavez, a
women's rights activist, was named the winner of Mexico's National
Human Rights Award. She first drew attention to the slayings of
young women in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez in the
early 1990s.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2008 Dec 11, Mexican soldiers
shot to death Silvia Arzate (35), a pregnant woman, after she
reportedly failed to stop at a highway checkpoint in the northern
state of Chihuahua.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2008 Dec 14, In Mexico gunmen
staged four attacks on police within a half-hour period, killing
four officers in Ciudad Juarez, the border city overrun by
drug violence.
(AP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec 19, In Mexico 3 gunmen
were killed following a shootout with army troops in the southern
state of Guerrero.
(AP, 12/20/08)
2008 Dec 19, In northern Mexico
a small plane carrying government officials and television reporters
crashed in northern Mexico and all five people on board are in
serious condition. The plane was carrying state water commission
chief Rafael Reyes, his assistant and two TV Azteca reporters. They
were hospitalized along with the pilot.
(AP, 12/20/08)
2008 Dec 21, Mexican
Authorities found the decapitated bodies of 12 men in the southern
state of Guerrero, and some of the victims have been identified as
soldiers.
(AP, 12/21/08)
2008 Dec 22, Laura Zuniga (23),
a reigning Mexican beauty queen from the drug-plagued state of
Sinaloa, was arrested with suspected gang members in a truck filled
guns and ammunition. Soldiers found a large stash of weapons,
including two AR-15 assault rifles, .38 specials, 9mm handguns, nine
magazines, 633 cartridges and $53,300 in US currency.
(AP, 12/24/08)
2008 Dec 23, Mexican
authorities in southern Chiapas state said 8 bodies were found
stuffed in plastic garbage bags and dumped on a rural road near the
Guatemalan border in an area plagued by drug violence.
(AP, 12/24/08)
2008 Dec 24, Mexican soldiers
arrested the deputy police chief in the resort town of Zihuatanejo
and six other officers who were allegedly protecting drug cartel
members at a cock fight. Soldiers also seized 59 packets of cocaine,
40 bags of marijuana and 20 assault rifles.
(AP, 12/25/08)
2008 Dec 24, Mexico began
blocking imports of meat from at least 30 US meat processing plants
due to a new US law that required food retailers to label or display
the country of origin for meat, produce and certain kinds of nuts.
The law, effective as of Sep 30, was part of the 2008 Farm Bill.
(WSJ, 12/27/08, p.A7)
2008 Dec 25, In Mexico, at
least four people were killed in a gun battle between suspected drug
traffickers in a remote mountain area of Sinaloa.
(AP, 12/27/08)
2008 Dec 26, In Mexico a gang
of about 20 men armed with assault rifles robbed a train in the
western state of Michoacan and carted off some of its freight. Dr.
Laura Avila. Avila was found dead in the rural health clinic she was
staffing in Jalisco state. Police soon arrested Ricardo Garcia
Barajas (25), a farm worker, who allegedly hacked the doctor to
death with a machete for refusing to treat his son.
(AP, 12/27/08)(AP, 1/2/09)
2008 Dec 28, In Mexico 7 people
were killed in a series of shootings in the border city of Tijuana
over the last 2 days.
(AP, 12/28/08)
2008 Dec 31, Mexico sent 10
alleged drug smugglers to the United States, capping an already
record year for extraditions between the two countries. 2 Canadian
tourists were hospitalized with gunshot wounds after assailants
opened fire at a nightclub in the resort town of Cabo San Lucas.
(AP, 1/1/09)
2008 Gabriel Zaid, Mexican
writer, authored “The Secret of Fame: The Literary Encounter in an
Age of Distraction.”
(SFC, 5/14/08, p.E5)
2008 In Mexico drug related
violence this year left 6,268 people dead. The killings were
concentrated in just 3 states, and most of those in 3 cities: Ciudad
Juarez in Chihuahua, Tijuana in Baja California, and Culiacan in
Sinaloa.
(Econ, 3/7/09, p.30, 31)
2009 Jan 1, Mexico’s Pres.
Calderon signed a law that set up a new national public security
system. Federal police captured two alleged hit men after the
suspects threw a hand grenade at police and soldiers who cornered
them at a house. Eight officers were wounded in the confrontation.
In the western town of La Huerta, a shootout between rival families
at a New Year's party left four dead, and a clash between soldiers
and alleged drug traffickers in Chihuahua state reportedly killed
three smugglers.
(Econ, 3/7/09, p.32)(AP, 1/2/09)
2009 Jan 1-2009 Jun 30, In
Mexico there were some 3,247 drug related killing over this period,
compared with 1,935 in the same period in 2008.
(Econ, 7/11/09, p.38)
2009 Jan 2, Mexican Federal
prosecutors said they placed three municipal policemen in the
northern border city of Ciudad Juarez under house arrest on
suspicion of aiding drug traffickers. In the northern city of
Monterrey, prosecutors accused former Nuevo Leon state policeman
Aldo Perales (34) of leading a gang of bank robbers and
participating in more than 30 robberies.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 6, In Mexico masked
gunmen opened fire and tossed a grenade at a television station in
Monterrey as it aired its nightly newscast, leaving behind a message
warning the station about its coverage of drug gangs. Gunmen in
Tijuana opened fire from several cars, killing a 22-year-old
standing with his family outside his house. Two bodies were found
wrapped in blankets and dumped on the street near a cemetery.
(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 7, The United States
said it has released another $99 million as part of an aid package
to support Mexico's police and soldiers in their fight against drug
cartels. The US released $197 million in December as part of the
$1.3 billion US anti-drug package, known as the Merida Initiative.
(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 7, In Mexico four
decapitated bodies were found in the Otay Mesa neighborhood of
Tijuana. The victims' heads were left inside a black bag at the
scene.
(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 16, Mexico’s central
bank, the Bank of Mexico, cut its benchmark interest rate a half
point to 7.75%.
(Econ, 1/24/09, p.42)
2009 Jan 17, In Tijuana,
Mexico, a prostitute (19) was smothered to death. 2 US sailors,
petty officers Jarrett Monzingo and Joshua Dockery, were taken into
custody and faced murder and attempted-murder charges while being
held at La Mesa Prison.
(AP, 2/12/09)
2009 Jan 19, President George
W. Bush In his final acts of clemency granted early prison releases
to Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos, two former Texas-based US
Border Patrol agents whose convictions for shooting a Mexican drug
dealer in 2005 fueled the national debate over illegal immigration.
(AP, 1/20/09)(SFC, 1/20/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 20, Mexican
prosecutors said three heads were found in an ice box south of
Ciudad Juarez, which lies across from El Paso, Texas. The heads
belonged to three unidentified men and were found in a rural town
about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Ciudad Juarez. A headless body
was discovered in a canal a few miles (kilometers) away. Mexican
federal police said they have found 3 suspected drug tunnels under
construction in Nogales near the Arizona border.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 22, Mexico inaugurated
one of the world’s largest wind farms, a $550 million project built
by Spain’s Acciona Energia.
(SFC, 1/23/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 22, In Mexico a man
accused of helping a drug kingpin dispose of hundreds of victims by
dissolving their bodies in caustic soda was arrested in the border
city of Tijuana. Authorities said Santiago Meza Lopez confessed to
disposing of at least 300 bodies over a decade. Army troops acting
on a tip raided a chili-drying warehouse, belonging to the brother
of Zacatecas state Sen. Ricardo Monreal, and found people loading
marijuana onto trucks. More than 11.4 tons of the drug were seized
at the plant, near the city of Fresnillo.
(AP, 1/23/09)(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 25, In Mexico Chiapas
state Attorney General Raciel Lopez said Mariano Herran has been
charged with embezzling funds while working as Chiapas economy
secretary last year. Herran was Mexico's drug czar from 1997 to
2000, replacing Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, who was convicted of
aiding a top drug lord.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 27, In Mexico thieves,
apparently targeting people who exchange money at Mexico City's
international airport, shot a French citizen in the head.
Authorities warned that gangs have put lookouts at exchange windows
in the terminal. Mexico City prosecutors soon detained two suspects
in the shooting. French scientist Christopher Augur died at a Mexico
City hospital four days after his assault.
(AP, 1/27/09)(AP, 1/30/09)(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 29, Mexican police
detained an Ecuadorean man for carrying about $2.5 million in cash
in a suitcase at Mexico City's international airport.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Feb 1, Mexico City shut
down a main water pipeline under a new conservation program, cutting
service to more than 2 million residents after some reservoirs
dropped to their lowest levels in 16 years.
(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Feb 3, In Mexico the
bodies of retired Mexican General Mauro Enrique Tello and two other
men were found in a sport utility vehicle abandoned on a highway
outside of Cancun. All had been shot many times. Octavio Almanza,
the suspected head of the Zetas in Cancun, was later arrested on
suspicion of masterminding Tello's killing.
(AP, 2/3/09)(SSFC, 2/8/09, p.A4)(AP, 2/11/09)
2009 Feb 10, In Mexico a drug
gang kidnapped and killed six people near a town in the US-Mexican
border region, prompting a series of gunbattles with soldiers that
left 15 others dead. The violence started when gunmen kidnapped nine
alleged members of a rival drug gang in Villa Ahumada and executed
six of them along the PanAmerican Highway outside of the town.
(AP, 2/11/09)
2009 Feb 12, Mexican federal
police arrested 10 alleged members of a hit squad working for the
Beltran Leyva drug cartel, who had come to Mexico City to start a
turf war with a rival cartel.
(WSJ, 2/13/09, p.A10)
2009 Feb 13, In Mexico
photographer Jean Paul Ibarra (33) and reporter Yenny Marchan were
on their way to the morgue in the southern city of Iguala when
gunmen on another motorcycle came alongside and opened fire. Marchan
received two bullet wounds but survived; Ibarra was killed.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 14, Mexico City set a
new record as nearly 40,000 people locked lips in the city center
for the world's largest group kiss. Gunmen killed a state police
officer Carlos Reyes and 10 members of his family, including
five children in the town of Monte Largo, Tabasco state. The
shooting also killed a street vendor in front of the house of the
officer. In Jalisco state gunmen burst into a restaurant, killing
seven people and wounding five, including 3 children.
(AP, 2/14/09)(AP, 2/15/09)(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 17, In Mexico hundreds
of people blocked bridges to the US in three border cities,
demanding the army leave in another challenge for the Mexican
government as it struggles to quell escalating drug violence. 3
police officers, including the operations director of the Ciudad
Juarez city police, were shot to death by unidentified assailants on
a street near the US consulate. Federal police fighting gunmen in
the northern border city of Reynosa had to call the army for help.
After the fighting, which left five gunmen dead and seven police
injured, authorities seized several assault rifles and even a 60 mm
mortar. Cardboard signs with handwritten messages appeared taped to
the doors and windows of businesses in ciudad Juarez, warning that
one officer would be killed every two days police chief Roberto
Orduna did not quit.
(AP, 2/18/09)(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, Fifty-one
Democrats and 2 Republicans, sent a letter to President Barack Obama
urging him to enforce a ban on importing assault weapons, saying
many such guns are later smuggled south to arm Mexico's ruthless
drug cartels. The ban was implemented under the administrations of
Pres. George H.W. Bush and Pres. Bill Clinton, and the US government
can enforce it under provisions of the 1968 Gun Control Act. But the
US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has
quietly abandoned the ban in recent years.
(AP, 2/18/09)(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 20, In Mexico criminal
gangs in Ciudad Juarez followed up on threats and killed police
officer Cesar Ivan Portillo and city jail guard Juan Pablo Ruiz as
they left their homes before dawn to head to work. Public Safety
Secretary Roberto Orduna, the police chief of Ciudad Juarez,
stepped down hours later.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 21, In Mexico
assailants in an SUV hurled two grenades at a police station in the
Pacific resort town of Zihuatanejo, wounding one officer and four
civilians. Teenagers stoned a 22-year-old man to death in Tuxtla
Gutierrez because they believed he had stolen a cell phone and a
bicycle from one of their friends.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 22, In Mexico gunmen
in Chihuahua city shot at a convoy carrying the governor of
Chihuahua, a violence-wracked border state, killing one of his
bodyguards and wounding two other agents. Police arrested two
suspects March 31 in the northern city of Chihuahua, who then led
them to 2 more suspects.
(AP, 2/24/09)(AP, 4/5/09)
2009 Feb 24, In Michoacan
state, Mexico, Vista Hermosa Mayor Octavio Carrillo was arriving at
his home when four gunmen waiting for him opened fire. He became the
6th elected local official killed in Michoacan since June.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 25, Mexico’s
government said it will deploy extra troops and federal police to
Ciudad Juarez across the border from Texas, where the police chief
recently bowed to crime gang demands that he resign.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 25, Attorney General
Eric Holder said US and Mexican authorities have arrested 750 people
over 21 months in an anti-drug sweep that included 52 members of
Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel. The crackdown culminated 50 overnight
raids. It investigated crimes in the United States, Mexico and
Canada, netted some 59 million dollars in cash, 12,000 kilos (12
tons) of cocaine, 544 kilos (1,200 pounds) of methamphetamine and
1.3 million Ecstasy pills.
(AFP, 2/25/09)(WSJ, 2/26/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 28, Police in southern
Mexico found the body of Rolando Landa, head of security in the
township of La Union, near the Pacific beach town of Zihuatanejo.
The body was accompanied by threatening messages apparently left by
members of the Familia Michoacana drug gang. Two police officers in
the town of Praxedis Guerrero, just south of the border town of
Ciudad Juarez, were shot dead in their patrol vehicle.
(AP, 2/28/09)(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Feb, Scientists published
a study showing that genetically modified material did contaminate
native corn in the crop's birthplace in southern Mexico. Elena
Alvarez Buylla, author of the article published in the February
edition of Molecular Ecology, said the difficult atmosphere
surrounding the original debate persists.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 1, Mexican federal
police made two arrests and confiscated weapons and marijuana in
Tijuana, across the US border from San Diego, after coming under
attack by men linked to a drug cartel.
(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 3, In Mexico hundreds
of heavily armed soldiers fanned out across Ciudad Juarez, trying to
prevent a collapse in law and order just south of the US border.
Joggers found the decapitated bodies of 3 men near a bullfighting
ring in the border city of Tijuana. The heads were found nearby with
a message calling the men "snitches." One of the dead included Jorge
Norman Harrison (38), an American who had been convicted for drug
trafficking in the US. A fourth body, whose head was wrapped in
masking tape, was found in a creek.
(Reuters, 3/3/09)(AP, 3/3/09)(AP, 3/7/09)
2009 Mar 4, In Mexico a fight
between gangs in a state prison in Ciudad Juarez left at least 20
prisoners dead.
(SFC, 3/5/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 6, Mexico published a
new law allowing the planting of genetically modified corn for
experimental reasons.
(SFC, 3/7/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 9, In Mexico gunmen
killed six people, including a local police chief, in a series of
attacks in mountain towns in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero.
Gunmen also shot and killed a Michoacan state police commander
outside police headquarters in the city of Zamora.
(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 10, In western Mexico
5 human heads were found inside coolers along a highway. Authorities
were still searching for the bodies.
(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 11, Forbes magazine
released its list of 793 of the world’s richest people. Joaquin "El
Chapo" Guzman, a suspected drug lord and Mexico's most-wanted
fugitive, made the list of billionaires with a fortune described as
"self made." He was No. 701 on the list. The list included 5
Indonesians.
(AP, 3/11/09)(SSFC, 3/15/09, p.A4)
2009 Mar 12, Mexico extradited
two former US Border Patrol agents accused of taking bribes from
migrant smugglers. The US Embassy said Raul Villarreal and Fidel
Villarreal allegedly fled to Mexico after they learned US
authorities were investigating them in 2006. Two suspected migrant
smugglers were also extradited.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 14, In Mexico police
acting on a tip found nine bodies partially buried in the desert on
the outskirts of the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez. 1,500
more troops arrived, on top of 2,150 who arrived a day earlier.
Authorities announced the arrest of Sergio Pena Mendoza (39), a
suspected leader of the Zetas, a drug cartel hit squad. A male
suspect threw a hand grenade at police officers in the western city
of Guadalajara. No injuries were reported. Police detained the
suspect and later found 14 more grenades and 10 assault rifles in
his home.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 16, Mexico said it
will increase tariffs on about 90 US products in retaliation for
last week's decision to end a pilot program that allowed some
Mexican trucks to transport goods in the United States.
(AP, 3/16/09)
2009 Mar 16, In northern Mexico
a tractor-trailer slammed into a bus carrying Canadian and US
tourists, killing 11. The bus was carrying a group of Texas retirees
from McAllen, Texas, to the northern Mexican state of Zacatecas when
a drunken driver lost control of his tractor-trailer outside the
city of Saltillo.
(AP, 3/17/09)(WSJ, 3/18/09, p.A10)
2009 Mar 18, In Mexico Vicente
"El Vicentillo" Zambada, top figure in the Sinaloa drug cartel, was
arrested before dawn at a home in an elite Mexico City neighborhood.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 18, The US government
sued Union Pacific in San Diego and Houston saying the rail company
had failed to prevent smuggling of illegal drugs by rail into the US
from Mexico. The government cited at least 58 occasions of illegal
drug transport, mostly marijuana, since 2001. At least one case
involved cocaine.
(WSJ, 3/19/09, p.A7)
2009 Mar 19, In Mexico new
tariffs on 89 products took effect in retaliation for a US decision
last week to cancel a cross-border program that gave Mexican
truckers access to their northern neighbor's highways.
(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 20, Mexico’s central
bank lowered its overnight lending rate by .75 to 6.75%, in response
to the deepening recession.
(WSJ, 3/20/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 20, The Mexican army
in Saltillo, Coahuila, arrested Sigifrido Najera Talamantes, an
alleged drug trafficker. He was suspected of organizing an attack on
a US consulate as well as the killing of several soldiers in
retaliation for a government crackdown.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 21, In central Mexico
toxic fumes killed at least 10 people who were trying to clean a
sewage pump station in the town of Atotonilco de Tula.
(AP, 3/22/09)
2009 Mar 22, In Mexico gunmen
killed Edgar Garcia, a state police commander in charge of
investigating kidnappings and extortion in the western state of
Michoacan.
(AP, 3/23/09)
2009 Mar 24, Mexican soldiers
in a Monterrey suburb detained Hector Huerta Rios, one of the
nation's 24 top drug traffickers included on a "most-wanted" list
issued two days ago. Officials in Nuevo Laredo began destroying more
than 35 statues dedicated to a "Death Saint" popular with drug
traffickers.
(AP, 3/25/09)
2009 Mar 25, In Mexico US
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pledged to stand "shoulder
to shoulder" with Mexico in its violent struggle against drug
cartels, and acknowledged the US shares blame because of its demand
for drugs and supply of weapons.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 31, Mexico’s Pres.
Calderon revealed that his country had secured a $47 billion line of
credit from the IMF. It was the 1st country to be approved for the
new Flexible Credit Line, which does not require a country to make
policy changes.
(WSJ, 4/2/09, p.A6)(Econ, 4/4/09, p.76)
2009 Mar 31, Mexican
authorities said police in northern Mexico caught a gang that
allegedly stole oil from state-owned pipelines and smuggled it
across the border to sell it to US refineries.
(AP, 4/1/09)
2009 Mar, Mexico City passed
legislation to ban free non-biodegradable plastic bags. It was
signed in August gave retailers a year to comply.
(AP, 9/9/09)
2009 Mar, Mexico’s Attorney
General's office first mentioned Servando Gomez as a leader of La
Familia, and offered $2.4 million for information leading to his
arrest. In 2010 it was reported that Gomez appeared on the
government's 2010 teacher payroll as part of the staff of an
elementary school in rural Arteaga town in Michoacan state.
(AP, 12/9/10)
2009 Apr 1, Mexico detained
Vicente Carrillo Leyva (32), one of its most wanted drug suspects.
He allegedly was the second in command of the powerful Juarez
cartel. Leyva is the son of drug kingpin Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who
was one of Mexico's most important drug traffickers before he died
during plastic surgery to change his appearance in 1997.
(AP, 4/2/09)
2009 Apr 2, Mexico's Senate
unanimously approved legislation that would allow the government to
seize property from suspected drug traffickers and other criminals
before they are convicted.
(AP, 4/3/09)
2009 Apr 2, US and Mexico
officials said they are creating a cross-border group to develop
strategies for stopping the illegal flow of guns and drugs between
the two countries.
(AP, 4/3/09)
2009 Apr 3, In Mexico Alberto
Rayas Rodriguez (37), the chief homicide detective in western
Jalisco state, was killed while on his way to a government event
when gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on his car.
(AP, 4/5/09)
2009 Apr 4, In Mexico 11 people
were found shot to death in 5 different places, some bearing signs
of torture and left with threatening messages emblematic of drug
violence.
(AP, 4/5/09)
2009 Apr 4, In Texas Jorge
Alberto Mendez (42) was arrested while trying to cross into Mexico
from El Paso, where he lived. He was arrested for allegedly raping
19 women across the border in the northern Mexican city of Ciudad
Juarez.
(AP, 4/7/09)
2009 Apr 9, Mexico City turned
off the tap to millions of residents because water reserves have
reached historic lows. The two-day shutdown of a main pipeline
affected at least 5 million of the 20 million people in the Mexico
City valley.
(AP, 4/9/09)
2009 Apr 9, In Mexico a former
Guatemalan soldier, who allegedly procured weapons for a drug
cartel, was killed in a gunfight with federal police. Israel Nava
and two other gunmen were killed in northern Zacatecas state. Eight
police were wounded. Nava was a former member of the "kaibiles,"
Guatemalan soldiers trained in counterinsurgency. Mexico first
warned in 2005 that the Zetas were recruiting kaibiles.
(AP, 4/9/09)
2009 Apr 13, Mexico's Congress
opened a three-day debate on the merits of legalizing marijuana for
personal use, a policy backed by three former Latin American
presidents who warned that a crackdown on drug cartels is not
working. Mexican authorities arrested a woman guarding an arsenal
that included the first anti-aircraft machine gun seized in Mexico.
The army captured Ruben Granados Vargas, an alleged lieutenant for
the Beltran-Leyva drug cartel in the Pacific coast state of
Guerrero.
(AP, 4/13/09)(AP, 4/14/09)
2009 Apr 15, Mexico’s troubled
border city of Ciudad Juarez and the federal government signed an
agreement to train, recruit and equip enough city police officers to
take over from 5,000 army troops now performing security patrols
there.
(AP, 4/16/09)
2009 Apr 15, Pres. Obama
directed the US Treasury Dept. to seize assets of 3 Mexican drug
cartels including the Sinaloa cartel, the Los Zetas cartel and the
La Familia Michoacan group.
(SFC, 4/16/09, p.A2)
2009 Apr 17, In Mexico gunmen
over the last 24 hours killed 12 people in different parts of
Michoacan state, including three men who were beheaded. Authorities
in Piedras Negras, in Coahuila state, bordering Texas, found the
body of a man whose fingers had been cut off. Assailants stuck one
finger in the man's mouth and cut out his tongue. Two buses collided
head-on in the southern state of Chiapas, killing at least 19
people.
(AP, 4/17/09)
2009 Apr 17, A US federal judge
sentenced John Philip Hernandez of Houston to 8 years in prison for
buying military-style firearms and that ended up in the hands of
Mexico’s drug cartels. Prosecutors said Hernandez led a group that
purchased 339 weapons over 15 months.
(SFC, 4/18/09, p.A4)
2009 Apr 18, Eight Mexican law
enforcement officers were killed in an unsuccessful attack on a
police convoy attempting to prevent the transfer of an important
drug suspect to a prison in western Mexico. The attack appeared to
have been an attempt to free Jeronimo Gamez, a top lieutenant
of the Beltran-Leyva cartel, was arrested on the outskirts of Mexico
City in January. Officers managed to deliver Gamez and eight other
detainees to the prison despite the attacks.
(AP, 4/19/09)(AP, 4/20/09)
2009 Apr 18, In Mexico one
train apparently ran into another on the recently inaugurated
Suburban Railway bordering Mexico City. At least 70 people were
injured.
(AP, 4/19/09)
2009 Apr 20, In Mexico police
found a body in flames dumped along a main thoroughfare on the
outskirts the northern border city of Tijuana. The victim was found
with his head wrapped in packing tape, a common practice used by
drug smugglers against rivals.
(AP, 4/22/09)
2009 Apr 21, In Mexico soldiers
captured Isaac Manuel Godoy Castro, an alleged top member of the
Arellano Felix cartel, along with six other alleged members of his
cell.
(AP, 4/23/09)
2009 Apr 22, In Mexico the
bullet-riddled bodies of the two army officers were found in the
Durango township of Tepehuanes, about 30 miles (50 kms) south of
Guanacevi. The discovery happened days after Roman Catholic
Archbishop Hector Gonzalez Martinez created a stir by saying that
Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman lives near the town
of Guanacevi.
(AP, 4/23/09)
2009 Apr 24, Mexico’s Health
Secretary Jose Cordova said private and public schools in Mexico
city have been ordered to remain closed due to a flue epidemic. At
least 20 people have died nationwide from the flu in the last three
weeks.
(AP, 4/24/09)
2009 Apr 24, In Mexico the
bullet-riddled bodies of nine men were found in and around the
resort of Acapulco. 2 federal police agents were shot to death in
Ciudad Juarez, as they walked in the downtown area after leaving a
bar. Mexican authorities captured German Torres (29), an alleged
cartel hit man suspected in the abduction of American
anti-kidnapping expert Felix Batista. Batista was kidnapped in
Coahuila state Dec. 10 and has not been heard from since.
(AP, 4/24/09)(AP, 4/26/09)
2009 Apr 25, In Mexico gunmen
killed the police chief of Piedras Negras, across the border from
Eagle Pass, Texas, less than three weeks after he took over the
local force with the aim of purging alleged corruption. Six police
officers were being questioned in the attack.
(AP, 4/26/09)
2009 Apr 25, Mexico City
suspended all public events for 10 days as officials tried to
contain an outbreak of a deadly new swine flu. Tests showed 20
people have died of the swine flu, and 48 other deaths were probably
due to the same strain.
(AP, 4/25/09)
2009 Apr 25, The World Health
Organization called an emergency meeting of experts to consider
declaring an international public health emergency over the swine
flu outbreak believed to have killed dozens of people in Mexico and
sickened at least seven in the US.
(AP, 4/25/09)
2009 Apr 27, US cases of the
deadly new flu strain rose to 40. Governments around the world acted
to stem a possible flu pandemic, as a virus that has killed 149
people in Mexico and spread to North America was confirmed to have
reached Europe. Spain's Health Ministry confirmed the country's
first case of swine flu and said another 20 people are suspected of
having the disease.
(Reuters, 4/27/09)(AP, 4/27/09)(WSJ, 4/28/09,
p.A1)
2009 Apr 27, In Mexico an
earthquake of magnitude 5.6 was centered near Chilpancingo, about
130 miles (210 km) southwest of Mexico City. 2 women aged 67 and 75
died of heart attacks during or shortly after the earthquake, and
four homes and a perimeter wall collapsed in and around the resort
of Acapulco.
(AP, 4/28/09)
2009 Apr 27, In Tijuana,
Mexico, 7 police officers were assassinated in about an hour's time
in what authorities said was a coordinated effort. 4 of the
officers, three men and a woman, were found amid more than 200
bullet shells.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 28, World health
officials raised a global alert to an unprecedented level as swine
flu was blamed for more deaths in Mexico and the epidemic crossed
new borders, with the first cases confirmed in the Middle East and
the Asia-Pacific regions.
(AP, 4/28/09)
2009 Apr 29, Mexican police
arrested suspected Zeta gang leader Gregorio Sauceda Gamboa, one of
Mexico's 24 most-wanted drug traffickers.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 29, In Cuba a
statement published in state newspapers said that effective
midnight, flights from Cuba to Mexico would be grounded due to swine
flu. After that, airlines can fly presumably empty planes to the
island and pickup Mexico travels. This amended a blanket 48-hour ban
on flights between Mexico and Cuba announced a day earlier.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 30, Mexican health
authorities said they confirmed 300 swine flu cases and 12 deaths
due to the virus among a total of 679 people tested so far.
(AP, 5/1/09)
2009 Apr 30, Mexican
authorities detained 12 federal police investigators accused of
leaking information to hit men who ambushed and killed 8 officers on
April 18 in a failed attempt to free a high level drug cartel
member.
(SFC, 5/1/09, p.A2)
2009 May 1, US cases of the
H1N1 flu rose to 155, based on federal and state tallies. State
laboratory operators believe the number is higher because they are
not testing all suspected cases. Mexico raised its confirmed swine
flu death toll from 15 to 16, adding that the total number of
confirmed cases of the virus had risen to 397. Worldwide, the total
confirmed cases were 653, with the real number also believed to be
much larger.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, Mexico said it had
no confirmed deaths from HINI swine flu overnight, even as its
confirmed caseload grew to 443.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 3, Mexican police
found 11 bodies dumped around a southern Guerrero state, including
seven wrapped in plastic bags and thrown off a bridge. The bodies of
five men and two women were found in a river between the Pacific
resort town of Acapulco and the city of Cuernavaca. The other four
bodies were found in a 600-yard ravine in the town of Pilcaya.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 3, In Mexico at least
four gunmen confronted journalist Carlos Ortega (52) when he got out
of his car in front of his home in the small town of Santa Maria del
Oro. Ortega was shot in the head after struggling with the
attackers. Ortega recently argued with the town's mayor, Martin
Silvestre Herrera, over an article on sanitation at a local
slaughterhouse, and then wrote a column saying he would hold the
mayor responsible if anything happened to him.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 4, Mexico's health
secretary said most businesses will reopen May 6 nationwide, citing
ebb in the swine flu outbreak. The World Health Organization chief
warned that swine flu could return with a vengeance despite Pres.
Felipe Calderon insisting his country has contained the epidemic.
(AP, 5/4/09)(AFP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 6, New H1N1 flu cases
across Europe and a second US death kept health officials on alert
despite signs Mexico's epidemic had passed its peak. Mexican health
officials said that testing of backlogged cases has increased the
confirmed swine flu death toll from 31 to 42, including three new
deaths in the past two days.
(Reuters, 5/6/09)(AP, 5/6/09)
2009 May 7, In Mexico high
schools and universities closed by the swine flu epidemic reopened
as teachers and parents carefully checked returning students for flu
symptoms. The death toll due to the HINI flu was raised to 44.
Mexico City says all businesses can reopen including sports arenas,
museums, bars.
(AP, 5/7/09)
2009 May 7, Mexican police said
3 women who disappeared in the border city of Tijuana were killed by
drug traffickers who dissolved their bodies in a caustic substance.
2 drug traffickers were arrested this week and confessed to the
killings. A 3rd suspect was being sought.
(AP, 5/7/09)
2009 May 8, Mexico’s federal
attorney general's office said authorities have arrested 25 Tijuana
police officers and two civilians on organized crime charges for
alleged drug gang ties. In the border state of Chihuahua,
prosecutors said police acting on an anonymous tip found two
clandestine graves with 7 bodies in the town of Palomas, across from
Columbus, New Mexico.
(AP, 5/8/09)
2009 May 9, In Mexico gunmen
killed 9 people in three separate attacks in the western state of
Michoacan. 4 horses and a bull were also killed in one of the
attacks. The bodies of 4 US citizens (19-23) were found strangled,
beaten and stabbed in a van in Tijuana, two days after they
reportedly left their Southern California homes for a night at the
Mexican clubs.
(AP, 5/11/09)(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 9, Costa Rica reported
the first swine flu death outside North America and the US announced
its third death from the virus, while Mexico delayed the reopening
of primary schools in some states.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 10, Mexican
prosecutors announced that police had arrested four alleged members
of a drug cartel in the border city of Tijuana after police found
over $542,000 in their vehicles. Federal prosecutors in Cuernavaca
detained 11 men and 3 women on suspicion of smuggling weapons for
the Beltran Leyva drug cartel. The 14 caught in the raid on a house
were ordered held under house arrest for 40 days pending possible
charges.
(AP, 5/10/09)
2009 May 11, Most of Mexico's
primary schools and kindergartens welcomed back millions of students
after a nationwide shutdown ordered to help put a brake on the
spread of swine flu.
(AP, 5/11/09)
2009 May 11, Confirmed cases of
H1N1 swine flu in the US climbed to more than 2,500, surpassing
Mexico as the country most affected by the outbreak.
(http://tinyurl.com/prszux)
2009 May 15, Mexico received
eight armored vehicles as part of a US aid package to help the
government with its nationwide fight against drug cartels. Mexican
federal police announced the capture of an alleged lieutenant of the
Sinaloa drug cartel. Mario Gonzalez Martinez was described as one of
the most trusted aides of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Martinez was
captured along with four alleged accomplices in the western state of
Jalisco.
(AP, 5/16/09)
2009 May 16, In central Mexico
an armed gang freed 53 inmates from the Cieneguillas prison in
Zacatecas state, including two dozen with ties to a powerful drug
cartel, in a daring raid that took just five minutes. Gov. Amalia
Garcia Medina said footage from the security cameras inside and
outside the prison indicates that guards helped the armed gang. The
bodies of two men were found shot to death in central Michoacan
state. Federal police came under fire as they raided a Cuernavaca
building where four of suspects were arrested, including 3 police
officers. A fifth suspect was also arrested as an alleged hit man.
(AP, 5/16/09)(AP, 5/17/09)
2009 May 18, Mexican soldiers
arrested Rodolfo Lopez and several others after they landed at
Monterrey's international airport to take over trafficking
operations in Monterrey. Several armed men were arrested in the
parking lot, where they were waiting to pick Lopez up.
(AP, 5/19/09)
2009 May 18, Mexican soldiers
arrested Rodolfo Lopez and several others after they landed at
Monterrey's international airport to take over trafficking
operations in Monterrey. Several armed men were arrested in the
parking lot, where they were waiting to pick Lopez up. Police in the
southern state of Guerrero found the severed heads of three men in
an ice chest left on the side of a highway near the resort of
Zihuatanejo.
(AP, 5/19/09)
2009 May 19, Inmates at a
Mexico City prison rioted over restrictions on visits due to swine
flu, as the country reported two more confirmed deaths, raising the
toll to 74 nationwide.
(AP, 5/19/09)
2009 May 25, In Mexico Eliseo
Barron, a veteran crime reporter for the La Opinion Milenio
newspaper, was kidnapped from his home in Torreon. His body was
found hours later found in an irrigation ditch in the drug-plagued
northern Mexican state of Durango. Mexico's army arrested two US
citizens for allegedly kidnapping a hardware store clerk in the
northern border city of Tijuana. 20-year-old Teddy Toledo and his
sister, both of California, and two others were arrested for
abducting the clerk a week ago. Five suspects were arrested on June
11, including one man who told authorities the journalist was slain
as a warning against meddling with a powerful drug cartel.
(AP, 5/26/09)(AP, 5/27/09)(SSFC, 5/31/09,
p.A4)(AP, 6/12/09)
2009 May 26, Mexican federal
forces detained 10 mayors and 18 other officials for allegedly
protecting one of Mexico's most violent drug cartels in an
unprecedented anti-corruption sweep in the Pacific coast state of
Michoacan. Three of the mayors were released soon after they were
arrested, 4 others were quietly let go Jan. 30.
(AP, 5/27/09)(AP, 3/4/10)
2009 May 30, In Mexico two
gunmen died in a clash with soldiers in Michaocan. The gunmen opened
fire on soldiers on patrol in the village of Moreno de Valencia.
Soldiers found a Kalashnikov rifle, a shotgun, a handgun and a
grenade inside the gunmen's sport utility vehicle.
(AP, 6/1/09)
2009 May 31, In Mexico gunmen
in Ciudad Juarez, opened fire in the lobby of a drug and alcohol
rehabilitation center, killing five people. Gunmen killed four men
sitting in a car in the border city of Tijuana.
(AP, 6/1/09)
2009 Jun 1, Mexican soldiers
and federal agents detained 29 police officers in northern Nuevo
Leon state for alleged ties to drug traffickers. Retired Gen. Javier
Aguayo took over as police chief of Chihuahua, where drug-fueled
violence has claimed hundreds of lives. Mexican soldiers in Reynosa
captured Sergio Garcia Trevino, a drug cartel suspect accused of
helping procure the largest illegal weapons cache found in the
country.
(AP, 6/1/09)(AP, 6/2/09)
2009 Jun 2, Mexico moved
forward in its campaign to root out corruption, rounding up 21 more
police officers in several northern cities for questioning on
suspicions they had ties to drug trafficking. A total of 58 officers
have been detained since the operation began a day earlier.
(AP, 6/2/09)
2009 Jun 2, Mexican truckers
filed a lawsuit against the United States seeking $6 billion in
compensation for losses they claim to have suffered since Washington
banned them from crossing the border in violation of a trade pact.
Mexico's National Cargo Transportation Association, or Canacar,
filed the lawsuit representing 4,500 trucking companies. Canacar had
filed an arbitration notice with the US State Department under the
NAFTA in April.
(AP, 6/3/09)
2009 Jun 3, Mexican federal
investigators questioned 48 Veracruz city traffic officers about the
disappearance of the top customs official for one of Mexico's most
important ports. Customs administrator Francisco Serrano has not
been seen since his smashed government vehicle was found abandoned
at an accident scene three days ago. Serrano recently launched a new
system to check shipping containers at the Gulf coast port.
(AP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 4, Mexican police
found 11 bodies, most with their hands and feet cut off, inside an
abandoned car in the border state of Sonora in violence attributed
to drug traffickers battling for control of the region.
(AP, 6/5/09)
2009 Jun 5, In Mexico a
fast-moving fire killed 49 babies and toddlers at the ABC day care
in the city of Hermosillo, Sonora state, despite desperate attempts
of firefighters, who punched through the walls and fought their way
through flames to rescue babies, toddlers and others trapped inside.
No fire alarm or sprinkler system had gone off, according to
witnesses. One mother said a second door to the day care was bolted
shut and nobody could find the key. In 2011 federal police arrested
Arturo Leyva Lizarraga, a former government official, on homicide
and abuse of authority charges tied to a day care center fire. On
June 30, 2011, federal agents arrested Delia Botello, former
regional coordinator of public day care centers.
(AP, 6/6/09)(AP, 6/7/09)(AP, 6/8/09)(AP,
6/23/09)(AP, 5/10/11)(AP, 7/1/11)
2009 Jun 6, In Mexico 13
gunmen, 2 soldiers and 2 bystanders were killed in a 4-hour shootout
in Acapulco's hotel zone in a gunbattle that went passed midnight.
The soldiers found four Guerrero state police officers inside the
house who said they were being held captive.
(AP, 6/7/09)(AP, 6/8/09)
2009 Jun 7, Mexican police
announced the arrest of Olga Lerma in western Jalisco state. She was
wanted in the US for allegedly smuggling $2 million in
cocaine-trafficking profits for a powerful drug cartel.
(AP, 6/7/09)
2009 Jun 8, In Mexico gunmen
launched grenades and opened fire in near simultaneous attacks on
two police stations in Acapulco, killing three officers in violence
that broke out less than 48 hours after a gunbattle in the resort
left 17 dead.
(AP, 6/8/09)
2009 Jun 8, The US border
patrol said a Mexican truck driver was arrested over the weekend at
a checkpoint in San Diego County after 73 illegal Mexican immigrants
were found in the back of his rig.
(SFC, 6/9/09, p.A5)
2009 Jun 9, In Mexico 2 Sonora
state government officials, whose wives are owners of the ABC day
care center where 44 children died in a fire, resigned saying they
wanted to clear the way for an investigation into the June 5 blaze.
(AP, 6/10/09)
2009 Jun 10, Mexican soldiers
captured Jose Filiberto Parra Ramos, a suspected cartel member
accused of killing two federal agents and leading bloody battles for
smuggling routes in the northern city of Tijuana.
(AP, 6/12/09)
2009 Jun 11, The Mexican army
captured 25 gunmen in northern Nicolas Bravo, Chihuahua state, who
witnesses say disguised themselves as soldiers. Soldiers also seized
29 automatic rifles during the raid. Gunmen tossed grenades and
fired on a crowded taco stand in the city of Uruapan, Michoacan
state, killing a police officer and a 15-year-old boy. Armed men
barged into a motel room and killed five people in their beds in
Ciudad Juarez. Two other people were killed during a car chase and
shootout between armed men in downtown Juarez. The Mexican Navy in
Sinaloa discovered one of the largest methamphetamine labs ever
found in the country, with enough ephedrine to produce more than 40
tons of methamphetamine.
(AP, 6/11/09)(AP, 6/12/09)(AP, 6/14/09)(AP,
6/16/09)
2009 Jun 11, Human Rights Watch
in a report to the UN said abuses by the Mexican military have
surged since the government deployed troops to fight drug cartels
more than two years ago, and too little is done to investigate
allegations of rapes, killing and torture. Mexico's government
disputed the charges.
(AP, 6/11/09)
2009 Jun 12, In Mexico Mauricio
Fernandez, a ruling party mayoral candidate in Monterey suburb San
Pedro Garza, suggested that as mayor he would avoid confronting the
Beltran Levya cartel to maintain peace. Police found the bodies of
five men dumped beside on a highway in the northern state of
Durango, all with signs of torture. Four more bodies were found in
different parts of Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso,
Texas. Soldiers arrested Juan Manuel Jurado Zarzoza, the local
leader of the Gulf drug cartel in Cancun in charge of drug sales,
extortion and kidnappings.
(AP, 6/13/09)(AP, 6/14/09)
2009 Jun 13, In Mexico 3
federal agents were killed in two separate attacks along a highway
in the western state of Michoacan. In western Guerrero state gunmen
ordered a priest and two seminarians out of their vehicle and shot
them dead in the town of Arcelia.
(AP, 6/14/09)(AP, 6/15/09)
2009 Jun 15, Mexico's attorney
general's office said it charged 51 guards and prison officials,
including the director, for their complicity in the escape of 53
inmates from a jail in Zacatecas state. A survey by Mexico's
National Human Rights Commission said an estimated 9,758 migrants
were kidnapped in Mexico between September and February, mainly by
drug gangs but some migrants reported that authorities were
involved.
(AP, 6/15/09)
2009 Jun 16, In northern Mexico
police found the bodies of seven young men who were beaten or shot
to death in the state of Durango. In western Michoacan state, three
suspected kidnappers were killed in a shootout with local police in
the city of Uruapan. The Navy reported that it had detected a
shipment of cocaine hidden inside the carcasses of frozen sharks
aboard a freight ship at the Gulf coast port of Progreso.
(AP, 6/17/09)
2009 Jun 17, In Mexico four
teenagers were shot to death on a Ciudad Juarez street by gunmen
wielding assault rifles. The four were between the ages of 16 and
18.
(AP, 6/20/09)
2009 Jun 18, Mexico levied
organized crime and drug charges against seven mayors, the former
state attorney general and 19 other officials in the western state
of Michoacan for allegedly aiding a drug cartel.
(AP, 6/18/09)
2009 Jun 19, Mexico authorities
in the border city of Ciudad Juarez said they would step up patrols
after killings there rebounded to levels near those that led the
government to send in 5,000 army troops in March. In Michoacan state
gunmen tossed a grenade at an ambulance and then opened its doors to
kill a patient inside who had narrowly survived an earlier shooting
in Uruapan. Paramedics ran for their lives during the attack. The
man (23) died and his wife (20) was listed in serious condition.
(AP, 6/20/09)
2009 Jun 22, Mexican customs
officials made 3 major drug seizures. Nearly 1,000 pounds (450
kilos) of cocaine was found hidden in a shipment of tires from
Colombia, found at the Pacific port of Manzan. More than 1,200
pounds (545 kilos) of marijuana was discovered in the border city of
Nuevo Laredo. 330 pounds (150 kilos) of pseudophedrine pills, used
to make methamphetamine, was found in a shipment of medical supplies
from Bangladesh, stopped at Mexico City International Airport.
(AP, 6/30/09)
2009 Jun 25, In Mexico’s
northern state of Sonora, assailants opened fire on a car carrying a
congressional candidate for Calderon's National Action Party, or
PAN, killing two people who were with the candidate.
(AP, 6/27/09)
2009 Jun 26, In Mexico a
shootout between police and suspected cartel hit men left at least
12 people dead and a police officer wounded in the town of Apaseo el
Alto, Guanajuato state.
(AP, 6/27/09)
2009 Jun 26, In Mexico a
shootout between police and suspected cartel hit men left at least
12 people dead and a police officer wounded in the town of Apaseo el
Alto, Guanajuato state. Suspected cartel operator Omar Ibarra was
caught on a street in the northern city of Monterrey. He reportedly
possessed the names of 33 policemen in the wealthy suburb of San
Pedro Garza Garcia who had presumably received money from Ibarra.
Gunmen in the border state of Sonora opened fire on a car carrying
congressional hopeful Ernesto Cornejo, killing two people who were
riding with him.
(AP, 6/27/09)(AP, 6/30/09)
2009 Jun 27, In Mexico’s
western state of Michoacan, gunmen opened fire on a car carrying two
forensic investigators in Zamora, killing a chemist and
wounding a doctor. In the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, a women and
her 3-year-old son were shot to death by unidentified assailants on
a highway. Police uncovered a mass grave in central Mexico with the
remains of 14 or 15 people believed to have been executed by the
Zetas drug gang.
(AP, 6/27/09)(AP, 7/2/09)
2009 Jun 28, Mexican
prosecutors announced they have put 93 police officers and
investigators under house arrest on suspicion of aiding the Zetas, a
feared gang of hit men tied to the Gulf drug cartel.
(AP, 6/28/09)
2009 Jun 29, In Mexico federal
prosecutors released three of the 10 Mexican mayors arrested last
month in an unprecedented sweep of elected officials accused of
protecting a drug cartel. Assailants set ablaze a pickup truck
belonging to a congressional candidate for PAN, and left two
threatening notes demanding he drop out of the race. At least five
people died in several drug-related slayings in the Gulf coast port
of Veracruz.
(AP, 6/30/09)(AP, 7/1/09)
2009 Jun 30, Mexican police
found the remains of six people tortured and shot to death in
western Michoacan state, a focus of the government's war against
drug cartels. In the northern city of Ciudad Juarez, police found
the body of a 19-year-old woman, an American citizen from across the
border in El Paso, dumped at an intersection with her throat slit.
(AP, 6/30/09)
2009 Jul 3, In Mexico City
kidnappers opened fire with AK-47 assault rifles during an attempted
rescue of the victim. The rescue failed with catastrophic errors.
When police fired back, two commanders, including the chief of the
city's elite rapid response force, were shot from behind by their
own officers. Meanwhile, one of the kidnappers inside the home
fatally shot Yolanda Ceballos (50) before killing himself. Seven
other kidnappers were captured. Anti-kidnapping chief Juan Maya
Aviles was later suspended.
(AP, 8/21/09)
2009 Jul 3, In Washington state
federal agents said they have arrested 31 people and busted a drug
trafficking ring that was directed by a cartel in Jalisco, Mexico.
The 2-week Operation Arctic Chill seized 23 guns including a .50
Desert Eagle pistol and an AK-47-type assault rifle.
(SFC, 7/4/09, p.A5)
2009 Jul 5, Mexicans voted in
midterm congressional elections. The old Institutional Revolutionary
Party made a big comeback in defiance of those who had written off
what is still the country's biggest and most representative party.
The PAN will lose some of its 206 seats in the lower house, and the
PRI stands to more than double its 106 seats.
(AP, 7/5/09)(AP, 7/6/09)
2009 Jul 7, In northern Mexico
an anti-crime activist and a neighbor were killed by gunmen believed
linked to a drug cartel. Anti-crime activists said the slaying of
Benjamin LeBaron, a US citizen, in Chihuahua state was the first
time one of their own had been killed for denouncing crime and
called it a chilling warning. Jose Rodolfo Escajeda, a lieutenant
and one of the main operators of the Juarez cartel, was later
presumed responsible for the killing of LeBaron and a neighbor near
Nuevo Casas Grandes.
(AP, 7/8/09)(AP, 9/6/09)
2009 Jul 8, In Mexico
investigators found a severed head and two arms inside a plastic bag
in the of Ario de Rosales, Michoacan state.
(AP, 7/9/09)
2009 Jul 9, Mexican police
found four mutilated bodies in plastic bags on the side of a highway
in La Huacana, Michoacan state.
(AP, 7/9/09)
2009 Jul 11, In Mexico gunmen
boldly attacked federal forces across the western state of Michoacan
following the capture of Arnoldo Rueda Medina, an alleged member of
La Familia drug cartel. In Zitacuaro, a mountain town famous for its
Monarch butterfly nesting grounds, 3 federal agents were killed, and
two soldiers were fatally shot in the town of Zamora. Two federal
agents were killed and three others were wounded along a highway
between Morelia and the port City of Lazaro Cardenas when dozens of
gunmen ambushed their patrol cars.
(AP, 7/12/09)
2009 Jul 12, Mexican federal
agents captured 2 suspects in connection with a series of attacks on
federal forces across Michoacan state that left 5 officers and 2
soldiers dead.
(AP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 13, Mexican
prosecutors said they found the bound, blindfolded and tortured
bodies of a dozen people on a roadside near La Huacana in the
western state of Michoacan. The 12 bodies were soon identified as
federal agents investigating organized crime.
(AP, 7/14/09)(AP, 7/15/09)(SFC, 7/15/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 13, Mexico and the US
announced that they were working on a protocol for sharing
information in arms trafficking cases.
(AP, 7/14/09)(AP, 8/6/09)
2009 Jul 16, Mexico’s Interior
Secretary Fernando Gomez Mont said the government was pouring 1,500
federal police officers, 2,500 soldiers and 1,500 navy personnel
into Michoacan state, the home base for the violent La Familia
cartel led by Servando "La Tuta" Gomez.
(AP, 7/16/09)
2009 Jul 17, Mexico's central
bank cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point,
dropping the interbank rate to 4.5% to stimulate a recession-dogged
economy.
(AP, 7/18/09)
2009 Jul 18, Mexican soldiers
arrested Luis Ibarra, a suspected drug trafficker in the border city
of Tijuana. He was carrying jewelry, narcotics and $3.6 million in
cash. Ibarra belonged to a cell in charge of making and trafficking
methamphetamine for alleged drug kingpin Teodoro Garcia Simental.
(AP, 7/20/09)
2009 Jul 20, In Mexico 3 men
were killed outside a bar before dawn in Ciudad Juarez, across from
El Paso, Texas.
(AP, 7/20/09)
2009 Jul 21, Mexican police
detained a woman (65) in the deaths of two professional wrestlers
who were found drugged in a low-rent hotel in Mexico City on June
29. One of the diminutive wrestlers went by the name "La Parkita"
(Little Death") and wore a skeleton costume in the ring. The other
was known as "Espectrito Jr." An autopsy on the two wrestlers, who
were brothers, detected a substance found in eye drops that can
damage the nervous system when mixed with alcohol. Three bodies, one
of them headless, were found floating in an irrigation ditch in the
northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, where drug violence has
spiked despite the presence of thousands of soldiers. Police
captured four men, members of the La Familia drug cartel, accused of
slaying 12 federal agents on the weekend of July 12 and dumping
their bloodied bodies along a highway in President Felipe Calderon's
home state of Michoacan.
(AP,
7/21/09)(http://alibi.com/index.php?story=28392&scn=news)(AP,
7/23/09)
2009 Jul 23, US Border Patrol
Agent Robert Rosas was killed near Campo, Ca. On July 25 Mexican
federal police detained four men suspected of involvement in the
killing of Rosas. Included was Ernesto Parra Valenzuela, identified
as the suspected killer of Rosas. In 2009 Christian Daniel Castro
Alvarez (17) pleaded guilty to murdering Rosas. On April 29, 2010,
Alvarez was sentenced to 40 years in prison. A 2nd suspect, Marcos
Manuel Rodriguez Perez, was arrested on April 11, 2011.
(AP,
7/26/09)(http://texasfred.net/archives/4628)(SFC, 7/27/09,
p.A4)(SFC, 11/21/09, p.A4)(AP, 4/29/10)(AP, 4/11/11)
2009 Jul 24, It was reported
that federal and state agents have arrested 82 people for growing
over $1.2 billion worth of marijuana in California’s Sierra Nevada.
Over the last 10 days more than 314,000 plants at 70 different sites
were destroyed. Several Mexican drug cartels were said to involved
and all but one of those arrested were from Mexico.
(SFC, 7/24/09, p.D7)
2009 Jul 25, Mexican police
captured 11 suspected members of the La Familia cartel and seized a
methamphetamine lab in the western state of Michoacan.
(AP, 7/25/09)
2009 Jul 27, Mexico announced a
pilot program to have special courts handle cases involving addicted
offenders who commit crimes while under the influence of drugs.
(AP, 7/27/09)
2009 Jul 28, President Felipe
Calderon said Mexico will start issuing nationwide identity cards
for its citizens starting this year, and by 2012 everyone will have
one. The body of Juan Daniel Martinez (48), a Mexican radio
journalist, was found beaten, gagged and partially buried the resort
city of Acapulco. Jose Ibarra, a federal agent who had been
investigating the Nov 13, 2008, killing of Mexican journalist
Armando Rodriguez, was shot dead at his home in the northern border
city of Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 7/28/09)(AP, 7/29/09)(AP, 7/30/09)
2009 Jul 29, In Mexico gunmen
shot up and torched the home of Jesus Antonio Romero (39), a police
commander in Veracruz, killing the officer, his wife and his four
children, including a 6-year-old boy. He had been promoted a month
ago to deputy operations coordinator for the Veracruz-Boca del Rio
area, a hotbed of drug violence and a stronghold of the Zetas. In a
remote mountain town south of Ciudad Juarez, gunmen killed a
government welfare official and three police officers during a
robbery. Police announced the capture of six more suspected La
Familia members, including a man accused of being a chief financial
operator.
(AP, 7/30/09)
2009 Jul 31, In Mexico
assailants gunned down five men and a woman in a pool hall in the
border city of Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Aug 2, Mexican police
raided a church service in Apatzingan, Michoacan state, and arrested
Miguel Angel Beraza, a man known as "The Truck," and another
suspect. Beraza was suspected of moving a half ton of crystal
methamphetamine into the US each month and was said to be a
high-ranking lieutenant in the drug cartel known as La Familia.
(AP, 8/3/09)
2009 Aug 4, In Mexico 4 bodies
were found in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. In the nearby town
of Llano Blanco, police chief Gerardo Silva (40) was found dead in a
pickup truck, shot five times.
(AP, 8/5/09)
2009 Aug 5, In Mexico 5 bodies,
one of them headless, were found in a van in the border city of
Ciudad Juarez. US Sen. Patrick Leahy a Democrat from Vermont,
delayed the release of $100 million of a $1.4 billion, three-year
package meant to help Mexico combat drug traffickers. Leahy said
Mexico needs effective police forces and a justice system that
works.
(AP, 8/5/09)
2009 Aug 6, In Mexico 11
people, including two police officers and nine gunmen, died
following a running battle between police and gunmen in the central
city of Pachuca.
(AP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 7, In Mexico Zambrano
Flores, a top lieutenant of the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix cartel,
was arrested in Tijuana. Police seized 10 rifles, 7 pistols, almost
4,000 rounds of ammunition during his arrest.
(AP, 8/8/09)
2009 Aug 8, In Mexico
assailants in the state of Guerrero opened fire on a car carrying a
couple and their 3-year-old son, killing all three. In Chihuahua
gunmen killed four people in an attack in a bar.
(AP, 8/10/09)
2009 Aug 9, In Mexico some 400
people marched in Guadalajara to protest the negative affects of
free trade and to demand benefits for retired Mexican laborers who
worked in the US as Pres. Barack Obama, Mexican President Felipe
Calderon and Canadian PM Stephen Harper arrived for a two-day
summit.
(AP, 8/9/09)
2009 Aug 9, Mexican lawyer
Silvia Raquenel Villanueva, known for defending high-profile drug
trafficking suspects, was shot to death at a street market in the
northern city of Monterrey. Army soldiers killed two suspects in a
shootout with gunmen in the western state of Michoacan. federal
police arrested Dimas Diaz, a drug cartel suspect they believe was
behind a plot to kill President Felipe Calderon in retaliation for
his crackdown on organized crime. Dia was the alleged financial
operator of the Pacific cartel.
(AP, 8/10/09)
2009 Aug 10, In Mexico Pres.
Obama huddled with the leaders of Mexico and Canada for a swift
North American summit, where the swine flu epidemic and knotty
disputes over cross-border trade dominated a lengthy agenda.
(AP, 8/10/09)
2009 Aug 10, Mexican soldiers
arrested Juan Daniel Carranco Salazar, the alleged leader of the
Gulf cartel's operations in the Caribbean resort of Cancun. State
prosecutors in Baja California announced their arrest of state
detective Sergio Alvarado Chong in the border city of Mexicali with
8 kilograms (17.64 pounds) of cocaine.
(AP, 8/11/09)
2009 Aug 11, The US Homeland
Security department was scheduled to return $2.4 million to Mexico's
tax administration, the first batch of money seized during a
binational investigation into smuggled oil that authorities expect
to lead to more arrests and seizures. So far this year, oil theft
was up 10 percent, and confirmed in 19 states, up from 13 in 2008.
(AP, 8/11/09)
2009 Aug 11, In northern Mexico
Monterrey city police were told not to sit in parked patrol cars
observing traffic, because officials suspect they could be spying
for criminal gangs or drug cartels. Gunmen attacked a vehicle
carrying a prison director in Chihuahua, killing three bodyguards
and wounding two more seriously.
(AP, 8/12/09)
2009 Aug 12, In Mexico’s border
city of Nuevo Laredo, city police found a bullet-ridden sport
utility vehicle belonging to the federal Communications and
Transportation Department crashed into a post on a street. There was
blood on the seats, and four department employees identified as
cargo inspectors were reported missing.
(AP, 8/12/09)
2009 Aug 13, In Mexico state
security officials banned police from setting up sobriety
checkpoints in the northern city of Monterrey because they say the
officers routinely use them to extort motorists. Bishop Eduardo
Patino Leal was detained in the town of Huatusco, Veracruz state,
lost control of his vehicle and ran over 6 Indian street vendors,
killing one.
(AP, 8/14/09)
2009 Aug 14, In northern Mexico
a fight among prisoners killed 19 inmates and left more than 20
injured at the prison in the city of Gomez Palacio, Durango state.
The battle apparently involved inmates jailed on drug or organized
crime charges. Assailants in pickup trucks opened fire on Monclova
police chief Juan Carlos Pacheco as he headed home. Pacheco was not
hurt but three of the police officers guarding him died. Federal
police announced the capture of Hector Oyarzabal, an alleged La
Familia leader, who was described as director of the gang's drug
operations in several towns of the state of Mexico, which surrounds
most of Mexico City. In Ciudad Juarez two women and a man were found
shot to death in their car.
(AP, 8/15/09)
2009 Aug 15, In Mexico the
dismembered body of Jesus Arroyo, a legal adviser for the leftist
Democratic Revolution Party, was found in an ice box in Ciudad
Altamirano, in Guerrero state. In Guadalajara singer Carlos Vicente
Ocaranza, who specialized in drug ballads, was shot to death outside
a bar. His manager died of wounds 2 days later. Ocaranza was better
known as "El Loco Elizalde," or The Crazy Elizalde, a reference to
his distant relation by marriage to Valentin Elizalde, a much more
famous musician, also killed by gunshots in 2006.
(AP,
8/15/09)(www.wtop.com/?nid=105&sid=1646540)
2009 Aug 17, In Mexico at least
8 people were killed early in the day when gunmen opened fire in a
bar in drug-plagued Ciudad Juarez on the Texas border. Gunmen killed
a father and his 4-year-old son and wounded the mother as the family
drove on a highway near Ciudad Juarez. 2 girls, ages 12 and 14, died
after being struck by lightning on a soccer field during a religious
service in the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez in Chiapas state. In
Monterrey four gunmen died in a shootout with soldiers and three
other suspects were detained. Three soldiers suffered light injuries
in the clash.
(AP,
8/17/09)(www.wtop.com/?nid=105&sid=1646540)(AP, 8/18/09)
2009 Aug 18, In Mexico gunmen
shot up the offices of the Siglo de Torreon newspaper in Torreon,
Coahuila state.
(SFC, 8/19/09, p.A2)
2009 Aug 20, In Mexico the body
of leftist congressman Armando Chavarria was found in the passenger
seat of a vehicle in Guerrero’s state capital of Chilpancingo. State
police said three human heads were found in ice boxes in the
municipality of Coyuca de Catalan. The mutilated bodies were in bags
nearby. A message from alleged drug traffickers was also found.
(AP, 8/21/09)
2009 Aug 21, Mexico
decriminalized small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and heroin, a
move that prosecutors say makes sense even in the midst of the
government's grueling battle against drug traffickers. Gunmen killed
an army officer Capt. Alejandro Aranda and another man in a bowling
alley in Ciudad Juarez, a border city that has seen Mexico's highest
levels of drug-related violence in recent years.
(AP, 8/21/09)(AP, 8/22/09)
2009 Aug 22, In Tijuana,
Mexico, at least three police officers were in critical condition
after gunmen opened fire on their patrol cars.
(AP, 8/22/09)
2009 Aug 23, Mexican army
soldiers captured Luis Ricardo Magana. Prosecutors described him as
a leading member of the violent La Familia drug cartel. A team of
top US law enforcement officials began a three-day visit to Mexico
to explore ways to improve efforts against arms smuggling into
Mexico as part of joint efforts to combat drug gangs.
(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 24, Mexican police in
the northern state of Sinaloa found four severed human heads in a
cooler by the side of a rural roadway.
(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 26, In Mexico gunmen
in Ciudad Juarez killed Pablo Pasillas (33), the aide of a Mexican
federal agent investigating the death of a crime reporter, a month
after the first agent assigned to the case was shot dead.
(AP, 8/27/09)
2009 Aug 27, In Mexico the
bodies of four farm workers were found dumped in a stable for bulls
in the western state of Michoacan. The bodies bore signs of torture
and had the letter "Z" carved into their foreheads, a possible
reference to the Zetas, hit men tied to the Gulf cartel. In the
northern state of Nuevo Leon, state Public Safety Secretary Aldo
Fasci said about 2,000 police officers across the state had been
fired over the last two years for suspected links to organized crime
and drug cartels. Speaking at a meeting of private security firms,
he said 500 others were dismissed for other causes.
(AP, 8/28/09)
2009 Aug 27, In Oaxaca, Mexico,
supporters of a teacher’s union tried to retake a school controlled
by Section 59 when gunfire erupted and teacher Antonio Norberto
Camacho was shot to death. Section 59 was created in the midst of
the protests led by Section 22 and anti-government groups in 2006.
(AP, 8/29/09)
2009 Aug 28, In Mexico a convoy
of gunmen engaged state police in a running shootout that killed
five officers and possibly one of the attackers in the western
Mexico state of Jalisco. Americo Delgado (80), a lawyer for
convicted Mexican drug kingpin Benjamin Arellano Felix, was found
stabbed to death in his home. Felix was in prison serving a
22-year-sentence on drug trafficking and organized crime charges and
was fighting extradition to the United States.
(AP, 8/28/09)(AP, 8/29/09)
2009 Aug 29, In northwestern
Mexico a shooting killed eight people partying on a seaside
boulevard in Navolato, Sinaloa state. Among the dead were two
brothers in their 30s who had a record of car theft, Investigators
were considering the possibility that the gunmen belonged to a
criminal gang known as the "Death Squad," which has been killing car
thieves in the region.
(AP, 8/31/09)
2009 Aug 31, Mexican
authorities said they have arrested four men accused of killing at
least 211 people for the Juarez cartel. The men allegedly belong to
La Linea, a gang of hit men for the Juarez cartel. One of the men
alone was accused of killing 97 people and another 87.
(AP, 8/31/09)
2009 Aug, In Mexico the
director of immigrant affairs in the southern border city of
Tapachula was found in a tub of cement, months after he was
kidnapped.
(Econ, 9/26/09, p.48)
2009 Sep 1, A top State
Department official said the US has released $214 million of an aid
package to help Mexico fight drug trafficking, including funds for
five helicopters for the military to be delivered by year's end.
(AP, 9/2/09)
2009 Sep 2, In Mexico gunmen
broke into a drug rehabilitation center in Ciudad Juarez, lined
people against a wall and shot 18 dead. The brazen attack followed
the killing of Jose Manuel Revuelta, the No. 2 security official in
Michoacan, President Felipe Calderon's home state. 2 bodyguards and
a truck driver were also killed in the crossfire. The federal
Attorney General's Office announced the arrest of its two top
officials in Quintana Roo, a state on the Yucatan Peninsula, for
allegedly protecting the Gulf and the Beltran Levya drug cartels.
Chihuahua state authorities said they were investigating reports
that rehabilitation centers have turned into hideouts for drug
smugglers being sought by police and hit men from rival gangs.
(AP, 9/3/09)(AP, 9/4/09)
2009 Sep 3, Sergio Saucedo
(30), a drug trafficker, was taken from his home in Horizon City,
outside of El Paso, Texas. He was murdered and mutilated in Ciudad
Juarez in retaliation for the loss of 700 pounds (315 kilos) of
marijuana seized by border patrol agents. His body was found on Sep
8. On April 1, 2011, the West Texas Federal Court jury found Cesar
Obregon-Reyes and Rafael Vega guilty of abducting Sergio Saucedo
from his home.
(AP, 3/20/10)(http://tinyurl.com/m7lpok)(AP,
4/2/11)
2009 Sep 4, Mexican federal
police detained Armando Medina (49), a small-town mayor of Mugica,
Michoacan state, on suspicion of aiding drug traffickers. This is
the same state where eight other city chiefs have been arrested
since May on similar charges. In the northern state of Durango, two
gunmen were killed in a shootout with federal police in the city of
Gomez Palacio. The federal government auctioned off property seized
from drug traffickers, smugglers, money launderers and tax evaders,
including a DC-9 jet that was used to transport 5.5 metric tons of
cocaine in 2006. The agency did not disclose the identity of winning
bidders. Mexican soldiers, acting on a tip about armed men, detained
Jose Rodolfo Escajeda in Nuevo Casas Grandes, in northern Chihuahua
state. The suspected drug gang leader was linked to a 2006 border
incursion by armed traffickers into Texas and the killing of an
anti-crime activist in July. Five gunmen and a bystander were killed
in a shootout at a lake that began when assailants opened fire on an
army patrol on the outskirts of the northern city of Monterrey. A
Ciudad Juarez police officer was shot to death outside his home..
(AP, 9/5/09)(AP, 9/6/09)
2009 Sep 5, In southern Mexico
gunmen killed Jose Francisco Fuentes Esperon (43), a state
congressional candidate, his wife (38) and two sons (9&13) in
their home in Villahermosa in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco.
Police later arrested a boy (16) and two young men for allegedly
killing Fuentes and his family. Chihuahua state prosecutors reported
that a severed human head was found placed on a car hood in the
border city of Ciudad Juarez, along with a message relating to drug
cartels.
(AP, 9/5/09)(AP, 9/7/09)
2009 Sep 6, In Mexico attackers
shot four men to death in a motel parking lot in the border city of
Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 9/8/09)
2009 Sep 7, Mexican President
Felipe Calderon accepted the resignation of Attorney General Eduardo
Medina-Mora, who was leading the battle against drug cartels, making
the biggest shake-up yet in his offensive against organized crime.
Calderon said he will send the Senate the nomination of Arturo
Chavez, a little known lawyer who has worked as both a state and
federal prosecutor, to replace Medina-Mora. In the Pacific port of
Lazaro Cardenas, about 150 federal police officers assigned to fight
cartels went on strike, saying they have not been paid in two months
or received hazard bonuses.
(AP, 9/7/09)(AP, 9/8/09)
2009 Sep 8, In Mexico Police a
body with both arms cut off was found dumped on a street in the
border city of Ciudad Juarez. The court system in southern Tabasco
state said rural journalists Roberto Juarez and Lazaro Abreu Tejero
Sanchez have been arrested for allegedly working as informants for
the Zetas, a gang aligned with the Gulf drug cartel.
(AP, 9/9/09)
2009 Sep 9, In Mexico a
Bolivian-born man, clutching a Bible and claiming a divine mission,
hijacked a plane with more than 100 people aboard after takeoff from
Cancun. The incident ended quickly and without bloodshed when police
arrested Jose Flores (44) in Mexico City. Police in Morelia said
that they had seized eight counterfeit police and rescue vehicles
including an intensive care ambulance with official-looking logos
and paint jobs. The vehicles belonged to gang members who planned to
use them to conduct illegal activities. In 2011 Josmar Flores was
sentenced to seven years, seven months and 15 days in prison.
(Reuters, 9/10/09)(AP, 9/10/09)(AP, 5/19/11)
2009 Sep 10, Mexican defense
dept. said soldiers have arrested Michael Escalante (29) of El Paso,
suspected of killing 18 people in a series of attacks this year in
violence-plagued Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas.
(AP, 9/10/09)
2009 Sep 11, Mexican
authorities found at least $5 million hidden in a shipment of
ammonium sulfate at a Pacific coast port.
(AP, 9/12/09)
2009 Sep 12, Mexican police
said they have found the bodies of five men dumped in a landfill
near the resort city of Acapulco. The men had been shot to death and
officers found a note with the bodies signed "The boss of bosses."
(AP, 9/12/09)
2009 Sep 14, In Mexico 31
police officers were arrested in Hidalgo state on suspicion of
collaborating with the Zetas, a gang of drug cartel hit men. 92
police were arrested there in June. Gunmen opened fire inside a
Ciudad Juarez hardware store, killing the woman who owned the store
and four other people, including a 19-year-old man. Minutes later an
armed gang killed five men riding in a pickup truck.
(AP, 9/14/09)(AP, 9/16/09)
2009 Sep 15, In Mexico
firefighters found six bodies inside a burning car in Tijuana. In
Ciudad Juarez gunmen killed five people at a car wash. Gunmen burst
into a drug treatment center in Ciudad Juarez and shot to death 10
people, the second such mass killing this month.
(AP, 9/16/09)(AP, 9/16/09)
2009 Sep 16, Mexican navy
personnel arrested of a suspect in the June 1 kidnapping of
Francisco Serrano, the customs administrator for the Gulf coast
state of Veracruz, who remains missing. Jose Osiris was captured in
the port of Veracruz along with 10 other people who may have been
accomplices. Guerrero state police reported they had found the
decomposed bodies of four men by the side of a highway. Because of
their poor condition, the cause of death and identity of the bodies
has not yet been established.
(AP, 9/17/09)
2009 Sep 18, In Mexico City
Luis Felipe Hernandez Castillo (38), while scrawling graffiti inside
the downtown at the Balderas subway station, pulled out a gun and
began shooting when confronted by police, killing at least two
people and wounding five before being shot and subdued by officers.
(AP, 9/19/09)
2009 Sep 19, In southern Mexico
gunmen attacked a group of illegal immigrants, killing one and
wounding five as well as an alleged people smuggler in Chiapas
state.
(AP, 9/19/09)
2009 Sep 21, Mexican soldiers
raiding a drug gang safehouse in Monterrey found money-stuffed
envelopes earmarked for various police forces and one marked for
"press." Four people were arrested and $5 million in US and Mexican
currency was seized during the raid.
(AP, 9/23/09)
2009 Sep 22, Mexican
authorities said there would be no compensation for Jacinta
Francisco Marcial, an Indian market vendor who was wrongfully
convicted of kidnapping and spent three years in prison, in a case
that provoked an international protest.
(AP, 9/22/09)
2009 Sep 24, In Mexico
Chihuahua state prosecutor Arturo Chavez, criticized for failing to
solve dozens of rapes and murders of women in his northern border
state, was confirmed as Mexico's attorney general and leader of the
nation's war on vicious drug cartels.
(AP, 9/24/09)
2009 Sep 25, Mexican police
arrested five men accused of dozens of murders, including two mass
killings at drug treatment centers in this northern Mexico border
city.
(AP, 9/26/09)
2009 Sep 28, In Mexico 2
Canadian men were shot to death in execution-style slayings outside
an apartment building in the Mexican resort of Puerto Vallarta.
Gordon Douglas Kendall and Jeffrey Ronald Ivans were believed to be
involved in the drug trade. In Michoacan state police arrested three
federal agents for allegedly passing information to organized crime.
(AP, 9/28/09)(SFC, 9/29/09, p.A2)
2009 Oct 1, In Mexico gunmen in
Ciudad Juarez opened fire on a pickup truck, killing a 22-year-old
woman as well as a 10-year-old girl playing in a city park. Hours
earlier, a city police officer was killed as she rode on a bus.
(AP, 10/2/09)
2009 Oct 2, In Mexico gunmen
killed eight people in five separate attacks, including a state
policewoman who was shot in the head in broad daylight in a
residential area. In Ciudad Juarez at least 11 people, including two
police officers and a child, were killed over the last 24 hours. A
Mexican Air force plane crashed in President Felipe Calderon's home
state of Michoacan, killing three soldiers. Federal officials
announced 2 raids by security forces that netted the largest
seizures of methamphetamine precursor chemicals in the country's
history. Agents seized 20 tons of chemicals at Manzanillo port in
the Pacific coast state of Colima and 17 tons in the border city of
Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas.
(AP, 10/2/09)
2009 Oct 5, In Mexico gunmen
burst into a bar in the northern border city Ciudad Juarez and shot
5 men to death. Soldiers arrested Eduar Vera (30), a suspect linked
to at least 27 killings. In the southern state of Guerrero, gunmen
killed two state police officers in the city of Iguala.
(AP, 10/6/09)
2009 Oct 5, In Mexico efforts
to film Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez's latest
novel, "Memories of My Melancholy Whores" (2004), met resistance as
an anti-prostitution group sought to block production, charging the
movie will promote child prostitution. The Regional Coalition
Against Trafficking in Women and Girls in Latin America and the
Caribbean filed a criminal complaint with Mexico's Attorney
General's Office.
(AP, 10/6/09)
2009 Oct 8, In Mexico
unidentified assailants kidnapped and killed the top official of the
border town of Palomas, across from New Mexico. Town Mayor
Estanislao Garcia Santelis had long complained about the drug
traffickers and migrant smugglers active around Palomas. Federal
police detained Jorge Alberto Lopez Orozco (33) on a highway in the
Pacific coast state of Guerrero. He was transported to the
neighboring state of Michoacan and held on a US extradition request.
Orozco was wanted for the 2002 killings of his girlfriend and her
two young sons in Idaho. Gunmen in northern Chihuahua state killed a
soldier in an attack on army vehicles near the hamlet of Colonia
LeBaron. Five men and seven women were detained.
(AP, 10/9/09)(AP, 10/10/09)
2009 Oct 9, In Mexico the
mutilated body of state official Rogelio Sanchez, who authorities
said was suspected of giving fake driver's licenses to drug gang
members, was found hanging from a bridge in the border city of
Tijuana. Sanchez was kidnapped Oct 7 as he left his home in Tijuana.
Police in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero found the bodies of 10
men, all apparently shot to death. Signs left next to the bodies
read: "This is what is going to happen to all thieves and
extortionists.” In rural western Jalisco state four suspects were
killed and 17 arrested in an hours-long gun battle between members
of a criminal gang and soldiers and police.
(AP, 10/9/09)
2009 Oct 9, Stephen Pechenik
(78), the president of a San Antonio company, pleaded guilty to
charges that he conspired to receive and sell petroleum stolen from
Mexico's oil giant, Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex. He was the 4th
Texas oil executive to plead guilty to felony charges of conspiring
to receive and sell stolen petroleum condensate. Much of the Mexican
oil rustling was traced to the Zetas, a criminal group founded by
former military commandos.
(SFC, 12/15/09,
p.A26)(http://tinyurl.com/yjs42ms)
2009 Oct 10, Mexico’s President
Felipe Calderon dispatched over 1,000 federal policemen to occupy
the offices of Luz y Fuerza del Centro, the state-owned electricity
distributor for Mexico City and its surroundings. The Federal
Electricity Commission, which provides service to the rest of the
country, took over for Luz y Fuerza, which had been established in
1994 by presidential decree. The company’s fat salaries and pensions
cost the government some $3 billion a year and lost 30% of its power
thru illicit connections and technical failures.
(Econ, 10/17/09, p.50)
2009 Oct 14, Mexico’s Supreme
Court ruled that the governor of southern Oaxaca state is
responsible for rights abuses during 2006 protests that paralyzed
Oaxaca and left least a dozen people dead.
(AP, 10/14/09)
2009 Oct 15, In Mexico some
33,000 people marched to protest President Felipe Calderon's weekend
decision to disband Luz y Fuerza, a public electricity company that
provided electricity to Mexico City and the surrounding area. Police
officers found the decapitated bodies of 9 men in an abandoned
pickup truck on a highway in the drug-plagued Mexican state of
Guerrero.
(AP, 10/16/09)
2009 Oct 16, A Mexican
government report said the use of cocaine doubled in Mexico over the
last six years, partly because the drug became more available in the
country. The Mexican navy enacted new rules prohibiting sailors from
shooting at vehicles that try to evade land checkpoints unless they
are fired on or feel that their lives or others' are in danger.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 17, Mexican police in
Tijuana found a man's nude, mutilated body hung by the neck from an
expressway overpass, the 2nd such grisly discovery in 9 days. Police
reported finding the mutilated body of a woman in a reservoir in
another part of Tijuana. The woman's hands and head were missing. A
shootout between gunmen and police killed one officer and a gunman
and wounded two policemen. Tijuana investigators found five assault
rifles and vests with federal prosecutors' insignia in three
vehicles thought used by the attackers.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 19, It was reported
that Mexican biologists and park workers were racing to fell as many
as 9,000 fir trees, infected with deadly bark beetles, and bury or
extract infested wood before the orange-and-black monarchs start
arriving in late October to spend the winter bunched together on
branches, carpeting the trees.
(AP, 10/19/09)
2009 Oct 20, In Hidalgo,
Mexico, police found the body of a young man, about 16 years old,
who was found dead with two bullets in his head, his genitals cut
off and a warning note stabbed into his chest.
(AP, 10/22/09)
2009 Oct 22, Mexican police
detained five suspected associates of the Gulf drug cartel for
alleged involvement in violent clashes that killed four people in
the central Mexican state of Hidalgo. The suspects were said to be
affiliated with the Zetas, the drug ring's hit men.
(AP, 10/28/09)
2009 Oct 22, US authorities
arrested over 300 people in 38 cities in a sting against Mexico’s La
Familia drug operations in the US. At least 84 were arrested in
Dallas as part of Operation Coronado.
(SFC, 10/23/09, p.A12)(SFC, 12/12/09, p.A4)
2009 Oct 23, In Colorado Miguel
Angel Caro Quintero (46), a Mexican drug kingpin, pleaded guilty in
Denver to federal drug and racketeering charges. He had led the
Sonora Cartel in the 1980s and faced up to 20 years in prison.
(SFC, 10/24/09, p.A5)
2009 Oct 26, In Mexico a band
of thieves swarmed into a railroad facility and held security guards
at gunpoint while making off with three dozen new automobiles and
trucks from a storage lot west of the capital.
(AP, 10/28/09)
2009 Oct 27, Mexican police
arrested Abel Valadez Oribe (32), who they say headed the operations
of the "La Familia" drug cartel in the western state of Michoacan.
Police found dismembered remains of a man in plastic bags by the
side of a road in Uruapan, another city in Michoacan. In Tijuana a
teenage girl (15) was killed by a stray bullet during a shootout
between police and gunmen. Reporters in Tijuana were invited by
military officials to a private, industrial property about 100 feet
south of San Diego's Otay Mesa border crossing where Mexican
soldiers discovered a secret tunnel complete with electricity and an
air supply that may have been planned for smuggling migrants or
drugs under the US border into San Diego. 4 police officers were
killed by assailants who opened fired on them during a traffic stop
in the central Mexico city of Puebla.
(AP, 10/27/09)(AP, 10/28/09)
2009 Oct 29, Mexican
authorities said a woman's body was found buried headfirst in a
plastic container of cement in drug-plagued Tijuana.
(AP, 10/29/09)
2009 Oct 30, Mexican
authorities said they have detained a large-scale drug trafficker
and also broken up a ring in Cuernavaca that allegedly laundered
around $37 million for a drug cartel. The army says it detained
Oscar Orlando Nava Valencia, the alleged leader of the "Valencia"
drug gang, and nine alleged associates in the western state of
Jalisco. Rights activists in the border city of Tijuana have hung
5,100 small white crosses on the fence straddling the US frontier to
commemorate migrants who have died trying to cross. Margarito Montes
Parra, the leader of a farmworkers' organization, and 14 other
people were killed in a mass shooting in the northern state of
Sonora. Local news media reported that Montes had led peasant and
squatters' movements involved in land seizures and that his group
has sometimes had violent clashes with rival claimants to land.
(AP, 10/31/09)(SSFC, 11/1/09, p.A6)
2009 Oct 31, In Mexico Mayor
Mauricio Fernandez told cheering supporters in San Pedro Garza
Garcia, near Monterrey, that "Black Saldana, who apparently is the
one who was asking for my head, was found dead today in Mexico
City." Hours later Mexican officials found four bound bodies in a
sport utility vehicle with hand-lettered messages identifying the
dead men as kidnappers. Hector “Black” Soldana was not identified
for another 2 days. Fernandez later said US authorities had tipped
him off that somebody intercepted cartel communications and learned
Saldana was planning to kill him, and he said unspecified
intelligence sources told him Saldana was dead hours before the
bodies were found.
(AP, 11/2/09)(AP, 11/3/09)
2009 Nov 1, Mexican soldiers in
the border city of Tijuana detained a group of 13 suspects after a
shootout that wounded a soldier and a gunman. Soldiers raided and
destroyed three methamphetamine labs in the western state of
Michoacan. The raids netted five suspects and more than two metric
tons of apparent methamphetamine.
(AP, 11/2/09)
2009 Nov 2, In Mexico El Tiempo
de Durango journalist Jose Bladimir Antuna was kidnapped in the
morning. Authorities found his body the same night in a vacant lot
in the Durango state capital, about 400 miles southwest of Laredo,
Texas. The bodies of three men with bullet and knife wounds were
found by relatives in the southern state of Guerrero.
(AP, 11/4/09)
2009 Nov 3, Mexican police and
soldiers killed Miguel Angel Meneses, a federal agent driving one of
three cars that ignored orders to stop in Chihuahua, triggering a
chase and gunbattle. Federal police and navy personnel shot to death
a top Zetas cartel suspect in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz. The
navy said suspect Braulio Arellano Dominguez was the reputed leader
of the Zetas, a gang of hit men tied to the Gulf Cartel.
(AP, 11/4/09)(AP, 11/7/09)
2009 Nov 4, Mexican authorities
said 3 doctors and a nurse have been arrested for allegedly selling
newborns after telling mothers their babies had died at a private
hospital in Mexico City.
(AP, 11/4/09)
2009 Nov 4, In Mexico floods
killed at least three people in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco
where authorities struggled to persuade thousands of people to leave
their inundated homes. Heavy rains have caused several rivers to
overflow their banks flooding the homes of more than 50,000 people.
(AP, 11/4/09)
2009 Nov 4, In Mexico a gang of
gunmen killed Sgt. David Booher, an off-duty US airman, and five
other people at a strip club in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. A
group of gunmen, believed to belong to the Gulf cartel, arrived at
the home of Garcia Mayor Jaime Rodriguez to give him a "scare." As
the group was leaving, they crossed paths with Brig. Gen. Juan
Arturo Ezparza, who was driving to the mayor's home after hearing
about the threat. The gunmen sprayed Ezparza's car with bullets,
killing him along two former soldiers and two municipal police
officers escorting the general. Kidnappers snatched an American
woman (21) from her car in Tijuana and threatened to kill her unless
they were paid $200,000. She was released on Nov 7 and 3 kidnappers
were arrested.
(Reuters, 11/5/09)(SFC, 11/5/09, p.A2)(AP,
11/6/09)(AP, 11/9/09)
2009 Nov 5, Five Mexican police
officers and five other suspects were arrested in the investigation
into the assassination of Brig. Gen. Juan Arturo Ezparza, who had
been appointed police chief of the northern Mexican town of Garcia
over the weekend. 3 bullet-ridden bodies were found in different
towns around the Pacific coast state of Guerrero. The bodies all had
their hands and feet tied and were found next to threatening
messages. One was found along the highway connecting the resort
towns of Acapulco and Zihuatanejo. The Mexican army seized a
shipment of almost a quarter-ton of opium in the country's northern
mountains, one of the largest such seizures made in Mexico. A
policeman was killed and four other were wounded in an attack by
gunmen in Guerrero state. Another body was found in the Gulf coast
state of Veracruz with its arms and legs mutilated and its head
hacked off.
(AP, 11/6/09)(AP, 11/7/09)
2009 Nov 6, Mexican police
caught Marco Antonio Ibarra in the northern city of Culiacan. The
former prison official had spent a year on the run from charges of
killing a 19-year-old inmate, whose beating death in Sep, 2008,
sparked riots that left nearly two dozen dead, including two
American prisoners. Noel Martinez, a district supervisor for the
police in Ciudad Juarez, was shot and killed inside his car.
(AP, 11/7/09)(SFC, 11/7/09, p.A2)
2009 Nov 9, In Mexico gunmen
burst into an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and opened fire in a
violence-plagued Chihuahua City, killing one person and wounding
four others. In the Pacific coast state of Colima state police
captured Aaron Lopez Garcia (31), a violent gang member who was one
of America's 15 most wanted fugitives by US Marshals.
(AP, 11/11/09)
2009 Nov 10, In Mexico Tabasco
authorities announced that police had detained 7 suspected members
of the Zetas drug gang, including two teenagers. In the northern
city of Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, a man's tortured
body was found hanging from a highway overpass. The unidentified man
had his hands tied behind his back and was hung by the neck.
Monterrey Mayor Fernando Larrazabal said that 276 traffic police
officers and administrative officials were fired for failing tests
designed to detect corruption and ineptitude. 526 officers who
performed poorly were ordered to undergo more training, and 340 were
determined fit for the job.
(AP, 11/11/09)
2009 Nov 11, In Mexico reporter
Maria Esther Aguilar, who wrote about organized crime, disappeared
in western Michoacan state.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 11, Forbes Magazine
named drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, a fugitive reputed to be
hiding in the mountains of northern Mexico, to its list of the 67
"World's Most Powerful People." Business groups in the Mexican
border city of Ciudad Juarez said they are calling for UN
peacekeepers to quell the drug-related violence that has given their
city one of the highest homicide rates in the world.
(AP, 11/12/09)
2009 Nov 13, In Mexico a
7-year-old boy, three women and a university professor were among 15
people killed in 6 separate incidents in the border city of Ciudad
Juarez.
(AP, 11/14/09)
2009 Nov 16, In Mexico federal
police officer Luis Angel Leon Rodriguez disappeared along with six
fellow police as they headed to the western state of Michoacan to
fight drug traffickers.
(AP, 12/22/12)
2009 Nov 20, In Mexico Jesus
Zambada Reyes, identified as the nephew of drug lord Ismael "El
Mayo" Zambada, was found dead in an apparent suicide in Guerrero
state. A body found in Guerrero state was identified as Omar
Guerrero Solis, a rebel leader who had accused the state governor of
drug ties. Solis told local media in May that he believed Gov.
Zeferino Torreblanca had ties to the Sinaloa cartel. He accused the
army of not detaining Sinaloa gunmen, while cracking down on members
of the rival Beltran Leyva cartel. US citizen Lizbeth Marin was shot
in Matamoros and later died of the wound. A Mexican army soldier was
said to have accidentally fired a round that hit Marin.
(AP, 11/21/09)(AP, 11/24/09)
2009 Nov 27, Bison returned to
Mexico for the first time since the 1800s, with Mexican authorities
releasing 23 donated US animals in northern Chihuahua state. The
donated bison came from the Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota.
(AP, 11/27/09)
2009 Nov 29, In Mexico weekend
violence left 17 people dead. 7 women were murdered, including one
(19) who was beheaded in the southern beach resort of Cancun. 4 of
the women were killed in Ciudad Juarez, where two were shot to
death, another beaten with a baseball bat and a fourth, a school
teacher, also was beaten to death. 2 women were found shot to death
in Mexicali. Jesus Alfredo Portillo (27), a university student and
rights activist, was killed in Ciudad Juarez. Her mother-in-law and
women's group founder Marisela Ortiz had recently complained of
death threats against her. Elsewhere, 8 men were found murdered in
northern Chihuahua state, 5 of them in Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 11/29/09)(AFP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 1, In Mexico City
gunmen burst in to a Starbucks coffee shop and killed a former
policeman who was a protected witness in a drug corruption case, the
second death of a high-profile witness in Mexico in less than two
weeks. Edgar Bayardo was gunned down in the upper middle-class Del
Valle neighborhood, and a man with him was severely wounded.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 2, Mexican President
Felipe Calderon said that cartels are seeking to control territory
by sinking drug money into political campaigns and buying off
officials before they are even elected. Gunmen shot and killed
Lawyer Eleuterio Cachu Ortiz, a former police commander and
opposition politician, in his office in the Mexican border town of
Tijuana.
(AP, 12/2/09)(AFP, 12/3/09)
2009 Dec 3, Mexico City police
freed 107 people who were forced to work under slave-like conditions
in a clandestine factory making shopping bags and clothing clasps.
(AP, 12/4/09)
2009 Dec 4, In northern Mexico
a pair of shootouts between troops and gunmen killed 13 people in a
suburb of Monterrey, including a bystander and a drug trafficker
linked to the killing of a retired army officer. Almanza Morales,
killed in the attack, was accused of working for the Zetas, drug
traffickers who also serve as enforcers for the Mexican Gulf cartel,
and of killing army Brig. Gen. Juan Arturo Esparza and his four
bodyguards in a November attack.
(AP, 12/5/09)
2009 Dec 6, In Mexico thousands
of people dressed in white demanded soldiers leave Ciudad Juarez,
the country's most violent city, accusing troops of provoking a
surge in drug-war killings and running protection rackets.
(Reuters, 12/6/09)
2009 Dec 8, Amnesty
International released a report that said Mexican soldiers have
carried out torture and forced disappearances while fighting drug
cartels. A student's body was found in a truck at an intersection in
Ciudad Juarez. He was the second student from the Autonomous
University of Chihuahua to be killed since Dec 5.
(AP, 12/9/09)(AP, 12/10/09)
2009 Dec 9, In Mexico the
bound, bullet-riddled bodies of seven men were found along a highway
in Chihuahua state. 2 federal agents were killed in separate attacks
in the cities of Uruapan and Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan state.
Police found four mutilated bodies near a middle school in
Chilpancingo, state capital of drug-plagued Guerrero state.
(AP, 12/10/09)(AP, 12/11/09)
2009 Dec 10, In Mexico 2
federal agents were killed in a shootout with gunmen in the port
city of Lazaro Cardenas. Earlier in the day, a passer-by was killed
in the same city when he drove into a shootout between agents and
gunmen outside a hotel where the federal police officers were
staying. Three more officers who had been wounded last evening in an
attack in the town of Apatzingan died at a hospital.
(AP, 12/11/09)
2009 Dec 11, Mexico's foreign
minister met with Cuban President Raul Castro for three hours, the
latest sign her country and the island have repaired recently chilly
relations.
(AP, 12/11/09)
2009 Dec 11, In Mexico police
found the bodies of three women and two men inside a home in the
town of Almoloya de Juarez. A third man died on the way to a
hospital. Soldiers raided a drug cartel's Christmas party south of
Mexico City, outside the mountain town of Tepoztlan. They found 16
automatic rifles, $280,000 in cash, and Latin Grammy winner
Ramon Ayala and his norteno band, Los Bravos del Norte. 3 gunmen
were killed and 11 others suspected of working for the Beltran Leyva
drug cartel were detained.
(AP, 12/11/09)(AP, 12/15/09)
2009 Dec 15, Mexican
authorities found the decapitated bodies of four men in the border
city of Tijuana. A grenade attack on a police station in western
Mexico wounded a pregnant woman and her 3-year-old daughter. US
officials delivered five helicopters to Mexico to help the country
in its fight against drug cartels. 7 vehicles were burned in Mexico
City. Investigators found evidence linking an animal rights group to
homemade bombs that burned the cars.
(AP, 12/15/09)(AP, 12/16/09)
2009 Dec 16, In Mexico 200
sailors raided an upscale apartment complex and killed a reputed
Mexican drug cartel chief in a two-hour gunbattle. Arturo Beltran
Leyva, the "boss of bosses," and three members of his cartel were
slain in the shootout in Cuernavaca. Beltran Levya was one of five
brothers who split from the Sinaloa Cartel several years ago and
aligned themselves with Los Zetas, a group of former soldiers hired
by the rival Gulf Cartel as hit men. The severed heads of 6 state
police investigators were found at a public plaza in Cuencame,
Durango state.
(AP, 12/17/09)(SFC, 12/17/09, p.A2)
2009 Dec 17, In Mexico four
suspected drug traffickers and two local policemen were killed in a
shootout with soldiers in General Zuazua. Soldiers found a list with
names of local policemen who may have been on the payroll of the
drug gang. They also found more than 1,320 pounds (600 kg) of
marijuana and several guns at the scene.
(AP, 12/18/09)
2009 Dec 18, Mexican police
found six bullet-ridden, decomposing bodies near a highway leading
to a Mexican resort on the Gulf of California. The six men were
found half-buried on a dirt road off the highway frequently used by
tourists from Arizona to reach the Puerto Penasco resort, widely
known as Rocky Point. Gunmen killed Pedro Picasso (34), assistant
football coach of Mexico first-division team Indios, in the border
city Ciudad Juarez. A 2nd, unidentified person also died in the
shooting at a cell phone shop. The bound and burned bodies of 8 men
were found in the central Mexico state of Queretaro. Gunmen killed
four police officers in a series of attacks on patrol cars in the
border city of Ciudad Juarez. Police captured Jesus Basilio Araujo,
also known by the nickname "The Chicken," a suspected lieutenant of
the Beltran Leyva drug cartel linked to more than 109
execution-style killings.
(AP, 12/18/09)(AP, 12/19/09)
2009 Dec 19, Mexican
authorities announced that Salomon Tagle, a suspect in the
high-profile 2005 kidnapping of businessman Hugo Alberto Wallace,
has been taken into custody in Mexico. Tagle was expelled from the
Dominican Republic flown to Mexico, where he was taken into custody
on kidnapping charges. Wallace’s mother, Maria Isabel Miranda,
frustrated with investigators' lack of progress in her son's case,
had launched her own probe and a public campaign to press for
justice.
(AP, 12/20/09)
2009 Dec 21, Mexico City
lawmakers made the city the first in Latin America to legalize
same-sex marriage, a change that will give homosexual couples more
rights, including allowing them to adopt children.
(AP, 12/21/09)
2009 Dec 21, In Mexico
construction began on the Palace of the Maya Civilization Museum in
Yucatan state.
(SSFC, 12/27/09, p.A22)
2009 Dec 22, In Mexico
assailants gunned down the mother, aunt and siblings of Melquisedet
Angulo (30), a marine killed in the Dec 16 raid that took out Arturo
Beltran Leyva, one of Mexico's most powerful cartel leaders. This
sent a chilling message to troops battling the drug war: You go
after us, we wipe out your families. Gunmen sprayed bullets at a
restaurant in Piedras Negras where the mayor of a Texas border town
was eating with a Mexican state attorney general and other
officials. A woman leaving the building was killed. Journalist
Alberto Velazquez of the newspaper Expresiones de Tulum was gunned
down this week as he left a holiday party in the Mexican Caribbean
resort town of Tulum, bringing to 12 the number of reporters killed
this year in the country.
(AP, 12/22/09)(AP, 12/25/09)
2009 Dec 23, A Mexican military
Bell 212 helicopter crashed in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero,
killing an air force sergeant and seriously injuring two soldiers.
US officials recently delivered five Bell helicopters of a different
model to Mexico as part of the "Merida Initiative" for aiding the
Mexican campaign to curb drug trafficking.
(AP, 12/23/09)
2009 Dec 25, Mexican
authorities in the state of Chihuahua found the bullet-riddled
bodies of six members of the same family in a mountainous area.
Esther Chavez (73), a women's rights activist who first drew
attention to the brutal slayings of women in the border city of
Ciudad Juarez, died. She was the founder of Casa Amiga, a shelter
for female victims of violence in Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 12/26/09)(AP, 12/27/09)
2009 Dec 29, Mexico City
enacted Latin America's first law recognizing gay marriage and said
it hopes to attract same-sex couples from around the world to wed.
(AP, 12/29/09)
2009 Dec 29, In Mexico Luis "El
Gil" Sanchez (29) was arrested in Ensenada, about 50 miles (80km)
south of Tijuana. Sanchez was the alleged leader of at least 10
criminal cells working for Teodoro Garcia Simental, a renegade
lieutenant who broke away from the Arellano Felix cartel. Gunmen
attacked a car dealership and an adjacent hospital in the border
city of Tijuana, forcing the evacuation of some patients. The
attackers doused about 10 cars at the dealership with gasoline and
set them alight. Cartels commonly extort "protection" fees from
businesses, which are sometimes firebombed if their owners refuse to
pay.
(AP, 12/30/09)
2009 Dec 30, Mexican police
captured alleged drug lord Carlos Beltran Leyva, just two weeks
after his even more powerful brother was killed in a shootout with
troops. The bound, beaten bodies of two men were found hanging by
their necks from a highway overpass in Los Mochis, northern Sinaloa
state, along with a handwritten message from a drug cartel. The
message written on a piece of cardboard said in part that "this
territory already has an owner." In Ciudad Juarez 12 people,
including a 3-year-old child, were slain in shootings. Linea Directa
radio station reporter Jose Luis Romero was forced at gunpoint out
of a Los Mochis restaurant. Romero’s body was found on Jan 16, 2010.
(AP, 12/30/09)(AP, 1/3/10)(AP, 1/16/10)
2009 Dec 31, In Mexico Roberto
Salcedo (33), an assistant principal and Southern California school
board member, was killed while he and his wife were visiting
relatives in Gomez Palacio.
(AP, 1/31/10)
2009 In Mexico the number of
drug related killings this year rose to 6,600.
(Econ, 3/27/10, p.41)
2010 Jan 1, In Mexico gunmen
killed Jesus Escalante, the chief police investigator in the
northern state of Sinaloa, hours after he started investigating the
kidnapping of Jose Luis Romero (40), a local radio journalist.
Mexico opened the New Year with 69 murders in one day, including 26
in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. Mexico’s drug related killings
for 2009 totaled over 6,500.
(AP, 1/2/10)(SFC, 1/12/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 2, In northern Mexico
a bus carrying farm workers and their families home plunged off a
cliff, killing 14 people and injuring 21. Hugo Hernandez (36) was
kidnapped in Sonora state and taken to neighboring Sinaloa state
where assailants skinned his face and stitched it onto a soccer
ball. His body was later left on the streets of Los Mochis in seven
pieces.
(AP, 1/3/10)(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 3, In Mexico Josefina
Reyes, a human rights activist, was been killed in the border city
of Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 4, Solis Palma, a
Mexican migrant, was shot and killed after he reportedly attacked a
US Border Patrol agent in southern Arizona with rocks.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 6, In Tijuana, Mexico,
three 16-year-old students, two boys and a girl, were killed.
At least one of the victims was a known drug dealer who frequently
missed classes and sometimes peddled narcotics at or near the
school.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 7, In Mexico gunmen
attacked an army patrol in the western state of Michoacan with
assault rifles and grenades, touching off a gunbattle that killed a
soldier and four suspects.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, In Mexico a major
regional newspaper in the northern city of Saltillo announced
it would stop covering drug violence altogether after the body of a
reporter was found outside a motel with a threatening message.
Valentin Valdes (28) had written about the Dec. 29 arrests at the
Marbella Motel of five alleged members of the Gulf drug cartel. He
also covered the arrests on Jan 6 of five others who barged into the
same hotel and stole the surveillance tapes. All 60 policemen in the
embattled town of Tancitaro were fired because they had failed to
stop a series of killings and other crimes. Michoacan state police
and soldiers planned to take over security duties in the town. In
Ciudad Juarez a man's body was found on a street with its hands and
head cut off. Another man's body, with its head cut off and eyes
gouged out, was found elsewhere in the city and two women's bodies
were found in a vacant lot. The body of a man whose legs had been
surgically amputated some time ago was also found on a dirt road on
the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez. A man riding a bicycle was shot to
death in the city. 5 people were killed in drive-by shootings and a
group of 3 men were shot to death at a fast-food restaurant near a
school.
(AP, 1/8/10)(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 11, Dutch brewer
Heineken said it will buy the beer-making operations of Mexico’s
Femsa, the maker of Dos Equis and Sol beers, in an all-share deal
valued at $5.5 billion, excluding debt.
(SFC, 1/12/10, p.D3)
2010 Jan 12, In Mexico druglord
Teodoro Garcia Simental, known as "El Teo," was seized by federal
troops when they stormed a seaside vacation home near the southern
tip of the Baja California peninsula. He was accused of ordering
massacres, beheadings and the dissolving of bodies in caustic soda.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Mexico hundreds
of troops in combat gear fanned out in Ciudad Juarez, where 2,650
people died in narco violence last. Public Security Minister Genaro
Garcia Luna said 2,000 federal police reinforcements would arrive
over the next few days.
(Reuters, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 15, Manuel Acosta
(42), the lead investigator in the Dec 31 slaying in Mexico of
Roberto Salcedo, a Southern California school board member, was shot
several times in the chest and torso, but survived in critical
condition. He succumbed to his wounds on Jan 26.
(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 16, Mexican
authorities seized over 3 1/2 tons of pseudoephedrine, a chemical
used in the illicit manufacture of methamphetamine, found hidden in
a shipment of fire extinguishers at the Pacific coast seaport of
Manzanillo.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 17, In Mexico a
severed human head and a flower were found in front of the tomb of
deceased Mexican drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva. Police found the
bodies of five men scattered around the Michoacan state capital of
Morelia, each bearing a handwritten note suggesting they were killed
by vigilantes.
(AP, 1/18/10)(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 17, A small boat
packed with illegal immigrants overturned before dawn off the San
Diego coast at Torrey Pines State Park. One person died and 5 were
injured. 16 people, all Mexican citizens, were accounted for.
(SSFC, 1/17/10, p.A14)(SFC, 1/18/10, p.A6)
2010 Jan 19, In Mexico "El Teo"
Teodoro Garcia Simental, an alleged drug kingpin blamed for much of
Tijuana's gang violence, was ordered to face trial. The military
said it caught three purported members of his gang about to dissolve
a body in chemicals. State police found the bodies of four young men
in an abandoned car near a hotel in Guerrero's capital,
Chilpancingo. A police report said the men appeared to have been
asphyxiated by plastic tape covering their faces.
(AP, 1/20/10)(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 19, Mexico’s
telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim pledged $65 million for genetic
research on cancer, type 2 diabetes and kidney disease.
(AP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, Mexican
authorities found seven corpses in two abandoned cars between the
resort communities of Acapulco and Zihuatanejo along with written
messages referring to drug cartels. 24 inmates were killed and
several others injured during a prison brawl at a penitentiary in
northern Durango city. 4 days of rain unleashed heavy flooding in
parts of the border city of Tijuana, killing a 5-year-old girl and
leaving at least 10 other people missing.
(AP, 1/20/10)(AP, 1/20/10)(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, Police in Mexico
City rescued 150 ferrets from armed robbers after a high speed
chase. 14 boxes of ferrets imported from the US were taken by force
by 3 robbers from a truck after it left the Mexico City airport. Two
suspects were under arrest and another escaped.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 23, In southern Mexico
about 150 migrants were pulled off a train by unidentified
assailants in the state of Oaxaca. On Jan 26 a Salvadoran
official filed a complaint with Mexican officials saying 3 men
were slain and 4 women were raped in the attack.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 27, Mexican
authorities found a man's head and a threatening message referring
to the La Familia drug cartel in the town square of Quiroga,
Michoacan state. A headless body was found 60 miles (100km) away.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 29, Mexican
authorities found the decapitated bodies of six men in Acahuato,
Michoacan state. A group of at least a dozen armed men attacked a
federal police convoy, opening fire on the vehicles from a highway
overpass near the city of Maravatio, also in Michoacan, killing 5
officers and wounding 7. Four severely beaten men were seen walking
along a busy street in the Michoacan town of Zamora carrying
messages signed by La Familia. In Ciudad Juarez a group of
rifle-bearing attackers opened fire on a family in a truck, killing
a man, a woman and injuring a 5-month-old baby. A woman was later
killed inside an ice cream parlor, a chase through the Galeana
neighborhood left two dead, and a man was killed and a pregnant
woman was injured in a spray of bullets in another part of town. Six
more people were killed later in the day in four different
locations, and when dawn broke the two decapitated bodies were
found. Journalist Ochoa Martinez, director of El Sol de la Costa,
was shot in the face as he left a food stand in the town of Ayutla.
His small newspaper covered mostly local politics and community
issues southeast of Acapulco.
(AP, 1/29/10)(AP, 1/31/10)(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Jan 29, In Mexico a Texas
man and his girlfriend were sentenced to nine years in prison for
recruiting Mexican women to give birth in the US and sell their
babies to couples there. Amado Torres, of Harlingen, Texas, and
Maria Isabel Hernandez, of Mexico, had allegedly paid women up to
$3,000 for their newborns.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Jan 30, In Mexico armed
men stormed a party, killing 15 high school and college students in
Ciudad Juarez in what witnesses thought was an attack prompted by
false information. Ten people were found dead at the scene and six
died at hospitals. An official later said gunmen were directed to
the neighborhood by a resident who said members of a rival gang were
planning a party.
(AP, 2/2/10)(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Jan 31, Mexican President
Felipe Calderon arrived in Japan for a three-day visit, as the
countries mark 400 years of official ties.
(AFP, 1/31/10)
2010 Feb 1, In Mexico armed men
burst into a bar Ciudad Juarez around dawn and killed four men and a
woman. Gunmen killed 10 people and wounded 15 in a bar in Torreon, a
city in the northern state of Coahuila. A shootout that began in a
shopping center and spilled onto a highway in Torreon caused the
death of 7 suspected Zetas gunmen and one federal police officer
while freeing two kidnap victims. The La Familia gang, strung up
about a dozen banners in the western state of Michoacan urging the
public at large and other gangs to form a common "resistance" front
against the Zetas.
(AP, 2/2/10)(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 1, US Customs and
Border Protection officers seized nearly a ton of marijuana hidden
in a banana shipment at a cargo facility near the US-Mexico border.
Officers opened boxes in a truck and found 235 packages of pot worth
an estimated $1.1 million.
(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 4, In Denver Miguel
Angel Caro Quintero (46) was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison
for racketeering in Colorado and conspiracy to distribute marijuana
in Arizona. His Sonora cartel was tied to the 1985 torture and
killing of an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent,
Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 5, Mexican authorities
said they have found the decapitated bodies of six men in the
western state of Michoacan. In central Mexico a landslide killed at
least 11 people, adding to 18 deaths this week from severe and
unseasonable winter storms that closed schools and freeways and
flooded thousands of homes.
(AP, 2/5/10)(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, In Mexico gunmen
killed six people at a bar in Mazatlan, Sinaloa state. In Ciudad
Juarez authorities announced the arrest of In the border city of
Ciudad Juarez, authorities on Saturday announced the arrest of a
second suspect in last week's massacre of 15 people, many of them
teenagers with no known criminal ties, the second suspect in last
week's massacre of 15 people, many of them teenagers with no known
criminal ties.
(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 8, Mexican federal
police arrested Raydel Lopez Uriarte and Manuel Garcia Simental,
suspected leaders of the cartel headed by Teodoro Garcia Simental,
who was captured in La Paz on Jan. 12. The drug cartel had
terrorized Tijuana for several years. The military announced that
soldiers had seized more than 12 tons of marijuana found beneath a
false floor of a tractor trailer. The drugs were found during a
routine search at a checkpoint near San Felipe, a town in the
central part of the Baja California peninsula. Federal police
arrested five Tijuana police officers along with six cartel members
who were holding two rival gangsters captive. The arrests were based
on information obtained following the capture of Uriarte and Manuel
Garcia Simental. Two of the officers, Francisco Ortega and Juan
Carlos Espinoza, had been recently lauded as part of a new breed of
honest cop. 3 marines died in a shootout that also killed three
suspected gang members in the border town of Reynosa.
(AP, 2/8/10)(AP, 2/10/10)(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 13, In Mexico hundreds
of people marched against the drug gang violence besieging the
border city of Ciudad Juarez, gathering at a bridge where they
simulated the massacre of a group of teenagers last month. Police,
meanwhile, found the bullet-ridden bodies of five men, missing since
Feb 6., in a town in the southwestern corner of Chihuahua state. A
decapitated body was found dumped beside the highway leading into
Acapulco.
(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 16, Mexican
authorities found the decapitated bodies of five men in the town of
Escuinapa, Sinaloa state. 2 of the heads were missing their ears and
two more had a "Z" carved on their backs in an apparent reference to
the Zetas drug gang.
(AP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 18, Vicente Zambada
Niebla (34), a man accused of being an influential,
second-generation member of the Sinaloa drug cartel, was extradited
from Mexico to the US on charges he helped move tons of cocaine from
Colombia to California, New York and Chicago.
(AP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 18-2010 Mar 3, In the
northern Mexican border city of Reynosa 8 journalists were kidnapped
over a period of two weeks in a wave of abductions unprecedented in
the Western Hemisphere. Two were released alive and one was found
dead with signs of torture.
(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Feb 19, In Mexico one
officer was killed and two others wounded when they were ambushed in
Nogales, across the border from the Arizona city of the same name.
The officers were responding to an apparently false report of a
robbery at a beer store when gunmen opened fire on.
(AP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 20, Mexican police
found the bound bodies of two men on a highway just outside the
Pacific coast resort of Acapulco. The body of a third man, missing
its head and limbs, was found in Ciudad Altamirano, an inland city
in Guerrero.
(AP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 21, Mexico’s federal
police captured Jose Vasquez Villagrana (40), described as a key
operator of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, in his home town of Santa
Ana. He served briefly in the US army before taking on the
trafficking of 2 tons of cocaine a month into the US. 14 deaths were
reported in Sinaloa state. In the worst incident, six people,
including two women and a minor, were found shot to death in a
cemetery in Juan Jose Rios. In the same town, two men were found
strangled in a house, one with the cable of an iron and another with
a wire hanger.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Mexico Latin
America and Caribbean leaders, gathered at a summit in Playa de
Carmen, united to create a regional bloc excluding Canada and the
United States. The bloc's formation is expected to take years and
faces many challenges. The leaders agreed to meet again in Venezuela
in 2011.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Mexico gunmen
stormed the southern town of San Vicente Camalote and killed 13
people, including a rancher and his 3 sons. Gunmen attacked the
police headquarters in the town of Miguel Aleman. 6 officers were
missing and presumed to have been kidnapped. A series of clashes
along the northern border killed 6 gunmen and one soldier. 10
soldiers and a police officer were wounded. A small military
anti-drug patrol plane was reported missing in northern Mexico.
Wreckage of the plane with 3 dead occupants was reported found on
Feb 26.
(AP, 2/24/10)(AP, 2/25/10)(AP, 2/26/10)(AP,
2/26/10)
2010 Feb 24, Mexican police
found two severed arms in an icebox, along with a threatening
message. Guerrero state police said an anonymous tip led them to the
remains in the town of Ciudad Altamirano.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Mexico 4
suspected cartel gunmen were killed outside the city of Matamoros
after they attacked an army patrol on a highway.
(AP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 27, Mexican
authorities said they have arrested a third suspect in the Jan 30
massacre of 15 people in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. Chihuahua
state prosecutors said he is a former police officer believed to
have worked as a hit man for the Juarez cartel.
(AP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Mexico Red
Cross volunteer Maria Rogers (20) was killed by a stray bullet when
gunmen went into a Red Cross hospital in Culiacan, Sinaloa state,
trying to finish off a man who had been shot minutes earlier. The
man survived.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 2, Mexico's interior
department said prosecutors have detained 10 Mexican immigration
agents and three airline workers at Cancun's international airport
on suspicion of trafficking Chinese migrants. Oscar Arriola, reputed
to have led a cartel that smuggled two tons of cocaine a month into
the US before authorities dismantled the ring around 2004, was
handed over to US officials and extradited to Colorado.
(AP, 3/2/10)(Reuters, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 3, A Mexican woman
charged that Rev. Marcial Maciel (1920-2008), the deceased,
scandal-tainted founder of the conservative order Legionaries of
Christ (1941), led a double life and fathered two children with her.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Throngs of Mexico
City gay and lesbian couples registered for marriage licenses, the
day Latin America's first gay-marriage law took effect.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 5, In Mexico heavily
armed gunmen ambushed a convoy of federal police on a highway near
the port city of Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan state, killing two
officers and wounding three. Soldiers seized 28,000 pounds of
marijuana, seven vehicles and 18 high-powered weapons in Altar,
Sonora, 35 miles south of the Arizona border.
(AP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 6, In northern Mexico
police in the city of San Nicolas de los Garza, a suburb of the
industrial hub of Monterrey, protested hours after three of their
colleagues were shot to death in an ambush and a fourth was wounded.
Federal police announced the arrest of three men accused of running
an extortion ring that targeted Ciudad Juarez businesses. The army
announced it had seized 2.6 metric tons of marijuana and detained
one suspect in a mountainous area of Chihuahua.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 9, In Mexico Ramon
Pequeno, head of the anti-narcotics division of Mexico's federal
police, said that Texas-born Edgar Valdez Villarreal, nicknamed "La
Barbie," is battling Hector Beltran Leyva for control of the Beltran
Leyva cartel.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 10, Carlos Slim,
Mexican telecom tycoon, jumped past Microsoft founder Bill Gates and
investor Warren Buffett when Forbes magazine released its 2010 list
of the world's wealthiest.
(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 11, In Mexico 2
glowing brides in matching white gowns and four other same-sex
couples made history in Mexico City as they wed under Latin
America's first law that explicitly approves gay marriage.
(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 11, In Mexico gunmen
burst into a home in the border city of Ciudad Juarez and opened
fire, killing 5 young men and wounding 5 others, including a
10-year-old girl, during a wake being held for a young man shot to
death in his car earlier in the week. The death toll rose to 6 the
next day after a woman died of wounds suffered in the attack.
(AP, 3/12/10)(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 12, In Mexico gunmen
burst into a party and killed 8 youths and left another person
wounded in the Pacific coast township of Navolato, near the Sinaloa
state capital of Culiacan. Evaristo Pacheco, a journalist for the
regional weekly Vision Informativa, was shot to death after being
snatched from a nightclub in the Guerrero state capital,
Chilpancingo.
(AP, 3/13/10)(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 13, In Mexico a series
of shootings killed 24 people in a Pacific coast state plagued by
drug gang violence. Nearly half died in one shootout between
soldiers and armed men. Suspected drug gang hit men separately
ambushed two cars carrying families with ties to the US consulate in
Ciudad Juarez, killing an American couple and a Mexican man. Three
young children survived, although two suffered wounds. On March 26
suspect Ricardo Valles de la Rosa (45), a member of the Barrio
Azteca gang, was arrested for the US consulate linked killings. A
confession by de la Rosa suggested that El Paso jail officer Arthur
H. Redelfs was targeted in the Ciudad Juarez shootings that also
killed his wife, Lesley A. Enriquez, an employee of the US
consulate. The husband of another consulate worker was killed in the
other vehicle attacked. In April Mexico arrested a 2nd suspect, a
member of the Los Aztecas gang, who confessed to taking part in the
killing of a US consulate official. In September Jesus Ernesto
Chavez, was extradited to the US, for ordering the killing of Lesley
A. Enriquez.
(AP, 3/14/10)(AP, 3/15/10)(AP, 3/29/10)(AP,
3/31/10)(AFP, 4/23/10)(SSFC, 9/5/10, p.A10)
2010 Mar 15, Mexican marines
and Navy personnel announced they had launched a raid against an
operations base run by the Zeta drug gang near Monterrey. A convoy
of fleeing vehicles opened fire on a Marine helicopter following
them. The Marines chased them down, some on foot, and killed eight
suspects. Elsewhere in Chihuahua state, running gun battles in the
tourist town of Creel left seven people dead and two seriously
wounded. Farther south prosecutors reported the bodies of five men
were found on the side of a highway. In the Gulf Coast town of
Tierra Blanco some 90 city policemen were held for questioning about
the kidnapping of undocumented Central American migrants.
(AP, 3/16/10)(SFC, 3/17/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 16, Mexico's
government announced an austerity plan for trimming general spending
$3.2 billion (40.1 billion pesos) over the next three years so it
can provide more money for social and infrastructure programs. The
military and some security, educational and health services were
exempt from the measures.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 18, In Mexico gunmen
in a convoy of six vehicles opened fire on a navy helicopter on a
reconnaissance patrol in Fresnillo, outside of Monterrey. Marines
aboard the chopper returned fire, killing one of the gunmen as
suspected gang members blocked roads in the city.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 19, In Mexico a
shootout between soldiers and gunmen in the northern city of
Monterrey killed two bystanders, graduate students studying
engineering at Monterrey Tech University. Suspected gang members
also blocked roads in the city for the second day, in a bold attempt
to impede security patrols. The navy announced the capture of
Alberto "Bad Boy" Mendoza, suspected of being a chief cartel
operator linked to the Beltran Leyva gang and others in Monterrey.
(AP, 3/20/10)(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 19, It was reported
that February storms in Michoacan, Mexico, killed some 50-60% of the
wintering monarch butterfly population.
(SFC, 3/19/10, p.A10)
2010 Mar 21, In Mexico gunmen
targeting the police chief of a town outside Monterrey killed his
bodyguard and wounded three other people. Marquez Compean, a drug
suspect, and two others were arrested by Santa Catarina police
officers who were part of a convoy carrying Castillo on official
business. The next day Compean’s beaten body was found wrapped in a
blanket in the nearby city of San Nicolas de los Garza. Rodrigo
Medina, governor of the northern state of Nuevo Leon, announced that
he was firing 81 state police officers suspected of corruption. 5
men died in Acapulco after they pulled guns on each other during an
early morning fight that began as an argument at a wedding the
previous night. One man was killed in a following shootout between
gunmen riding in separate vehicles.
(AP, 3/22/10)(AP, 3/22/10)(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 22, In Mexico the
pre-dawn discovery of two bodies cut into pieces and shoved into two
black bags brought a tragic end to a search for two missing police
officers in southern Guerrero state. In the nearby resort of
Acapulco, police later found another two mutilated bodies and a
threatening message outside the house of the city's former deputy
traffic police chief.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 22, In Mexico Paulette
Gebara Farah (4), a disabled girl, was reported missing by her
parents. On March 30 Her body was found under the mattress of her
bed at her wealthy parents' apartment on the outskirts of Mexico
City. On May 21 federal investigators she had smothered accidentally
and was there the whole time police and family were hunting for her.
(AP, 4/1/10)(AP, 5/21/10)
2010 Mar 24, Mexican federal
police arrested Jose Antonio Medina (36), Mexico's "King of Heroin,"
a powerful drug trafficker allegedly responsible for running
thousands of pounds of heroin into Southern California each year.
Medina was accused of moving 440 pounds of heroin into California
each month.
(AP, 3/26/10)(SFC, 3/26/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 24, President Barack
Obama's administration named 54 alleged Mexican drug cartel
lieutenants and enforcers as drug kingpins under a law that allows
the US government to freeze their bank accounts and penalize their
business associates.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Mar 25, In Mexico police
were searching for two prison guards and 40 prisoners who
disappeared after a pre-dawn jailbreak in the Mexican city of
Matamoros across the border from Brownsville, Texas. Gunmen killed a
deputy police chief and his bodyguard in Nogales, Sonora state.
(AP, 3/25/10)(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, In northern Mexico
the decapitated body of Heriberto Cerda, the police chief in
Agualeguas, Nuevo Leon state, and the body of his brother were found
inside the chief's patrol truck. Late in the day gunmen opened fired
on a hotel in downtown Ciudad Juarez where federal agents stay,
killing one and wounding two.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, In western Mexico
two police officers and two other men have been found shot to death
at a gas station in Michoacan state. In Guerrero state a man was
found tied up and fatally shot in a car in the resort of Acapulco.
The bodies of four men and a woman were found on a rural road in a
town not far from the violent border city of Ciudad Juarez. More
than 7,000 people gathered in the northern city of Monterrey to
protest a wave of violence that has affected the country's third
largest city in recent weeks.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 28, In Mexico gunmen
in Durango state killed 10 young people riding in pickup truck when
they didn't stop at a gang's illegal roadblock. 3 gunmen died in a
clash with soldiers near a park crowded with families in the border
city of Nuevo Laredo. Tamaulipas state investigators said police
found the bodies of three men who had been shot to death in the town
of Miguel Aleman. In the Nuevo Leon city of Santa Catarina, three
men and two women were killed in a shootout with soldiers inside a
motel.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2010 Mar 30, In northern Mexico
dozens of gunmen mounted rare and apparently coordinated attacks
targeting two army garrisons, touching off firefights that killed 18
attackers in the border states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar 31, In Mexico
authorities in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco announced that
Roberto Rivero Arana, the nephew of reputed Zetas gang leader
Heriberto Lazcano, was captured together with Daniel Perez, an
acting police chief of Ciudad del Carmen, accused of protecting the
Zetas. 4 severed human heads were found in Apatzingan, a town in the
western state of Michoacan. In Morelia, the Michoacan state capital,
police reported finding the bodies of 3 young men who had been shot
to death. Police in the border city of Nogales reported finding the
bullet-ridden bodies of 3 men, including a city transport official,
on a rural road along with three burned-out vehicles.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Apr 2, In Mexico 5 gunmen
died in a shootout with soldiers in the northern border city of
Reynosa, Tamaulipas state. A shootout between rival gangs at a
nightclub in Tampico left seven people dead. At least 15 people were
killed throughout Tamaulipas. In the border city of Tijuana police
found the bodies of 3 men who had been shot to death in a
residential area. 13 inmates escaped when armed men stormed a prison
in the northern border city of Reynosa. A shootout in Nuevo Laredo
between soldiers and suspected drug cartel gunmen killed two
children and wounded five of their relatives who were caught in the
crossfire. Two suspected gunmen were also killed.
(AP, 4/2/10)(AP, 4/3/10)(AP, 4/4/10)(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 3, In Mexico 13
members of a family were traveling in a vehicle in an area where the
Defense Department said soldiers were pursing a convoy of gunmen in
the northern state of Tamaulipas. 2 boys were killed by soldiers.
The army later said the family got caught in crossfire during the
confrontation, in which five other members of the family were
wounded. In June Mexico's National Human Rights Commission said
soldiers apparently altered the crime scene to try to blame the
deaths on drug cartel gunmen.
(AP, 6/16/10)
2010 Apr 4, A 7.3 magnitude
earthquake centered just south of the US border near Mexicali killed
two people in Mexico and injured at least 100.
(AP, 4/5/10)
2010 Apr 5, In Mexico five men
were killed when gunmen opened fire on their car outside a shopping
mall in Mazatlan, in the northeastern state of Sinaloa.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 6, In Mexico suspected
cartel gunmen wounded two soldiers in an unprecedented grenade
attack on army housing in the Gulf coast city of Tampico. 7 prison
guards were reported arrested for alleged complicity in the April 2
jailbreak in Reynosa. In Guerrero state police found the bodies of
two men who were shot to death and had their hands and feet bound
with tape. The bodies of 12 murder victims, 8 of them partially
burned, were found outside the town of Xalisco, Nayarit state. In
Nuevo Leon state gunmen kidnapped Oliver Garcia, police chief of the
town of Los Aldamas, from his home and the two officers from police
headquarters.
(AP, 4/6/10)(AP, 4/8/10)
2010 Apr 7, In Mexico police in
the border state of Nuevo Leon found the bodies of a police chief
and two police officers who had been kidnapped a day earlier. In the
central state of Morelos, gunmen attacked the offices of federal
prosecutors in the city of Cuernavaca, killing a guard. A bystander
was killed during a shootout between gunmen and federal police in
the town of Frontera Comalapa, Chiapas state, on the Guatemalan
border.
(AP, 4/8/10)
2010 Apr 8, In Mexico police
detained Bruce Beresford-Redman (38), the producer of "Pimp My Ride"
and formerly of "Survivor," as a suspect after finding the body of
Monica Beresford-Redman in a sewer at Cancun's Moon Palace resort,
where the family was on vacation. Authorities determined she died
the night of April 5. At least 80 gunmen terrorized the town of
Maycoba in Sonora state for several hours and killed four people.
(AP, 4/9/10)
2010 Apr 9, In central Mexico
police found the bodies of two men hanging from a bridge in the city
of Cuernavaca, Morelos state, along with a message claiming that
federal authorities are protecting an alleged drug kingpin. A late
night attacker threw an explosive device over the wall around the US
consulate in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, breaking windows and
startling employees inside but causing no injuries.
(AP, 4/10/10)
2010 Apr 10, In Mexico the body
of Enrique Villicana Palomares, a columnist for the daily newspaper
The Voice of Michoacan, was found in Morelia with his throat slit.
He had been reported missing last week after he didn't make it to a
university where he taught writing.
(AP, 4/12/10)
2010 Apr 12, Mexican and US
officials said 3 Mexican cartels have joined forces to destroy the
Zetas gang of hit men that has grown into a feared drug trafficking
outfit with reach into Central America. Police found the body of a
man whose face had been skinned in Cuernavaca. In nearby Temixco, a
man and his pregnant wife were killed by gunmen who left a
threatening message.
(AP, 4/13/10)
2010 Apr 13, In northern Mexico
two soldiers and two gunmen died in a shootout. Soldiers patrolling
in the border state of Nuevo Leon gave chase to six suspicious cars
that crossed into neighboring Tamaulipas state, where a gunbattle
ensued in the town of Comales.
(AP, 4/15/10)
2010 Apr 14, In Mexico a cargo
plane crashed while trying to land overnight in the northern city of
Monterrey, killing at least four crew members. A fifth crew member
was missing and presumed dead.
(AP, 4/14/10)
2010 Apr 14, In Mexico a mother
and her 8-year-old child, a taxi driver and a federal police officer
were among 6 dead in a raging attack on the main boulevard in
Acapulco's tourist zone. At least three bystanders also died on the
shootout. A federal police statement released the next day said
Ernesto Antonio Rocha Reyes (26) was carrying a high-powered assault
rifle when authorities, searching for suspects after the attacks,
caught him.
(AP, 4/15/10)
2010 Apr 20, Mexican state
police reported that three men were found shot to death in a taxi in
Acapulco.
(AP, 4/21/10)
2010 Apr 21, In Mexico police
found the bound bodies of two men in Cuernavaca, alongside a banner
that threatened to kill 25 more drug cartel members. The message
said 25 of Beltran Leyva's henchmen are being held and interrogated
in the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco and would be executed soon.
Dozens of gunmen burst into a Holiday Inn and another hotel in the
northern city of Monterrey, searching from room-to-room and
abducting at least six people. Troops battled a suspected drug gang
in a wealthy neighborhood on the outskirts of Mexico City and
captured Jose Gerardo Alvarez Vazquez, an alleged major trafficker
with a $2 million US bounty on his head. 14 other suspected drug
traffickers were arrested in the shootout that left 3 people dead
and two alleged traffickers wounded.
(AP, 4/21/10)(AP, 4/22/10)
2010 Apr 23, In Mexico gunmen
ambushed two police vehicles at a busy intersection in Ciudad
Juarez, killing 7 officers and a 17-year-old boy who was passing by.
Police in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero said they found the
bodies of five men who had been shot to death lying on a dirt road
near the state capital, Chilpancingo. Three of the men were
brothers, all in their 20s. In central Morelos state, federal police
and the Mexican army raided two ranch homes and arrested 15 men near
the town of Amacuzac. The men were suspected of working for alleged
drug trafficker Jose Gerardo Alvarez Vazquez, who was arrested April
21 in Mexico City.
(AP, 4/24/10)
2010 Apr 23, Arizona’s Gov. Jan
Brewer signed into law SB1070, a bill that supporters said would
take handcuffs off police in dealing with illegal immigration.
Arizona, with an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants, was the
nation's busiest gateway for human and drug smuggling from Mexico.
(AP, 4/24/10)(Econ, 7/31/10, p.25)
2010 Apr 23, In El Salvador
gunmen shot and seriously wounded First Secretary Guillermo Medina
Alfaro, a Mexican diplomat who worked with the international police
agency Interpol. Police said the diplomat's wife was killed.
(AP, 4/23/10)
2010 Apr 24, In Mexico gunmen
armed with assault rifles and grenades attacked a convoy carrying
the top security official of the western state of Michoacan, killing
four and wounding 10. In the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, the
dismembered bodies of three men were found in plastic bags inside a
home outside the resort of Acapulco. A hand-lettered sign blamed the
three dead men for the April 14 shooting that killed six people on
Acapulco's main boulevard. Prosecutors in Chihuahua state, where
Ciudad Juarez is located, announced the arrest of a man suspected of
participating in last year's killing of an anti-crime activist and a
neighbor, both of whom lived in rural Chihuahua but held dual US
citizenship. Ubaldo Rohan was charged with acting as a lookout in
the kidnapping of activist Benjamin LeBaron's brother, Eric. After
LeBaron protested the kidnapped, he and a neighbor were killed [see
July 7, 2009].
(AP, 4/25/10)
2010 Apr 26, Mexico’s Interior
Secretary Fernandez Gomez-Mont said drug cartels have changed
tactics and are turning more attacks on authorities, rather than
focusing their fire on rivals gangs. Troops killed three suspected
kidnappers and freed seven of their captives during a raid on a
ranch in the northern state of Nuevo Leon. Two rotting bodies were
found in a truck near the ranch.
(AP, 4/26/10)(AP, 4/28/10)
2010 Apr 27, The Mexican Senate
passed a measure to make soldiers accountable to civilian courts for
abuses involving civilians, and ensure the use of troops in actions
like the offensive against drug cartels is temporary. Gunmen
attacked a caravan of rights observers and leftists near the restive
town of San Juan Copala in southern Oaxaca state, killing Finnish
human rights worker Jyri Jaakkola and Mexican political activist
Beatriz Carino Trujillo. An Italian man and a Belgian man were still
unaccounted for more than 24 hours after the ambush. The National
Network of Human Rights Civic Organizations said another Finn, three
Mexicans and two journalists from the Mexican magazine Contralinea
were also missing. The army reported that it freed 16 hostages at a
house in Sabinas Hidalgo, a town near the northern city of
Monterrey. One of the hostages was a 1-year-old child. 4 inmates
were killed when an armed gang stormed a prison in the northern town
of Altamira. 29 officers in four patrol vehicles were detained in
the resort city of Acapulco after being stopped and searched by navy
personnel. Searchers found a 33-pound (15-kg) bag of marijuana in
one of the vehicles and 36 non-regulation firearms overall, mostly
machine pistols and assault rifles.
(AP, 4/27/10)(AP, 4/29/10)(AP, 4/28/10)(AP,
4/29/10)
2010 Apr 28, In Mexico gunmen
stormed into a bar, dragged out eight people and killed them in the
parking lot, the first of several shootings in Ciudad Juarez that
left 16 dead, including a man in a wheelchair. In the Pacific coast
state of Guerrero, gunmen killed, Jose Santiago Agustino, the mayor
of the small town of Zapotitlan Tablas, while he was in the state
capital of Chilpancingo. In 2009 he had complained that a government
hospital built in his region more than a decade earlier had never
opened.
(AP, 4/28/10)
2010 Apr 29, Mexican police
said that a crowd of villagers in Guerrero state chased down a group
of alleged kidnappers, freed their victims and shot 3 men to death.
The men had apparently entered the hamlet of La Union, near the
coastal resort of Zihuatanejo, and abducted a man and two boys. They
allegedly also shot another man to death.
(AP, 4/29/10)
2010 Apr 30, Mexican
authorities rescued two journalists who had been stranded for nearly
three days among feuding militants after a caravan of rights
activists was caught in a deadly ambush in southern Oaxaca state.
(AP, 4/30/10)
2010 Apr - 2010 Sep, In Mexico
at least 11,333 migrants were kidnapped over this 6-month period.
(AP, 2/22/11)(http://tinyurl.com/6jkl5zb)
2010 May 1, In Mexico 5 people
were killed in a gunbattle between gang members and soldiers in
Camargo, a small town in Tamaulipas state, which borders Nuevo Leon.
(AP, 5/3/10)
2010 May 1, Elisabeth Mandala
(18), a Texas high school student, and two Mexican men were found
dead in a crashed pickup truck near Mina, in the northeastern state
of Nuevo Leon. Autopsies revealed that all three died from severe
blows to the head and body. Mandala, a senior at Kempner High School
in Sugar Land, Texas, was last seen April 27 leaving her mother's
home. The two men killed were taxi driver Luis Angel Estrella
Mondragon (44) and merchant Dante Ruiz Siller (38).
(AP, 5/6/10)
2010 May 2, In Mexico 5 people
were trampled to death when a gunshot fired at a cattle fair sent a
panic-stricken crowd rushing for the exits in Guadalupe, outside the
industrial city of Monterrey, already on edge from rampant drug
violence.
(AP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 3, In Mexico gunmen
drove up to a soccer field and shot five men to death as they played
early Monday near the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco.
(AP, 5/3/10)
2010 May 4, In Mexico two
Colombians were arrested at Mexico City's international airport as
they allegedly prepared to board a flight to Panama trying to
smuggle out more than $350,000 in cash in various currencies.
(AP, 5/15/10)
2010 May 7, In Mexico a groom
and two members of his wedding party snatched at gunpoint as they
left the church in Ciudad Juarez. Their bodies, along with a fourth
body of someone who had not been identified and might not have been
at the wedding, were found May 10.
(AP, 5/12/10)
2010 May 8, In Mexico Mario
Villanueva, former governor of the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo
(1993-1999), was turned over to US authorities at the international
airport in Toluca. He faced charges of helping a cartel smuggling
cocaine through the resort of Cancun en route to the US market.
Villanueva spent two years in hiding before he was arrested in
Cancun in 2001. 3 headless bodies were found just outside of
Acapulco. The bodies of 5 other men were found with multiple gunshot
wounds in a car north of Acapulco.
(AP, 5/9/10)(SSFC, 5/9/10, p.A5)
2010 May 8, In Mexico Joaquin
Capilla (b.1928), the country’s top Olympic-medal recipient, died.
Capilla brought home medals in 1948, 1952 and 1956.
(AP,
5/9/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaqu%C3%ADn_Capilla)
2010 May 8, In northern Mexico
the body of Ronald C. Ryan (67), a US citizen from Phoenix, Az., was
found the partially buried near a creek on the outskirts of Santa
Ana, Sonora state. He had been reported missing May 3. State police
had reported detaining three men the following day who had left
Ryan's pickup truck at a carwash in Santa Ana.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 12, Mexico’s army
overran a Zeta camp in Nuevo Leone state seizing 55,000 rounds of
ammunition, 109 grenades and 124 heavy weapons among other booty.
(Econ, 6/5/10, p.46)
2010 May 13, In Mexico gunmen
burst into the farm supplies business of Jose Guajardo Varela and
killed him and his son, after he ignored warnings to drop his bid
for mayor of Valle Hermosa, Tamaulipas state. The leader of the
conservative National Action Party said the victim and other
candidates had received threats. 4 policemen in Chiapas state were
killed and two others seriously wounded when gunmen attacked a
convoy carrying payments for a government anti-poverty program.
(AP, 5/14/10)(AP, 5/15/10)
2010 May 14, In Mexico gunmen
killed six men and wounded two more in a drive-by shooting near a
kindergarten in Loma Blanca, a small town outside the border city of
Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 5/15/10)
2010 May 15, Former Mexican
presidential candidate Diego Fernandez de Cevallos (69) disappeared.
His abandoned car was found near his ranch in the central state of
Queretaro. Four young men were found decapitated in northern Durango
state. A message on the windshield of a pickup, allegedly signed by
the Zetas gang, said the victims were involved in an attack at a bar
in the neighboring city of Torreon that killed eight people earlier
in the day. Cevallos was released on Nov 26 after the family paid a
ransom of around $20 million.
(AP, 5/15/10)(AP, 5/16/10)(Reuters, 11/27/10)
2010 May 17, The Mexican army
said it has detained Crispin Borunda, an alleged lieutenant of the
Ciudad Juarez-based Carrillo Fuentes cartel, who escaped from a US
prison two decades ago. A statement said Borunda tried to flee on
foot and fired at soldiers before being caught last week in the
capital of the border state of Chihuahua. Soldiers seized another
suspect and five weapons. 6 of the 11 municipal officers in La
Union, Guerrero state, resigned after armed men ambushed and wounded
two of their officers. Several other Mexican towns have seen mass
police resignations because of cartel violence or threats. In Mexico
State, on the outskirts of Mexico City, residents of a town beat a
man death on suspicion of robbing a young couple of 200 pesos (about
$16) and a cell phone. Juan Padilla Juarez (28), an alleged member
of the La Linea gang, was arrested in the border city of Ciudad
Juarez. He had allegedly participated in the killing of 10 people.
Police in northern Mexico arrested 8 men who allegedly kidnapped
migrants trying to reach the US. An investigation led to the arrest
of 3 more suspects a day later.
(AP, 5/18/10)(AP, 5/18/10)(AP, 5/19/10)
2010 May 17, Nicaragua’s navy
chief, Capt. Roger Gonzalez Diaz, said Mexico's La Familia cartel is
moving heavily into Central America and dominates much of the drug
trade through the region. He said officials would take tough
measures to prevent the trade.
(AP, 5/18/10)
2010 May 18, Mexico’s Attorney
General's Office announced that a judge handed down a prison
sentence of almost 22 years against Jaime Gonzalez Duran, also known
as "The Hummer," for money laundering and weapons possession.
(AP, 5/18/10)
2010 May 18, In Mexico City
Javier Covarrubias (20) left his house and took his 2 children to a
park. There he allegedly asphyxiated 1 1/2-year-old Isis Liliana,
and a half hour later he asphyxiated 2 1/2-year-old Darien Isai. He
soon reported his two children kidnapped but then changed his story
and said he really gave them to a woman to settle a debt of 25,000
pesos, or about $1,925. The bodies of the children were found on
June 8.
(AP, 6/9/10)
2010 May 19, Mexican police
found the mummified bodies of two women and three men stuffed in
plastic bags in a pickup truck left near a highway in the northern
Mexico state of Chihuahua. University authorities in Ciudad Juarez
also reported that a freshman had been found dead, wrapped in a
blanket at a local fairground. Authorities said about 88 tons (80
metric tons) of a precursor chemical used to make methamphetamines
had been seized at the Pacific Coast seaport of Manzanillo.
(AP, 5/20/10)
2010 May 20, Mexican President
Felipe Calderon also took his opposition to a new Arizona
immigration law to Congress, saying it "ignores a reality that
cannot be erased by decree." Calderon also urged the US Congress to
reinstate a ban on assault weapons to help cut cross-border gun
smuggling and reduce drug gang violence for its southern neighbor.
(AP, 5/20/10)(Reuters, 5/21/10)
2010 May 20, In Mexico
gunbattles between security forces and armed attackers killed nine
people in two states along the US border. Federal police announced
the capture of Jose Manuel Garcia, the Sinaloa cartel's alleged
chief operator in Mexico state. In the state of Coahuila, 2 police
officers and 3 gunmen died in a shootout in Torreon. In Ciudad
Juarez federal police detained Luis Humberto Hernandez, an alleged
gang member accused of participating in 11 killings. Timoteo
Alejandro Ramirez and his wife Cleriberta Castro were killed by
gunmen from a rival faction of San Juan Copala in southern Oaxaca
state. Ramirez was the leader of the town's autonomy movement.
(AP, 5/20/10)(AP, 5/21/10)
2010 May 21, Mexican officials
said Jose Manuel Garcia, a senior member of the Sinaloa cartel, one
of Mexico's largest criminal gangs, has been arrested along with a
cache of weapons, money and drugs.
(AFP, 5/21/10)
2010 May 25, Mexican federal
police arrested Gregorio Sanchez, the mayor of the resort city of
Cancun, on drug trafficking, money laundering and organized crime
charges, the latest blow to 2010 state and local elections already
marred by violence and allegations of drug cartel involvement. On
June 1 Sanchez was charged with drug trafficking ties, forcing him
to end his campaign for governor in a scandal that has shaken
Mexico's upcoming state elections.
(AP, 5/26/10)(AP, 6/1/10)
2010 May 26, Mexican marines
arrested Manzanillo port Captain Jorge Arturo Castaneda, accusing
him of drug trafficking ties. The port had become a hot spot for the
smuggling of methamphetamine precursor chemicals. In the northern
city of Piedras Negras, a soldier was killed and another wounded
when gunmen ambushed army troops inspecting flood-risk zones. Sergio
Adrian Martinez, a former state police officer and member of the
Arturo Beltran Leyva carte, was killed in a gunbattle with soldiers
in the northern city of Monterrey.
(AP, 5/27/10)
2010 May 27, Mexico's Supreme
Court upheld a law requiring hospitals to offer rape victims a
morning-after birth control pill, rejecting an appeal that argued
the pill's effect constitutes the equivalent of an abortion.
(AP, 5/27/10)
2010 May 28, In southern Mexico
people in the Indian village of Zaragoza disarmed and seized about
20 police officers and demanded the cancellation of arrest warrants
that arose from a local land dispute in Guerrero state.
(AP, 5/29/10)
2010 May 29, In Mexico the body
of a prison warden kidnapped by gunmen earlier in the day was found
dismembered and scattered in several locations in a Morelos state
adjacent to the Mexican capital. Police found an abandoned silver
mine scattered with bodies outside Taxco, Guerrero state. At least
64 bodies were eventually recovered in what appeared to be a dumping
ground for victims of organized crime.
(Reuters, 5/30/10)(AP, 5/30/10)(AP, 6/4/10)(AP,
6/7/10)(SFC, 6/25/10, p.A3)
2010 May 31, Mexican migrant
Anastasio Hernandez was shocked by a Customs and Border Protection
agent at the San Ysidro border crossing between Tijuana and San
Diego. A US coroner later ruled the death a homicide.
(AP, 6/4/10)(AP, 6/8/10)
2010 Jun 2, Two Mexican federal
police officers were killed in a clash with gunmen in northern Nuevo
Leon state.
(AP, 6/3/10)
2010 Jun 6, In Mexico police
discovered six dead bodies in a cavern near the tourist resort of
Cancun, three of them cut open and their hearts removed. Armed men
in two cars barged into a girl's coming-out party in the
southwestern town of Coyuca de Catalan, sparking a deadly gunbattle.
Two partygoers and one attacker were killed.
(AP, 6/6/10)
2010 Jun 7, In Mexico a prison
fight in the border city of Ciudad Juarez left three inmates dead. A
federal agent was also badly beaten during the fight.
(AP, 6/9/10)
2010 Jun 8, In Mexico six
inmates had their throats cut and died in a prison in Culiacan,
Sinaloa state.
(AP, 6/9/10)
2010 Jun 9, Mexican officials
said its has navy found more than 44 pounds (20kg) of explosives in
a trendy residential neighborhood in the capital after exchanging
information with US authorities.
(AP, 6/9/10)
2010 Jun 10, In Mexico a gang
of gunmen in Chihuahua city raided a drug rehabilitation center late
at night in the border state capital and killed 19 people. In Madero
a gang of gunmen killed at least 20 people in a series of armed
confrontations and shootings in at least five different locations in
the city in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas.
(AP, 6/11/10)(AFP, 6/11/10)
2010 Jun 11, In Mexico former
state police detective Irvin Solano was arrested in central Morelos
state. He was accused of becoming a top enforcer for Edgar Valdez
Villareal, a US-born drug trafficker.
(AP, 6/14/10)
2010 Jun 12, In Mexico a
government media tour to promote tourism in the southwest went awry
when machete-wielding Indians briefly kidnapped 13 reporters on the
trip. 15 people trying to film a beer commercial were also abducted.
The indigenous communal landowners were upset that Grupo Modelo, the
maker of Corona beer, had not asked their permission to film the
commercial on their property. They were all released unharmed but
the Indians refused to return cameras and other equipment.
(AP, 6/14/10)
2010 Jun 13, In Mexico 9 people
were killed when a plane belonging to a politician running for
governor in Quintana Roo state crashed. Roberto Borge, the powerful
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)'s candidate for governor,
was not aboard at the time.
(AFP, 6/14/10)
2010 Jun 14, In Mexico
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim
and Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced that foundations run
by Gates and Slim will each donate $50 million to the 150 million
2015 Meso-American Health Initiative. The Spanish government will
contribute the rest.
(AP, 6/15/10)
2010 Jun 14, In Mexico gunmen
killed 15 federal police officers in separate attacks. 12 officers
died in an ambush near a high school in the western state of
Michoacan. 3 gunmen were also killed in a clash with soldiers in
Michoacan. Assailants killed 3 more officers in Chihuahua City. At
least 29 inmates were killed as rival gangs clashed inside a prison
in Mazatlan, Sinaloa state.
(AP, 6/15/10)
2010 Jun 15, President Felipe
Calderon appealed to Mexicans to support the fight against organized
crime just hours after troops killed 15 suspected gang members, part
of a surge in violence that has June headed toward being the
deadliest month yet in his drug war. The government announced strict
limits on the deposit and exchange of dollars in banks, noting that
the economy was being flooded with illicit drug profits. A car bomb
killed a federal police officer and two civilians in Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 6/16/10)(SFC, 6/16/10, p.A2)
2010 Jun 16, In Mexico Alain
Escutia (20) and Emilio Palacios (22) were arrested in the Michoacan
state capital of Morelia for their role in the June 14 attack that
left 12 police officers dead in Michoacan.
(AP, 6/17/10)
2010 Jun 17, In Mexico police
in southern Guerrero state found the bodies of two men who had been
tortured in the town of Tepecoacuilco. In the northern border city
of Ciudad Juarez, two 15-year-old girls were among 15 people killed
in a 24-hour period. Soldiers acting on a tip raided 3 houses in
Culiacan, Sinaloa state, and found over $1 million in cash, guns,
drugs and expensive jewelry.
(AP, 6/17/10)(AP, 6/18/10)(SFC, 6/19/10, p.A2)
2010 Jun 18, In Mexico police
in Cancun found 12 decomposing bodies in four caverns and were
searching for more cadavers in violence blamed on drug gangs in the
resort city. 11 Mexican soldiers died in the crash of a military
helicopter carrying troops for anti-drug missions.
(AP, 6/19/10)(AP, 6/19/10)
2010 Jun 19, Carlos Monsivais
(b.1938), renowned Mexican journalist, critic and political
activist died in Mexico City. His death was confirmed by the
Estanquillo Museum that Monsivais founded in 2006 with his extensive
collection of pop art pieces ranging from comic books to miniature
reproductions of household objects.
(AP, 6/20/10)
2010 Jun 20, In Mexico a mayor
and another man in the southern state of Oaxaca were killed by
assailants in a dispute apparently motivated by a disagreement over
a mine. A man and his 12-year-old daughter were detained in Guerrero
state for allegedly killing a neighboring land owner in a dispute
over land.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 21, In Mexico
assailants sprayed a town hall with gunfire close to midnight,
killing at least three police officers in Nuevo Leon state.
(AP, 6/22/10)
2010 Jun 24, In Mexico police
in the border city of Mexicali arrested Manuel Garibay (52), a
purported top figure in Mexico's powerful Sinaloa drug cartel. 6
gunmen died in two shootouts in Matamoros, across from Brownsville,
Texas. Another five gunmen died after clashing with soldiers in
Ciudad Mier, which is also in Tamaulipas.
(AP, 6/26/10)
2010 Jun 26, In southern Mexico
a mob armed with clubs, stones and guns attacked a political rally,
sparking hours of clashes that left three people dead and six more
wounded in the town of Nachig, Chiapas state. 9 people were killed
when gunmen opened fire in a drug rehabilitation center in Chihuahua
city, Durango state.
(AP, 6/26/10)
2010 Jun 26, In Mexico City
thousands of people took part in a gay pride parade, celebrating the
city's historic decision six months ago to become the first city in
Latin America to allow same-sex marriage.
(AFP, 6/27/10)
2010 Jun 28, In Mexico gunmen
ambushed campaign caravan of Rodolfo Torre (46) less than a week
before he was expected to win the governor's race in Tamaulipas, a
state torn by a turf battle between two rival drug cartels. Torre
and 4 other people were killed: three of the candidate's bodyguards
and a state lawmaker. In Guerrero state reported Juan Rodriguez Rios
and his wife were shot dead inside an Internet café they operated in
Coyuca de Benitez.
(AP, 6/29/10)(SFC, 6/30/10, p.A2)
2010 Jun 29, The government of
Mexico lifted the alert for swine flu, officially ending the health
emergency in the country where the illness first appeared 14 months
ago.
(AP, 6/29/10)
2010 Jun 29, In Mexico Miguel
Ortiz Miranda, alias El Tyson, a key suspect in the April 24 ambush
of Michoacan’s state security chief, was arrested in Morelia.
(SFC, 7/1/10, p.A3)
2010 Jul 1, In Mexico a massive
gun battle between rival drug and migrant trafficking gangs near the
US border left 21 people dead near Nogales, Sonora state.
(AP, 7/1/10)(SFC, 7/2/10, p.A2)
2010 Jul 1, In Mexico the
sprawling remains of Hurricane Alex drenched much of the north,
paralyzing the major city of Monterrey. 12 people were killed.
(AP, 7/1/10)(SSFC, 7/4/10, p.A4)(Econ, 7/10/10,
p.30)
2010 Jul 2, Mexican authorities
said they have arrested Jesus Ernesto Chavez (41), a drug-cartel
enforcer. Chavez said Lesley Enriquez, a woman who worked in the
Mexican border's biggest US consulate, had helped a rival gang
obtain American visas, and for that he ordered her killed. Employee
Lesley Enriquez (35) and two other people connected to the US
consulate in the city of Ciudad Juarez were killed March 13 in
attacks that raised concerns that Americans were being caught up in
drug-related border violence.
(AP, 7/2/10)(SFC, 7/3/10, p.A3)
2010 Jul 5, Mexico’s
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled for seven
decades before voters threw it out a decade ago, gained some
momentum in state elections where the dominant issue was the
country's skyrocketing drug violence. Police found the decapitated
bodies of three men inside a burned-out car in the drug gang-plagued
Mexican state of Sinaloa. The heads had been put on the vehicle's
hood.
(McClatchy, 7/5/10)(AP, 7/5/10)
2010 Jul 6, The bodyguard of a
Mexican state governor was ordered jailed pending an investigation
into allegations that he belongs to a drug cartel, one of a string
of scandals that plagued weekend elections. Ismael Ortega Galicia, a
bodyguard for Tamaulipas Gov. Eugenio Hernandez, was detained for
questioning over the weekend after the newspaper Reforma reported he
was on a US Treasury Department list of key members of the Gulf or
Zetas gangs.
(AP, 7/6/10)
2010 Jul 6, In northern Mexico
about 18,000 people were evacuated from Ciudad Anahuac, where
authorities feared a dam would overflow from rains that accompanied
Hurricane Alex. The Venustiano Carranza dam, about 70 km (43 miles)
away, reached capacity after days of heavy rains, including remnants
of the hurricane, which slammed into Mexico's northern Gulf coast
last week.
(AP, 7/6/10)
2010 Jul 7, In Mexico a judge
acquitted Juan Llaca Diaz, a man charged with dealing in precursor
drug chemicals and allegedly linked to the bust of a Chinese-Mexican
businessman who hid $205 million at his Mexico City mansion.
(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 7, A Mexican air force
helicopter crashed in the western state of Jalisco, killing three
military personnel on board.
(AP, 7/10/10)
2010 Jul 8, In Mexico 4
suspects were killed in a shootout with police in the border state
of Coahuila. 5 civilian bystanders were wounded.
(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 10, Mexican marines
raided a house in the Pacific resort of Acapulco and captured
Gamaliel Aguirre Tavira (35), a suspected regional chief of a drug
gang involved in a bloody turf war in the center and south of
Mexico. Authorities said Tavira is a close ally of Edgar Valdez
Villarreal, a Texas-born gang boss known as "La Barbie" who leads
one of the two factions fighting over control of the Beltran Leyva
drug cartel.
(AP, 7/11/10)
2010 Jul 12, In Mexico 3
assailants died in a shootout with soldiers in the border city of
Reynosa. The soldiers reportedly came under fire while on patrol,
returned fire and seized three rifles at the scene.
(AP, 7/14/10)
2010 Jul 13, In Mexico 3 dead
bodies were found hanging from pedestrian bridges in the central
city of Cuernavaca. The bodies were accompanied by threatening notes
signed by a drug gang. The three men escaped from a state prison
last month. Gunmen killed three state police officers in two
ambush-style attacks in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. Another
officer was seriously wounded.
(AP, 7/14/10)
2010 Jul 13, Australian police
said they have seized 240 kg (530 pounds) of cocaine worth 84
million dollars ($73 million) which was stashed in paving stones. 4
men including an American, a Mexican and two Australians were
arrested over the haul, Australia's fifth biggest cocaine seizure,
which was discovered in two shipping containers sent to Melbourne
from Mexico.
(AFP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 14, In Mexico gunmen
shot and killed Mario Medina, the nephew of Chihuahua state
governor-elect Cesar Duarte, in a botched kidnapping attempt.
(SFC, 7/16/10, p.A2)
2010 Jul 15, In Mexico members
of a northern drug gang rammed a car that may have been packed with
explosives or inflammable material into two police patrol trucks in
the border city of Ciudad Juarez, killing two officers and a medical
technician, and wounding nine people. The attack was said to be in
retaliation for the arrest of a top leader of the La Linea drug
gang, Jesus Acosta Guerrero, earlier in the day. It was the first
time a drug cartel has used a car bomb to attack Mexican security
forces. On Oct 20 Fernando Contreras was arrested in Chihuahua along
with 14 others, several weapons and drugs. Police said Contreras had
detonated the car bomb.
(AP, 7/16/10)(AP, 7/17/10)(AP, 10/21/10)
2010 Jul 16, In Mexico 5
factory workers were gunned down when armed men burst into a party
at a house in Ciudad Juarez. In other municipalities of Chihuahua,
which shares a long border with Texas, there were four killings.
(AP, 7/17/10)
2010 Jul 16, In Mexico Roberto
Cabrera (38), with a mysterious bulge under his T-shirt, was
stopped, searched and detained at Mexico City's international
airport after arriving from Peru. Authorities found 18 tiny
endangered monkeys in a girdle he was wearing. Two of the monkeys
were dead.
(AP, 7/19/10)
2010 Jul 17, In Mexico 4
policemen were shot dead by unknown assailants on a rural road near
the port of Acapulco. Six other violent deaths were recorded in
Ciudad Juarez including a man and his daughter were shot by gunmen
who entered his home early in the day.
(AP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 18, In Mexico gunmen
jumped from their cars and stormed a private party in Torreon. They
simply opened fire killing 17 people with 18 wounded. On July 25
prosecutors said that guards and officials at a prison let inmates
out, lent them guns and sent them off in official vehicles to carry
out drug-related killings, including the massacre of 17 in Torreon.
(AP, 7/19/10)(AP, 7/26/10)
2010 Jul 22, Mexican soldiers
fought gunbattles overnight with gangs who forced citizens from
their cars and used the vehicles to block streets in Nuevo Laredo
across the border from Texas. Witnesses reported that several gunmen
were killed. 8 suspected drug gang gunmen died in a battle with
Mexican soldiers in the remote mountains of northern Chihuahua
state. Authorities began uncovering the remains of at least 51
people in a series of pits and scattered on the ground at a
suspected drug-gang dumping site near Monterrey, Nuevo Leon state.
(AP, 7/22/10)(AP, 7/24/10)
2010 Jul 22, The US Treasury
Department added two companies owned by daughters of drug lord
Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada to the list of sanctioned companies under
the Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. The US Embassy in Mexico City
said the two women, Maria Teresa Zambada Niebla and Midiam Patricia
Zambada Niebla, served as "front persons" for their father's illicit
transactions. The companies named to the list are Arte y Diseno de
Culiacan SA de CV and Autotransportes JYM SA de CV.
(AP, 7/22/10)
2010 Jul 23, Jesus Quinonez,
the international liaison for the Baja California state attorney
general's office, was among 43 defendants named in a US federal
racketeering complaint that alleges murder, kidnapping and other
crimes. They were accused of working for Fernando Sanchez Arellano,
widely considered the most-wanted drug kingpin in Tijuana. Quinonez
(49) was arrested a day earlier in San Diego during a traffic stop.
(AP, 7/24/10)
2010 Jul 26, In Mexico six men
were found inside a car in the southwestern city of Chilpancingo,
Guerrero state. Next to them lay a message reading: "This will
happen to all rapists, extortionists and kidnappers. Attentively,
the New Cartel of the Sierra." The bodies of four men were found
dumped in a plaza in Nuevo Laredo. In Cuernavaca state investigators
found the burned bodies of three men near a major highway. The
victims had been bound before being burned. Painted on a nearby wall
were the letters "CPS," an apparent reference to the Southern
Pacific drug cartel. 4 journalists disappeared in the Laguna region,
which includes Durango and areas of the neighboring state of
Coahuila. A Milenio newspaper and TV network cameramen and three
other journalists were abducted after covering a prison scandal in
the northern state of Durango in which inmates are accused of being
hired guns for a local cartel. The 4 were soon freed and 3 men
working for the Sinaloa drug cartel were detained for participating
in the kidnapping.
(AP, 7/26/10)(AP, 7/27/10)(Reuters, 7/29/10)(AP,
8/5/10)
2010 Jul 27, In Mexico 3
federal police agents were shot to death on a highway in a
confrontation with gunmen. A second cousin of Gov.-elect Cesar
Duarte was shot to death by attackers in the city of Parral. The
severed heads of eight men were found left in pairs along highways
in the northern Mexico state of Durango. Rogelio Segovia Hernandez,
a suspected drug cartel lieutenant with a quarter-million-dollar
reward on his head, was captured in the border state of Chihuahua,
where rival gangs are waging a bloody turf war.
(AP, 7/27/10)(AP, 7/28/10)
2010 Jul 28, In Mexico 3 men
and a woman were gunned down at a pizzeria in Mexico City.
(AFP, 7/29/10)
2010 Jul 29, In Mexico soldiers
killed Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel (56), a top leader of the Sinaloa
cartel, in a raid on his posh hideout in the western city of
Guadalajara. One soldier was killed and Francisco Quinones, his
right-hand man, was arrested. Mexican federal troops found $7
million in cash at the site as well as jewelry, luxury watches,
guns, two hand grenades and three expensive cars.
(AP, 7/30/10)(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 30, In Mexico Chinese
Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi signed a four-year cooperation accord
with Mexico aimed at boosting political and economic ties.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 31, Mexican federal
police rescued two kidnapped news cameramen in the northern city of
Gomez Palacio, Coahuila state, five days after they were seized by
drug traffickers in a bid to get their employers to broadcast cartel
messages.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 31, Mexico said it
will send its ambassador back to Honduras next week, recognizing the
government of Honduran President Porfirio Lobo a year after his
predecessor was ousted by a military-backed coup.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Aug 2, Compania Mexicana
de Aviacion filed for bankruptcy.
(Econ, 8/14/10, p.53)
2010 Aug 2, UNESCO added 6
sites located in Brazil, China, Mexico, France's Reunion Island and
the South Pacific nation of Kiribati to World Heritage status.
(AP, 8/2/10)
2010 Aug 3, Mexico’s President
Felipe Calderon said he would consider a debate on legalizing drugs
as his government announced that more than 28,000 people have been
killed in drug violence since he launched a crackdown against
cartels in 2006.
(AP, 8/3/10)
2010 Aug 4, Mexican authorities
said 7 bodies were found in a clandestine grave in Mazatlan, Sinaloa
state. The bodies were found after an anonymous tip and showed signs
of having been tortured prior to their death.
(SFC, 8/5/10, p.A2)
2010 Aug 6, In Mexico rival
gangs clashed, killing 14 inmates at a prison in the border city of
Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.
(AP, 8/7/10)
2010 Aug 8, Former Mexican
Pres. Vincente Fox, who was a key US ally in the war on drugs,
backed the legalization of drugs, saying prohibition has failed to
curb Mexico's spiraling violence and corruption.
(Reuters 8/910)
2010 Aug 10, Mexico's Supreme
Court ruled that all 31 states must recognize same-sex marriages
performed in the capital, though its decision does not force those
states to begin marrying gay couples in their territory.
(AP, 8/11/10)
2010 Aug 11, Mexico’s President
Felipe Calderon questioned prosecutors and judges as to why so few
people are caught and punished for violent crimes.
(AP, 8/11/10)
2010 Aug 12, In Mexico police
found the bodies of six people in two locations. The bodies of four
males, including two teenagers, were found with their hands and feet
bound inside a car in the town of Tepalcatepec, Michoacan state.
Minutes earlier police in Tepalcatepec found the body of a man and a
woman alongside a road.
(AP, 8/14/10)
2010 Aug 13, President Barack
Obama signed a $600 million bill to put more agents and equipment
along the Mexican border. The new law nearly doubled fees on visas
for skilled workers brought in by companies whose employees are more
than 50 percent foreign, a move that largely affects India's IT and
outsourcing industries.
(AP, 8/13/10)(AFP, 8/14/10)
2010 Aug 14, Mexican
authorities said that police in Ciudad Juarez have captured five
alleged drug gang members suspected in the killings of two federal
officers, including one whose body was hacked to pieces.
(AP, 8/14/10)(AFP, 8/15/10)
2010 Aug 15, In Mexico
attackers shot 8 men to death and piled their bodies in a pickup
truck in the southern state of Oaxaca. Gunmen kidnapped Edelmiro
Cavazos, mayor of the town Santiago, a city on the outskirts of
Monterrey. His body was found on Aug 18. In Ciudad Juarez gunmen
opened fire on the pool party in central Ciudad Juarez, killing 3
women and a man and wounding 5 other women, all of whom were wearing
swimsuits. In an attack at a private house, gunmen riddled
party-goers with bullets. 3 victims died at the scene, and another 3
in hospital. The bodies of four other men, "showing signs of torture
with several shots through their heads," were found in other parts
of the city. The city had more than 2,660 murders in 2009 and 1,850
so far this year. In Veracruz police found the bound, burned remains
of a body with a federal police badge.
(AFP, 8/15/10)(AP, 8/16/10)(Reuters, 8/18/10)
2010 Aug 16, Mexico's Supreme
Court voted to uphold a Mexico City law allowing adoptions by
same-sex couples, drawing jubilant cheers from gay advocacy groups
and angry protests from Roman Catholic Church representatives.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Mexico 4
inmates were found dead with their throats slashed at a prison in
the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa.
(AP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 19, President Felipe
Calderon said Mexico should consider appointing anonymous judges for
drug trafficking trials, an unexpected proposal that he acknowledged
contradicts the country's efforts to build a more open judicial
system.
(AP, 8/19/10)
2010 Aug 20, In Mexico 6 city
police officers were arrested in the killing of Santiago Mayor
Edelmiro Cavazos. The suspects included the officer who guarded the
house where Cavazos was kidnapped on Aug 15. A shootout in Santa
Catalina, a suburb of Monterrey, left 3 security guards wounded. 2
slain guards were found the next day in the trunk of a car.
(AP, 8/20/10)(AP, 8/22/10)
2010 Aug 20, Mexican
prosecutors added tax evasion charges to drug counts pending against
for Zhenli Ye Gon, a Chinese-Mexican businessman who is fighting
extradition from the United States. Ye Gon was jailed in the US more
than two years ago on charges of smuggling methamphetamines from
Mexico to the US.
(AP, 8/20/10)
2010 Aug 20, Mexican police
detained six suspects on the southern Pacific coast with 3,756
illegally harvested eggs from protected sea turtles.
(AP, 8/20/10)
2010 Aug 21, In Mexico a
gunbattle erupted between police and gunmen in Ciudad Juarez,
killing one person and prompting US authorities to close a highway
that runs along the border in El Paso, Texas. The bodies of two
security guards for Mexican bottling company FEMSA were found dead a
day after a shootout in Santa Catalina, a suburb of Monterrey.
(AP, 8/22/10)
2010 Aug 21, A consortium of
Mexican investors said they have acquired 95 percent of Mexicana de
Aviacion airline, which earlier this month filed for bankruptcy
protection. The Tenedora K group was formed "to capitalize" and
"save" Nuevo Grupo Aeronautico, the holding company that controls
Mexicana de Aviacion and two domestic airlines, Mexicana Click and
Mexicana Link.
(AFP, 8/22/10)
2010 Aug 22, In Mexico the
decapitated bodies of four men were hung from a bridge in
Cuernavaca, a city besieged by fighting between two drug lords.
Police found the body of a US citizen inside a car along the highway
between the Pacific resorts of Acapulco and Zihuatanejo. A Mexican
soldier said that Joseph Proctor (32) attacked an army convoy with
an AR-15 rifle and was killed when troops shot him in self-defense.
Proctor had told his girlfriend he was popping out to a convenience
store in Acapulco where the couple had just moved. The next morning
the New York native was dead inside his crashed van on a road
outside the town. Three soldiers were later charged with his
killing.
(AP, 8/22/10)(AP, 8/23/10)(AP, 12/25/10)
2010 Aug 23, Mexican police in
the border city of Tijuana found two bodies on the outskirts of town
and were searching for more. Baja California state prosecutors said
recently arrested suspects told authorities at least four more
bodies had been buried in the same area. A judge ordered the
released of 13 Tijuana city police officers who were arrested by
soldiers and sent to prison more than a year ago on charges of
protecting drug traffickers. The judge ruled there wasn't enough
evidence.
(AP, 8/23/10)
2010 Aug 23, In Las Vegas
Mexico's Jimena Navarrete (22) was crowned Miss Universe in an upset
victory that stunned a pageant world which had predicted a winner to
emerge from Ireland, Venezuela or the United States.
(AFP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 24, Mexican marines
found the dumped bodies of 72 people at a ranch in northern Mexico
following a shootout with suspected drug cartel gunmen that left one
marine and three suspects dead. Two migrants survived the massacre
and provided information in the investigation. 77 people were later
said to be in the group and that a 3rd migrant had survived with 2
still missing. The dismembered bodies of 2 men were found hung from
a bridge at the entrance to Chilpancingo, near Acapulco.
(AP, 8/25/10)(SFC, 8/25/10, p.A2)(AP, 9/1/10)(AP,
9/5/10)
2010 Aug 25, A Mexican judge
found Mario Bautista, former Michoacan state police director,
innocent of charges he helped a drug gang. He was arrested by
federal investigators in May 2009 along with 34 other local and
state officials in Michoacan. 26 of them have already been set free
for lack of evidence or after a judge found them innocent.
(AP, 8/26/10)(Reuters, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 26, In Mexico at least
16 people were injured, some seriously, after a grenade was thrown
into a crowded bar in the internationally-popular beach resort of
Puerto Vallarta. 5 of the injured were detained as part of an
investigation. Four of those detained each lost a leg in the
explosion.
(Reuters, 8/26/10)(AP, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 27, In northern Mexico
a car exploded in front of the offices of a major Mexican television
station in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas state, where officials were
investigating the massacre of 72 Central and South American
migrants.
(AP, 8/27/10)
2010 Aug 28, Saul de la Rosa
(27), a US resident, was abducted along with two other people when
he crossed into Ciudad Juarez. All three bodies were found Sept. 2.
Documents found on De la Rosa indicated he was a US resident.
(AP, 9/11/10)
2010 Aug 29, In Mexico gunmen
killed the mayor of a town in the border state of Tamaulipas.
Hidalgo Mayor Marco Antonio Leal Garcia was the second mayor to be
assassinated in the past two weeks in the area.
(AP, 8/30/10)
2010 Aug 30, Mexican police
captured a Texas-born fugitive known as "the Barbie." Edgar Valdez
Villarreal (37) allegedly led a violent smuggling network. He became
the third suspected drug lord to fall in Mexico in the past 10
months in a coup for Pres. Calderon's war on cartels. An anonymous
caller tipped authorities off to the presence of 3 bodies in
Tamaulipas state. Marines found the 3 bodies as well as the bodies
of 2 women, not identified as culprits. A Honduran man who survived
the Aug 24 slaughter identified the three men as having been among
the killers of 72 migrants.
(AP, 8/31/10)(AP, 9/6/10)
2010 Aug 31, In Mexico 6 women
and two men died in a fire at a bar frequented by locals in the
resort of Cancun. Bar employees told police that unidentified men
tossed gasoline bombs at the establishment. Police soon arrested six
suspects, who said a drug gang hired them to throw gasoline bombs at
the bar, presumably in an attempt at extortion.
(AP, 8/31/10)(AP, 9/3/10)
2010 Sep 2, In Mexico soldiers
killed at least 25 suspected cartel members in a raid and gunbattle
in Tamaulipas state near the US border, that has become one of the
most dangerous battlegrounds in the country's drug war.
(AP, 9/3/10)
2010 Sep 3, In Mexico five
suspected cartel members were killed in Nuevo Leon state, during a
shootout on a highway leading to the border.
(AP, 9/3/10)
2010 Sep 3, Two members of
Mexico’s Congress were among six people killed on when their private
plane crashed near a popular Pacific beach resort. Guillermo
Zavaleta and Juan Huerta, members of President Felipe Calderon's
National Action Party, or PAN, died in the crash in Huatulco in the
state of Oaxaca.
(Reuters, 9/4/10)
2010 Sep 5, In northern Mexico
soldiers opened fire on a family's car when it allegedly failed to
stop at a military checkpoint, killing a 15-year-old boy and his
father. Relatives who were also in the car said they were shot at
after they passed a military convoy. On Sep 12 the military
announced that it filed charges against four troops for the
shooting.
(AP, 9/6/10)(AP, 9/12/10)
2010 Sep 6, Mexico’s Navy
announced it had found a clandestine grave with two bodies in
Tamaulipas, not far from the Aug 24 massacre site. It was unclear if
the grave was related to the massacre of 72 migrants. Marines had
arrested four suspects at the scene on Sept. 3. The bodies appeared
to be those of a state detective and local police chief who
disappeared while investigating the massacre.
(AP, 9/6/10)(AP, 9/8/10)
2010 Sep 7, In Mexico pieces of
the dismembered bodies of two men were found scattered around a
children's park in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero. Gunmen
attacked a vehicle in Ciudad Juarez carrying inmates from the
city's prison, killing 2 guards and wounding a prisoner.
(AP, 9/8/10)
2010 Sep 7, In Mexico 7 women
serving prison terms of up to 29 years for the death of their
newborns were freed after a legal reform enacted in the state of
Guanajuato lowered their sentences.
(AP, 9/7/10)
2010 Sep 8, In Mexico hooded
gunmen burst into Mayor Alexander Lopez Garcia's office in the
northern Mexico state of San Luis Potosi and shot him to death. He
was the third mayor slain in less than a month.
(AP, 9/9/10)
2010 Sep 8, In southern Mexico
tens of thousands of people have abandoned their homes to escape
flooding from weeks of torrential rains, and forecasts are
predicting even more rainfall. The flooding has affected all four of
Mexico's southernmost states: Tabasco, Veracruz, Chiapas and Oaxaca.
(AP, 9/8/10)
2010 Sep 9, In Mexico gunmen
killed 25 people in a series of drug-gang attacks in Ciudad Juarez,
marking the deadliest day in more than two years for the Mexican
border city.
(AP, 9/11/10)
2010 Sep 10, In Mexico 85
inmates scaled the walls of a prison in the border city of Reynosa
and escaped in the country’s biggest jail break in recent memory. At
least five people were killed in the southern Pacific coast state of
Guerrero, where various cartels are also fighting for territory.
(AP, 9/11/10)
2010 Sep 10, A Guatemalan court
sentenced 6 Mexicans and 8 Guatemalans, all members of Mexico’s
Zetas drug gang, to lengthy prison terms for the killing of 11
people two years ago.
(http://tinyurl.com/34zmpqn)(Econ, 10/16/10,
p.31)
2010 Sep 11, In Mexico’s
central state of Morelos police discovered nine bodies in
clandestine graves in the same area where four more were recently
found. A phone tip led authorities to a dead body in a car in a
shopping center parking lot in Ciudad Juarez. Police found a bomb in
a second car at the site and carried out a controlled detonation.
Federal authorities announced the arrest of two Colombian brothers,
Dario Emilio Valencia and Victor Espinosa Valencia, alleged to
have ties to Edgar "La Barbie" Valdez Villarreal and belonging to a
group responsible for buying cocaine in Colombia and smuggling it to
the United States.
(AP, 9/12/10)
2010 Sep 12, Mexican marines
captured Sergio Villarreal Barragan (“the Child-eater”), a presumed
leader of the embattled Beltran Leyva cartel, along with 2
accomplices in a raid in the central state of Puebla.
(AP, 9/12/10)(Econ, 9/18/10, p.53)
2010 Sep 15, Mexico looked
beyond its drug war to throw a 200th birthday bash celebrating a
proud history, whimsical culture and resilience embodied in the
traditional independence cry: "Viva Mexico!" A gunbattle between
Mexican soldiers and suspected drug cartel members left 22 dead at
ranch on the outskirts of Ciudad Mier near the US border.
(AP, 9/16/10)(AP, 9/16/10)
2010 Sep 16, In Mexico gunmen
attacked two newspaper photographers in the drug war-torn border
city of Ciudad Juarez, killing Luis Carlos Santiago (21) and
seriously wounding Carlos Sanchez of the Diario de Juarez.
(AP, 9/17/10)
2010 Sep 17, In Mexico gunmen
burst into a bar in Ciudad Juarez and killed 6 men and a woman. Over
4,000 people have died in the city over the last 2 years as a turf
war continued between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels. Gunmen
kidnapped 9 police officers investigating a death in the southern
state of Guerrero. The headless bodies of two of the lawmen were
found near El Revelado, the community where the police group was
kidnapped. 6 more were found Sep 19 in a ravine. One survivor was
located in Acapulco. Troops killed three suspected drug cartel
gunmen in a gunbattle and also freed a kidnap victim near the
industrial city of Monterrey.
(SFC, 9/18/10, p.A2)(AP, 9/18/10)(AP, 9/19/10)
2010 Sep 17, Hurricane Karl hit
Mexico’s Gulf Coast. At least 16 people were killed after several
days of flooding and mudslides.
(SFC, 9/18/10, p.A3)(SFC, 9/18/10, p.A6)(AP,
9/20/10)
2010 Sep 18, In Mexico’s
Guerrero state unidentified men traveling in two vehicles threw two
human heads into a refreshment stand in Coyuca de Catalan. One of
the heads was blindfolded with duct tape. They were later associated
to 2 of 9 police officers abducted a day earlier. Authorities in
Ciudad Juarez said police arrested two alleged leaders of the Aztecs
gang linked to at least 10 murders, including the killing of a
federal police officer last month.
(AP, 9/18/10)(AP, 9/19/10)
2010 Sep 19, In Ciudad Juarez,
Mexico, a front-page editorial by El Diario de Juarez asked warring
drug cartels to say what they want from the newspaper, so it can
continue its work without further death, injury or intimidation of
its staff.
(AP, 9/20/10)
2010 Sep 20, In Mexico rocks
and mud tumbled down a hill onto a highway in Villa Guerrero, south
of Mexico City. Five bodies were pulled out, and an unknown number
of people were missing. More than 70 people have died during the
rainy season in Mexico, which has been one of the heaviest on
record.
(AP, 9/21/10)
2010 Sep 21, In Mexico a mob
beat two alleged kidnappers to death in the northern border state of
Chihuahua. The two men and three others were suspected in the
kidnapping of a 17-year-old girl from Asencion.
(AP, 9/21/10)
2010 Sep 22, Mexico’s President
Felipe Calderon announced a plan to protect journalists, as violence
against reporters has surged since the government launched a
crackdown on drug traffickers nearly four years ago.
(AP, 9/23/10)
2010 Sep 23, In Mexico gunmen
killed Prisciliano Rodriguez Salinas, mayor of the town of Doctor
Gonzalez, near Monterrey, as well as his personal assistant. He
became the fourth mayor in northern Mexico to be murdered in little
more than a month. Two men were later arrested for the killing
because of a land dispute. They had been paid $6,000. An uncle of
one of the two suspects had hired them a week before the
assassination.
(AP, 9/24/10)(AP, 9/30/10)
2010 Sep 24, In Mexico Ricardo
Solis, the recently elected mayor of the small town of Gran Morelos'
in the northern state of Chihuahua, was shot in the head and chest
by gunmen who drove up in two SUVs. Soldiers near Monterrey came
under fire when they went to look into a tip that a local ranch had
been taken over by members of a drug gang. The soldiers fired back,
killing two alleged assailants, and then seized 12 rifles and over
2,000 rounds of ammunition. Mexican soldiers detained Jose Angel
Fernandez, the Zetas drug cartel's alleged operations chief for the
resort city of Cancun, along with three alleged accomplices.
Fernandez was suspected in last month's fire-bombing of a bar that
killed eight people.
(Reuters, 9/25/10)(AP, 9/25/10)(AP, 9/26/10)
2010 Sep 25, Mexican
authorities said they have arrested Margarito Soto Reyes (44), an
alleged trafficker known as "The Tiger," who they say shipped a
half-ton of drugs to the US each month and may have been poised to
take over for a dead capo in the Sinaloa cartel. 8 alleged
accomplices were also arrested near Guadalajara. Police in the
northern state of Chihuahua announced they had found the bodies of
six men piled in a sport utility vehicle on a roadside in a remote,
southern area of the state. The men had all apparently been shot in
the head. And in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, unidentified
assailants dumped the hacked-up body of a man on a street.
(AP, 9/25/10)
2010 Sep 25, Mexican
authorities sighted the wreckage of a small plane in the mountains
of Baja California believed to have taken off from Los Angeles, Ca.,
with four people on board.
(AP, 9/25/10)
2010 Sep 27, In Mexico the
bodies of Tancitaro Mayor Gustavo Sanchez and city adviser Rafael
Equihua were discovered in a pickup truck abandoned on a dirt road
near the city of Uruapan, the fifth city leader to be slain in
Mexico since mid-August. Also in Michoacan state, five gunmen and a
marine were killed in a shootout in Coahuayana on the Pacific coast.
Another gunbattle in the Gulf coast state of Tamaulipas left eight
gunmen and one marine dead in the border city of Reynosa. In the
border state of Chihuahua, gunmen broke into a police complex,
subdued the guards and stole at least 40 automatic rifles and 23
handguns.
(AP, 9/27/10)
2010 Sep 28, In Mexico a
hillside collapsed on the rural community of Santa Maria de
Tlahuitoltepec, Oaxaca state. Although hundreds of people were
initially feared dead only 11 people were missing and likely dead.
(AP, 9/28/10)(AP, 9/29/10)(AP, 9/30/10)
2010 Sep 29, Mexican officials
announced that marines had captured 30 suspected Gulf cartel members
and seized an arsenal of weapons during two days of raids in the
northern border state of Tamaulipas. Two federal police officers
were slain at a downtown hotel in Ciudad Juarez. Attackers threw an
explosive at city hall in Matamoros, injuring three people.
(AP, 9/30/10)
2010 Sep 29, In Mexico a
landslide surged into a community in Chiapas state, killing 16
people and injuring 13, while another avalanche left three people
missing in a nearby town.
(AP, 9/30/10)
2010 Sep 30, In Mexico rescuers
found more bodies buried by earlier landslides, raising the death
toll from a series of slides in the south to at least 36. Another
landslide in the town of Villa Hidalgo Yalalag in Oaxaca state
buried an 80-year-old man and his 68-year-old wife.
(AFP, 9/30/10)(AP, 10/1/10)
2010 Sep 30, In Mexico a group
of 20 men in Acapulco, visiting from the western city of Morelia,
were abducted by an armed gang as they looked for a place to stay. 2
fellow travelers had left the others to go a store and when they
returned their companions were gone. On Nov 3 the bodies of the 18
men were found in a mass grave outside Acapulco.
(AP, 10/2/10)(AP, 11/6/10)
2010 Sep 30, Tiffany Hartley
and her husband, David, were on Jet Skis on Falcon Lake, Texas, when
men on three speedboats chased them, shooting her husband in the
head. Authorities have not recovered his body. The alleged attack
happened near the US-Mexican boundary of the lake, which is about 60
miles down the border from Laredo.
(AP, 10/5/10)
2010 Oct 1, In Mexico a
shootout between rival drug-dealing gangs broke out in the town of
San Jose de la Cruz. 14 people were left dead.
(AP, 10/2/10)
2010 Oct 2, In Mexico 33
murders took place in Chihuahua state over the last 2 days with 9 of
the dead in Ciudad Juarez. In the northeast an explosion at a plaza
in Guadalupe injured 15 people. Authorities blamed the attack on
drug cartels targeting the civilian population to cause chaos. In
the northeast an explosion at a plaza in Guadalupe injured 15
people. Authorities blamed the attack on drug cartels targeting the
civilian population to cause chaos.
(AFP, 10/2/10)(AFP, 10/3/10)(AP, 10/4/10)
2010 Oct 5, US ATF deputy
director Kenneth Melson and Mexico Attorney General Arturo Chavez
signed a memorandum of understanding that will increase to 30 a
month the number of people trained to use the program, known as
eTrace, an electronic database that can trace the manufacture,
import, sale and ownership of guns.
(AP, 10/6/10)
2010 Oct 8, In Mexico Antonio
Jimenez Banos (47), who would have taken office in January in
Martires de Tacubaya, was killed by an assailant as he was returning
to his farm. Eleven sitting mayors have been killed so far this year
in Mexico.
(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Oct 10, In Chandler,
Arizona, Martin Alejandro Cota-Monroy's body was found in a suburban
Phoenix apartment, his severed head a couple feet away. Detectives
suspected that Cota-Monroy's killing was punishment for stealing
drugs. A police report on Feb 2, 2011, said that Cota-Monroy stole
400 pounds of marijuana and some meth from the PEI-Estatales/El
Chapo drug trafficking organization. Cota-Monroy told the cartel
that the Border Patrol had seized the drugs, but the cartel learned
the truth and hired men to kidnap and kill him in Nogales, Mexico.
Cota-Monroy fled to the Phoenix area, leading the cartel to hire
assassins to go to Arizona, befriend Cota-Monroy and kill him. One
man, Crisantos Moroyoqui, was later charged in the killing, and
three others were believed to have fled to Mexico.
(AP, 10/30/10)(AP, 3/3/11)
2010 Oct 11, In Mexico 8 police
officers were killed in an ambush in Sinaloa state. In Tijuana
police found the decapitated bodies of two men hung by their feet
off a bridge. Their heads were found in a car abandoned on the
bridge.
(AP, 10/11/10)
2010 Oct 12, Mexican soldiers
captured Seiki Ogata, an alleged Tabasco state Zetas gang leader,
along with 5 other gang members. Ogata was suspected of organizing
the massacre of a dead marine Melquisedet Angulo’s family last Dec.,
just days after Angulo had been killed during a raid in Cuernavaca,
that left drug kingpin Arturo Beltran Leyva dead. Authorities in
Sinaloa state said they found 3 beheaded bodies along a highway that
leads to the town of Imala. The bodies were accompanied with a
message that accused them of being kidnappers. The decapitated head
of police commander Rolando Flores was found in a suitcase outside a
Mexican Army base. He had been investigating the reported shooting
of an American tourist on Falcon Lake. Pirates have robbed boaters
and fisherman on the Mexican side. Motorists found a decapitated
body underneath a bridge on a road leading to the beachside
neighborhood of Playas de Tijuana. Earlier in the day police found a
human head inside a bag in another Tijuana neighborhood, but it did
not belong to the body found underneath the bridge.
(AP, 10/13/10)(AP, 10/14/10)
2010 Oct 12, Hurricane Paula,
the ninth hurricane of the busy 2010 Atlantic season, churned toward
the east coast of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula.
(Reuters, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 13, In Mexico six
prison guards were killed while driving to work in Chihuahua city,
capital of Chihuahua state. In the northern state of Sinaloa, two
police officers were killed when gunmen ambushed their patrol in
Mazatlan.
(AP, 10/14/10)
2010 Oct 13, Mexican national
Jose Antonio Medina Arreguin (36) was booked into a Ventura, Ca.,
county jail after being extradited from his home country. Court
documents later showed Medina, accused of being Mexico's "King of
Heroin," caught on wiretap conversations talking to coconspirators
about drug transactions involving hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In March 2011 Arreguin pleaded guilty and faced up to 24 years in
prison.
(AP, 11/13/10)(AP, 3/17/11)
2010 Oct 14, In Mexico the W
Radio station broadcast what it described as a telephone
conversation between federal lawmaker Cesar Godoy and one of
Mexico's biggest drug lords. W Radio said the alleged conversation
took place last year between Godoy and La Familia cartel leader
Servando Gomez, known as "La Tuta." In it Godoy and Gomez express
support for each other and discuss bribing a reporter. Mexican
marines battled suspected drug cartel gunmen whose allies erected at
least a dozen roadblocks in the northeastern city of Monterrey. One
marine and three gunmen were killed.
(AP, 10/14/10)(AP, 10/15/10)
2010 Oct 15, In Mexico armed
men entered through the back of a house in a residential
neighborhood near the center of Ciudad Juarez, surprising the
party-goers with an assault-rifle attack that killed 6 people.
(Reuters, 10/16/10)
2010 Oct 15, A light plane
carrying four US citizens on a medical aid flight crashed in Baja
California, killing all four aboard. The plane that went down was
one of three on a mission from the San Luis Obispo, Ca., area.
(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 16, In Mexico gunmen
in the border city of Ciudad Juarez killed a local official and his
son. Rito Grado Serrano was regional president of the community of
El Porvenir outside Ciudad Juarez but lived with his family in
Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 16, In Mexico the body
of Lane Gilbert (46) of Marin County, Ca., was discovered in a lot
behind a police station in Santa Maria Coyotepec, a town southwest
of Oaxaca City. He had suffered multiple machete wounds. Gilbert was
last seen leaving his home in San Andres Huayapan on Aug 27.
(AP, 10/19/10)
2010 Oct 17, The Mexican Navy
said two men were killed in a confrontation with marines in
Tamaulipas state. A Sonora state police officer was found dead,
apparently from a blow to the head, alongside the road in Benito
Juarez municipality. Ciudad Juarez gunmen burst into a home where a
family was having a party. 3 women and 2 men died at the scene, and
a man and a woman died at the hospital. Assailants attacked a second
home in the neighborhood minutes later, killing 2 men.
(AP, 10/17/10)(AP, 10/19/10)
2010 Oct 18, In Mexico a bus
has crashed into the back of a trailer truck and caught fire,
killing 19 people outside the city of Queretaro. Security forces
seized at least 105 tons of US-bound marijuana in Tijuana, by far
the biggest pot bust in the country in recent years. The estimated
weight was soon revised to 134.2 tons and said to likely belong to
the Sinaloa cartel, run by Mexico's most wanted fugitive, Joaquin
"El Chapo" Guzman.
(AP, 10/18/10)(AP, 10/20/10)
2010 Oct 20, In northern Mexico
Marisol Valles Garcia (20) was sworn in as the police chief of the
township of Praxedis G. Guerrero, a township of 8,500 on a drug
trafficking route along the Texas border. Soldiers battled gunmen in
two cities across the border from Texas, prompting panicked parents
to pull children from school and factories to warn workers to stay
inside. In Nuevo Laredo 5 gunmen were killed and 3 soldiers
were wounded during shootouts. Assailants in a third city threw a
grenade at an army barracks. In Ciudad Juarez a Texas National Guard
soldier (21) was reportedly one of two men killed.
(SFC, 10/21/10, p.A4)(AP, 10/20/10)(AP, 10/21/10)
2010 Oct 21, Mexican police
found the bullet-ridden bodies of seven people in different parts of
southern Guerrero state. Among them was Antonio Valdez, leader of
the Institutional Revolutionary Party in the resort city of
Acapulco. Valdez and three other men were found dead on the
outskirts of the city with a message accusing them of being allied
with Edgar Valdez Villarreal, alias "The Barbie."
(AP, 10/22/10)
2010 Oct 21, In central Mexico
Canadian industrial giant Bombardier and Mexican President Felipe
Calderon opened a new 250-million-dollar plant where it will produce
components for the Learjet 85 business aircraft.
(AFP, 10/21/10)
2010 Oct 22, In Mexico at least
13 young people (aged 13 to 32), including 6 women and girls, were
shot dead and 20 wounded in an attack on a house party in Ciudad
Juarez. A 14th person died soon after from wounds.
(AP, 10/23/10)(AP, 10/25/10)
2010 Oct 22, Mexican
authorities said federal police have captured Huang Chen Yaowei, the
suspected leader of a gang that trafficked Chinese migrants through
Mexico to the US.
(AP, 10/23/10)
2010 Oct 23, In the southern
Mexico state of Oaxaca Heriberto Pazos, the leader of a leftist
Indian group left disabled in 2001 by a previous assassination
attempt, was shot to death by gunmen riding on a motorcycle.
(AP, 10/24/10)
2010 Oct 24, In Tijuana,
Mexico, a gang of armed men burst into the building of a drug rehab
center and gunned down 13 recovering addicts there. Police said at
least 10 were killed. In the southern Pacific coast state of
Guerrero, state police found the bound, executed bodies of six men
on a highway outside the resort city of Acapulco. 3 people were
killed in the crossfire of a shootout between gunmen, police and
soldiers in northern Coahuila state.
(AP, 10/25/10)
2010 Oct 26, In Mexico the
bodies of two men, one of them decapitated, were found inside an SUV
in Ciudad Juarez. Police suspected they may have been behind the
massacre of 14 young people at a birthday party. The entire police
force of the small northeastern town of Los Ramones quit, Nuevo Leon
state, a day after gunmen attacked their headquarters. Oaxaca state
police found the bound, tortured bodies of four people in a
clandestine grave in a vacant lot near the state capital. In Morelos
state the bodies of four men were found near a roadside with about
30 shell casings. A 25-year-old American was shot to death outside a
restaurant in Ciudad Juarez. Gunmen killed three undercover Mexican
federal police officers as they waited for a person to cross a
bridge from El Paso, Texas.
(AP, 10/27/10)(AFP, 10/27/10)(AP, 10/27/10)
2010 Oct 27, In Mexico gunmen
killed 15 people at a car wash in Tepic, Nayarit state, where
drug-gang violence has risen this year. It was the third massacre in
Mexico in less than a week. A Chihuahua state police officer was
killed in his Ciudad Juarez home.
(AP, 10/27/10)
2010 Oct 28, In Mexico gunmen
killed 6 young men in a gritty neighborhood of Mexico City. Gunmen
ambushed a convoy of 5 police vehicles in Jalisco state, killing 9
officers and leaving one missing. In Zapopan, a suburb of the
Jalisco state capital of Guadalajara, two boys (2) and 3 other
people were wounded by grenade fragments during an attack on a
private home. The United States delivered three mobile X-ray
inspection vehicles to Mexico as part of the Merida Initiative
anti-drug aid plan. Francisco Javier Gomez Meza, the director of the
Puente Grande prison, was arrested for alleged ties to drug gangs.
(AP, 10/28/10)(AP, 10/29/10)
2010 Oct 29, In Mexico a man
was found shot to death and left in the Pacific resort city of
Acapulco. Lorena Izaguirre (24), a US citizen and El Paso resident,
was killed inside a tortilla shop in Ciudad Juarez. A Mexican man
was also found dead in the store.
(AP, 10/30/10)(AP, 11/2/10)
2010 Oct 30, In Mexico City an
explosion inside a home where illegal fireworks were stored wrecked
two houses, killing at least three adults and two children. A US
woman and an American boy were slain shortly after crossing an
international bridge from El Paso to Ciudad Juarez. Giovanna Herrera
(26) and Luis Araiza (15) were shot to death along with a Mexican
man traveling with them.
(AP, 10/31/10)(AP, 11/2/10)
2010 Oct 31, Mexican police
found the missing rental car of Canadian businessman Daniel Dion
just north of the state capital of Chilpancingo. It was found
completely burned with a corpse in the trunk. Dion was last seen
about a week ago in Acapulco. Edgar Lopez (35) of El Paso, Texas,
was killed along with two Mexican men when gunmen opened fire on a
group standing outside a house in Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 10/31/10)(AP, 11/2/10)
2010 Nov 2, In Mexico 4 men
were shot dead in the Pacific port city of Acapulco and at least 18
others were killed elsewhere in the latest gang-style violence. Eder
Diaz (23) a student across the border at the Univ. of Texas at El
Paso, was attacked along with classmate Manuel Acosta (25). Acosta
was killed at the scene, while Diaz died the next day at a Juarez
hospital.
(AFP, 11/3/10)(AP, 11/3/10)
2010 Nov 3, In Mexico police
recovered 18 bodies from a mass grave announced in a YouTube
posting, a video saying the victims were from a tourist group
kidnapped in Acapulco a month ago. In the video two men say they
killed the "Michoacanos" in an act of revenge against La Familia, a
powerful drug cartel based in Michoacan state. Two bodies reported
in the tip were found wearing the same clothes as the pair seen in
the video and were lying on top of the mass the grave.
(AP, 11/4/10)
2010 Nov 3, Federal authorities
in San Diego said they have made one of the largest marijuana
seizures in the United States, confiscating more than 20 tons of pot
that was smuggled into the country through an underground tunnel
connecting warehouses on either side of California's border with
Mexico.
(AP, 11/4/10)
2010 Nov 5, Mexico's federal
police said they have found the tortured body of Mario Gonzalez, the
brother of Patricia Gonzalez, the former Chihuahua state attorney
general. He was kidnapped on Oct 21 and eight people have been
arrested in the slaying. A video had surfaced online showing the
kidnapped man saying at gunpoint that he and his sister protected a
street gang tied to the Juarez cartel and was behind several
murders. Reputed Gulf cartel leader Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas
Guillen (48), also known as "Tony Tormenta" or "Tony the Storm," was
killed along with four of his gunmen and three marines in the city
of Matamoros. A soldier and local reporter Carlos Guajardo were also
killed in related mayhem that began in the morning and lasted into
the evening. The arrest of two alleged drug traffickers in the
historic city of Patzcuaro outside of Morelia sparked roadblocks and
car fires on the road between the two cities in the western state of
Michoacan, which is controlled by La Familia cartel.
(AP, 11/5/10)(AP, 11/6/10)
2010 Nov 6, In Mexico the
decapitated body of a 30-year-old man was found in an Acapulco
neighborhood. Another man was found shot to death and a 27-year-old
woman who had been kidnapped last month was found strangled and
dumped in a trash bin, a black hood covering her face. Seven men at
a family party in ciudad Juarez were gunned down. 11 other people
were killed in the city, including two whose bodies were found
dismembered. Police in Oaxaca city found a human head in a
gift-wrapped box left on the side of a cliff popular for its view of
the picturesque colonial center.
(AP, 11/7/10)
2010 Nov 7, In Mexico two
Ciudad Juarez police officers, a man and a woman, were shot to death
inside their patrol car.
(AP, 11/7/10)
2010 Nov 8, Mexican police
arrested Manuel "The Sow" Fernandez Valencia, a reputed Sinaloa
cartel associate. He was suspected of plotting with cartel capo
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, one of Mexico's most wanted drug lords,
to smuggle eight tons of marijuana into the US by the end of this
year. Gregorio Barradas Mirabete, the mayor of Juan Rodriguez Clara,
a small town in southern Veracruz state, was kidnapped and killed,
along with two others.
(AP, 11/9/10)
2010 Nov 9, In Mexico members
of the Inter American Press Association concluded a four-day
assembly in Merida and issued a report citing concerns that both
government censorship and organized crime pose threats to
journalists in the region.
(AP, 11/10/10)
2010 Nov 9, In Mexico a
one-page letter allegedly signed by "La Familia Michoacana" drug
cartel was dropped in the streets of some mountain towns in the
western state of Michoacan. It also showed up as a banner above an
overpass and was sent as an e-mail to reporters. The letter offered
to dissolve the gang if the government promises to protect citizens
in Michoacan.
(AP, 11/10/10)
2010 Nov 9, Mexican bread maker
Grupo Bimbo, the world’s largest bread maker, said it has agreed to
buy Sara Lee Corp.’s North American bakery business for $959 million
to boost sales outside Mexico.
(SFC, 11/10/10, p.D4)
2010 Nov 10, In Mexico gunmen
attacked the office of El Sur newspaper in the resort city of
Acapulco, spraying the building with bullets but causing no
injuries.
(AP, 11/12/10)
2010 Nov 10, US investigators
said authorities have dismantled a major cell of a human smuggling
ring that may be responsible for the transportation of thousands of
illegal immigrants from the US-Mexico border to Phoenix and other
parts of the country. 9 people were arrested after a yearlong
investigation and 62 vans were seized from the group. The group was
led by a Mexican man named as Mark Rodriguez-Banks (29), aka Ricardo
Morales-Mejia.
(AP, 11/10/10)
2010 Nov 11, Petroleos
Mexicanos (Pemex) said it is losing about $350,000 every day in lost
production due to threats and violence by drug gangs.
(SFC, 11/12/10, p.A2)
2010 Nov 12, Morelos state
prosecutor said soldiers are hunting a 12-year-old suspected drug
gang hitman accused of helping wage a gruesome turf war in central
Mexico. 2 housewives this week took over the running of the police
near Ciudad Juarez in Chihuahua state, after no one else applied for
the dangerous job. Olga Herrera (43), a mother of five, was
appointed police chief in the town of Villa Luz, while Veronica Rios
will be in charge of the police department in the town of El Vergel,
both just south of Ciudad Juarez.
(Reuters, 11/12/10)
2010 Nov 14, In Mexico a
powerful explosion killed five Canadian tourists and two Mexican
workers at the 4-year-old Grand Riviera Princess hotel on the posh
Riviera Maya. A build up of swamp gas under the foundation was first
suspected. Evidence later pointed to a gas line leak.
(AP, 11/15/10)(SFC, 11/17/10, p.A2)(AP, 12/15/10)
2010 Nov 14, In Mexico gunmen
burst into a bar called "Desesperados" in the Mexican border city of
Ciudad Juarez and opened fire, killing five people and wounding nine
others. Assailants also killed the Gerardo Ortiz, the Chihuahua
state's prisons director, and his son in a second attack in the
area. Police in Acapulco found the bound, bullet-ridden bodies of
five men on the outskirts of the city. In Guerrero state detectives
reported they had found the bodies of two more men buried in a
clandestine gave in a coconut grove where 18 bodies had been
unearthed last week.
(AP, 11/15/10)
2010 Nov 16, US officials
arrested Bruce Beresford-Redman, a former producer of hit TV show
"Survivor," at his home in Los Angeles and held him for extradition
to Mexico where he has been accused of murdering his wife in April.
(Reuters, 11/17/10)
2010 Nov 16, The UN Education,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognized everything
from the growing of corn, beans and chilies to Mexican dishes
prepared with grinding stones and mortars as an ancient process
worth safeguarding in the face of encroaching global influences.
France's multi-course gastronomic meal, Flamenco in Spain and
carpet-weaving in Azerbaijan also made the list.
(AP, 11/17/10)
2010 Nov 16, In Mexico
Francisco Alberto Ruiz (35), a Colombian billing manager for
Swiss-based oil services company Weatherford International, was
found shot dead at the company's property in Tihuatlan, Veracruz
state.
(AP, 11/19/10)
2010 Nov 17, A gunbattle
between Mexican soldiers and drug cartel gunmen near the border with
Texas killed 11 alleged gang members and prompted the US to
reinforce security at international crossings. In Cancun the owner
of a company that distributes plastic bags was shot to death in a
parking lot near the hotel zone. A mother, father and their adult
son were found dead from gunshot wounds in Majahual, a fishing
village near the border with Belize. A man was shot to death while
leaving his house in the exclusive Tijuana neighborhood of
Chapultepec. 2 other people were wounded in a shootout on one of the
city's main avenues.
(AP, 11/18/10)(AP, 11/19/10)
2010 Nov 19, In Mexico the
bodies of two men were found hanging from the Los Alamos bridge in
Tijuana.
(AP, 11/19/10)
2010 Nov 20, In Mexico a gang
of suspected kidnappers were arrested by marines. They had detailed
plans of security arrangements for next week's UN climate change
talks in Cancun.
(Reuters, 11/22/10)
2010 Nov 21, In Mexico Silverio
Cavazos Ceballos (41), the former governor of the Pacific state of
Colima (2005-2009), was shot dead by a group of armed men. Police
mounting an operation to find the killers came across a doctor in an
area near the crime. He was startled by officers and began to run
away. They shot him dead when he ignored orders to stop.
(AP, 11/21/10)(AP, 11/22/10)
2010 Nov 23, Mexican police
arrested Carlos Montemayor Gonzalez, nicknamed "El Charro," or "The
Cowboy," with help from the US Drug Enforcement Administration." He
was linked to the recently arrested US-born kingpin known as "La
Barbie," and to the killing of 20 Mexican tourists in September.
(AFP, 11/24/10)
2010 Nov 23, In Atlanta,
Georgia, Amador Cortes-Meza (36) of Mexico was convicted on federal
charges of orchestrating a sex trafficking scheme in which
prosecutors say he lured impoverished young Mexican women to the
Atlanta area with false promises of better lives, high-paying jobs
and even hints of romance. He was accused of bringing at least 10
women to the area between spring 2006 and June 2008.
(AP, 11/24/10)
2010 Nov 24, In southern Mexico
Ciro Diaz Sanchez, the mayor of Pueblo Nuevo Solistahuacan, and
mayor-elect Pedro Bautista, disappeared after Mexico's army detained
members of the municipal police force and other local officials on
suspicion they were working for a drug cartel. The two, both members
of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, went missing ahead of
searches of their houses, which turned up high-caliber weapons and
two stolen cars at Bautista's.
(AP, 11/26/10)
2010 Nov 24, A Mexican air
force cargo plane crashed at Monterrey International Airport killing
five military personnel.
(AP, 11/25/10)
2010 Nov 25, US authorities
found a sophisticated tunnel used to smuggle drugs between Mexico
and San Diego, the second such discovery in the region in less than
a month. Investigators seized some 20 tons of marijuana. The
2,200-foot passage ran from a residence in Tijuana to a warehouse in
San Diego's Otay Mesa area.
(AP, 11/25/10)(SFC, 11/27/10, p.A5)
2010 Nov 25, In Mexico
preliminary data was released by the National Institute for
Statistics and Geography. It said Mexico had 112.3 million
inhabitants as of July, 3.6 million more than experts had projected.
(AP, 11/25/10)
2010 Nov 27, Mexico's federal
police in Ciudad Juarez captured Arturo Gallegos Castrellon (32), a
presumed leader of the Aztecas cross-border drug gang. He was
suspected in dozens of killings, including the slaying of a US
consulate worker. Two other members of the gang were arrested with
Gallegos on charges of transporting drugs and weapons.
(AP, 11/28/10)
2010 Nov 29, Mexican federal
police arrested Jose Alfredo Landa Torres (37), a leader of the La
Familia operations in Morelia, Michoacan state. La Familia recently
made an unusual offer to disband if the government proves it can
protect citizens from other criminals in Michoacan. Mexican soldiers
found 18 bodies buried on a ranch near the Texas border. Gunmen
killed Hermila Garcia (36), a female police chief of the town of
Meoqui in Chihuahua state.
(AP, 11/30/10)(Reuters, 11/30/10)
2010 Nov 29, In Mexico a 2-week
UN conference opened on global warming. Some 15,000 negotiators,
environmental activists, businessmen and journalists convened at
Cancun to overcome the disconnect between rich and poor nations on
fighting global warming.
(AP, 11/29/10)
2010 Nov 30, Mexico City
lawmakers approved legislation to allow women in the capital
district to be surrogate mothers.
(AP, 11/30/10)
2010 Nov 30, A Mexican human
rights group and Disability Rights Int’l. released a report on
atrocious and abusive conditions in Mexican institutions for the
mentally and physically disabled.
(SFC, 12/1/10, p.A3)
2010 Dec 2, Mexico’s army
detained a 14-year-old suspected of working as a killer for a drug
cartel. The alleged young assassin, nicknamed "El Ponchis," was
captured at the airport in Cuernavaca with his 19-year-old sister as
they were trying to catch a flight to Tijuana. The siblings' mother
was arrested in her San Diego apartment on Dec 6 and charged on Dec
8 with entering the US illegally. On Dec 9 US officials said the
boy, Edgar Jimenez Lugo, was born in San Diego. On Feb 9, 2011,
Jimenez was charged with the homicides and other crimes, including
arms possession and transporting cocaine. On July 26, 2011, Jimenez
was sentenced to 3 years in prison.
(AP, 12/3/10)(AP, 12/9/10)(AP, 2/10/11)(AP,
7/26/11)
2010 Dec 3, Mexican Judge
Fernando Cordova del Valle ruled that prosecutors failed to bring
enough evidence against Sandra Avila Beltran, described by US and
Mexican officials as a major decision-maker for the Sinaloa gang,
Mexico's most powerful cartel. The "Queen of the Pacific" had been
charged with organized crime, conspiracy to traffic drugs and money
laundering. Mexican police arrested Jacobo Tagle Dobin (31), a
suspect in the 2005 kidnapping and presumed killing of Hugo Alberto
Wallace (36), a Mexican businessman, whose crusading mother led a
high-profile campaign that helped crack open the case. In January,
2011, Beltran was sentenced to time already served on a
weapons charge.
(AP, 12/3/10)(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 2/6/11)
2010 Dec 5, In Mexico armed
commandos attacked two drug rehabilitation centers in Ciudad Juarez,
killing four people and wounding five.
(AP, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 7, Mexico's Defense
Department said soldiers killed six assailants in a clash in the
northern state of Tamaulipas, across the border from Texas. In
Cancun police said they found the bodies of three men who had been
shot to death in neighborhoods far from where UN Climate Change
conference was taking place. The body of a fourth man was found in
another Cancun neighborhood.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 8, Mexican federal
police investigating a tip about the presence of armed men in
Apatzingan in Michoacan state came under fire from La Familia
gunmen. Gunmen fired on civilian cars and used the sometimes-burning
vehicles as barricades in Apatzingan. An 8-month-old baby, riding in
a taxi with his mother, was killed as was the teenage daughter of a
former city mayor, and a local police officer.
(AP, 12/10/10)(SFC, 12/10/10, p.A12)
2010 Dec 8, In Mexico a federal
police helicopter that had transported two inmates to a Mexican
prison crashed in Veracruz state, killing four people and injuring
two others.
(AP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 9, In Mexico federal
police hunted for top leaders of the La Familia drug cartel in
Michoacan state, unleashing narco-blockades and shootouts that left
2 more people dead. La Familia cartel leader Nazario Moreno Gonzalez
(40), known as "The Craziest One," was killed in a clash between
police and cartel gunmen. Police recovered the bodies of three other
suspected La Familia members and detained three others. In northern
Chihuahua state six people were gunned down by the side of a highway
leading south of the capital. In the resort city of Acapulco, a
traffic cop was found shot to death on a road, his hands bound.
(AP, 12/10/10)(SFC, 12/10/10, p.A12)(AP,
12/11/10)
2010 Dec 10, In Mexico a
gunbattle between rival gangs left 11 people dead during a Virgin of
Guadalupe celebration in the western town of Tecalitlan.
(AP, 12/12/10)
2010 Dec 10, Mexico scrambled
to break an impasse between rich and poor nations over future cuts
in greenhouse gas emissions as 190-nation climate talks went down to
the wire.
(Reuters, 12/10/10)
2010 Dec 11, In Cancun, Mexico,
almost 200 countries agreed to modest steps to combat climate
change, including a Green Climate Fund to help poor nations, but
they put off tough decisions on cutting greenhouse gas emissions
until next year.
(Reuters, 12/11/10)
2010 Dec 12, Mexican police
arrested Enrique Lopez of the notorious Sinaloa drug trafficking
operation based in the northern Mexico town of Chihuahua. His
brother, Ever Horacio Lopez, was shot and killed in the standoff
with police. The men were lieutenants of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman,
said to be Mexico's most wanted man, who is believed to have
escaped.
(AFP, 12/13/10)
2010 Dec 12, The Washington
Post reported that 8 out of the 12 top US gun dealers whose products
fuel Mexico's drug violence are located in the state of Texas. 3
others were in Arizona, and one was in California. There are 3,800
gun retailers in Texas, 300 in Houston alone.
(AFP, 12/12/10)
2010 Dec 13, US immigration
agents discovered a 13-foot drug tunnel stretching from the Mexican
border to a metered parking space in Arizona, where vehicles with
holes cut in the bottom would park and take marijuana from people
inside the underground space.
(AP, 12/14/10)
2010 Dec 14, Mexico’s death
toll in drug-related violence in the border city of Ciudad Juarez
rose to 3,000 this year after 2 men were shot dead on a street.
(AP, 12/14/10)
2010 Dec 14, In Arizona a
shootout between border patrol agents and bandits near the border
with Mexico left American agent Brian A. Terry (40) dead and a
suspect wounded. On May 6, 2011, Manuel Osorio-Arellanes of El
Fuerte, Mexico, was indicted for 2nd degree murder. On July 9, 2012,
a federal grand jury indictment named 6 people involved in Terry’s
killing. A $1 million reward was offered to help track 4 fugitives
in the case.
(AP, 12/16/10)(SFC, 5/7/11, p.A4)(SFC, 7/10/12,
p.A6)
2010 Dec 16, Mexico said that
more than 30,000 people have been killed in drug violence since
President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown against cartels in
late 2006. Masked men pulled up in a car in front of the governor's
office in Chihuahua. One appeared to exchange words with anti-crime
crusader Marisela Escobedo Ortiz, who was holding a vigil outside.
She tried to flee by running across the street, but the gunman
chased her down and shot her in the head. The burned and dismembered
remains of Escobedo's 17-year-old daughter were found in a Ciudad
Juarez trash bin in June, 2009. Three judges ordered the release of
the main suspect in the daughter's killing after he was absolved by
a court in April for lack of evidence. The scandal resulted in the
suspension of the judges. The judges resigned on March 11, 2011.
(AP, 12/16/10)(AP, 12/18/10)(AP, 3/15/11)
2010 Dec 16, In Mexico some
50-100 migrants were reportedly abducted by an armed group that
stopped a freight train they were traveling on as it entered Oaxaca
state from the border state of Chiapas.
(AFP, 12/21/10)
2010 Dec 17, In Mexico 141
inmates, a number later raised to 153, escaped from a state prison
in the northern border city of Nuevo Laredo. Authorities said the
breakout was probably helped by prison employees. More than 40
prison guards were later charged with helping 153 inmates escape
from the prison. 11 men were reported abducted from a bar in
Acapulco. Two of the abducted men were later found dead. Their hands
and feet had been cut off. On Dec 27 police in Acapulco found
the decapitated bodies of two more men in front of the same bar.
(AP, 12/17/10)(AP, 12/28/10)
2010 Dec 18, In Mexico a lumber
operation, associated with the family of anti-crime crusader
Marisela Escobedo Ortiz, killed on Dec 16, was burned down in Ciudad
Juarez by unknown arsonists. The body of Manuel Monge Amparan, a
relative of Marisela Escobedo Ortiz, was dumped on a street in
Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 12/18/10)(AP, 12/20/10)
2010 Dec 19, In Mexico a
massive oil pipeline explosion lay waste to parts of in San Martin
Texmelucan, incinerating people, cars, houses and trees as gushing
crude turned streets into flaming rivers. At least 29 people were
killed, 14 of them children. Authorities blamed oil thieves after
investigators found a hole in the pipeline and equipment for
extracting crude. On Jan 10 a police officer died of his injuries
bringing the death toll to 30.
(AP, 12/19/10)(AP, 12/22/10)(AP, 1/10/11)
2010 Dec 21, In Mexico seven
gunmen kidnapped 9 Central American migrants from a train near the
Ixtepec, a town in Oaxaca state. Five of the migrants escaped and
reported the kidnapping. Another was killed as he tried to flee. 3
remained missing.
(AP, 12/27/10)
2010 Dec 24, In Mexico 11 of
the murder victims were shot in Ciudad Juarez.
(AFP, 12/25/10)
2010 Dec 25, In Mexico 2 more
murder victims were shot in Ciudad Juarez.
(AFP, 12/25/10)
2010 Dec 27, In Mexico police
in Guerrero state found the remains of three people in a clandestine
grave in the town Teloloapan. A police report said the three unknown
people were believed to have been killed about four months ago. In
the Gulf coast state of Veracruz one policeman was killed, and a
local police commander was wounded when a man opened fire on
municipal offices in the town of Otatitlan. The Defense Department
said troops patrolling the mountainous area of Tamazula, Durango,
discovered a cache of weapons and 770 kg (1,697 pounds) of marijuana
in 191 bales.
(AP, 12/28/10)
2010 Dec 28, In Mexico gunmen
battled police in the northern state of Durango, leaving two
bystanders, a federal agent and two drug cartel suspects dead. 13
suspects were detained, including several former state policemen who
allegedly worked for the Sinaloa cartel headed by fugitive drug lord
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman," which is fighting the Zetas gang for
control of the region. The navy captured four suspects linked to
drug-cartel activities, including two females under the age of 18. A
raid by a feared drug gang burned down half of the isolated village
of Tierras Coloradas, Durango state, leaving more than 150 people,
mostly children, homeless in the raw mountain winter.
(AP, 12/29/10)(AP, 12/30/10)(Reuters, 2/17/11)
2010 Dec 29, In Mexico gunmen
believed to be linked to drug cartels killed 4 police officers and a
doctor in apparently coordinated attacks in and around the northern
city of Monterrey. Six people were found dead in the southern state
of Guerrero.
(AP, 12/30/10)
2010 Dec 29, Honduras and
Mexico announced they have agreed to create a high-level group to
combat attacks on undocumented Honduran migrants who are passing
through the country en route to the United States.
(AP, 12/29/10)
2010 Dec 31, Mexico's federal
police said that the once-fearsome La Familia drug cartel has been
"completely dismembered" and has broken down into small groups that
commit robberies to pay their members. The half-naked body of a
woman who had escaped from prison officials while facing kidnapping
charges was found hanging by the neck from an overpass in Monterey.
5 inmates, including a Colombian man sentenced to more than 20 years
for smuggling a ton of cocaine into Mexico aboard a boat, escaped a
prison in Cancun.
(AP, 12/31/10)(AP, 1/5/11)
2010 Malcolm Beith authored
“The Last Narco: Hunting El Chapo, the World’s Most Wanted Drug
Lord.”
(Econ, 9/18/10, p.105)
2010 Charles Bowden authored
“Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy’s New Killing
Fields.”
(SSFC, 4/25/10, p.F3)
2010 Mexico's drug violence
left 15,273 dead in 2010, making it the deadliest year yet since
President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown on organized
crime.
(AFP, 1/12/11)
2010 Mexico this year was the
world’s 11th largest by population and the 14th largest in economic
size.
(Econ, 10/16/10, p.29)
2011 Jan 2, Mexican officials
announced plans to shake-up of the corruption-ridden immigration
institute, after a year that saw some of the worst atrocities
against illegal migrants trekking through the country. Two boys ages
14 and 17 were shot to death in the remote mountain town of
Alcozahuca, near the Oaxaca state line. 2 men dressed up in clown
costumes were found executed in the city of Cardenas, Tabasco.
(AP, 1/2/11)(AP, 1/4/11)(AP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 3, In Mexico the
severed head of Ramses Mendoza (30) was found hanging from a bridge
in the Mexican border city of Tijuana. Hours earlier, a woman
between 30 and 35 years old was found shot to death in another
Tijuana neighborhood, also with a threatening message left nearby.
Unidentified gunmen shot to death Sonora state's interim prison
director, Erasto Ortiz Valencia, outside his home. The assistant
police chief of the city of Empalme, near the coastal city of
Guaymas, was also shot to death by a gunmen who fired an assault
rifle from an SUV. Police in Acapulco reported they had found the
bound bodies of four young men dumped on a main boulevard. Gunmen
opened fire on people gathered at a street corner in the northern
city of Monterrey, killing two adults and a 13-year-old boy.
(AP, 1/4/11)(AP, 1/5/11)(AP, 1/7/11)
2011 Jan 4, Mexican federal
police announced they had arrested three US citizens in a sport
utility vehicle loaded with 159 packages of marijuana hidden in the
bodywork and gas tank. , Prosecutors said the David Romo, the leader
of Mexico's Death Saint cult, has been detained on suspicion of
participating in a kidnapping ring. Romo was one of nine suspects
placed under a form of house arrest for 30 days pending
investigation. The Mexican army detained the local operations leader
for the Sinaloa cartel, Jesus de la Cruz Lopez, alias "The Tomato."
(AP, 1/4/11)(AP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 5, In Mexico a gang of
teenagers, most 15-years-old, were detained after a running shootout
with officers in Ciudad Juarez. Acapulco police said they found the
bodies of three men tossed into a sewer. The victims had been shot
in the head and in the chest.
(AP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 5, A US Border Patrol
agent was involved in a shooting on the Arizona border with Mexico
that resulted in the death of Ramses Barron Torres (17), who was
trying to illegally scale the border fence.
(Reuters, 1/5/11)(SFC, 1/8/11, p.A2)
2011 Jan 6, In Mexico 2
purported drug dealers were arrested on suspicion of decapitating a
man who owed them money and hanging his severed head from a bridge
in the border city of Tijuana. 2 men were found shot to death in the
trunk of a car parked outside the General Hospital in Tijuana. Their
hands and feet were bound and their bodies bore signs of torture.
Gunmen later attacked three men driving past a Tijuana shopping
mall, killing one and wounding the other two. Gunmen shot to death
Francisco Aparicio Mendez, the police chief of the town of Taretan,
in western Michoacan state. In Ciudad Juarez the body of Susana
Chavez was found strangled and mutilated after a night of partying
with three teenagers, who were drunk and on drugs. She had led
protests against the unsolved killings of women, but authorities
said her killing had nothing to do with her activism. Her left arm
chopped off. She was not identified until Jan 11.
(AP, 1/6/11)(AP, 1/12/11)
2011 Jan 7, In northern Mexico
authorities found a bullet-ridden body that matches the description
of Saul Vara Rivera (48), the mayor Zaragoza, a town near the Texas
border, who disappeared two days earlier. The body was found in the
neighboring state of Nuevo Leon.
(AP, 1/7/11)
2011 Jan 8, Mexican police
found the headless bodies of 14 men and a 15th intact corpse outside
a shopping center in the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco.
Narco-messages indicated the Sinaloa cartel killed the 15 men for
trying to intrude on the gang's turf and extort residents. Also
killed in Acapulco were two police officers; six people shot dead
and stuffed in a taxi, their hands and feet bound; and four others
elsewhere in the city. 10 people were kidnapped from a local
discotheque. 3 of their bodies were found the next day. In Mexico
City four young men were killed in a drive by shooting outside a
grocery store.
(AP, 1/8/11)(AP, 1/9/11)(AFP, 1/9/11)
2011 Jan 9, Mexican authorities
in Chihuahua state reported 17 people murdered over the weekend, 14
of them in Ciudad Juarez.
(AFP, 1/9/11)
2011 Jan 10, Mexico said it
will stop subjecting a rotating list of US products to tariffs after
the United States offered to reach a deal to allow Mexican trucks on
US roads and end a long-running trade dispute. Mexico will maintain
punitive tariffs on 99 US products but will not add any more pending
negotiations.
(Reuters, 1/10/11)(SFC, 1/11/11, p.A2)
2011 Jan 10, In Mexico the body
of a murdered man was found on the main highway to Acapulco,
bringing to 31 the number of people killed in the Pacific resort
city over four days. Abraham Ortiz Rosales, the mayor of Temoac in
Morelos state, was shot to death as he drove with his wife and son
near the town of Jantetelco. Federal prosecutors said 5 people have
been arrested in the kidnappings of Central American migrants in
southern Mexico.
(AP, 1/11/11)
2011 Jan 13, In Mexico 12
suspected drug cartel gunmen and two Mexican soldiers were killed in
a shootout that lasted almost six hours in the Veracruz state
capital of Xalapa.
(AP, 1/14/11)
2011 Jan 15, In Mexico Cmdr.
Raul Espinoza and a guard were kidnapped about 5 a.m. in Boca del
Rio, just south of the port city of Veracruz.
(AP, 1/15/11)
2011 Jan 16, In Mexico City
Juan Vasconcelos, a reputed local gang assassin, killed 8 people. He
had allegedly gone on a cocaine- and alcohol-fueled killing spree
that ended with his arrest in February. His first attack left five
people dead on Jan. 8. Another killed eight people Jan. 16 and the
third left seven dead Feb. 13.
(AP, 4/3/11)
2011 Jan 17, In Mexico 14
inmates broke out from a jail after escaping through a hole in a
wall in the northern border state of Chihuahua. A vehicle charged
the metal gate of the Aquiles Serdan Social Rehabilitation Center to
pick up the prisoners. 5 were caught, along with three suspected
accomplices, following air and ground searches by police. Police
said 8 people have died in a shootout among drug dealers in a poor
suburb of Mexico City.
(AFP, 1/17/11)(SFC, 1/18/11, p.A2)
2011 Jan 17, John Ross (72), US
poet, author, journalist and political activist who lived in Mexico
and wrote extensively on its leftist political movements, died of
liver cancer. His books included "Rebellion from the Roots:
Zapatista Uprising in Chiapas."
(AP, 1/18/11)
2011 Jan 18, Mexico's federal
police said they have arrested Flavio Mendez Santiago (35), a
founding member of the brutal Zetas drug cartel. He controlled drug
smuggling routes and the kidnapping of Central American migrants in
southern Mexico. Police found five mutilated bodies outside the
wealthy city of Monterrey, part of a series of attacks that killed
23 people and dragged the region deeper into Mexico's drug war.
(AP, 1/18/11)(Reuters, 1/18/11)
2011 Jan 19, In Mexico Leonardo
Vazquez, alias "El Pachis," a suspected top operative of the brutal
Zetas drug cartel, died during a confrontation with security forces
in Poza Rica city, Veracruz state. Two other suspected members of
the drug cartel were taken into custody. Gunmen toting high-powered
weapons shot dead two police officers, a man and a woman, in
Guadalupe, a suburb of the industrial city of Monterrey. Juan Miguel
"El Boxer" Valle Beltran was arrested after the shootout in the
seaside city of Playas de Rosarito. He was arrested with 13
suspected underlings.
(AP, 1/20/11)
2011 Jan 20, Mexican police
battled armed suspects at a popular mall in Ciudad Juarez, sending
terrified shoppers scrambling and leaving one officer dead.
Officials nabbed Jose Lozano (21), the alleged top hit man for an
Acapulco drug gang, suspected in the slayings of 22 people earlier
this month. Six other suspected members of the Independent Cartel of
Acapulco were also arrested.
(AP, 1/20/11)(AP, 1/23/11)
2011 Jan 21, Mexican soldiers
patrolling a rural area on the border with Texas killed 10 suspected
drug gang gunmen at a training camp in Valle Hermoso, Tamaulipas
state. In Chihuahua state a commander who worked in internal affairs
for the local Attorney General's Office was killed along with
another agent. In Ciudad Juarez three men died when a gasoline bomb
was thrown into their store. Elsewhere in Ciudad Juarez, authorities
found the dead bodies of three other victims of apparent gangland
murders. The Mexican military seized 45 pounds of marijuana, a
sports utility vehicle and a metal-framed catapult just south of the
Arizona border near the small town of Naco, following a tip-off from
the US Border Patrol.
(AP, 1/22/11)(Reuters, 1/26/11)
2011 Jan 22, In Mexico a police
commander died and three officers were wounded when a car bomb
exploded in the central state of Hidalgo.
(AP, 1/22/11)
2011 Jan 23, In Mexico gunmen
spraying automatic weapons fire killed 7 people at a park that had
been built as an anti-violence measure in Ciudad Juarez. 7 other
drug gang suspects were killed in a series of gunbattles outside the
northern city of Monterrey. They included a top operator of the
Zetas drug gang known as "Comandante Lino." Another seven-hour
shootout between soldiers and gunmen broke out in Los Mochis,
Sinaloa state. One gunman was killed and two soldiers were wounded.
(AP, 1/24/11)
2011 Jan 24, In Mexico 3
people, two men and a 15-year-old boy were killed on a street in
neighborhood of Ciudad Juarez where 7 people were killed a day
earlier. A series of banners appeared in the western states of
Michoacan and Guerrero claiming La Familia drug cartel has decided
to disband.
(AP, 1/24/11)
2011 Jan 25, Mexican federal
police shot and killed Jose Humberto Perez (29), a municipal
policeman guarding Ciudad Juarez Mayor Hector Murguia, raising
tensions between security forces amid a fierce drug war. On Jan 28
federal prosecutors charged two federal police officers with killing
the bodyguard.
(AP, 1/26/11)(AP, 1/29/11)
2011 Jan 25, Mexican
authorities said they have seized more than 23 tons of a chemical
used in the manufacture of synthetic drugs, during an inspection of
a shipment from China. The ethyl phenylacetate was declared as a
different product on arrival at the Pacific port of Manzanillo.
(AFP, 1/26/11)
2011 Jan 26, Mexican
authorities discovered 219 migrants squeezed into a trailer truck in
the southern state of Chiapas. Most of the migrants were from
Central America but six were from Sri Lanka and four were Nepalese.
33 were women and 9 were minors. They were deported the next day.
(AP, 1/27/11)
2011 Jan 26, Nancy Davis (59)
died in a South Texas hospital about 90 minutes after her husband
drove the couple's truck against traffic across the Pharr
International Bridge. US missionary Sam Davis said gunmen in a
pickup truck had shot her in the head about 70 miles south of the
Mexican border city of Reynosa.
(AP, 1/27/11)
2011 Jan 28, In Mexico Mayor
Ramon Villagomez said soldiers, state and federal police had been
deployed to patrol General Teran, a town along a drug-smuggling
route to the US border. The local police chief and 38 officers quit
after the discovery on Jan 26 of the mutilated bodies of two
officers who had been kidnapped by gunmen two days earlier.
Authorities began arresting over 30 former mayors in the Mexican
Gulf coast state of Veracruz on suspicion of corruption. They were
among 115 ex-municipal employees in the state charged with
corruption between 2004 and 2008. The first to be arrested was
Leonardo Mendoza, former mayor of the town of Benito Juarez.
(AP, 1/28/11)
2011 Jan 28, Mexican soldiers
seized nearly 200 pounds (90 kg) of drugs from the cargo area of an
Aeromexico commercial plane scheduled to fly to the northern border
city of Tijuana.
(AP, 1/29/11)
2011 Jan 30, In Mexico the
state of Guerrero, populated by 3.3 million people, held elections.
Voters gave the leftist Party of Democratic Revolution, or PRD,
victory over the powerful Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI,
in one of six state elections ahead of next year's presidential
race.
(AP, 1/30/11)(Reuters, 1/30/11)
2011 Jan 30, In Mexico six
bodies were found outside the city of Monterrey. They were burned so
badly that investigators couldn't determine the cause of death or
the victims' gender.
(AP, 1/30/11)
2011 Jan 31, In Mexico a girl
(16) died after being shot by federal police in the same Ciudad
Juarez neighborhood where gunmen massacred 15 youths at a party a
year ago. She was shot two days earlier while riding in a car.
Police said someone in the vehicle had opened fire at officers
shortly beforehand. A drug gunman shot to death Maribel Hernandez, a
woman who distributed newspapers in the border city of Ciudad
Juarez, because his gang thought she threatened their control over
street vendors.
(AP, 2/1/11)(AP, 2/2/11)
2011 Feb 1, Mexican federal
police reported they had captured a leading enforcer for the
Independent Cartel of Acapulco. The enforcer allegedly took part in
last year's kidnap-killing of 20 vacationers from the western state
of Michoacan and in the killing and beheading of 14 men in Acapulco
in early January. Police identified the suspect as Miguel Gomez
Vazquez, alias "The Cat," and said he was caught with an assault
rifle and drugs. The navy said that it had detained six suspected
drug cartel gunmen on four separate occasions Jan 30-31 in the
northern states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon. One suspect was killed
and two marines were wounded in one of the confrontations.
(AP, 2/2/11)
2011 Feb 1, In Mexico a series
of attacks in Monterrey left a federal police officer and three
suspected cartel gunmen dead and three police officers injured. In
Zacatecas gunmen opened fire on state police officers who had
arrived after receiving a tip that armed men were parked outside an
office-supply store. Two bystanders, a man and a boy, suffered
non-life-threatening wounds in the gunbattle. In Guadalajara 7
attacks within two hours late in the day appeared to have been
coordinated, and were staged by drug gangs, possibly in retaliation
for the arrests of their members.
(AP, 2/2/11)
2011 Feb 1, In Mexico Adam Mark
Zachs (47), a fugitive from Connecticut, was arrested in the small
town of Leon Guanajuato where he apparently had been running a
computer repair business. Zachs was convicted of the 1987 murder of
Peter Carone (29) outside a West Hartford bar and sentenced to 60
years in prison. However he fled while free on appeal.
(Reuters, 2/3/11)
2011 Feb 2, In Mexico gunmen
fired upon a group of Mexican marines who were responding to reports
of illicit activity at an apartment complex In the wealthy Monterrey
suburb of San Pedro Garza Garcia. The marines returned fire, killing
four suspected gunmen. Gunmen killed Manuel Farfan, a retired army
general who took over a month ago as police chief of Nuevo Laredo.
Two of his bodyguards also were slain and two suffered wounds.
(AP, 2/2/11)(AP, 2/3/11)
2011 Feb 3, In Mexico Morelos
Canseco, interior secretary of Tamaulipas state, said the parents of
25 children, found abandoned in Nuevo Laredo, were kidnapped.
(AP, 2/3/11)
2011 Feb 5, In northern Mexico
Serengeti Zoo owner Alberto Hernandez said 14 parrots, 13 serpents,
five iguanas, two crocodiles and a capuchin monkey died after power
failures cut off electrical heating at the zoo in the town of
Aldama, Chihuahua state.
(AP, 2/6/11)
2011 Feb 5, In Mexico gunmen
opened fire and killed 3 teenage boys at a used car dealership in
Ciudad Juarez. Two of the boys were US citizens. A teenager, a woman
and a 40-year-old man died in a second attack by unidentified gunmen
elsewhere in Juarez. Another three people were killed in separate
shooting incidents. Authorities recovered the dismembered body of
Francisco Martinez Ramirez, the chief of guards at a Monterrey
prison, who was dragged out of his house by armed men a day earlier.
Federal agents arrested Adan Salazar Zamorano, an alleged lieutenant
of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel. He was also wanted in Texas on
charges of conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute.
(AFP, 2/7/11)(AP, 2/7/11)(AP, 2/10/11)
2011 Feb 5, The body of Monika
Markiewicz (32), a Polish national and musician on the cruise ship
Allure of the Sea, was recovered from the sea off Cozumel, Mexico.
An autopsy determined she drowned but also had suffered a blow to
the head. Nelson Perez Torres (24) later confessed to hitting
Markiewicz in the head with a rock and then throwing her into the
ocean in Quintana Roo state, where Cozumel is located.
(AP, 2/9/11)(AP, 2/10/11)
2011 Feb 6, In Mexico 5 men
were killed overnight in parts of Chihuahua state. The mutilated
bodies of 5 men were found dumped on the side of a road in the town
of Los Ramones, Nuevo Leon state. Military officials said soldiers
have shot dead 13 suspected gang members in the state of Tamaulipas,
including six gunmen who were killed in a town near the US border.
(AFP, 2/7/11)
2011 Feb 7, In Mexico 3 people
related to Josefina Reyes, a human-rights activist who was
assassinated last year in the Juarez valley, were forced from their
car southeast of Ciudad Juarez. Josefina had led protests against
alleged abuses by Mexican soldiers in the valley.
(AP, 2/8/11)
2011 Feb 8, Mexican authorities
recovered the bodies of five men who were dumped on the side of road
in Zacatecas state after their execution-style slaying. The deaths
raised to 41 the number of people killed over the weekend in
drug-related violence. In Baja California, 10 soldiers were detained
for alleged ties to drug traffickers and turned over to federal
prosecutors. Alvaro Sandoval Diaz (50) and his wife, Griselda
Pedroza Rocha (35), were killed in Puerto Palomas. The couple's
6-year-old daughter witnessed her parents' killings. Last month
Sandoval Diaz opened fire on four armed men who arrived to extort
money from him, killing three.
(AFP, 2/8/11)(AP, 2/11/11)
2011 Feb 8, Mexican soldiers
rescued 44 Guatemalan migrants who had been locked up by kidnappers
in a house in the northern city of Reynosa. 3 Mexican migrants were
also rescued.
(AP, 2/8/11)
2011 Feb 9, Mexican journalist
Carmen Aristegui said that she was let go by MVS radio for refusing
to apologize for her Feb 4 comments regarding a congressman's
allegation that President Felipe Calderon is an alcoholic. The
firing stirred a debate over freedom of expression in Mexico and
allegations that the government still holds sway over the media.
Aristegui was reinstated on Feb 14.
(AP, 2/9/11)(AP, 2/15/11)
2011 Feb 9, In Mexico a
shootout between troops and armed men killed one soldier and 8
gunmen in Zacatecas state.
(AP, 2/11/11)
2011 Feb 9, A US judge approved
the extradition to Mexico of Chinese-Mexican businessman, Zhenli Ye
Gon, on drug trafficking and money laundering charges.
(AFP, 2/10/11)
2011 Feb 10, In Mexico gunmen
barged into a bar in Ciudad Juarez and opened fire late at night,
killing seven women and one man. By the next morning 10 more people
were killed in other shootings in the city.
(AP, 2/11/11)(SFC, 2/12/11, p.A2)
2011 Feb 11, Diplomatic
relations between France and Mexico deteriorated into a crisis,
after a Mexican court upheld a 60-year prison term for Florence
Cassez (36), a French woman convicted of kidnapping.
(AFP, 2/12/11)
2011 Feb 12, In Mexico 11
people were slain in several separate murders overnight in Ciudad
Juarez. Gunmen shot dead five men together in an additional group
killing on a highway between Chihuahua city and Ciudad Juarez. 7
presumed cartel gunmen were shot dead by soldiers near Monterrey
during a midnight chase and shootout. A civilian was also killed
when the gunmen crashed into his car as they tried to flee soldiers.
Hours later armed men opened fire and hurled a grenade into a
crowded nightclub early in the day, killing six people and wounding
at least 37 in Guadalajara, a city whose former tranquility has been
shattered by escalating battles among drug cartels.
(AFP, 2/13/11)(AP, 2/13/11)
2011 Feb 13, Mexicans took to
the streets in their hundreds to protest a staggering surge in
drug-related violent crime nationwide that claimed at least 45 lives
in one weekend. A dozen people were killed in Acapulco this weekend,
including a prison guard. A street shootout killed seven people and
injured one in suburban Mexico City. It resulted from an internal
dispute between gangs tied to La Familia. Acapulco police discovered
three dead men from a car left in the parking lot of a state prison.
(AFP, 2/14/11)(AP, 2/14/11)(AP, 2/15/11)
2011 Feb 14, In Mexico a series
of shootings left 18 people dead in Padilla, Tamaulipas state, where
a turf war has raged between two brutal drug cartels. In neighboring
Nuevo Leon state gunmen killed Homero Salcido Trevino, a top
intelligence officer, then torched his car. The Defense Department
said Juan Carlos Olivera, allegedly the top Zetas operator in five
towns around Monterrey, was arrested with two accomplices and four
guns.
(AP, 2/15/11)
2011 Feb 15, Mexican police
fired tear gas and clashed for several hours with teachers
protesting a visit by President Felipe Calderon to the colonial city
of Oaxaca. The Section 22 teachers union said 20 protesters were
injured during the running clashes.
(AP, 2/16/11)
2011 Feb 15, US Special Agent
Jaime Zapata, on assignment to the ICE Attache in Mexico City from
his post in Laredo, Texas, died when gunmen attacked the agents'
blue Suburban vehicle as they drove through the northern state of
San Luis Potosi. A second agent, later identified as Victor Avila,
was shot in the arm and leg and was in stable condition.
(AP, 2/16/11)(AP, 2/24/11)
2011 Feb 15, A former U.S.
Customs inspector (58) dressed in a postman's uniform was nabbed as
he allegedly tried to smuggle a Mexican woman (38) into Texas on
false papers.
(Reuters, 2/16/11)
2011 Feb 16, Mexican police
arrested 2 police officers related to the Feb 14 killing of
top intelligence officer Homero Salcido Trevino. A battle between
gang members and soldiers left two gunmen dead and paralyzed the
western town Zitacuaro.
(AP, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 17, In Mexico cartel
member Juan Carlos Vasconcelos (24) was arrested for three shootings
that killed 20 people on the outskirts of Mexico City. The 1st
shooting left 5 people dead on Jan 8. Another killed 8 people on Jan
16 and the third left 7 dead Feb 13. Six human heads were dumped
outside a police station in Veracruz state. An 11-year-old boy and
his father were killed in an ambush on their car in Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 17, Federal
prosecutors in Arizona said two illegal immigrants from Mexico, Jose
Beltran-Bermudez and Yazmin Arvayo-Palafox, have been indicted after
they were found to possess a combined 222 assault rifles and 5
pistols that authorities say were headed to Mexico.
(AP, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 17, US Federal
authorities said police have arrested nine people and seized 300
firearms, including assault rifles, in a raid targeting an arms ring
that allegedly sold weapons to Mexican drug traffickers. Operation
Too Hot to Handle netted a haul of around 300 guns, mostly
Kalashnikov-type rifles and semi-automatic pistols, seized in
Arizona, Texas and Mexico.
(Reuters, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 18, In southern Mexico
4 men with their hands and feet tied and heads covered in duct tape
were thrown 600 feet to their deaths from a bridge. They were among
13 people slain in Guerrero state. The other nine were killed in the
resort city of Acapulco and included a severed head that had been
scalped and whose face had been skinned. They included five taxi
drivers found dead in or near their vehicles. Soldiers killed eight
suspected drug cartel members in two clashes near the industrial
city of Monterrey. Another group of gunmen fired on soldiers in
Juarez, another Monterrey suburb, sparking a firefight that killed
three attackers. There were 20 murders in Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 2/18/11)(AP, 2/20/11)(AFP, 2/20/11)
2011 Feb 18, A documentary film
“Presumed Guilty” (2008) was released in Mexico. It told the story
of Antonio Zuniga, a computer repairman, who was convicted of a 2005
murder that took place near his Mexico city market stall, despite
evidence of his innocence. The film was banned 2 weeks later.
(Econ, 4/2/11,
p.82)(www.imdb.com/title/tt1320254/)
2011 Feb 19, In Mexico an
Acapulco taxi driver was found bound and shot to death near his
taxi, and two others were found dead of bullet wounds inside their
vehicles. One of the drivers had been beheaded. Gunmen opened fire
on yet another taxi, killing the driver and three passengers.
There were 19 more murders in Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 2/20/11)(AFP, 2/21/11)
2011 Feb 19, In Nevada Filipino
fighter Nonito Donaire stopped Mexico's Fernando Montiel in the
second round to take the World Boxing Council and World Boxing
Organization bantamweight titles.
(AFP, 2/20/11)
2011 Feb 20, In Mexico 5 cars
were set afire in Acapulco and a man's body was found hacked to
pieces outside an apartment building, one day before the start in
the city of the Mexican Open tennis tournament.
(AP, 2/20/11)
2011 Feb 21, Mexican marines
found 72 sticks of commercial synthetic explosives at a heavily
armed camp in the southern state of Guerrero.
(AP, 2/22/11)
2011 Feb 22, Mexico’s
government announced that it plans to include voice and DNA samples
in a database of the nation's 620,000 police and public safety
employees as a control measure. Police in Acapulco, where the
Mexican Open tennis tournament is being held, found the bodies of
seven men, some mutilated. In Mazatlan two men were shot to death in
the parking lot of a hotel frequented by foreign tourists. Neither
of the victims were tourists. Authorities in Acapulco found the
bodies of two men and a woman in a stolen taxi.
(AP, 2/22/11)(AP, 2/23/11)
2011 Feb 23, In Mexico Julian
Zapata Espinoza and the five others, including a Honduran citizen,
were arrested. The army quoted Espinoza as saying two of the five
had participated in the Feb 15 attack on American ICE agents. Those
arrested included suspect Sergio Antonio Mora, who oversaw the man
suspected of carrying out the Feb 15 attack the left agent Jaime
Zapata dead. Gunmen opened fire on six children playing in the yard
of a home in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, killing three girls
aged 12, 14 and 15. Espinoza was extradited to the US in
December.
(AP, 2/24/11)(AP, 2/28/11)(SFC, 12/22/11, p.A10)
2011 Feb 24, In Mexico gunmen
killed Jesus Quirarte Ruvalcaba (51), the head of a state police
agency that prosecutes car thieves, as well as his wife, Maria
Guadalupe Aldrete (49), in Zapopan, Jalisco state. Acapulco police
reported finding a man's hacked-up body in five plastic bags, in a
low-income neighborhood far from where the Mexican Open tennis
tournament is being held.
(AP, 2/25/11)
2011 Feb 24, US authorities
launched Operation Fallen Hero-Bombardier, a crackdown on Mexican
drug cartels, just over a week after the shooting death of a US
immigration officer in Mexico. Raids quickly followed in the United
States, Colombia, Brazil and Central America.
(AFP, 2/25/11)
2011 Feb 25, Mexican police
discovered the bodies of 3 people, missing since Feb 7, related
human rights activist Josefina Reyes, who was killed last year in
Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 2/25/11)
2011 Feb 26, In Mexico’s
Coahuila state, across the US border from Texas, nine men died when
gunmen opened fire inside two bars in separate attacks. Assailants
killed another five men in a bar in the cartel-plagued border city
of Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 2/28/11)
2011 Feb 27, In Mexico police
in the resort city of Acapulco found the bodies of four men inside a
trash container, all had been shot and three of them had their
throats slit. The body of a fifth man was found alongside a highway.
Soldiers killed four alleged drug traffickers in a clash in the
Pacific coast state of Nayarit. In the Pacific coast state of
Michoacan, police found the bodies of five men in different areas of
the capital of Morelia.
(AP, 2/28/11)
2011 Feb 28, Mexican officials
said police have captured Victor Torres Garcia, the alleged leader
of a drug gang that calls itself "The Resistance," a group that
operates in western Mexico. The army reported it had detained a
female Michoacan state police officer who was traveling in a convoy
of vehicles with eight assault rifles, ammunition and a bag of
marijuana seeds. The bodies of five men were reported found dangling
from bridges over a highway in the coastal city of Mazatlan. Gunmen
killed four Guerrero state police officers as they drove near the
state capital of Chilpancingo. In Ciudad Juarez assailants opened
fire on a car, killing two men, a woman and a 10-year-old boy.
(AP, 2/28/11)
2011 Mar 1, Mexican soldiers
and police rescued former Tierra Blanca mayor Alfredo Osorio from
kidnappers in eastern Mexico. He had been kidnapped a day earlier. A
search continued for Tampico Alto Mayor Saturnino Valdes, kidnapped
on Feb 23. Soldiers unearthed 17 bodies buried in two clandestine
graves in the southern state of Guerrero and authorities said they
were searching for more. Police found four bodies dumped along a
highway connecting Acapulco to Mexico City. Another four people,
including a couple shot to death inside the hotel they managed in
the coastal town of Atoyac de Alvarez, were killed in three separate
attacks in Guerrero. In Tamaulipas state Mexican marines killed
eight gunmen. Gunmen in Michoacan state killed Tanhuato police chief
Jose Gomez.
(AP, 3/2/11)
2011 Mar 3, President Barack
Obama met with Mexican President Felipe Calderon to smooth
over troubles in their drugs war alliance. Calderon pressed Obama to
crack down on US drug consumption and illegal arms sales. After the
meeting it was announced that Mexico and the US agreed to end a ban
on Mexican trucks crossing into the US. The agreement would lead to
Mexico dropping tariffs on $2.4 billion worth of US pork, cheese,
corn and fruits.
(Reuters, 3/3/11)(SFC, 3/4/11, p.D5)
2011 Mar 3, The Mexican army
ordered three junior officers and 10 soldiers to stand trial on drug
trafficking and organized crime charges. Officials said they were
caught with more than a ton of methamphetamines and 66 pounds (30
kg) of cocaine last week at a military checkpoint south of Tijuana.
(AP, 3/4/11)
2011 Mar 3, Mexican
agricultural officials say they have euthanized 114 peacocks,
ostriches and other birds at a zoo due to an avian virus.
(AP, 3/4/11)
2011 Mar 5, Mexican federal
police captured Mario Jimenez Perez, drug cartel suspect allegedly
linked to the Feb 15 killing of US agent Jaime Zapata, along with 16
other suspects.
(AP, 3/9/11)
2011 Mar 6, Mexican police
found 3 severed heads in plastic bags in the Pacific coast resort of
Acapulco. Armed men attacked a police station in Acapulco, wounding
an officer. The same suspects later shot at a house, wounding two
people at the residence. Authorities said Julio Cesar Aguilar
Garcia, a suspected high-ranking figure in the Sinaloa drug cartel,
was arrested in Sonora state. Alleged Zetas leader, Marcos Carmona
Hernandez, was arrested in Oaxaca state. In northwestern Sinaloa
state gunmen swarmed a convoy transporting 2 prisoners, shredding 3
police vehicles with bullets and killing 7 officers and one inmate.
(AP, 3/7/11)(SFC, 3/7/11, p.A2)(AP, 3/8/11)
2011 Mar 7, In Mexico
Marisol Valles Garcia (20), recently named police chief of Praxedis
G. Guerrero, was fired for apparently abandoning her post after
receiving death threats. Gunbattles between rival gangs killed 18
people in the northeastern town of Abasolo, Tamaulipas state.
(AP, 3/7/11)(AP, 3/8/11)
2011 Mar 7, In Mexico
assailants in Chilpancingo, capital of Guerrero state, doused three
government offices with gasoline and set them ablaze. The fire
destroyed documents and computer equipment at offices of the health
department, the interior department and a federal government health
insurance program.
(AP, 3/8/11)
2011 Mar 8, Legislators from
all of Mexico's three major parties in congress called for a joint
US-Mexico working group to examine accusations that US federal
agents allowed hundreds of guns to flow into Mexico. Lawmakers were
up in arms over the recent revelation that the US Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) purposefully allowed some
weapons to be smuggled south of the border so it could track them as
part of "Operation Fast and Furious."
(AP, 3/8/11)(SFC, 3/11/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 8, In Mexico’s gunmen
sprayed the crowded parking lot of a bar with bullets, killing at
least 6 people in Mazatlan. In Guerrero state soldiers killed 6
suspected drug gang members in a shootout at their cave hide-out.
Journalist Noel Lopez disappeared after when he was heading to the
town of Soteapan, Veracruz state. On May 31 his body was found
buried in a clandestine grave in the town of Chinameca. Soldiers
found his body after a man they arrested in the killings of several
police officers confessed to the crime and led them to the body.
(AP, 3/9/11)(AP, 6/2/11)
2011 Mar 8, Mexico's navy said
a sardine fishing boat is feared sunk in the Pacific after searchers
found the bodies of four crewmen. Five others remained missing. It
last made contact the night of March 5 and failed to arrive in port
the next morning.
(AP, 3/8/11)
2011 Mar 9, Forbes magazine
said Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim (71), with assets of $74 billion, is
the richest person in the world for the second year in a row.
(Reuters, 3/10/11)
2011 Mar 9, US auto giant Ford
said it will start exporting its top-selling Figo compact car from
India to Mexico and over 50 other countries as it strives to make
the South Asian nation an export hub.
(AFP, 3/9/11)
2011 Mar 10, In Mexico banners
were hung in Michoacan state announcing a previously unknown gang
calling itself the "Knights Templar," less than a month after the
local La Familia drug cartel said it intended to disband. Julian
Leyzaola (50), a retired army lieutenant colonel, took over the top
police job in Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 3/10/11)(AP, 4/4/11)
2011 Mar 10, The US Attorney's
office in New Mexico said the mayor of Columbus, Eddie Espinoza, the
town's police chief Angelo Vega, and village trustee Blas Gutierrez
were among those arrested on an 84-count indictment for allegedly
trafficking around 200 guns to Mexico.
(Reuters, 3/11/11)
2011 Mar 11, Mexico's attorney
general's office said it has extradited Esteban Rodriguez Olivera to
the United States, where he will face charges in New York and
Washington, D.C. federal courts for trafficking cocaine and
money-laundering.
(AP, 3/12/11)
2011 Mar 11, A sign threatening
Ciudad Juarez Public Security Director Julian Leyzaola Perez was
left beside a man who was found tortured but alive and wrapped in a
blanket. Leyzaola had assumed the post a day earlier. Soldiers
raided a drug gang's camp in the northeast and killed eight gunmen
in a shootout. 9 other people were detained in the raid, including a
woman, who claimed she had been kidnapped.
(AP, 3/12/11)
2011 Mar 11, In Mexico masses
of sardines, anchovies, stripped bass and mackerel surged close to
shore on one beach in the resort city of Acapulco, packed so tightly
near the surface they looked like an oil slick from above. Fishermen
attributed the phenomenon to the unusual currents unleashed by
tsunami that followed the earthquake in Japan. Experts couldn't be
sure.
(AP, 3/11/11)
2011 Mar 12, Mexican soldiers
killed four presumed kidnappers during a gunfight at a ranch in
northeast Mexico.
(AP, 3/14/11)
2011 Mar 13, In Mexico nine
people were shot dead in the resort city of Acapulco.
(AP, 3/14/11)
2011 Mar 14, In Mexico an
inmate stabbed to death Warden Rebeca Nicasio Vazquez, the acting
warden of a prison in the city of Nuevo Laredo.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 14, US Border Patrol
agents arrested two US citizens along with 13 illegal immigrants
from Mexico dressed in fake US Marine Corps uniforms.
(AP, 3/23/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Mexico a convoy
of gunmen chased their target into a home in the resort city of
Acapulco and sprayed the residence with bullets, killing two small
children and an elderly woman inside. Other attacks in Acapulco
killed a total of eight people. Police in the resort city of Cancun
found four bodies that had been set on fire. The Mexican army
announced that soldiers had seized five metric tons of marijuana in
the northern border city of Miguel Aleman.
(AP, 3/16/11)
2011 Mar 16, A US official said
the Obama administration is flying drones over Mexico to help gather
intelligence for the southern neighbor's battle against drug
traffickers.
(AP, 3/16/11)
2011 Mar 17, In Mexico police
found the body of a 4-year-old girl who had been shot in the chest,
the fifth child killed in drug-related violence in Acapulco in less
than a week. Police also found the bullet-ridden body of a man
outside a state prison in Acapulco. Police in Michoacan state found
two bodies hanging from the neck in two different towns. In Jalisco
state marines found the bodies of two men and two women buried in
two clandestine graves. US citizen, Josue Reyes Castro (26), was
killed by gunmen while visiting relatives in Ciudad Juarez. A
neighbor also was killed, and two of Reyes Castro's relatives were
wounded including a girl (4).
(AP, 3/18/11)
2011 Mar 18, Mexican Senators
voted with 69 in favor and one abstention to get rid of a law that
made cheating on a spouse an offense punishable by two years in
prison. They said it was never enforced but remained on the books.
The change already passed the lower House of Deputies and now went
to President Felipe Calderon for his signature. 6 gunmen were shot
dead during a gunfight with security forces in the Monterrey while
eight alleged kidnappers were killed in the Gulf coast state of
Veracruz.
(AP, 3/24/11)(AP, 3/19/11)
2011 Mar 19, In Mexico gunmen
opened fire in a bar in Acapulco killing 10 people.
(SSFC, 3/20/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 19, The US ambassador
to Mexico, Carlos Pascual, resigned amid furor over a leaked
diplomatic cable in which he complained about inefficiency and
infighting among Mexican security forces in the campaign against
drug cartels.
(AP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 19, In Mexico Arturo
Jose Iniguez (26), a Texas Cameron County Assistant District
Attorney, was found dead in Matamoros. Autopsy results later showed
he had killed himself by ingesting poison.
(Reuters, 3/23/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Mexico armed
men stole some 157 million pesos, about $13 million, from a cash
transporting company in Oaxaca state.
(AP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 21, In Arizona Carlos
La Madrid (19) was shot climbing a ladder while trying to cross the
border back to Mexico. He was shot three times, twice in the back
and once in the thigh, by Border Patrol agent Lucas Tidwell and died
later the same day at a local hospital. Investigators found 48
pounds of marijuana in the back of the truck La Madrid was driving.
A 17-year-old illegal immigrant identified as Jesus Manuel Chino
Lino ran from the truck was arrested on charges of drug possession
and transportation charges. In 2012 Guadalupe Guerrero, the mother
of Carlos la Madrid, sued the US federal government and the agent.
(AP, 3/28/11)(AP, 6/11/12)
2011 Mar 22, In Mexico’s
western state of Michoacan unidentified gunmen killed Jose Luis
Guerrero, the police chief of the town of La Piedad as he headed
home. He was the third police chief killed so far this year in
Michoacan.
(AP, 3/24/11)
2011 Mar 23, Mexican
authorities said they have detained Victor Manuel Felix, an in-law
of top drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who allegedly ran a
transnational drug operation that reached as far as Ecuador. 8 other
people were detained along with Felix in raids in three Mexican
states that began last week. Raids in Ecuador resulted in the
detention of 9 suspects. The navy announced it had detained 7 local
police officers, most from the Monterrey suburb of San Nicolas de
los Garza, on suspicion of working for drug cartels. A daylight
shooting in Monterey, thought to involve rival drug gangs, killed a
teenage boy and 2 adult males.
(AP, 3/24/11)
2011 Mar 24, Mexico’s largest
new media outlets agreed to a set of self-policed, drug war
reporting guidelines. A clash between soldiers and armed men left 13
dead in the town of Rio Bravo, on Mexico's northeastern border with
the United States.
(SFC, 3/25/11, p.A4)(AFP, 3/25/11)
2011 Mar 26, In Mexico 4 Ciudad
Juarez men were last seen, when they were picked up by patrol
vehicles with decals matching those used by the security detail of
new police chief, Julian Leyzaola.
(AP, 4/4/11)
2011 Mar 28, Mexican police
found the bodies of six men and one woman inside a car abandoned in
an exclusive gated community near Cuernavaca, Morelos state. The
dead included Juan Francisco Sicilia, son of poet Javier Sicilia.
Army soldiers killed four alleged gunmen in the border city of Nuevo
Laredo. A shootout between rival gangs in Monterrey killed two men,
including a hot dog vendor caught in the cross fire. In western
Michoacan state, the bodies of two men were found in Apatzingan with
messages from a new drug gang: "The Knights Templar will not permit
assassins to kill innocent people."
(AP, 3/29/11)(AP, 4/15/11)
2011 Mar 29, In northern Mexico
Gunmen killed the wife and 5-year-old daughter of a state governor's
bodyguard in Chihuahua city. In Nuevo Leon state Garica Mayor Jaime
Rodriguez said he survived an assassination attempt. Four men were
gunned own inside a home in San Marcos, a town in southwestern
Guerrero state.
(AP, 3/30/11)
2011 Mar 30, A prominent
Mexican businessman accused of luring poor girls to his home was
sentenced to 13 years on child pornography charges in a case that
tarnished the reputations of a state governor and another
businessman. Jean Succar Kuri, a legal US resident, was extradited
to Mexico in 2006. Targeted by an investigation in Mexico in 2003,
Succar fled to the United States but was arrested during a traffic
stop in Arizona in February 2004 and extradited two years later. On
Aug 31 a judge extended Kuri’s prison term to 60 years.
(AP, 3/31/11)(AP, 9/1/11)
2011 Mar 31, Mexico’s President
Felipe Calderon accepted the resignation of Arturo Chavez Chavez, an
attorney general known mainly for his weak image in a country
fighting a drug war, and nominated Marisela Morales, his top
organized crime prosecutor as a successor, the first woman to hold
the post if she is approved. In Ciudad Juarez 5 people were killed
at a bar called La Barritas. Gunmen assaulted another bar called El
Castillo. The death toll from the attack rose to 10 after two more
people died the next day from their wounds.
(AP, 4/1/11)(AP, 4/2/11)(AFP, 4/3/11)
2011 Apr 1, In Mexico gunmen
opened fire on a burrito truck in the border city of Ciudad Juarez,
killing the vendor, his 10-year-old son and 3 other people. A
17-year-old boy was among seven people killed in three shootings
around Monterrey. In the western state of Michoacan, four
bullet-ridden bodies were found in different towns.
(AP, 4/1/11)(AFP, 4/2/11)
2011 Apr 2, In Mexico Jose
Manuel Garcia Soto, alias "El Safado," or "The Crazy One," was
arrested in the northern state of San Luis Potosi for participating
in the Feb. 15 killing of Jaime Zapata and wounding of Victor Avila.
Both men were agents with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE).
(AP, 4/5/11)
2011 Apr 2, In Mexico an
explosion and fire hit a factory that distills raw alcohol, killing
three people and injuring three others near Orizaba, Veracruz state.
(AP, 4/2/11)
2011 Apr 3, In Mexico municipal
police officers on a routine patrol in El Higo, Veracruz state ran
into at least 20 gunmen on a dirt road and a firefight erupted. 6
officers, including one woman, died of gunshot wounds in the battle.
(AP, 4/4/11)
2011 Apr 4, Mexico announced a
plan to reward people who report suspected money laundering, under a
program that will allow them to get up to one-quarter of any illicit
funds or property seized. In Acapulco a fierce gunbattle left a
soldier and two gunmen killed and six people were wounded. Shortly
later the severed heads of two men were found on Acapulco's main
boulevard, near the beach resort area of Las Brisas.
(AP, 4/5/11)(AP, 4/4/11)
2011 Apr 4, Two men who
prosecutors tentatively identified as US citizens were shot to death
in their vehicle as they waited at a Tijuana-area border crossing to
enter the United States.
(AP, 4/4/11)
2011 Apr 6, Mexico’s Public
Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna said drug cartels are
increasingly recruiting common criminals and quickly converting them
into killers.
(AP, 4/6/11)
2011 Apr 7, Mexican security
forces reported that a series of eight burial pits have been found
in Tamaulipas state, one of which contained 43 bodies and the others
16 corpses. The find was made near the ranch where drug cartel
gunmen less than a year ago massacred 72 migrants who were trying to
reach the United States. 14 suspects linked to the killing were
under arrest.
(AP, 4/7/11)(SFC, 4/8/11, p.A6)
2011 Apr 11, Mexico’s defense
ministry announced that at least 16 more dead bodies have been found
over the past two days in various parts of Tamaulipas state. The
number of bodies found in the country over the past week soon grew
to 127. 4 armed men rushed into a newsroom in Villahermosa, then
gagged and beat up reporters and photographers and stole computers,
cameras and money.
(AFP, 4/11/11)(AP, 4/11/11)(AP, 4/13/11)
2011 Apr 11, Mexican police in
Tijuana arrested a man suspected of killing a US Border Patrol agent
Robert Rosas near San Diego on July 23, 2009, nearly one year after
another person was sentenced to prison for his role in the ambush.
Marcos Manuel Rodriguez Perez (26) was taken into custody as he was
driving through Tijuana.
(AP, 4/12/11)
2011 Apr 13, Mexico’s Attorney
General said security forces arrested 16 municipal police officers
accused of protecting drug gang hitmen who massacred dozens of
people near the US border.
(Reuters, 4/13/11)
2011 Apr 14, Mexican police
arrested suspect Rodrigo Elizalde Mora in the central city of
Cuernavaca. He allegedly confessed to participating in the March 28
killing of Juan Francisco Sicilia, a well-known poet's son and six
other people. Mora appeared the next day before reporters badly
beaten, and said he had been kidnapped by four unidentified men in a
sport utility vehicle, who then apparently turned him over to
authorities.
(AP, 4/15/11)
2011 Apr 15, Mexican
authorities said 10 complete bodies, 3 headless bodies and 4 severed
heads were found when authorities dug up a pit in a house in Durango
state. Marines detained 22 more suspects, including five women, in
an operation over the killings of 145 people found in mass graves
this month in Tamaulipas state.
(AP, 4/15/11)(AFP, 4/19/11)
2011 Apr 15, In Mexico
residents of Cheran, Michoacan state, captured five illegal loggers
as their truck attempted to smuggle out illegally harvested wood.
The indigenous Purepecha people said the loggers were backed by
cartel henchmen and local police. Loggers shot and killed two Cheran
men and wounded four others who were patrolling the woods on April
27.
(AP, 5/18/11)
2011 Apr 17, In Mexico the
Tamaulipas state governor replaced his public security chief after
145 bodies showed up in mass graves in the violent border state in
the last two weeks.
(AP, 4/17/11)
2011 Apr 18, Mexico’s military
captured nine suspects in connection with the killings of at least
145 people whose bodies were found starting early this month in pits
in the township of San Fernando, in the border state of Tamaulipas.
(AP, 4/20/11)
2011 Apr 19, Mexican troops
clashed with gunmen trying to establish a base in Veracruz, killing
10 alleged assailants.
(AP, 4/20/11)
2011 Apr 20, In northern Mexico
investigators found 26 badly decomposed bodies at a vacant lot in
the state of Durango and said they were looking for more. In
Tamaulipas authorities reported they had rescued 68 people,
including 12 Central American migrants, allegedly kidnapped by a
drug cartel. Federal police in Cancun arrested Marco Antonio Gomez,
a lawyer who allegedly helped the Zetas drug cartel manage ransom
and extortion payments, which were sometimes handed over in the form
of property deeds. Nine more suspected Zetas members were arrested
in the border state of Tamaulipas.
(AP, 4/20/11)(AP, 4/21/11)
2011 Apr 21, In Mexico
prosecutors reported that further excavations at a vacant lot in the
state capital of Durango yielded 11 more bodies, 10 men and one
woman, in addition to 26 badly decomposed bodies found a day
earlier.
(AP, 4/21/11)
2011 Apr 22, Mexican
authorities released another tally of corpses unearthed from pits in
the northeastern state of Tamaulipas: 32 bodies discovered in the
past week, bringing the monthly total to 177. A farmer opened fire
on a crowd as they were leaving a church in the town of Los Pozos,
Veracruz state, killing a woman and two children and wounding
another minor. Farmer Leonardo Bautista Rivera later the same day in
his home.
(AP, 4/22/11)(AP, 4/23/11)
2011 Apr 23, In Mexico police
in Acapulco said 4 women and a teenage girl have been found with
their throats cut in the resort city. All appeared to have been
connected to the same beauty parlor. A young man was shot to death
in the lobby of a luxury hotel in Cabo San Lucas. Mexico City
prosecutors said residents of the San Miguel Chapultepec
neighborhood discovered a woman's upper body on one block and her
left leg and right leg on two other blocks.
(AP, 4/23/11)(AP, 4/24/11)
2011 Apr 24, Mexico’s Federal
Competition Commission confirmed that it hit Telcel with a fine of
11.99 billion pesos ($1 billion) for charging competing networks
sky-high connection fees.
(Econ, 5/7/11, p.41)(http://tinyurl.com/6dft5fj)
2011 Apr 24, In Mexico a
severed head was found on a street outside the central bus terminal
in Zihuatanejo, Guerrero state.
(AP, 4/24/11)
2011 Apr 25, Mexican
authorities said federal police rescued 51 people, including six
Chinese and 18 Central American migrants, who were captive in
Reynosa, the same border city where more than five dozen people were
freed last week.
(AP, 4/26/11)
2011 Apr 26, Mexican
authorities said security forces have unearthed six more bodies in
Tamaulipas state where a drug gang is believed to be kidnapping
passengers from buses and hiding their victims in secret graves. A
total of 183 bodies have been discovered in a month in 40 graves. A
different search over the last month in the capital of northwestern
Durango state has yielded 96 bodies in two mass graves as of today.
(AP, 4/26/11)
2011 Apr 27, Mexico's Senate
approved constitutional changes that would let lawmakers run for
re-election and permit independents to seek office. Security forces
exhumed eight more bodies from mass graves in Durango where drug
gangs are believed to have buried their victims, bringing the total
from a monthlong search to 104.
(AP, 4/28/11)
2011 Apr 29, Mexican federal
police discovered a basement arsenal hidden behind the mirrors of a
home gym in Ciudad Juarez that included three anti-aircraft guns,
dozens of grenades, a grenade launcher, AK-47s and other
high-powered weapons.
(AP, 4/30/11)
2011 May 3, Mexican police
found a total of five decapitated bodies in the suburbs of Mexico
City accompanied by written messages of the kind frequently left by
drug gangs. Unidentified attackers shot Joel St. Tierre, a Canadian
citizen, in the head on a street in the Benito Juarez district of
Mexico City. Prosecutors in the northern state of Durango announced
that six more sets of skeletal remains had been found in continuing
excavations at mass graves, bringing the total number of bodies
found in a month-long search of the sites to about 110.
(AP, 5/4/11)(AFP, 5/11/11)
2011 May 3, In Mexico a gas
explosion that ripped through a primitive, vertical-shaft coal mine
trapping 14 miners in San Juan de Sabinas, Coahuila state. All 14
were killed. The last body was recovered on May 8.
(AP, 5/4/11)(AP, 5/6/11)
2011 May 5, Mexican soldiers
searching mass graves in the state capital of the northern state of
Durango recovered 25 more bodies, bringing the total recovered there
to at least 146.
(AP, 5/5/11)
2011 May 5, In Mexico more than
600 people led by a Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, whose son was
killed by suspected drug traffickers, set off on a march from the
resort city of Cuernavaca to Mexico City to protest the country's
unrelenting gang violence.
(AP, 5/5/11)
2011 May 6, Mexico authorities
said they recovered 11 more bodies at a series of mass grave pits in
Durango, bringing the total number of bodies found in a monthlong
search of the pits to at least 157. Cartel gunmen fired on a
military convoy in Monterrey with a grenade launcher and hit a bus
carrying employees of a US-owned assembly plant. One attacker was
killed. Prosecutors said they have detained four local policemen,
five Guatemalans and one Honduran in connection with mass
kidnappings of migrants in the border city of Reynosa. Police
captured Jose Zarco Cardenas (22) and an accomplice in Mexico City.
He had recently begun heading drug operations in Morelos state for a
gang that broke off from the Beltran Leyva cartel.
(AP, 5/6/11)(SFC, 5/9/11, p.A2)
2011 May 8, In Mexico an
anti-violence march that began in a central state with a few hundred
people and gathered thousands over a four-day trek reached Mexico
City, led by a poet whose son was killed by suspected drug
traffickers. One marine and 12 suspected gunmen of the Zetas drug
cartel were killed in a gun battle on Falcon Lake in the
northeastern state of Tamaulipas. The decapitated bodies of 11 men
were found in two places in Durango, bringing the rapidly mounting
toll to 179.
(AP, 5/8/11)(AP, 5/10/11)
2011 May 9, Mexican public
defenders said a group of Central American migrants recently rescued
from kidnappers in northern Mexico has accused immigration agents of
pulling them from a bus and handing them over to criminal gangs. In
April the federal government had announced the arrest of six
immigration agents in Tamaulipas for "federal crimes."
(AP, 5/10/11)
2011 May 10, Mexican police
found two male heads on top of a cement wall in the plaza of
Guadalupe Distrito Bravos, a town on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez.
Two headless bodies, one of them stabbed in the back, were later
found in two separate homes. Another man and a woman were then
discovered in a nearby house with their throats slashed. Mexican
security forces searching mass graves in the northern Mexican state
of Durango unearthed eight more bodies, bringing the total to 188
and making it the largest discovery yet of corpses secretly buried
in regions plagued by drug-gang fighting.
(AP, 5/11/11)(AFP, 5/11/11)
2011 May 11, In Mexico 15
people were shot dead in separate incidents in a single day in the
northern Mexican border state of Nuevo Leon. The Defense Ministry
meanwhile announced that troops had seized a record shipment of 194
kilos of heroine in the southeast Pacific coast state of Guerrero as
well as 127 kilos of opium poppy seeds and 57 grams of cocaine.
(AFP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 12, Mexican
authorities fired 7 regional directors of the immigration agency
following allegations that officers in the north had delivered
migrants to kidnapping gangs. The Mexican army said that they had
detained one of the main leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, led by
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Martin Beltran Coronel, alias "The
Eagle," was arrested along with four other people in an exclusive
neighborhood of Zapopan, a suburb of Guadalajara. He had replaced
Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel, the cartel's reputed No. 3 capo gunned down
in Guadalajara in July 2010. The bodies of 8 decapitated men were
dumped along roads in Durango state, where the 196 bodies have been
unearthed in mass graves.
(SFC, 5/13/11, p.A2)(AP, 5/13/11)(SFC, 5/13/11,
p.A2)
2011 May 14, In Mexico
unidentified gunmen shot dead at least nine indigenous people and
wounded another 10 on a highway en route to a political rally in
southern Oaxaca state. A clash between gunmen and police in the
popular Pacific coast beach town of Zihuatenejo left at least 13
people dead. Security forces said they have discovered another 17
bodies in mass graves found last month in the northern state of
Durango bringing the total to 218. An armed gang burst into a Red
Cross clinic in the northern city of Culiacan and attempted to kill
a 23-year-old man who had arrived with head wounds and one arm
nearly axed off.
(AFP, 5/14/11)(AP, 5/15/11)
2011 May 15, In Mexico Durango
state security authorities said they found nine bodies dead on the
street in the state capital.
(AP, 5/15/11)
2011 May 16, In southern Mexico
gunmen opened fire on four local police officers, killing them and
two bystanders in the downtown area of Coyuca de Catalan, Guerrero
state.
(AP, 5/16/11)
2011 May 17, In southern Mexico
prosecutors detained 2 officials of the National Immigration
Institute for allegedly prostituting female Central American
migrants in Chiapas state. Police in Chiapas state found 513
migrants inside two trailer trucks bound for the United States, and
said they had been transported in dangerously crowded conditions.
Gunmen opened fired on a group of people at an auto body shop in the
Gulf Coast state of Tabasco, killing 8 people and badly wounding 2
others. A ninth victim died of his wounds the next day. Gunmen
ambushed and killed three police officers in a suburb of Monterrey.
(AP, 5/18/11)(AP, 5/18/11)
2011 May 18, A Mexican prison
brawl in which inmates battled with guns and knives left eight
detainees dead and 11 others wounded in the northern city of
Durango. Mexican soldiers seized a big cache of weapons after
fighting a running gunbattle with drug cartel gunmen fleeing in a
17-vehicle convoy on the outskirts of Matamoros. 3 suspected gunmen
were killed and 3 captured.
(AFP, 5/19/11)(AP, 5/19/11)
2011 May 20, Mexican federal
police captured Gilberto Barragan Balderas (41), a leading member of
the Gulf drug cartel, at what appeared to have been his birthday
party. In Zacatecas state at least 10 people were killed in a
gunbattle apparently involving the Zetas and a rival front of gangs
known as the "United Cartels." In the north a fire killed 14 inmates
at a prison in the town of Apodaca, Nuevo Leon state. Police in the
Pacific coast state of Guerrero reported they found the decapitated
bodies of four men in the township of Tecpan de Galeana.
(AP, 5/20/11)
2011 May 20, In Mexico retired
Gen. Jorge Juarez Loera was shot and killed in a suburb of Mexico
City after a road accident.
(AP, 5/23/11)
2011 May 21, Mexican marines
were confronted when passing by what proved to be a gang safe house
in the Durango state capital, also named Durango. Gunmen fired at
the marines, who shot back then rushed into the house, killing three
alleged criminals.
(AP, 5/23/11)
2011 May 22, In Mexico Durango
state officers discovered a fake road checkpoint set up by gang
members about 70 miles (110 km) north of Durango city and summoned
soldiers. A gunbattle erupted, leaving five civilians dead and three
state officers wounded.
(AP, 5/23/11)
2011 May 23, Mexican
prosecutors said they have detained 16 policemen who allegedly took
bribes to protect members of a drug gang who carried specially
marked cards to avoid detention. Police in Acapulco found a
decapitated body and a head with mutilated ears inside a cab left
next to a hotel in a tourist area. In Durango gunmen attacked
highway police on the outskirts of the state capital, killing a
female officer (35) and wounding 4 officers and a civilian.
(AP, 5/23/11)
2011 May 24, In northern Mexico
17 inmates escaped through a tunnel starting in a prison's laundry
room. On may 27 the director and 11 officials at the prison were
charged with helping in the escape in Reynosa, Tamaulipas state.
Suspected cartel gunmen opened fire on a federal police chopper,
hitting two officers and forcing the craft to land in Michoacan
state. Officials insisted it had not been shot down. In 2012
official documents reported that armed forces and prosecutors have
suffered at least 28 gunfire attacks on helicopters since 2008.
(AP, 5/27/11)(AP, 1/16/12)
2011 May 25, In western Mexico
fierce fighting among apparent rival drug gangs bloodied one highway
with 29 dead in Nayarit, while in nearby Michoacan state more than
700 people huddled in shelters after fleeing villages that had
become battlegrounds.
(AP, 5/26/11)(AP, 5/27/11)
2011 May 27, Mexico's federal
police detained nearly 50 members of two major drug cartels,
including suspects in the recent armed attack on a police
helicopter.
(AP, 5/28/11)
2011 May 31, Mexican police
completed the arrests of 25 drug cartel members or collaborators in
central Mexico, including a police chief, two commanding officers
and seven agents suspected of aiding traffickers. The arrests began
May 29 in the mountains of Hidalgo.
(AP, 5/31/11)
2011 Jun 1, The Mexican
government charged 73 suspects in the killings of 183 people whose
bodies were recovered during April in mass graves near the US
border.
(AP, 6/2/11)
2011 Jun 2, In Mexico the
Global Commission of Drug Policy called for the decriminalization of
all drug taking.
(Econ, 6/4/11, p.70)
2011 Jun 3, Mexico’s federal
Attorney General's Office said authorities in the Pacific port of
Manzanillo seized 69 tons (63 metric tons) of two chemicals used to
make synthetic drugs. 34 tons of monomethylamine arrived May 6 on
one ship and the other ship carrying 35 tons of ethyl phenyl acetate
arrived April 10. Both ships were from Shanghai, China.
(AP, 6/4/11)
2011 Jun 4, Mexican
poet-turned-activist Javier Sicilia set off on a cross-country
caravan with hundreds of fellow demonstrators to demand an end to
drug-related bloodshed. Police raided the home of Jorge Hank Rhon
(55), race track owner and former mayor of Tijuana. He was long
rumored to be involved in money laundering and other criminal
activities, faced charges after police raided his home and found 88
illegal weapons.
(AP, 6/4/11)(Reuters, 6/5/11)(AP, 6/8/11)(SFC,
6/9/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun 9, Five Mexican soccer
players tested positive for clenbuterol, a steroid. The Mexican
Soccer Federation officials had no other recourse but to send 5 of
their players home for failing the steroid test. The players contend
that they did not commit any wrongdoing and the positive test for
clenbuterol may be caused by inadvertently ingesting contaminated
meat. Mexico's health department said the next day that occurrences
of contaminated beef in Mexico are less than one in a million.
(www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-0611-soccer-gold-cup-20110611,0,3638890.story)
2011 Jun 10, Mexican suspect
Dhither Camarillo Palafox, alias "Taurus," was arrested in the
Caribbean coast resort of Cancun. He was a leader of the so-called
"Zodiac" kidnapping gang. Alleged associates nicknamed "Sagittarius"
and "Aquarius" were arrested in 2009. The group's other leader,
nicknamed "Cancer," was detained in 2005.
(AP, 6/16/11)
2011 Jun 14, In Mexico charges
against a former Tijuana mayor, allegedly caught with 88 guns at his
home, were dismissed and a judge refused a request to hold him in a
murder investigation. The next day Assistant Attorney General
Patricia Bugarin said the judge who freed gambling magnate and
former mayor Jorge Hank Rhon acted with "bias and subjectivity" in
dismissing the federal charges. Police said 2 dead men have been
found hanging by their hands off highway bridges around the city of
Monterrey in less than 24 hours.
(AP, 6/15/11)(SFC, 6/15/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun 15, Mexican police
found the dismembered bodies of two bodyguards who worked for the
governor of Nuevo Leon state, the site of a violent turf war between
drug cartels. Marco Antonio Guzman (34), who had several aliases
including "El Brad Pitt," was captured in the US border state of
Chihuahua along with two alleged accomplices. Police said Guzman was
involved in the June 15, 2010 car bomb explosion that killed a
federal police officer and two civilians. The northern state of
Nuevo Leon, home to the industrial city of Monterrey, saw 33
killings, in the most violent day in recent history.
(AP, 6/15/11)(AP, 6/16/11)(AFP, 6/17/11)
2011
Jun 15, Three Mexican journalists, who fled Mexico because their
lives were in danger, asked the United States government to speed up
their pleas for asylum. Ernesto Gutierrez, a print journalist;
Ricardo Chavez Aldana, a radio journalist; and Alejandro Hernandez
Pacheco, a TV cameraman, were involved in coverage of criminal
activities of drug traffickers; each received death threats from
members of drug cartels.
(AP, 6/15/11)
2011 Jun 15, Mexican soldiers
raided 3 interconnected warehouses in Queretaro state. They thought
they had found 1,462 50-gallon drums filled with various
methamphetamine precursors. When experts examined the stash, they
found 3.4 tons (3.1 metric tons) of pure meth.
(AP, 8/27/11)
2011 Jun 16, In Mexico PEMEX
director said increasingly sophisticated thieves have stolen about
20,000 barrels per day of oil products from the state-owned oil
company in the first four months of 2011, thefts worth about $250
million.
(AP, 6/16/11)
2011 Jun 16, Moshe Gerstein
(35), a NYC attorney, died in Mexico city. Two days earlier he was
charged along with at least two dozen others in a child-pornography
sweep. Manhattan prosecutors had accused Gerstein of being a part of
a child-pornography ring that shared images of children being raped
and sexually abused. Gerstein was first arrested on May 10 and was
freed on $5,000 bail.
(Reuters, 6/23/11)
2011 Jun 17, In Mexico a
gunbattle between soldiers and suspected cartel gunmen left two
suspects dead in the northern border city of Matamoros. The
government of Veracruz state said five suspects died there following
a shootout with state police and soldiers. 11 people were killed in
the state of Veracruz when criminals attacked police and soldiers at
a military checkpoint on a highway between the state capital of
Xalapa and the port city of Veracruz.
(AP, 6/18/11)
2011 Jun 17, Mexican customs
inspectors say they've found more than $2.4 million in cash rolled
up and stuffed into spools of telephone cable headed for Venezuela.
Authorities say Venezuela is increasingly becoming a trans-shipment
point for cocaine, and Mexican cartels often ship money back to
South America to pay for the drugs.
(AP, 6/17/11)
2011 Jun 18, Mexican
authorities said the bodies of nine victims of suspected drug
violence have turned up in the western state of Michoacan. A group
calling itself the Knights Templar left messages claiming
responsibility for the killings. Gunmen stormed a bar in Monterrey
and "executed three people," wounded another, and kidnapped a
security guard at the bar who was later found dead.
(AP, 6/18/11)(AFP, 6/19/11)
2011 Jun 18, Mexican mother
Leticia Chete Aguero poisoned herself and 2 children with a powder
form of the agricultural insecticide known as Lannate. The woman and
an 11-year old daughter died, but a 6-year-old son survived.
(AP, 6/18/11)
2011 Jun 19, In Mexico four
people, 18-25 years old, were killed in Guadalupe, a city adjacent
to Monterrey. The bodies of 14 people were found in Michoacan state.
(AP, 6/20/11)
2011 Jun 20, In Mexico
journalist Miguel Angel Lopez Velasco (55), his wife, and their son
(21) were shot to death inside their home in Veracruz. Velasco wrote
a column about politics and crime and was editorial director for the
daily newspaper Notiver. His son, Misael Lopez, had been working as
a photographer for the same newspaper.
(AP, 6/20/11)
2011 Jun 21, In Mexico Mendez
Vargas, alias El Chango, or "The Monkey," was arrested in the
central state of Aguascalientes. He had worked for the Zetas in the
western state of Michoacan before he and other drug traffickers left
to form the rival La Familia cartel in 2006. La Familia fractured
into two rival drug gangs in December after federal police killed
the gang's founder and leader, Nazario Moreno.
(AP, 6/22/11)
2011 Jun 21, A US Border Patrol
agent shot and killed Jose Alfredo Yanez (40) at the US-Mexico
border in Sand Diego. He had threatened to strike another agent with
a concrete slab. Yanez was shot once in the torso and once in the
head and died on Mexico's side of the border.
(AP, 6/22/11)(AP, 6/22/11)
2011 Jun 21, Hurricane Beatriz
bore down on Mexico's Pacific coast, putting tourist areas and major
ports on alert for heavy rainfall and flash floods. Beatriz weakened
into a tropical storm after pounding Mexico’s Pacific coast.
(AP, 6/21/11)(SFC, 6/22/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun 24, In Mexico a mass
grave was discovered by soldiers patrolling in the municipality of
Juarez, Nuevo Leon state. Authorities believed the graves contained
at least 11 bodies. Mexico's Defense Department said that it was
sending close to 3,000 soldiers to Tamaulipas to aid the northern
state in weeding out corrupt police and recruiting and training new
ones. Guerrero state police said five people were killed in the
Pacific resort city of Acapulco, two of them in the tourism
district. Five other slain people were found in other parts of
Guerrero state.
(AP, 6/26/11)
2011 Jun 24, In southeastern
Mexico gunmen reportedly kidnapped at least 60 undocumented
migrants, including children, who were aboard a freight train in
Mexico trying to get to the United States. On June 29 the government
said it hasn't found evidence to confirm a priest's report that at
least 80 Central American migrants were kidnapped from the freight
train.
(AFP, 6/27/11)(AP, 6/29/11)
2011 Jun 25, In Mexico more
than 40 masked men burst into a cantina and opened fire, killing
four people in the Pacific Coast state of Jalisco. Federal police
said they arrested the leader of the Zetas cartel's operations in
Veracruz state.
(AP, 6/26/11)
2011 Jun 26, Mexican federal
officials said the cult-like La Familia drug cartel conducts
widespread extortion rackets aimed at farmers, miners and even
bullfight organizers while getting protection from state police
commanders.
(AP, 6/26/11)
2011 Jun 27, In Mexico gunmen
burst into the office of the police chief of Santa Catarina, Nuevo
Leon state, and shot him to death. German Perez was shot at least
eight times his Monterrey suburb. 7 bodyguards and officers who were
guarding the police station were placed under investigation. The
killing came a day after 3 Santa Catarina police officers were
detained on suspicion of spying on officers in a neighboring town
for the Zetas drug cartel.
(AP, 6/27/11)(AP, 6/29/11)
2011 Jun 28, In Mexico Abraham
Barrios Caporal (26), an alleged hit man accused of kidnapping bus
passengers, killing them and burying them in mass graves in northern
Mexico, was captured in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz state, and
acknowledged working for the Zetas drug cartel.
(AP, 6/30/11)
2011 Jun 30, In Mexico gunmen
opened fire during a soccer game in the resort city of Acapulco,
killing two people and wounding at least two children who were
watching the match.
(AP, 6/30/11)
2011 Jul 1, In northern Mexico
marines battled alleged members of the Zetas drug cartel for more
than five hours, leaving 15 gang suspects dead and six marines
wounded.
(AP, 7/2/11)
2011 Jul 1, In Mexico remnants
of Tropical Storm Arlene continued dumping rain over the country's
central highlands. 22 deaths due to the storm were soon confirmed.
(AP, 7/2/11)(AP, 7/5/11)
2011 Jul 2, In Mexico 3 gunmen
were killed in a shootout with police after more than 40 armed
assailants lobbed grenades at a federal police station in La Piedad,
Michoacan state. A priest in Tamaulipas state was killed in his car
by a stray bullet during a shootout in Matamoros. In Sinaloa state
the bodies of two decapitated men were left at the entrance of two
local newspaper offices, Noreste and El Debate.
(AP, 7/3/11)
2011 Jul 3, In Mexico the
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) won a decisive victory in
voting for governor of Mexico state, the country's most populous
state. PRI also scored wins in two other states.
(AP, 7/4/11)
2011 Jul 3, In southern Mexico
unidentified gunmen killed the widow of legendary Mexican guerrilla
leader Lucio Cabanas. Isabel Anaya Nava (54) was shot to death along
with her sister Reyna (58) as they left a church in the community of
Xaltianguis, Guerrero state. Jesus Rejon Aguilar, ranked as the #3
leader of the Zetas, was captured in Atizapan de Zaragoza, Mexico
state.
(AP, 7/3/11)(SFC, 7/5/11, p.A3)
2011 Jul 3, The Erik, a
100-foot (32-meter) tourist fishing boat, capsized about 60 miles
(100 km) south of the Baja California port of San Felipe. A US
tourist died and 7 US tourists were missing along with one Mexican
crew member.
(AP, 7/4/11)
2011 Jul 6, US and Mexican
officials signed an agreement allowing each country’s trucks to
traverse the other’s highways implementing a key provision in the
1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
(SFC, 7/7/11, p.A4)
2011 Jul 7, Mexican judges
convicted four men, Juan Alfredo Soto, Aldo Fabio Hernandez, Jose
Dolores Arroyo and Heriberto Martinez, of killing 15 people in the
Jan 30, 2010, Ciudad Juarez attack, known as the Villa Salvarcar
massacre. The attack prompted President Felipe Calderon to alter the
government's anti-drug strategy in the area. On July 11 the 4 men
were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.
(AP, 7/7/11)(AP, 7/11/11)
2011 Jul 7, In Mexico’s western
state of Michoacan presumed drug gang members shot at federal
officers, who repelled the attack and killed four alleged criminals
and wounded another in the city of Apatzingan. Police said the
gunmen were members of the Knights Templar, a criminal organization
that split off from La Familia cartel.
(AP, 7/7/11)
2011 Jul 7, In Texas Humberto
Leal (38), a Mexican national, was executed for the rape-slaying of
a teenager after the US Supreme Court turned down an appeal to spare
him that was supported by Mexico and the White House. He was
sentenced to death for the 1994 murder of 16-year-old Adria Sauceda.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 8, In Mexico the
bodies of 10 men and a woman who had been shot with high-powered
rifles were found piled near a water well on the outskirts of Mexico
City. A survivor later said victims were kidnapped two days
earlier in a bar by members of the Knights Templar. At least 20
people were killed in a bar massacre in the northern city of
Monterrey when riflemen opened fire on the clientele and employees.
(AP, 7/8/11)(AP, 7/9/11)(AP, 7/11/11)
2011 Jul 9, In Mexico 10 people
were found dead in various parts of the northern city of Torreon,
where the Zetas fought the Sinaloa cartel headed by Joaquin "El
Chapo" Guzman. Federal police killed three more riflemen after
confronting them on a highway where they were trying to pull
motorists out of their cars in Michoacan state.
(AP, 7/10/11)
2011 Jul 9, Mexican federal
police captured Armando Villareal Heredia (33), a US-born drug
lieutenant. He had joined the Tijuana cartel after a crackdown on
the notorious Arellano Felix brothers caused the group to splinter
and emerge with a younger leadership.
(AP, 7/12/11)
2011 Jul 10, In Mexico
townsfolk, known as the Tzotzil Mayan Indians, took police hostage
and demanded the government pay $4,300 for their release. Residents
of San Cristobalito in Chiapas state were angry that the officers
were executing an arrest warrant for a community member accused of
auto theft. About 200 people, displeased with the negotiation,
waited for the agents to get inside their unit before pushing it off
a 400-foot (120-meter) cliff killing two officers and a civilian
inside. A fourth man reportedly survived.
(AP, 7/13/11)
2011 Jul 12, In Mexico at least
21 people, including a preteen boy, were killed in a single day of
cartel violence in Ciudad Juarez. Soldiers found the largest
marijuana plantation ever detected in Mexico, a huge field covering
almost 300 acres (120 hectares) on the floor of the Baja California
desert. Two men were caught in the camp and 56 others were rounded
up.
(AP, 7/13/11)(AP, 7/14/11)(AP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 13, Mexican
authorities said federal police have caught the top hitman for the
Knights Templar drug gang in the western state of Michoacan. Police
alleged that suspect Javier Beltran Arco oversaw murders for the
meth-trafficking gang. Beltran Arco is known by the nickname "El
Chivo," or The Goat. Federal police seized copies of the cartel's
22pp "The Code of the Knights Templar of Michoacan," during the
arrest. Michoacan authorities also announced the seizure of 44
metric tons of chemicals used to produce methamphetamine. The
material was found at the Lazaro Cardenas seaport in two containers
that had been shipped from Shanghai in China.
(AP, 7/13/11)(AP, 7/20/11)
2011 Jul 15, In Mexico at least
12 state police officers and a bystander were killed in an ambush on
a highway in the western state of Sinaloa. Fighting among inmates in
a Nuevo Laredo prison near the US border killed 7 prisoners and
allowed at least 59 others to escape.
(AP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 16, In Mexico two
Mexican tourists in Acapulco were killed in a gun attack at a
restaurant on the main oceanfront avenue in the tourist zone of the
Pacific resort. Two other people were wounded.
(AP, 7/16/11)
2011 Jul 20, The Mexican army
in north-central state of Queretaro seized a cache of more than 926
tons (840 metric tons) of precursor chemicals used to make
methamphetamines.
(AP, 7/21/11)
2011 Jul 21, The US Justice
Department said US authorities have arrested nearly 2,000
people on narcotics charges in a 20-month sting targeting Mexico's
La Familia Michoacana drug cartel. The arrests and charges were
carried out in 12 states and the US capital Washington in a major
operation dubbed "Project Delirium."
(AFP, 7/23/11)
2011 Jul 22, Mexican officials
said 2 police officers assigned to work with US diplomats have been
killed in a drive-by shooting in Guadalupe, a suburb of Monterrey.
Soldiers killed 6 gunmen who had apparently set up a highway
roadblock in a rural area of Zacatecas state. Three people were also
found killed in the resort city of Acapulco. A police officer who
had been collecting weapons from drug gangs there was shot by
assailants, who made off with at least two rifles.
(AP, 7/22/11)
2011 Jul 23, In Mexico 6
suspected cartel gunmen were killed in an overnight clash with
soldiers in Ayotlan, Jalisco state. The army alleged that the men
were members of the Zetas drug cartel, and said they found assault
rifles, grenade launchers and ammunition at the scene. In
Guadalajara a man was arrested trying to board a plane to Panama at
the international airport carrying more than $290,000 in US currency
hidden in a suitcase. In Acapulco two human heads were found on a
highway bridge, wrapped in colorful plastic. The body of a third,
20-year-old man was found nearby riddled with bullets.
(AP, 7/23/11)
2011 Jul 23, Mexican soldiers
found a series of marijuana fields covering 148 acres (60 hectares)
in the northern state of Durango. The army patrol also found 40
metric tons (44 US tons) of harvested marijuana at the plantation.
(AP, 7/25/11)
2011 Jul 25, In Mexico a gun
battle in a rural area south of Mexico City led to the death of nine
suspected gunmen. Police also reported two dead in Acapulco. They
were found shot to death on a major avenue. 5 gunmen were killed in
a firefight and car chase with soldiers on a highway in Nuevo Leon
near Laredo, Texas. A deadly clash between two rival gangs erupted
at the state prison in Ciudad Juarez when a group of inmates entered
the preventive detention area and opened fire on inmates. At least
17 inmates were killed. Soldiers and federal and state police
officers took control of the prison early the next day. In October
police found three pistols, two machine pistols and an assault rifle
hidden in cell blocks at prison.
(AP, 7/25/11)(AP, 7/26/11)(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Jul 26, In Mexico the body
of Yolanda Ordaz de la Cruz, a police beat reporter, was found in
the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, the second reporter from the same
newspaper slain in a month. She had been missing since July 24.
Shepherds came across two decomposing bodies near a dirt road in the
town of Juarez and alerted police. Another 16 bodies were buried
underneath.
(AP, 7/26/11)(AP, 7/27/11)
2011 Jul 27, In Mexico six men
were shot to death and four were wounded by assailants at a fair in
the town of Yurecuaro, Michoacan state. Three men who had been
tortured and shot in the head were found dead on the outskirts of
the Morelia, the capital of Michoacan.
(AP, 7/27/11)
2011 Jul 28, Mexico's Army
seized five metric tons of marijuana near the US border in Puerto
Penasco, a beach city popular with visitors from Arizona.
(AP, 7/30/11)
2011 Jul 29, The top Mexican
federal prosecutors in 21 of the country's 31 states and federal
district resigned. It came a week after the department had announced
that 111 of its staff had been charged with crimes and 192 more
fired for botching cases.
(AP, 8/1/11)
2011 Jul 29, Mexican
authorities captured Jose Antonio Acosta Hernandez (33) in
Chihuahua. He was identified as the head of La Linea, a gang of hit
men and corrupt police officers who act as enforcers for the Juarez
Cartel. Hernandez was wanted by the US government on charges of
murdering a US consulate employee and her husband last year in
Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 7/31/11)
2011 Jul 30, In Mexico six
employees of a nationally prominent polling firm disappeared in
Apatzingan, Michoacan state, while working ahead of the state's
upcoming race for governor.
(AP, 8/1/11)
2011 Aug 1, In Mexico Moises
Montero Alvarez (42), nicknamed "The Korean," was captured along
with a 21-year-old and two teenagers believed to be accomplices.
Alvarez is suspected of being a leader in the local Independent
Cartel of Acapulco. Alvarez is accused of helping to carry out the
Sept. 30 kidnapping of 20 vacationing men from Michoacan state. 3
marines were apparently kidnapped by drug cartels in the Gulf coast
state of Veracruz.
(AP, 8/2/11)(AP, 8/15/11)
2011 Aug 2, Mexican authorities
said they have detained the director and four guards at a prison in
Ciudad Juarez where 17 inmates were killed in fighting last week. A
second Mexican polling firm reported three workers missing in
Michoacan state, two days after six workers from another survey
company vanished from the same place. Gunmen killed three police
officers in Ascension, Chihuahua state.
(AP, 8/2/11)(AP, 8/4/11)
2011 Aug 2, Mexican authorities
detained Valdemar Quintanilla Soriano, identified as the No. 2
financial operator in the Zetas drug cartel. Federal police captured
Quintanilla Soriano and another man in the northern state of
Coahuila.
(AP, 8/3/11)
2011 Aug 3, In Mexico 9
pollsters, recently kidnapped in Michoacan state, were released.
(AP, 8/4/11)
2011 Aug 4, In Mexico the
entire 20-man police force resigned in the northern town of
Ascension, Chihuahua state, after a series of attacks that killed
the police chief and five officers over the last three months. The
Defense Department announced that a 19-day offensive in northern
states against the Zetas drug cartel had resulted in the shooting
deaths of 30 alleged criminals and a soldier. Among those killed was
Jorge Luis de la Pena, the Zetas boss for Nuevo Laredo. Near
Monterey police found the bodies of two men each hanging by an ankle
from a pedestrian bridge.
(AP, 8/4/11)
2011 Aug 4, In Mexico the chief
prosecutor in Chiapas state said former Gov. Pablo Salazar, jailed
on suspicion of embezzlement, will also face manslaughter charges
involving the 2002-2003 deaths of two babies and with negligence in
the deaths of 31 other newborns.
(AP, 8/4/11)
2011 Aug 5, In Mexico 7 armed
assailants, clad in military uniforms and armed with AK-47s, were
killed in a shootout with federal police in Michoacan state. In
Acapulco three homes in separate neighborhoods were burned down with
gasoline bombs. 8 men and one woman were killed in separate
incidents in Acapulco, including slayings at two restaurants and a
bus station. In one case, the dismembered body of a man was found in
an abandoned car. Police arrested five members of a kidnapping and
extortion ring that operated in the Mexico City region including
gang leader Eduardo Sanchez Zuniga, nicknamed "El Bla Bla." The gang
was known for leaving the heads of pigs outside homes and businesses
as a warning. 3 indigenous Triqui activists were shot to death near
Agua Fria Copala in Oaxaca state.
(AP, 8/7/11)
2011 Aug 6, Mexican authorities
said dozens of armed villagers surrounded the home of a suspected
crime gang in Santa Cruz Tepenixtlahuaca, Oaxaca state, setting off
a gunbattle that killed a child, a woman and four men. Police said
the dismembered bodies of four young men were dumped near a high
school in Sinaloa state. Five young men were found dead near a
middle school outside Monterrey, Nuevo Leon state. 5 young people
were shot to death as they ordered dinner at a highway-side hot dog
stand in the San Ignacio municipality, Sinaloa state.
(AP, 8/6/11)(AP, 8/7/11)
2011 Aug 8, Mexico's government
said it is suspending about $102 million in federal law enforcement
grants to 80 percent of the country's most violent municipalities
because they haven't shown progress in using the money. Two
university professors were injured by the explosion of a package
bomb on a campus near the national capital at a campus of Monterrey
Technological Institute. The anti-technology group Individuals
Tending to Savagery was later said to be responsible. The
bullet-riddled bodies of four police officers and a civilian were
found dumped in Michoacan state. The officers from Colima had just
gone off duty when they vanished on Aug 6. A naval academy cadet
went missing after he failed to turn up at the Veracruz state
academy.
(AP, 8/9/11)(SFC, 8/10/11, p.A2)(AP, 8/15/11)
2011 Aug 9, Mexican officials
said a girl was killed and a woman wounded by gunshots when a
firefight broke out between soldiers and bandits on a toll road
considered the safe route to the resort city of Acapulco. A tractor
trailer loaded with cement crashed into a day-care center in
Arramberi, Nuevo Leon state, killing three small girls and three
adults.
(AP, 8/9/11)(AP, 8/10/11)
2011 Aug 10, In Mexico
Ruvalcaba Plascencia, former head of police for the city of
Chihuahua and the border city of Ciudad Juarez, was shot to death at
a restaurant in the Chihuahua state capital.
(AP, 8/11/11)
2011 Aug 11, Mexican police
arrested the suspected leader of a brutal drug gang called "The Hand
with Eyes" and he has confessed to helping carry out or ordering
more than 600 murders. Oscar Osvaldo Garcia Montoya (36) was
arrested in an overnight raid on a presumed safe house on the
outskirts of Mexico City.
(AP, 8/12/11)
2011 Aug 12, Mexico’s official
National Human Rights Commission complained that Mexican police and
soldiers regularly burst into homes, plant evidence and take
people's possessions. It said the violations have increased as the
war against drug cartels has grown more intense.
(AP, 8/13/11)
2011 Aug 13, In Acapulco,
Mexico, the body of a man who had been beaten in several places was
found half-buried in the ground wrapped in a bedspread, while two
men who had been shot were found in a graveyard.
(AP, 8/14/11)
2011 Aug 14, In Mexico 8 people
were killed in Acapulco. A grenade blast has killed one man and
wounded a woman and two children in the Gulf coast city of Veracruz.
A grenade tossed onto a busy tourist boulevard in the Gulf coast
city of Veracruz killed one man and seriously wounded his wife and
their two young children. The navy found objects belonging to 4
servicemen kidnapped earlier this month in a raid on a warehouse.
Investigators later found four bodies in four pits on the outskirts
of the state capital.
(AP, 8/14/11)(AP, 8/15/11)(AP, 8/18/11)
2011 Aug 16, Mexican President
Felipe Calderon signed into law a constitutional change eliminating
the "pocket veto," a measure that formerly allowed presidents to
kill legislation by refusing to sign it.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 18, Mexican soldiers
killed eight gunmen in a clash in the northern border state of Nuevo
Leon. Police in Acapulco reported finding two ice chests, one of
which held a man's head and the other containing what appeared to be
his leg and right foot. Guerrero state police said three other
coolers were found in another part of the city with other body
parts. 3 men were found shot to death in Acapulco city buses.
(AP, 8/18/11)
2011 Aug 18, Spanish
authorities arrested Aeromexico co-pilot Ruben Garcia Garcia for
attempting to smuggle 93 pounds of cocaine into the European
country.
(AP, 8/23/11)
2011 Aug 20, In Mexico 2
decapitated bodies and scalped heads were dumped outside a Sam's
Club store in Acapulco while 3 headless corpses were found nearby on
the resort city's main tourist strip. Authorities said they found
the bullet-riddled bodies of nine men on a highway in the Pacific
Coast state of Nayarit.
(AP, 8/20/11)
2011 Aug 23, In Mexico gunmen
hung a man from a pedestrian bridge over a busy avenue in the city
of Monterrey and shot him to death in front of dozens of motorists.
In Acapulco two teenage boys of about 15 years of age were shot to
death by unidentified assailants. Police also found a man's
dismembered body in a car in another Acapulco neighborhood.
(AP, 8/23/11)
2011 Aug 24, Mexican officials
said that civil, tax and administrative cases will be processed
through a state website. Officials expected everything from filings
to rulings to be done electronically.
(AP, 8/24/11)
2011 Aug 24, In Mexico gunmen
attacked a group of parents waiting for their children outside an
elementary school, killing one man and wounding five other people in
a dangerous part of the border city of Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 8/24/11)
2011 Aug 25, In Mexico a group
of at least eight assailants, believed to be connected to a drug
cartel, spread gasoline inside the Casino Royale and set the
building on fire, trapping dozens of people inside. The fire killed
52 people in the Monterrey casino. The body of Humberto Millan
Salazar (53), an online newspaper journalist, was found in a farm
building outside the city of Culiacan, Sinaloa state, with a gunshot
wound in the face. He had been kidnapped a day earlier. In 2012
seven men were sentenced to 75-100 years for their roles in the
fire.
(AP, 8/26/11)(AP, 8/25/11)(SFC, 12/15/12, p.A2)
2011 Aug 29, Mexican police
announced the arrest of 5 suspects associated with the Zetas drug
cartel in the August 25 casino fire in Monterrey. At least one of
the suspects confessed that the attack was in response to the casino
owner’s refusal to pay protection money.
(SFC, 8/30/11, p.A2)
2011 Aug 25, In Mexico a group
of at least eight assailants, believed to be connected to a drug
cartel, spread gasoline inside the Casino Royale and set the
building on fire, trapping dozens of people inside. The fire killed
52 people in the Monterrey casino. The body of Humberto Millan
Salazar (53), an online newspaper journalist, was found in a farm
building outside the city of Culiacan, Sinaloa state, with a gunshot
wound in the face. He had been kidnapped a day earlier.
(AP, 8/26/11)(AP, 8/25/11)
2011 Aug 26, In Mexico about
700 soldiers, federal police and Treasury Department agents began
raiding casinos in Monterrey seizing slot machines and putting them
in moving trucks. The tax agency said the continuing operation was
meant to verify whether casinos had paid taxes or introduced slot
machines illegally.
(AP, 8/28/11)
2011 Aug 26, In Mexico 4 miners
were killed in an explosion that caved in part of a coal mine in the
northern Mexico border state of Coahuila.
(AP, 8/25/11)
2011 Aug 28, Mexican police
excavated a corn field in the at Almoloya de Juarez farming town not
far from the capital and discover the decomposed bodies of five
people. In Acapulco police found the decapitated body of a
25-year-old woman in the trunk of a sedan parked outside a home.
Elsewhere in Acapulco three men were shot dead in two separate
incidents and their bodies left in public view in residential
neighborhoods.
(AP, 8/28/11)
2011 Aug 29, In Mexico 140
elementary schools in the resort city of Acapulco closed after
teachers refused to show up for fear of extortion threats and
kidnappings by drug gangs. Police in Ciudad Juarez exhumed the
skeletal remains, including five skulls, of seven people in a cotton
field. The Chihuahua state Attorney General's Office said officers
suspected the bodies had been there for two years. In southern
Chihuahua state police reported the weekend discovery of seven
bodies, of six men and one woman, buried together in a mountain
town. The seven had gone missing earlier this month.
(AP, 8/29/11)
2011 Aug 31, Mexican police
arrested Jean Baptiste Kingery (40) of the US for smuggling American
grenade parts into Mexico for use by the Sinaloa cartel. Kingery had
been detained in Arizona in June 2010 and then released, purportedly
because officials wanted to use him as an informant or in a sting
operation.
(AP, 9/6/11)(WSJ, 9/6/11)
2011 Sep 1, Mexico’s President
Calderon delivered his annual national report to Congress, saying he
has strengthened the rule of law and fought against drug gangs like
never before. Federal police said they have arrested a state police
officer in connection with the Aug 25 arson fire at a Monterrey
casino that killed 52 people. Five alleged members of the Zetas drug
cartel have been arrested in connection with the fire. Police have
said at least 12 people were involved. Joggers discovered the nude
bodies of 2 women near a cemetery in El Mirador park in Iztapalapa,
Mexico city. Autopsies showed that Rocio Gonzalez (48) and Marcela
Yarce (45) were strangled with rope and later shot. Their hands were
tied behind their backs. Two men were later detained in the case
with robbery as the motive.
(AP, 9/1/11)(AP, 10/4/11)
2011 Sep 1, Mexican police
found a tunnel was found in the border city of Nogales, across the
border from Nogales, Arizona. It was presumably used to smuggle
people into the US. Police found it acting on information they
received after discovering another tunnel in Nogales on Aug. 16.
(AP, 9/5/11)
2011 Sep 2, In Mexico Samuel
Flores Borrego (39), also know as "el Metro 3," was shot dead near
Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas, in what appeared to
be an attack by members of his own cartel. He was found inside a
vehicle along with the body of a police officer. The US government
had a reward of up to $5 million for the capture of Flores, who
faced drug-trafficking charges north of the border. Hidalgo state
police said they have arrested 31 suspected drug cartel members,
including 16 police officers who allegedly were paid to protect the
Zetas gang.
(AP, 9/2/11)
2011 Sep 4, Mexican federal
congressman Moises Villanueva (46) and his driver went missing after
leaving a party held by a fellow member of the opposition
Institutional Revolutionary Party in the town of Tlapa de Comonfort
in Villanueva's district. On Sep 17 their badly decomposed bodies
were found in a river in the town of Huamuxtitlan, Guerrero state.
(AP, 9/18/11)
2011 Sep 5, Mexico City police
arrested Claudia Tapia (44), Jorge Iniestra (32), his mother and
several of his siblings. Iniestra was arrested for allegedly keeping
his two teenage stepdaughters captive for five years. He fathered
five children with one of them, then killed the other young woman
and one of the babies. Tapia was arrested for covering up the abuse.
(AP, 9/7/11)
2011 Sep 8, The Mexican Navy
said it has dismantled a telecommunications system set up by the
Zetas drug cartel in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz and arrested
80 people, including six police officers in a 26-day operation.
(AP, 9/9/11)
2011 Sep 9, Mexico's state oil
company said it was searching for 10 workers from a Texas-based
company who evacuated from a platform in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of
Tropical Storm Nate. On Sep 11 seven of the 10 oil workers were
found alive 51 miles (82 km) off the coast of the gulf state of
Campeche.
(AP, 9/9/11)(AP, 9/11/11)
2011 Sep 9, The Mexican navy
captured 13 gunmen in Veracruz, including a suspect in the killing
of a marine. They were said to be members of the Zetas drug cartel.
(AP, 9/13/11)
2011 Sep 10, Mexican marines in
Tampico captured Manuel Alquisires Garcia, the Gulf Cartel's alleged
finance officer. Alquisires, aka "El Meme," was originally arrested
in June 1998 along with Osiel Cardenas Guillen. Alquisires had
escaped from a prison in Matamoros in 2002.
(AP, 9/13/11)
2011 Sep 12, Mexican police
arrested Oscar Osvaldo Garcia Montoya (36) overnight. He was the
suspected leader of a brutal drug gang called The Hand with Eyes and
has confessed to helping carry out or ordering more than 600
murders.
(SSFC, 9/18/11, p.A4)
2011 Sep 13, In Mexico placards
were left with two disemboweled bodies of a man and a woman in Nuevo
Laredo. They warned that the same fate awaits others who send
information on social media regarding gang activity.
(SFC, 9/16/11, p.A6)(Econ, 9/24/11, p.38)
2011 Sep 14, In Mexico 4 gunmen
were killed by police in a shootout that led to the release of five
kidnapping victims in the western state of Michoacan.
(AP, 9/14/11)
2011 Sep 19, The Mexican army
captured Saul Solis Solis (49), a former police chief and one-time
congressional candidate, without incident in Michoacan, the home
state of the Knights Templar drug cartel. At least 32 inmates got
away from the three Veracruz prisons. Police recaptured 14 of them.
On Oct 4 the Navy officials reported the capture of 9 more.
(AP, 9/20/11)(AP, 9/21/11)(AP, 10/4/11)
2011 Aug 30, The US Drug
Enforcement Agency (DEA) announced that they had arrested 7 men in
Utah, alleged members of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel. Cashes of
guns, cash and drugs were seized.
(Econ, 9/24/11, p.40)
2011 Sep 20, In Mexico
suspected drug traffickers dumped 35 bodies at rush hour beneath a
busy overpass in Veracruz, as gunmen pointed weapons at frightened
drivers. Local media said that 12 of the victims were women. Police
thus far had identified seven of the victims and all had criminal
records for murder, drug dealing, kidnapping and extortion and were
linked to organized crime. The New Generation gang, aka “Zeta
Killers,” was later said to be responsible.
(AP, 9/21/11)(AP, 10/7/11)
2011 Sep 22, Mexican police
found 11 bodies in the joined cities of Veracruz and Boca del Rio.
Gunmen killed a traffic police officer as he directed motorists in
the Monterrey suburb of Guadalupe and then went to a nearby house,
where drugs were allegedly sold, and killed 6 men. In the Pacific
coast state of Sinaloa, gunmen killed Vicente Castillo Carrillo
(18), a nephew of the Juarez drug cartel's purported leader, Vicente
Carrillo Fuentes.
(AP, 9/22/11)(AP, 9/23/11)
2011 Sep 23, Hurricane Hilary
moved away from Mexico's southwestern coast in the Pacific as a
powerful Category 4 storm, and search teams recovered the bodies of
three fishermen caught in the storm.
(AP, 9/23/11)
2011 Sep 24, Mexican police
found a woman's decapitated body in the border city of Nuevo Laredo,
alongside a handwritten sign saying she was killed in retaliation
for her postings on a social networking site. She was identified as
Marisol Macias Castaneda, a newsroom manager for the Nuevo Laredo
newspaper Primera Hora.
(AP, 9/24/11)
2011 Sep 27, Mexican police
found five severed heads in front of a primary school in the Pacific
coast resort of Acapulco.
(AP, 9/28/11)
2011 Sep 28, In Ciudad Juarez,
Mexico, the federal Attorney General's Office announced that 10
former federal officers have been arrested and ordered to stand
trial on charges of extortion, abuse of authority and drug
possession, among others. Prosecutors said the officers were
detained earlier this month on a citizen complaint. They were caught
with a captive man in their vehicle, who told investigators the
police had threatened to plant drugs on him and demanded money in
return for releasing him. Federal agents detained Roberto Lopez (32)
in Zapopan, a suburb of Guadalajara. He is alleged to be one of four
members of the Zetas drug cartel who planned the Aug. 25 arson of
the Casino Royale in Monterrey.
(AP, 9/28/11)(AP, 9/30/11)
2011 Sep 29, Mexican
authorities in Veracruz detained Angel Mora (25), the Zeta drug
cartel's alleged top hit man for the disappearance of three marines.
Mora, nicknamed "Commander Devil," was detained with one other
gunman, Gregorio Maldonado.
(AP, 9/30/11)
2011 Sep 29, Manssor Arbabsiar
(56), a US citizen who holds an Iranian passport, was arrested when
he arrived at New York's Kennedy International Airport. Mexico
worked closely with US authorities to help foil an alleged $1.5
million plot to kill the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington. On
Oct 11 Arbabsiar was charged in US District Court in New York with
conspiring to kill the Saudi diplomat, Adel Al-Jubeir (49).
(AP, 10/12/11)
2011 Sep 30, In Mexico a
13-year-old girl was abducted in Chihuahua state. Two soldiers were
detained, hours after the girl's parents reported she had been
abducted. A third civilian suspect was still at large.
(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 1, In Mexico two
gunmen shot to death a 22-year-old man near a Walmart store on the
beachside avenue Costera Miguel Aleman.
(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 2, In Mexico the
bullet-riddled, bound bodies of seven men were dumped at a downtown
bus stop in the Pacific resort town of Zihuatanejo. In Acapulco 10
men and two women were killed in separate attacks overnight,
including one in which gunmen stormed a bar and shot a couple dead.
Gunmen killed three women and two men as the victims were driving
away from a supermarket in a busy area of Mazatlan city.
(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 3, Mexico City police
found two severed human heads on a street near a major military
base, a grisly tactic of warring drug gangs that has long affected
other parts of the country while largely sparing the capital. The
heads were accompanied by a note referring to the "Mano con Ojos" or
"Hand with Eyes" drug gang. Hidalgo police chief Damian Canales said
officers have captured four alleged members of the gang believed to
have participated in the killings of 70 people, most whose bodies
were disposed of by being dissolved in vats. He said suspect Javier
Rodriguez (21) told agents he had shot 20 members of the Gulf
Cartel. In Acapulco four men were bound and shot in an auto repair
shop with two cars set on fire.
(AP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 4, The Mexican Army
said soldiers captured a Sinaloa cartel lieutenant who had founded
an armed wing working for Mexico's most-wanted Joaquin "El Chapo"
Guzman. Noel Salgueiro Nevarez, "El Flaco" or the "Skinny," was the
Gente Nueva gang leader. Mexico's navy announced that marines found
nine escaped inmates apparently working for the Zetas drug cartel at
a camp believed to be operated by the group near the Gulf port city
of Veracruz. The detentions resulted from a series of raids
conducted last week that also netted 18 local police officers who
also allegedly worked for the Zetas. Marines arrested a man wearing
a police uniform for disturbing the peace. The navy said he was a
police officer from the city of Mendoza in Veracruz state and
allegedly acted as a liaison between the Zetas and corrupt police. A
list in his pocket indicated that local police officers from several
towns had received payments of between 2,000 ($144) and 10,000 pesos
($718) per month from the cartel.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 4, Mexican officials
arrested Martin Rosales Magana, one of the last major leaders of the
La Familia cartel, along with three associates. The cartel has been
displaced in its western home state of Michoacan by the equally
cult-like Knights Templar gang.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 6, Mexican marines
arrested 8 members of the Jalisco New Generation gang. The suspects
told them where 32 bodies were hidden in Veracruz state. Marines
also arrested 12 members of the rival Zetas gang, including a man
alleged to be their operations leader in Veracruz. A Nuevo Leon
state official said several police officers allowed a violent drug
gang to hold kidnap victims in a local jail while ransom payments
were being negotiated.
(AP, 10/7/11)(SFC, 10/8/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 6, Mexican police
arrested four men and a woman for allegedly helping force women to
work as prostitutes in Mexico and the United States.
(AP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 7, Mexican officials
found 10 more bodies in Veracruz, in what appears to be more
bloodshed in the battle between rival cartels for control of drug
trafficking in the port city. The relatively new Jalisco New
Generation gang claims to be attacking members of the Zetas cartel
with 75 deaths since Sep 20.
(AP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 9, In Mexico the
entire police force of the northern city of Linares, over 100
officers, was detained for investigation of possible corruption and
ties to organized crime. Mexican soldiers and Nuevo Leon state
police patrolled in their absence.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, Mexican marines
said they have seized more than 4 tons of marijuana, arrested 36
cartel members and killed 11 others during five days of raids
through the violent border state of Tamaulipas.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 11, Mexican marines in
the violent border state of Tamaulipas found the body of Cesar
Davila Garcia, the alleged top accountant for the Gulf Cartel drug
trafficking network.
(AP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 12, Mexican troops
captured Carlos Oliva Castillo (37), alias "The Frog," as part of an
operation that freed 36 kidnap victims and led to the seizure of
more than 800 cars as well as 27.5 tons of marijuana and hundreds of
weapons in Saltillo, Coahuila state. He had allegedly ordered an
arson attack at a casino in northern Mexico that killed 52 people.
14 people, including three state police investigators and a local
police officer, were reported killed in eight separate incidents in
Ciudad Juarez. In Chihuahua gunmen killed six people in a house
where drug users gathered to take heroin in the state capital.
(AP, 10/12/11)(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 12, Hurricane Jova
slammed into Mexico’s Pacific coast killing 6 people. Farther south,
a low-pressure system continued to dump rain on southern Mexico and
Central America, where it was blamed for the deaths of 15 people in
Guatemala.
(SFC, 10/13/11, p.A2)(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 15, In Mexico a
bloody, hours-long fight in a prison in the border city of Matamoros
left 20 inmates dead and 12 injured. Soldiers in the border city of
Piedras Negras freed 61 men, all migrants being held for ransom by
the Zetas drug cartel.
(AP, 10/16/11)(AP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 18, In Mexico Veracruz
police chief Arturo Bermudez said 980 state agents have been
dismissed in the past couple of weeks after failing lie detector and
other tests. Christian Arturo Hernandez Tarin, the leader a gang
known as "the street sweeper," was detained in the central state of
Mexico. His gang has been fighting against the local Independent
Cartel of Acapulco for control of the coast city since the 2010
arrest of suspected Texas-born drug capo Edgar Valdez Villareal,
known as "La Barbie."
(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 20, Mexican President
Felipe Calderon accused the United States of dumping criminals at
the border because it is cheaper than prosecuting them, and said the
practice has fueled violence in Mexico's border areas.
(AP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 21, In Mexico a
helicopter carrying Mexico state Metropolitan Development Secretary
Fernando Garcia and his assistant crashed against a wall and on top
of some cars in the Coyoacan borough. A secretary and co-pilot were
killed.
(AP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 21, A Mexican
tractor-trailer crossed into the US for the first time under the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), signed in 1994.
(SFC, 10/22/11, p.A6)
2011 Oct 22, Mexican
prosecutors said that a 15-year-old boy, nicknamed El Gallito, has
confessed to running a drug trafficking gang on the resort island of
Isla Mujeres and murdering two women who reportedly worked as drug
dealers. The women's bodies were found before dawn on Oct 20, and El
Gallito was detained on Oct 21.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 23, The Mexico army
arrested 10 people and confiscated 10 cars or SUVs that were
being bulletproofed for drug gangs, as well as six other vehicles in
a warehouse in the northern state of Sinaloa.
(AP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 23, In Mexico two
Americans died in the crash of a small plane in the city of Angela
R. Cabada, Veracruz state.
(AP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 24, Mexican federal
police detained two US men for attempting to fly out of Mexico with
$950,000 in undeclared cash in a suitcase.
(AP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 25, Mexican
authorities said federal police in Acapulco caught a young woman,
Damaris Gomez (19), and a young man (21) as they were getting off a
car near a shopping mall with an ice chest containing a decapitated
head and other human remains. Police in Ciudad Juarez found the
dismembered bodies of four men in bits scattered around the city.
(AP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, The Mexican navy
arrested Carlos "The Bam Bam" Pitalua, the alleged local chief of
the Zetas drug cartel in the Gulf coast port of Veracruz. The navy
said he is tied to the dumping of eight bodies in a rural town a
week ago. Mexican marines also captured alleged Zetas "accountant"
Carmen del Consuelo Saenz (29) in Veracruz, along 10 other alleged
Zetas members.
(AP, 10/26/11)(AP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 26, Mexico's National
Public Safety System announced that almost one-third of 63,436
low-ranking Mexican police officers tested so far have failed
background and security checks. Prosecutors announced the arrest
last week of Adrian Ramirez, alias "The Mushroom," the alleged
leader of the Cartel del Centro. 2 more suspects in the Aug. 25
attack on the Casino Royale were detained in Monterrey.
(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 27, The US Treasury
Department announced it is imposing sanctions on Martin Guadencio
Avendano (42), the owner of a Mexican racetrack and car dealership,
along with his two brothers, for alleged involvement with the
Sinaloa drug cartel.
(AP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 28, In Mexico at least
21 people were killed in three shootouts between soldiers and gunmen
and a fight between rival drug gangs. This included 15 in Michoacan
and 6 in Sinaloa.
(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 29, Phoenix-based US
Airways flight attendant Nick Aaronson (33) was found dead in a
Mexico City hotel room while on a layover. Authorities were
investigating the death as a homicide.
(AP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 31, In Mexico a light
airplane taking off from the border city of Tijuana crashed into an
auto repair shop near a street market, killing three people and
setting fire to several cars.
(AP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 31, Arizona law
enforcement officials said a massive drug smuggling ring has been
broken up. Over the past month 76 people were arrested linked to the
Sinaloa drug cartel, which over the last 5 years had generated over
$2 billion by smuggling cocaine, heroine and marijuana into the US.
(SFC, 11/1/11, p.A7)
2011 Nov 1, It was reported
that bloggers and tweeters claiming to belong to the hacker movement
"Anonymous" say they plan to expose collaborators of Mexico's bloody
Zetas drug cartel, even if some of them seem to have backed away
from the plan out of fear.
(AP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, Mexican authorities
found eight dead people in a mangrove swamp near the city of Boca
del Rio, Veracruz state, that has seen a recent surge in the
large-scale dumping of bodies during an outbreak of violence among
rival drug cartels. The Mexican navy over the last 24 hours
recovered two metric tons of marijuana floating in the Pacific Ocean
near the resort town of Cabo San Lucas.
(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, Mexican Mayor
Ricardo Guzman (45) of La Piedad, Michoacan state, was shot dead
while campaigning for President Felipe Calderon's sister in her run
for the governorship. 3 women, a teenage girl and a 7-year-old boy
were killed when gunmen ambushed them as they were riding in a
pickup truck on a dirt road in the town of El Rosario, Sinaloa
state.
(AP, 11/2/11)(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, In Mexico groups of
heavily armed men fired hundreds of shots at each other in the
streets of the border city of Ciudad Juarez, leaving at least six
combatants dead.
(AP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 4, In Mexico gunmen
opened fire on a group of volleyball players in the drug
violence-plagued state of Sinaloa, killing eight people and wounding
at least seven. Federal police said they detained the second of
three alleged leaders of a drug gang locked in a fierce battle for
control of the Pacific resort city of Acapulco.
(AP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 5, In Mexico Juan
Francisco Sillas Rocha (34), who allegedly reported directly to the
head of the Arellano Felix cartel, shot and wounded two unidentified
rivals driving through Tijuana. Police and soldiers captured him
after cordoning off the area.
(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 7, In Mexico federal
and state police searched an Acapulco prison before dawn. The search
netted two peacocks, 100 fighting cocks, 19 prostitutes and two
sacks filled with marijuana. Police also found dozens of
televisions, several bottles of alcohol and knives.
(AP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 8, Mexican police
found the heads of two men in a residential area of Mexico City.
Police found their bodies inside a stolen car nearby.
(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 9, In Mexico the
decapitated body of a man was left at the same monument in Nuevo
Laredo where the corpse of a woman, purportedly killed in
retaliation for her postings on an anti-crime website, had been left
previously. A photo of the scene indicates the man was killed for
reporting criminals on social media sites. The naked bodies of six
men and a woman were found on an outdoor basketball court outside
the city of Durango. In Acapulco police found the decapitated bodies
of a man and a woman inside an abandoned taxi. Soldiers in Culiacan
detained Ovidio Limon Sanchez (48), a top operator for the powerful
Sinaloa drug cartel.
(AP, 11/9/11)(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 9, Human Rights Watch
released an investigative report that accused the Mexican government
of torture, forced disappearances and extra-judicial killings in its
war against organized crime. HRW presented evidence of the police
and army’s role in 24 extrajudicial killings, 39 disappearances and
170 cases of torture since December 2006.
(AP, 11/9/11)(Econ, 11/12/11, p.46)
2011 Nov 10, In Germany some
300 police officers searched the headquarters of Heckler & Koch
amid allegations the German arms maker bribed Mexican officials in
connection with arms deliveries between 2005 and 2010. Heckler &
Koch was also under investigation following the discovery of its
assault rifles in Libya.
(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 11, Mexico’s Interior
Secretary Francisco Blake Mora (45) was killed in a helicopter
crash, a stunning mishap too odd for some Mexicans to accept as an
accident. Mora was appointed in June 2010, the 4th interior
secretary since Calderon was elected five years ago. The crash of
the Super Puma helicopter, part of the presidential fleet, also
killed the undersecretary for legal affairs and human rights, Felipe
Zamora, two other interior officials, the chief of Blake Mora's
security detail and three crew members.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 13, Mexico’s Michoacan
state held elections for governor. The former ruling party won the
race after a campaign marred by drug-cartel threats and violence,
defeating President Felipe Calderon's sister and building momentum
for its drive to take back the presidency next year. Fausto Vallejo
Figueroa of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) won 35% over
Luisa Maria Calderon (PAN) at 33%.
(AP, 11/14/11)(SFC, 11/15/11, p.A4)
2011 Nov 13, Mexican soldiers
searching vehicles for hidden drugs found 140 Central Americans
crammed into a tractor-trailer rig in Chiapas. Police found the
bodies of six bricklayers who were working on a new elementary
school in the northern state of Chihuahua. Two of them were
mutilated. Mexican officials arrested Juan Gabriel Orozco Favela, a
drug dealer who controlled smuggling routes and ran a campaign of
murder and intimidation for the Knights Templar drug cartel.
(AP, 11/14/11)(AP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 13, In Mexico norteno
singer Diego Rivas was shot dead in Culiacan, Sinaloa state,
joining a list of murdered musicians famous for chronicling the
cartel lifestyle in folk songs.
(AP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 15, In Mexico El Siglo
de Torreon, a newspaper in the northern city of Torreon, was
attacked by armed men who set fire to the facade of its offices and
opened fire at its sales offices.
(AP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 15, Mexican officials
captured Alfredo Aleman Narvaez, a suspected leader for the Zetas
drug cartel, during a horse race that he organized in the northern
state of Zacatecas.
(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 15, In southern
California an estimated 17 tons of marijuana were seized in the
discovery of a cross-border tunnel linking warehouses in San Diego
and Tijuana. Authorities said it was one of the most significant
secret drug smuggling passages ever found on the US-Mexico border.
(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 16, In Mexico Victor
Manuel Martinez Cortez, a federal prosecutor for the border state of
Coahuila, was about to leave his home in Torreon when he was
attacked and killed while sitting in his car.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 20, In Mexico Durango
state prosecutors said troops found the remains of seven people in
the town of San Juan del Rio, about 60 miles (100 km) north of the
state capital, the city of Durango.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, In Mexico
assailants kidnapped and killed three police officers in the city of
Acuna, across the border from Del Rio, Texas. Hidalgo state police
said authorities detained eight local police officers for allegedly
working for the Zetas. Military authorities said soldiers in the
border state of Chihuahua detained two police chiefs while they were
meeting with an alleged drug trafficker.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, The Mexican army
seized $15.3 million in bundles of cash believed to belong to
members of the Sinaloa drug cartel. Soldiers found the piles of US
bills inside a car in a downtown neighborhood of the border city of
Tijuana, along with two rifles, two pistols and three kilograms (6.6
pounds) of cocaine.
(AP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 23, In Mexico attacks
in Sinaloa left 24 people dead and 17 of the victims' bodies were
found burned in two pickup trucks. 12 of the bodies were in the back
of one truck, some of them handcuffed and wearing bulletproof vests.
(AP, 11/23/11)(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, In Mexico the
bound and gagged bodies of 26 young men were discovered in vehicles
abandoned in the heart of Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city.
Evidence identified the assassins as being from the Zetas and a
smaller, allied gang, the Milenio Cartel.
(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 25, Mexican activists
lodged a war-crimes complaint against President Felipe Calderon at
the International Criminal Court, claiming his offensive against
drug cartels has involved about 470 cases of human rights violations
by the army or police. Defense officials detained Ezequiel "El
Junior" Cardenas Rivera (23). Rivera's father was Antonio Ezequiel
Cardenas Guillen, Gulf leader until he was killed by federal forces
in November 2010.
(AP, 11/25/11)(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 26, Mexican
authorities arrested three members of the Zetas drug cartel who
later confessed to the June slaying of bodyguards for the governor
of the northern state of Nuevo Leon. They were identified as Arturo
Garcia Celaya (24), Jose Daniel Hernandez Guzman (25), and Nicolas
Yepes Alvarez (34).
(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Nov 28, In Mexico
Nepomuceno Moreno (56), who repeatedly had accused police in the
Sonoran capital of Hermosillo of kidnapping his 18-year-old son last
year, was shot to death in his hometown in Sonora state. A band of
heavily armed teenage car thieves shot it out with officers during a
high-speed chase, before crashing their stolen car in the northern
industrial city of Monterrey. One young man escaped. Two 13-year-old
boys and a 15-year-old girl were taken into custody. Soldiers killed
five suspected drug gang members in a gunbattle on the outskirts of
Monterrey.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 28, Mexican trucker
Daniel Navarro (45) was sentenced in San Diego to almost 16 years in
prison for his role in two major drug tunnels along the US-Mexico
border.
(SFC, 11/29/11, p.A5)
2011 Nov 29, Authorities in San
Diego uncovered a 600-yard cross border tunnel and seized 32 tons of
marijuana.
(SFC, 12/1/11, p.A13)
2011 Dec 1, Mexican authorities
said army troops have dismantled a telecommunications system set up
by organized crime in four northern states. The US government
delivered inspection technology and a surveillance plane to help
Mexico's navy fight drug cartels.
(AP, 12/1/11)
2011 Dec 2, In Mexico Humberto
Moreira the head of Mexico's former ruling party (PRI) resigned over
a financial scandal in Coahuila that threatened the party's efforts
to rebrand itself as corruption-free and retake the presidency in
2012. The case against two of Moreira’s associates was dropped in
2013 due to lack of evidence.
(AP, 12/2/11)(Econ, 3/10/12, p.50)(AP, 4/24/13)
2011 Dec 2, In Mexico Norma
Andrade (51), an activist representing relatives of women slain or
missing in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, was shot in what
authorities called an apparent robbery attempt. She was shot twice
outside her home and was in stable condition in a hospital.
(AP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 4, The Mexican army
said that it has seized a total of at least 167 antennas, 155
repeaters, 166 power sources, 71 pieces of computer equipment and
1,446 radios. The equipment was taken down in several cities in the
Gulf coast state of Veracruz and the northern states of Nuevo Leon,
Coahuila, San Luis Potosi and Tamaulipas. The network was built
around 2006 by the Gulf cartel, a narcotics-trafficking gang that
employed a group of enforcers known as the Zetas, who had defected
from Mexican army special forces.
(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Mexico gunmen
attacked an ambulance in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, killing
the driver, two patients and a fourth person in the vehicle.
Authorities reported six other slayings in addition to the ambulance
attack.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 8, Mexican authorities
say they have seized 226 tons (205 metric tons) of a chemical used
in synthetic drugs. The methylamine was found over several days this
month in the port of Lazaro Cardenas in 11 containers shipped from
China.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 9, Mexico's navy said
the first woman has joined the ranks of its special forces.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, The Mexican army
found a 50-yard (meter) long tunnel starting under a building in the
northern city of Nogales, which is across the border from Nogales,
Arizona.
(AP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 10, In Mexico armed
men holed up in a building in the city of Valle Hermoso opened fire
on the troops. The army patrol later seized the building, finding 11
dead gunmen and 73 rifles inside. Two suspects were arrested.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 10, In Mexico a
magnitude-6.5 earthquake struck western Guerrero state, shaking
buildings and causing panic in the nation's capital and the Pacific
resort of Acapulco. Officials said at least three people died.
(AP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 11, In Mexico
unidentified assailants tossed a bomb into a building in Veracruz
where a cockfight was being held. One man was killed and nine others
slightly wounded.
(AP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 12, In Mexico 2
students were killed during a clash with state and federal police at
a violent protest that blocked a major highway in Guerrero state.
Protesting students had hijacked buses and set fire to a gasoline
station before federal police fired tear gas at the protesters and
then shots rang out. Some 300 students from the Ayotzinapa teachers
college staged the protest seeking to persuade the state government
"to meet their educational demands.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 12, Mexican marines
captured Raul Lucio Hernandez Lechuga, a founding member of the
brutal Zetas drug cartel, in the city of Cordoba, Veracruz state.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 14, In Mexico 3 bodies
were discovered in Guadalajara, two days after two college students
in nearby Guerrero state were killed in a clash with police after
student protesters hijacked buses, used them to block a highway and
fought officers with rocks and sticks. The Jalisco state prosecutors
office said it is investigating whether the bodies belong to any of
five people who were reported missing after they complained last
week that the student group was demanding protection money for
allowing them to sell snacks outside a campus.
(AP, 12/15/11)
2011 Dec 16, In Mexico a marine
officer, his two sons, also marines, and his wife disappeared in the
western state of Guerrero. Several suspects were arrested on Jan 13
and confessed to kidnapping them at a fake checkpoint and killing
them.
(AP, 1/15/12)
2011 Dec 19, Mexican
prosecutors announced they have found another clandestine grave
holding 10 bodies in the northern state of Durango, bringing to 14
the number of such burial sites found in the state this year.
Soldiers found the 10 bodies last week in a field on the outskirts
of the state capital. Prosecutors also said two mutilated bodies
were found scattered in the plaza of Pueblo Viejo, Morelos state,
while a boy was killed around the same time in what police say may
have been a related crime. Mexico's tax service announced that
authorities had found 480 drums containing almost 100 metric tons of
precursor chemicals used to make methamphetamines at the Pacific
coast port of Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan state.
(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 21, In Mexico Veracruz
state spokeswoman Gina Dominguez said 800 police officers and 300
administrative employees have been laid off an effort to root out
corruption. She said they can still apply for state police jobs but
must meet stricter standards. In the meantime the Navy will take
over.
(AP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 22, In Mexico a group
of gunmen attacked three passenger buses in the Gulf coast state of
Veracruz, killing seven passengers in what authorities said appeared
to be a violent robbery spree. 3 US citizens were among the dead.
(AP, 12/22/11)(AP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 23, Mexico said that
it seized 229 metric tons of precursor chemicals used to make
methamphetamine, the third such huge seizure this month at the
Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas, all of which were bound for a port
in Guatemala. Special military forces seized computer files and
other data when they detained Felipe Cabrera Sarabia, the security
chief of the Sinaloa drug cartel. The attorney general's office in
Veracruz said it had found 10 bodies in an area along the border
with Tamaulipas after receiving a tip.
(AP, 12/23/11)(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 24, In western Mexico
the body of a US teenager, identified as Alexis Uriel Marron (18),
was found in the trunk of a burned-out car along with the bodies of
two other youths near the village of Quiringuicharo, Michoacan
state.
(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 25, Mexican soldiers
discovered 13 bodies in an abandoned truck in Tamaulipas state along
with a message that they were killed in a war between rival drug
cartels in the eastern state of Veracruz.
(AP, 12/25/11)
2011 Dec 26, Mexican medical
officials said five recovering drug addicts died and dozens of
others were sickened by soy sausage served for Christmas dinner at a
rehabilitation center in Guadalajara. 37 people remained
hospitalized.
(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 27, Mexican police in
the northern state of Nuevo Leon said that information provided by
arrested members of a kidnapping gang has led them to at least seven
bodies found buried in shallow graves or dumped in a well. The
Attorney General's Office said that former regional police security
coordinator Herrera Valles, arrested in 2008 for aiding the Sinaloa
drug cartel, has been convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Federal police detained one of the United States' most-wanted drug
traffickers, Luis Rodriguez Olivera, aka "Blondie," at Mexico City's
international airport.
(AP, 12/27/11)(AP, 12/28/11)
2011 Jorge G. Castaneda
authored “Manana Forever: Mexico and the Mexicans.”
(SSFC, 5/29/11, p.G1)
2011 John Gibler authored “To
Die in Mexico: Dispatches From Inside the Drug Trade.”
(SSFC, 7/24/11, p.F3)
2012 Jan 4, In Mexico a fight
among inmates armed with makeshift knives, clubs and stones left 31
people dead in a prison in the Gulf Coast city of Altamira,
Tamaulipas state. 20 inmates were detained for involvement in the
riot.
(AP, 1/4/12)(AP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 4, In Mexico suspended
first-division soccer goalkeeper Omar "El Gato" Ortiz was arrested
for alleged participation in a kidnapping ring. Prosecutors later
said he was arrested at his home in a Monterrey suburb after two
kidnapping suspects were detained on Jan 2 and implicated him in the
crimes.
(AP, 1/7/12)
2012 Jan 4, In San Diego, Ca.,
Benjamin Arellano Felix (58), Mexican drug kingpin, pleaded guilty
to racketeering and conspiracy to launder money in exchange for a
sentence of no more than 25 years. On April 2 he was sentenced to 25
years in prison.
(SFC, 1/5/12, p.A6)(SFC, 4/3/12, p.A10)
2012 Jan 5, Mexican police
captured Baltazar Saucedo Estrada (38), an alleged member of the
Zetas drug cartel. He was considered the mastermind behind the Aug
25 casino fire that killed 52 people in the northern city of
Monterrey.
(AP, 1/6/12)
2012 Jan 7, Mexico’s President
Felipe Calderon led the lighting of a soaring independence monument,
"The Pillar of Light," that was supposed to be ready for the 2010
bicentennial, but came in nearly 1½ years late and way over budget.
The quartz-clad light tower has been dubbed "the monument to
corruption." Costs nearly tripled from about 400 million pesos to
more than 1 billion (equivalent at current rates to about $75
million).
(AP, 1/7/12)
2012 Jan 7, Northern Mexico
police found five severed human heads in the last 24 hours at
several points around the city of Torreon accompanied by threatening
message referring to drug gangs.
(AP, 1/7/12)
2012 Jan 9, Mexican police
found 13 bodies at a gas station in the town of Zitacuaro, Michoacan
state.
(AP, 1/9/12)
2012 Jan 10, Mexican
authorities said they have seized 32.6 metric tons of methylamine, a
precursor chemical used to make methamphetamines, at the Pacific
coast port of Manzanillo. The shipment came from China.
(AP, 1/10/12)
2012 Jan 11, In Mexico City 2
decapitated bodies were found inside a burning SUV at the entrance
to Centro Santa Fe mall, one of Mexico's most luxurious malls. The
victims, a 19-year-old secretary in a state-owned educational radio
station and her 28-year-old boyfriend who sold household appliances,
were kidnapped a day earlier. The Attorney General's Office said
nationwide, 47,515 drug-related killings occurred from Dec 2006,
when President Felipe Calderon deployed thousands of troops to drug
hot spots, through Sep 2011.
(AP, 1/11/12)(AP, 1/16/12)
2012 Jan 11, Mexican forces
captured Luis Jesus Sarabia, an alleged leader of the Zetas drug
gang in three northern Mexican states. Sarabia was suspected in the
killing of US immigration agent Jaime Zapata last year.
(AP, 1/13/12)
2012 Jan 13, It was reported
that mounds of debris were piling up at illegal dumping sites around
Mexico City in recent weeks as the metropolis grappled with an
avalanche of refuse after closing one of the world's largest
landfills.
(AP, 1/13/12)
2012 Jan 16, In Mexico 7 gunmen
were killed following a pre-dawn shootout with police on a highway
in the city of Cuernavaca.
(AP, 1/16/12)
2012 Jan 16, Mexican
investigators detained three more women in the city of Guadalajara
in connection with an apparent child-trafficking ring that aimed to
supply babies to Irish couples. Authorities last week detained four
women and seized nine children, all of them between two months and
two years of age. At least 11 Irish couples are involved in the
case. On Jan 18 a Mexican official said four of 10 children seized
showed signs of sexual abuse.
(AP, 1/16/12)(AP, 1/18/12)
2012 Jan 18, Mexican police in
Culiacan captured Eduardo Avila Ojeda (34), one of the main
smugglers of illegal weapons for the Sinaloa drug cartel.
(AP, 1/19/12)
2012 Jan 20, In Mexico members
of an army special forces unit fatally shot a high-ranking aide to
the country's most-wanted drug dealer in a gunfight in the northern
state of Durango. Luis Alberto Cabrera Sarabia, know as "The
Architect," was responsible for the operations of Guzman's Sinaloa
Cartel in Durango and part of the neighboring state of Chihuahua.
One gunmen was slain and 11 others were captured.
(AP, 1/23/12)
2012 Jan 20, Police in northern
Mexico captured Enrique Elizondo Flores (35), an alleged member of
the Zetas drug gang. He confessed to killing at least 75 people,
including many who were pulled off buses.
(AP, 1/30/12)
2012 Jan 20, In Mexico police
officers in Jalisco state barged into a Lagos de Moreno hotel and
kidnapped 3 men. Hours after the three were seized, they were found
asphyxiated and beaten to death. The action was captured on video
and the faces of several officers were clearly visible. On June 6
five police officers were detained, when soldiers and state police
raided their police station.
(AP, 6/14/12)
2012 Jan 22, In Mexico’s
Guerrero state Atoyac de Alvarez municipal police officers found
seven dead and two injured at the scene of a funeral vigil. One of
the injured later died. Acapulco police said that three bodies were
found dumped in a vacant lot in the resort city, while a fourth was
found decapitated in a car and another man died in a shootout with
police.
(AP, 1/22/12)
2012 Jan 23, In Mexico two rear
admirals took over as directors of traffic police in the neighboring
cities of Veracruz and Boca del Rio, as part of an effort to root
out corruption. Five police officers were fatally shot after they
stopped a vehicle in a town outside Mexico City. A member of La
Familia Michoacana drug cartel, who police say was responsible for
collecting extortion money from bars in the area, was killed in the
attack. On Jan 25 Mexico State prosecutor Alfredo Castillo said the
officers from the town of Ixtapaluca had asked the four La Familia
Michoacana cartel members in the vehicle for 6,000 pesos (about
$460) to let them go.
(AP, 1/23/12)(AP, 1/24/12)(AP, 1/25/12)
2012 Jan 25, Japan’s Nissan
said it will invest $2 billion in a new auto plant in
Aguascalientes, Mexico.
(SFC, 1/26/12, p.A5)
2012 Jan 26, The Mexican army
announced the arrest of Oscar Santoyo Rodriguez, alias "El Mosco, a
suspect in the Feb 15, 2008, bombing attempt aimed at a municipal
police official in Mexico City. He was captured in the southern
state of Oaxaca last week. 9 people, including 8 men and a woman,
were shot to death in the center of Monterrey.
(AP, 1/26/12)
2012 Jan 26, In Mexico Miguel
Nazar Haro (87), former head of the now-dissolved Federal Security
Directorate (1978-1992), Mexico’s domestic spy agency, died. He was
accused of being behind the disappearances of alleged leftist
guerrillas in the 1970s.
(AP, 1/27/12)
2012 Jan 29, In Venezuela 4
armed men seized Mexico’s Ambassador Carlos Pujalte and his wife as
they were leaving a party shortly before midnight in Caracas. The
kidnappers freed the couple four hours later. On Feb 6 the
prosecutor-general's office announced the arrests of 3 suspects in
the case: Juan Pacheco, Oswaldo Leon and Mayurki Barreto.
(AP, 2/6/12)
2012 Jan 30, In Mexico several
officers were ambushed at a Ciudad Juarez gas station. Three
assailants were killed and three other policemen were wounded.
(AP, 2/2/12)
2012 Jan 30, Global Financial
Integrity, a Washington-based advocacy organization, issued a report
saying Mexico lost $872 billion between 1970 and 2010 because of
money laundering, tax evasion and other forms of corruption.
(SFC, 1/31/12, p.A2)
2012 Jan 31, In Mexico
political rivals slammed each other over $1.9 million in wads of
cash found stuffed into a state official's luggage on a Jan 27
private flight to Toluca, the capital of the home state of leading
presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto. The money came from
Veracruz, a Gulf coast state governed by Pena Nieto's Institutional
Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI.
(AP, 1/31/12)
2012 Jan 31, Mexico’s Interior
Secretary Alejandro Poire confirmed that an army general and 29
soldiers under his command in a town on the border with Texas are
being tried on charges of torture, homicide, drug trafficking and
other crimes. Details about Gen. Manuel Moreno Avina and his
subordinates' alleged reign of terror in the town of Ojinaga, across
from Presidio, Texas, were first reported by the newspaper Reforma,
which had access to some of the soldiers' testimony.
(AP, 1/31/12)
2012 Jan 31, In Mexico every
one of the 2,500 police officers in Ciudad Juarez were ordered to
leave home and stay in a hotel after the killing of five officers by
a local drug cartel. The gang threatened a week ago to kill one
policeman a day unless Police Chief Julian Leyzaola resigns.
(AP, 2/2/12)
2012 Jan 31, In northern Mexico
the bodies of missionaries John Casias (76) and wife Wanda (67), a
Texas couple, were discovered strangled in their home in Santiago.
(AP, 2/2/12)
2012 Feb 1, Mexican soldiers
found dozens of large plastic containers with over 3,600 liters of
opium paste during a raid on a drug lab in Coyuca de Catalan, a
mountain town in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero.
(AP, 3/14/12)
2012 Feb 4, In Mexico a masked
man opened fire on a band playing popular norteno music in a
Chihuahua city dance hall, killing five musicians, four customers
and injuring 10 others. Federal police announced the capture in Leon
of Jose Antonio Torres Marrufo (33), leader of an armed gang hired
by the world's most powerful drug lord Joaquin Guzman, also known as
El Chapo. Torres is the suspected leader of Gente Nueva, an armed
wing of the Sinaloa Cartel mainly based in the border city of Ciudad
Juarez.
(AP, 2/5/12)(SFC, 2/8/12, p.A2)
2012 Feb 5, In Mexico Josefina
Vazquez Mota (51) easily won the National Action Party's primary.
She vowed to unite the party and help it defeat the
Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico for 71 years
before being ousted by National Action in 2000.
(AP, 2/6/12)
2012 Feb 7, Mexican navy
personal detained suspect Francisco Alvarado Martagon as he
attempted to drive past a military checkpoint near the city of
Acayucan in a vehicle without license plates. He confessed to being
a head lookout for the Zetas and mentioned two sites at local
ranches that the Zetas allegedly used to dispose of bodies. The navy
inspected the sites and over the next 24 hours found the buried,
badly decomposed remains of 15 people.
(AP, 2/8/12)(AP, 2/8/12)
2012 Feb 7, The Mexican army
found 73 Central American migrants in three houses near the US
border and troops arrested 4 men suspected of planning to smuggle
the people into Texas.
(AP, 2/9/12)
2012 Feb 8, The Mexican army
said troops have made an historic seizure of 15 tons of pure
methamphetamine in the western state of Jalisco. The find outside
Guadalajara is more than four times the size of a major seizure last
summer of 3.4 tons (3.1 metric tons) and more than twice the total
amount of meth seized in Mexico in 2009, according to a UN report.
(AP, 2/9/12)
2012 Feb 8, In Texas Antonio
Pena-Arguelles, an alleged cartel money-launderer, was arrested in
San Antonio. A 13-page DEA affidavit accused him of using US bank
accounts to funnel millions to Tomas Yarrington, who served as
governor of Tamaulipas state in 1999-2004, from leaders of the Gulf
and the Zetas. In 2004-2005 alone, it says, Pena-Arguelles and his
brother received $4.5 million from the No. 2 leader of the Zetas,
Miguel-Angel Trevino Morales.
(AP, 2/10/12)
2012 Feb 9, In Mexico Bruce
Beresford-Redman, former “Survivor” reality television producer,
arrived in Quintana Roo escorted by nearly a dozen agents after
being extradited from the United States so he can face trial in his
wife's killing. His wife’s body was found in a sewer cistern at a
swank Cancun resort following an April 2010 family vacation.
(AP, 2/9/12)
2012 Feb 10, In central Mexico
a mob in the village of San Mateo Hitzilzingo beat three suspected
kidnappers to death. Two of the men on fire during the attack. Some
300 angry people took the three men out of the town's police station
and began beating them after a woman screamed that they were
kidnappers.
(AP, 2/11/12)
2012 Feb 14, Mexican officials
said they have arrested Jaime Herrera Herrera (43) in Sinaloa state,
a man who manufactured methamphetamine for the Sinaloa drug cartel
run by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
(AP, 2/14/12)
2012 Feb 15, Mexican federal
prosecutors said they have detained four people in Tlaxcala state,
who for almost a decade lured unsuspecting young Mexican women to
the United States to force them into prostitution. Police found the
mutilated bodies of six men inside plastic bags dumped on a road
leading to the tourist city of Cuernavaca, Morelos state.
(AP, 2/15/12)(AP, 2/16/12)
2012 Feb 19, In Mexico a riot
broke out at about 2 a.m. at a prison in Apodaca outside of the
northern industrial city of Monterrey. 44 people were left dead and
some prisoners were missing indicating the riot might have been
staged to cover a breakout. Officials the next day said 9 guards
have confessed to helping Zetas drug gangsters escape from prison
before other Zetas slaughtered rival inmates,
(AP, 2/19/12)(AP, 2/20/12)(SFC, 2/20/12, p.A3)
2012 Feb 20, The US and Mexico
agreed to work together when drilling for oil and gas below their
maritime border in the Gulf of Mexico.
(SFC, 2/21/12, p.D3)
2012 Feb 22, In Mexico 3
inmates were killed at the Topo Chico prison, a few miles away at
from the Apodaca prison, where 44 prisoners, who belonged to the
Gulf drug cartel, were bludgeoned and stabbed to death on Feb 19 by
inmates from the rival Zetas cartel. Gunmen opened fire on a group
of taxi drivers waiting at a taxi stand outside a shopping center in
Monterrey, killing five.
(AP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 27, A Mexican judge
ordered authorities to investigate the killings of women in the
suburbs of Mexico City, reviving a sensitive issue related to a
former governor who is a leading candidate in the presidential race.
The ruling was not revealed until March 6.
(AP, 3/6/12)
2012 Mar 6, Mexican authorities
found 16 bodies in three clandestine graves on the outskirts of
Monterrey. Authorities went to the ranch after drug gang suspects
revealed the burial sites during questioning. In the border city of
Piedras Negras a fierce hour-long battle took place between gunmen
and police. One female officer was killed and six people were
wounded.
(AP, 3/7/12)
2012 Mar 8, In Mexico the
bodies of 4 youths, ranging in age from 14 to 21, were found in
plastic bags on a Cuernavaca street along with a threatening note
from a drug gang. Photos from the scene showed a handless arm lying
near the handwritten note.
(AP, 3/9/12)
2012 Mar 8, It was reported
that the ecosystem of Xochimilco, the floating gardens of Mexico
city, is crashing. The UN World Heritage Site’s last water source
was now only wastewater from treatment plants.
(SFC, 3/9/12, p.A2)
2012 Mar 9, In Mexico drug
criminals set 25 Guadalajara city buses and other vehicles on fire
in 16 different places, spreading fear throughout Mexico's
second-largest city.
(AP, 3/9/12)
2012 Mar 9, Mexican authorities
found the remains of 167 people in a southern Mexican cave on the
Nuevo Ojo de Agua ranch in an area frequently used by Central
American migrants traveling north. Forensic experts believe the
remains are at least 50 years old.
(AP, 3/10/12)
2012 Mar 18, In Mexico gunmen
ambushed and killed 12 police officers on a road leading out of the
town of Teloloapan. Another 11 officers were wounded. They had been
sent to search for the bodies of 10 people whose severed heads were
found in southern Guerrero state.
(AP, 3/19/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Mexico a 7.4
magnitude earthquake was centered near the border between the
southern states of Oaxaca and Guerrero. It damaged hundreds of homes
and sent thousands of people fleeing from swaying office buildings,
yet even after 10 aftershocks there were no reported deaths. 2
people injured in Guerrero state died on March 22.
(AP, 3/21/12)(AP, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 22, The hacker group
Anonymous in Mexico crashed at least two of the websites for Pope
Benedict XVI's upcoming visit, claiming the papal visit is a
political move to support the conservative National Action party.
(AP, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 23, Pope Benedict XVI
arrived in Mexico as part of a pilgrimage that will also take him to
Cuba. He denounced the drug-fueled violence wracking Mexico and
urged Cubans to use dialogue to find new models to replace Marxism.
The faithful lined more than 20 miles (32 km) of the pope's route
from the airport into Leon shouting the ultimate welcome: "Benedict,
brother, you are now Mexican!"
(AP, 3/23/12)
2012 Mar 30, Prosecutors in
northern Mexico said 8 people have been arrested for allegedly
killing two 10-year-old boys and a 55-year-old woman in ritual
sacrifices by the cult of La Santa Muerte, or Saint Death. The first
of the three victims was apparently killed in 2009, the second in
2010 and the latest earlier this month in Sonora state.
(AP, 3/30/12)
2012 Apr 1, Miguel de la Madrid
(b.1934), former president of Mexico (1982-1988), died. He led the
country during an economic crisis and a devastating earthquake
(1985). He was the first in a string of presidents who pulled Mexico
away from a state-dominated economy and toward free trade.
(AP, 4/1/12)
2012 Apr 2, Sculptor and
printmaker Elizabeth Catlett (b.1915), a US expatriate renowned for
her dignified portrayals of African-American and Mexican women, died
in Cuernavaca, Mexico. She was barred from her home country for
political activism during the McCarthy era. In 1962 the US State
Department banned her from returning to the United States for nearly
a decade because of her political affiliations.
(AP, 4/3/12)
2012 Apr 6, Guatemalan
authorities said they have begun to see new and disturbing evidence
of an alliance between the Mara Salvatrucha street gangs and Zetas,
the Mexican paramilitary drug cartel.
(AP, 4/7/12)
2012 Apr 10, In Mexico gunmen
killed 8 taxi drivers in two attacks in Guadalupe, a suburb of
Monterrey.
(SFC, 4/11/12, p.A2)
2012 Apr 18, Mexican
authorities seized 268,000 rounds of assault rifle ammunition in a
US truck at a border crossing in Ciudad Juarez. Dallas truck driver
Jabin Bogan was transporting a load of ammunition to a Phoenix gun
shop when he said he made a wrong turn, causing him to cross the
border into Mexico. Jabin was released on Nov 23 after his mother
paid a fine.
(SFC, 4/20/12, p.A2)(ABC News, 11/25/12)
2012 Apr 20, In Mexico masked
gunmen burst into a bar in Chihuahua and opened fire killing 14
people.
(SSFC, 4/22/12, p.A2)
2012 Apr 20, In Mexico a truck
trailer came loose and hit a passenger bus killing at least 43
people in Veracruz state.
(SFC, 4/21/12, p.A2)
2012 Apr 20, Mexico’s
Popocatepetl volcano shot a heavy plume of ash into the sky
southeast of Mexico City and spewed glowing rock from its crater at
dawn.
(AP, 4/20/12)
2012 Apr 21, The New York Times
reported that Wal-Mart (Walmart) failed to notify law enforcement
officials even after its own investigators found evidence of
millions of dollars in bribes by top executives of its Mexican
subsidiary carried out to build stores across that country. The
payments were said to be made in 2005.
(AP, 4/21/12)(Econ, 4/28/12, p.71)
2012 Apr 24, In Texas a US
federal indictment was unsealed against Mexican drug boss Joaquin
Guzman Loera, known as El Chapo. The indictment also named Sinaloa
cartel co-leader Zambada Garcia and 22 others.
(SFC, 4/25/12, p.A8)
2012 Apr 25, In Mexico a fire
at the Bosque de la Primavera (Forest of Springtime), on the edge of
Guadalajara, consumed some 18,500 acres, about one-quarter of the
preserve. Officials said the fire was started last weekend by
squatters seeking to take over land and was worsened by armed gangs
trying to scare off firefighters.
(SFC, 4/26/12, p.A2)
2012 Apr 26, Independent
Mexican truckers launched nationwide protests calling for clearer,
fairer rules on vehicle weights and dimensions and for an end to
discretionary permits that they say let double-trailer vehicles
carrying as much as 100 metric tons of freight operate on narrow,
two-lane roads.
(AP, 4/26/12)
2012 Apr 27, The Mexican
government said it will tighten inspections and lower maximum
allowed weights for freight trucks after protests over a string of
deadly accidents involving double-trailer trucks.
(AP, 4/27/12)
2012 Apr 28, Mexican
authorities in Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz state, found Regina
Martinez, a correspondent for the national magazine Proceso, dead in
her bathroom with signs she had been beaten and strangled.
(AP, 5/4/12)
2012 May 3, In Mexico 3
photojournalists who worked the perilous crime beat in the port city
of Veracruz were found dismembered and dumped in plastic bags in a
canal.
(AP, 5/3/12)
2012 May 8, The US Treasury
announced sanctions against Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar and
Ovidio Guzman Lopez, 2 sons of Sinaloa cartel drug lord Joaquin
Guzman.
(SFC, 5/9/12, p.A2)
2012 May 9, Mexican police
found 18 dismembered bodies inside 2 vans near the Lake Chapala
enclave of Ajijic, just south of Guadalajara.
(SFC, 5/10/12, p.A2)Reuters, 6/17/12)
2012 May 11, In Mexico the
offices of El Manana newspaper in Nuevo Laredo were sprayed with
bullets. Two days later the paper announced that it would no longer
cover the drug war.
(Econ, 5/19/12, p.45)
2012 May 13, In Mexico 49
bodies, with heads and hands hacked off, were found dumped at the
entrance to the town of San Juan on a highway leading from the
metropolis of Monterrey to the border city of Reynosa. On May 20
police arrested Daniel Elizondo Jesus Ramirez, a Zetas drug cartel
leader nicknamed "El Loco." He confessed to dumping the corpses and
said he'd done so on the orders of Zeta leaders.
(AP, 5/13/12)(AP, 5/21/12)
2012 May 18, US Border Patrol
agents stopped a fake UPS van as the driver tried to circumvent a
highway checkpoint near Niland, about 150 miles east of San Diego in
California's Imperial Valley, near the Mexican border. 13 suspected
illegal immigrants from Mexico were stuffed inside.
(AP, 5/24/12)
2012 May 28, Mexico confirmed
that a drug cartel lieutenant has been detained following a series
of firebombing attacks on Mexican potato-chip company Sabritas, a
subsidiary of U.S. food giant PepsiCo. Five Sabritas warehouses and
vehicle lots were attacked May 25-26 in the Michoacan and Guanajuato
states.
(AP, 5/28/12)
2012 May 31, In Mexico a truck
belonging to Sabritas, which sells potato and corn chips in Mexico,
was torched with gasoline bombs on a rural highway. The attackers
fled the scene. Earlier in the day the cult-like Knights Templar
drug cartel hung banners in a Michoacan city claiming credit for
firebombing five Sabritas distribution centers last week. The
banners accused Sabritas of letting law enforcement agents use its
trucks for transportation and surveillance.
(AFP, 6/1/12)
2012 May, In Mexico Gabriel
Granados (52), a father of two whose arms were amputated just below
the elbow, received the arms of a 34-year-old shooting victim. He
became the first patient in Latin America to receive a double arm
transplant.
(AP, 6/7/12)
2012 Jun 3, In northern Mexico
gunmen opened fire inside a drug rehab center killing 11 men in
Torreon.
(SFC, 6/4/12, p.A2)
2012 Jun 7, A panel of Mexican
judges agreed to extradite Sandra Avila Beltran, a suspected drug
trafficker known as the “Queen of the Pacific,” to face charges in
the US.
(SFC, 6/8/12, p.A2)
2012 Jun 7, In Mexico 14
dismembered bodies were discovered inside a truck in Mante, located
in the south of Tamaulipas state, which borders Texas.
(Reuters, 6/23/12)
2012 Jun 12, Texas authorities
said they arrested seven members of one of Mexico's largest drug
cartels and accused them of laundering money in the United States by
buying, breeding and racing American racehorses. On July 3 Jose
Trevino Morales, the brother of two alleged cartel leaders, was
among 15 people charged in what federal prosecutors said was a
money-laundering scheme centered on an Oklahoma horse ranch.
(Reuters, 6/12/12)(AFP, 7/4/12)
2012 Jun 13, Carlos Slim,
Mexican telecommunications billionaire, acquired an 8.4% stake in
Argentina's newly state-controlled oil and gas producer, YPF S.A. A
filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission said Slim and
members of his family acquired 32.9 million shares of YPF Class D
shares on June 12 and 13.
(AP, 6/15/12)
2012 Jun 14, Mexican
presidential front-runner Enrique Pena Nieto said Colombian Gen.
Oscar Naranjo (55) has agreed to serve as his adviser on fighting
drug trafficking if Pena Nieto wins the July 1 election. Authorities
said the Zeta drug cartel kidnapped and killed journalist Victor
Manuel Baez Chino. He had covered crime in Xalapa, Veracruz state.
(AP, 6/14/12)(SFC, 6/15/12, p.A2)
2012 Jun 16, Hurricane Carlota
made landfall near the Mexican beach town of Puerto Escondido,
Oaxaca state. Two sisters, aged 13 and 7, died in the Oaxaca state
community of Pluma Hidalgo when a mudslide collapsed their home. A
day later Carlotta was downgraded to a tropical depression.
(AP, 6/17/12)
2012 Jun 18, European leaders
at the G20 summit in Mexico struggled to reassure the world that
they were on the path to solving their continent's relentless
economic crisis. Bosses of more than 300 large companies gathered at
the same resort for the 4th summit of the B20. Their goal was to
persuade governments to be more business friendly.
(AP, 6/18/12)(Econ, 6/9/12, p.72)
2012 Jun 19, The world powers
known as "P5+1," permanent UN Security Council members Britain,
China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany, failed to
win any concession from Iran that would give the talks a new
impulse. Negotiators in Moscow managed to prevent the diplomatic
process from complete collapse by agreeing a new meeting at
expert-level in Istanbul on July 3.
(AFP, 6/20/12)
2012 Jun 21, Mexican marines
said they have detained Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar (26) during a
raid in Zapopan, an upscale suburb of Guadalajara. They believed he
is one of the sons of Mexico's most-wanted drug kingpin, Joaquin "El
Chapo" Guzman, leader of the powerful Sinaloa cartel. The Attorney
General's Office said the next day that El Gordo, the presumed son
of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was really Felix Beltran Leon (23),
the father of a toddler who works with his mother-in-law at a used
car dealership.
(AP, 6/21/12)(AP, 6/22/12)(Econ, 7/28/12, p.61)
2012 Jun 23, In Mexico local
media reported that 14 mutilated corpses and a threatening message
aimed at a drug cartel were found inside a truck in the parking lot
of a supermarket in Mante, Tamaulipas state.
(Reuters, 6/23/12)
2012 Jun 25, In Mexico 2
federal police officers, suspected of working for drug traffickers,
opened fire on fellow officers in a crowded food court at Mexico
City's international airport killing three policemen. The suspects
were captured in airport surveillance video and have been fully
identified but remained at large.
(AP, 6/25/12)
2012 Jun 27, A grainy
three-minute video appeared on Mundonarco.com depicting five
shirtless men on their knees, their chests painted with large black
“Z”s, surrounded by masked members of Mexico’s Gulf cartel wielding
machetes. The footage showed members of the Gulf cartel
interrogating and then beheading at least three members of the Zetas
cartel.
(ABCNews, 6/28/12)
2012 Jul 1, In Mexico Enrique
Pena Nieto, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate,
won 38.21% support in national elections. Top challenger, leftist
candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (31.59%), refused to concede,
saying he would await a full count and legal review. Josefina
Vazquez Mota of the ruling National Action Party, Mexico's first
woman candidate for a major party, conceded with 25.41%. Final
results were completed on July 6. The PRI and its allies fell just
short of a majority in both houses of Congress.
(AP, 7/2/12)(AP, 7/6/12)(AP, 7/10/12)
2012 Jul 3, In Mexico a
powerful car bomb exploded outside the home of the top police
official of the border state of Tamaulipas, killing 2 policemen and
injuring 4 officers and 3 civilians.
(AP, 7/3/12)
2012 Jul 7, In Mexico tens of
thousands of people marched in Mexico City to protest Enrique Pena
Nieto's apparent win in the country's presidential election,
accusing his long ruling party of buying votes.
(AP, 7/7/12)
2012 Jul 7, The US Border
patrol said agents had opened fire along the Rio Grande border after
being pelted by rocks. A Mexican citizen was fatally shot at the Los
Tomates-Veterans int’l. bridge in Brownsville, Texas.
(SFC, 7/10/12, p.A4)
2012 Jul 10, Mexico’s El Manana
newspaper in the northern border city of Nuevo Laredo announced that
it will stop covering violent criminal disputes after suffering a
second grenade attack against its offices in two months. Gunmen
threw grenades and opened fire on two buildings belonging to the El
Norte newspaper in the northern state of Nuevo Leon. No injuries
were reported.
(AP, 7/12/12)
2012 Jul 12, The Mexican army
found an incomplete tunnel in a Tijuana warehouse with more than 40
tons of marijuana at the entry. The passage extended nearly 400
yards, including more than 100 yards into the United States. It was
the second, major incomplete tunnel discovered in the San
Diego-Tijuana area in two days and the third along the US-Mexico
border since July 9, when a completed passage was found in a vacant
strip mall storefront in the southwestern Arizona city of San Luis.
(AP, 7/13/12)
2012 Jul 13, Mexican police
arrested Vincent Legrend Walters, one of the US Marshals Service's
most-wanted fugitives, in the resort city of Cancun, after 24 years
on the run. He was wanted in San Diego, California, on murder
charges in the 1988 killing of a woman kidnapped as part of a drug
deal. He also faces weapons and drug charges and is on the service's
list of 15 most wanted fugitives.
(AFP, 7/15/12)
2012 Jul 13, An incomplete
tunnel along Arizona's border with Mexico was found during an
inspection of a drainage system on the Mexican side of Nogales in
early stages of construction. This was the 4th tunnel found this
week.
(AP, 7/14/12)
2012 Jul 20, In western Mexico
a bus traveling to a beach went off a cliff killing at least 24
people in Tequepexpan.
(SSFC, 7/22/12, p.A2)
2012 Jul 25, Mexican regulators
said they have fined HSBC $28 million for failing to prevent money
laundering through accounts at the bank. Mexico's National
Securities and Banking Commission said the Mexico subsidiary of the
London-based bank has paid the fines. Officials said HSBC in 2007
and 2008 sent about $7 billion in cash from Mexico to the US.
(AP, 7/25/12)
2012 Jul 26, Mexico’s human
rights commission reported that there have been 126 attacks on
journalists since year 2000 and that 82 have been killed and 16 gone
missing.
(SFC, 7/27/12, p.A2)
2012 Jul 31, Mexican
prosecutors formally lodged drug charges against four high-ranking
army officers.
(SFC, 8/1/12, p.A2)
2012 Aug 5, Chavela Vargas
(b.1919), Costa Rica-born Mexican singer, died in Cuernavaca. She
defied gender stereotypes to become one of the most legendary
singers in Mexico.
(AP, 8/5/12)
2012 Aug 7, Hundreds of
tourists evacuated beach resorts along Mexico's Caribbean coast as
Hurricane Ernesto headed toward landfall near Mexico's border with
Belize. It weakened to a tropical storm while moving over land the
next day.
(AP, 8/8/12)
2012 Aug 9, Mexico's Supreme
Court moved to turn military human rights violations over to
civilian courts, a blow to a military justice system accused of
covering up cases of soldiers abusing, torturing and executing
citizens during a six-year government offensive against drug
cartels.
(AP, 8/10/12)
2012 Aug 9, In northern Mexico
police found the bodies of 14 men stuffed into a sport utility
vehicle near a gas station in San Luis Potosi city and hours later a
shootout between soldiers and gunmen killed three people in the same
city. Gunmen hung two men from a bridge in Monterrey and shot them
to death while horrified motorists watched. Attackers armed with
assault rifles killed seven men drinking at a sports field in
Sinaloa state.
(AP, 8/9/12)
2012 Aug 9, Tropical Storm
Ernesto made land fall near Mexico’s port city of Coatzacoalcos,
killing 7 people as it moved inland in the southern Gulf region.
(SFC, 8/10/12, p.A4)(SFC, 8/11/12, p.A2)
2012 Aug 10, Mexican police
found eight decomposing bodies inside a car abandoned by a waterpark
in Fresnillo, Zacatecas state. 5 gunmen were killed during a clash
with federal police in the western state of Michoacan.
(AP, 8/10/12)
2012 Aug 11, Jubilant Mexicans
celebrated their 2-1 Olympic gold medal soccer win over powerhouse
Brazil, marking Mexico's first ever Olympic soccer gold medal.
(AP, 8/11/12)
2012 Aug 12, In Mexico gunmen
shot dead Matehuala, San Luis Potosi state, Mayor-elect Edgar
Morales Perez and aide Francisco Hernandez Colunga as they returned
from a birthday party.
(SFC, 8/13/12, p.A2)
2012 Aug 17, In Mexico 12
people died when a bus heading to a resort in Mazatlan crashed into
a ravine in Durango state.
(SFC, 8/18/12, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/9xy5n5u)
2012 Aug 21, Mexico's Supreme
Court declared unconstitutional a key portion of a military law that
has broadened the influence of military courts and angered civilian
victims seeking justice.
(AP, 8/22/12)
2012 Aug 22, In Mexico
adherents of a religious sect in western Mexico were physically
blocking school teachers from entering their walled community,
setting up one of the most high-profile confrontations between
religious and civil authorities in Mexico since the 1930s. The New
Jerusalem community prohibits formal schooling, television, radio,
modern music, dress and fashion. The church does not recognize the
sect, which was founded in 1973 by a renegade Catholic priest who
objected to the abandonment of Latin masses and other modernization
moves.
(AP, 8/22/12)
2012 Aug 23, In Mexico a
falling out between the leaders of the hyper-violent Zetas cartel
appears to have put the gang in the hands of Miguel Angel Trevino
Morales. The brutal and feared gangster has been blamed for an
eruption of bloodshed in the once relatively calm central states.
(AP, 8/23/12)
2012 Aug 24, Mexican federal
police shot at a vehicle carrying two US government employees near
Cuernavaca after the vehicle came under attack from unidentified
gunmen. 2 US government employees were wounded after their vehicle
drove into a rural, mountainous area outside the capital where the
officers were looking for criminals. Officials from both countries
called the incident and accident. 12 Mexican officers were soon
jailed for 40 days pending an investigation.
(AP, 8/24/12)(SFC, 8/27/12, p.A2)(SFC, 8/29/12,
p.A2)
2012 Aug 29, Mexico's Attorney
General Marisela Morales says she has requested help from Interpol
in arresting Tomas Yarrington, the former governor of Tamaulipas,
for allegedly fomenting drug trafficking.
(AP, 8/29/12)
2012 Aug 30, Mexico's old
ruling PRI party cleared the last hurdle in regaining the presidency
it held for 71 years, after the country's highest electoral court
dismissed legal challenges brought by a leftist opponent trying to
overturn the July 1 election.
(AP, 8/31/12)
2012 Aug 31, Mexico’s highest
electoral court declared Enrique Pena president. Leftist
presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that he is
refusing to recognize the results of the presidential election.
(AP, 8/31/12)(SFC, 9/1/12, p.A2)
2012 Aug 31, Mexico extradited
Eduardo Arellano Felix (55), the top advisor to his brother’s
Tijuana-based drug cartel, to the US.
(SFC, 9/1/12, p.A9)
2012 Sep 4, Mexico’s Navy
detained Mario Cardenas Guillen, a top leader of the Gulf drug
cartel, in the northern city of Altamira.
(AP, 9/4/12)
2012 Sep 10, Mexican police in
southern Guerrero state said they have found 16 bodies left in a
truck in Coyuca de Catalan. Guerrero Gov. Angel Aguirre said
authorities suspected they were killed in Michoacan and dumped in
his state.
(AP, 9/10/12)
2012 Sep 12, In Mexico
Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez (41), a man believed to be the leader
of the Gulf drug cartel, was arrested by Mexican marines in the Gulf
port of Tampico. He and 10 bodyguards were presented to the public
the next morning. US authorities have offered $5 million for
information leading to his arrest.
(AP, 9/13/12)
2012 Sep 13, Mexican
prosecutors said they were investigating a 16-year-old suspected
hitman who was believed to have participated in at least 50 murders
while working for a drug gang. The teenager, identified as Francisco
Miguel N., was part of a gang known as Los Mazatlecos, a criminal
group attached to the Beltran Leyva drugs cartel.
(Reuters, 9/13/12)
2012 Sep 14, In Mexico Eduardo
Castro Luque (48), elected to Sonora’s state Legislature
representing the PRI, was shot to death outside his home in
Hermosillo two days before taking office. Two assassins fled on a
motorcycle.
(SSFC, 9/16/12, p.A4)
2012 Sep 17, In northern Mexico
132 prisoners escaped from a state prison in Piedras Negras. On Sep
19 a judge ruled that the director of the prison and 2 employees and
13 other prison employees be held for 40 days under a form of house
arrest pending possible charges.
(SFC, 9/18/12, p.A2)(SFC, 9/20/12, p.A2)
2012 Sep 18, In Mexico a
government helicopter carrying a crew making a tourism video crashed
into at Lake Zirahuen in Michoacan state. The video director
drowned, while three crew members and a state employee escaped.
{Mexico, Air Crash}
(AP, 9/18/12)
2012 Sep 18, In Mexico 29
people were killed in a fire at a gas pipeline distribution center
near Reynosa across from McAllen, Texas.
{Mexico, Tragedy}
(AP, 9/19/12)
2012 Sep 26, Mexican troops
clashed with an armed group near a church in the southern town of
Tepecoacuilco de Trujano, leaving 11 people dead, including a
soldier and one woman.
(AP, 9/26/12)
2012 Sep 26, Mexicans took to
the streets to protest a new law aimed at modernizing rules in the
workplace and making the country’s powerful, corrupt unions more
accountable.
(SFC, 9/27/12, p.A2)
2012 Sep 27, Mexican officials
said they have struck a major blow against a faction of the
hyper-violent Zetas cartel, arresting one of the country's
most-wanted drug traffickers, Ivan Velazquez Caballero, known as "El
Taliban," and placing him on display in a morning press conference.
Also known as "Z-50," Velazquez Caballero had a 30 million peso
($2.3 million) reward on his head.
(AP, 9/27/12)
2012 Oct 2, Azerbaijan's
ambassador defended a multimillion-dollar renovation of Mexican
parks and a monument to late president Geidar Aliyev
(d.2003). Azerbaijan had contributed much of the
65 million pesos ($5 million) it cost to renovate not one, but two
Mexico City parks, allowing it to put monuments in both. Critics
said that Aliyev, who stifled dissent, shouldn't be on a boulevard
decorated with statues to Mexican and foreign heroes. In 2013 Mexico
City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said the statue of Aliyev will be
removed from the capital’s main avenue.
(AP, 10/2/12)(SFC, 1/23/13, p.A2)
2012 Oct 3, Mexico launched an
extensive program to vaccinate fifth-grade girls against human
papillomavirus.
(SFC, 10/4/12, p.A5)
2012 Oct 3, In Mexico Jose
Eduardo Moreira (25), a Coahuila state employee and son of former
Gov. Humberto Moreira, was found shot to death outside the border
town of Ciudad Acuna.
(SFC, 10/5/12, p.A2)
2012 Oct 3, A US federal
indictment linked Jose Sanchez-Villalobos (49), a high-ranking
member of the Sinaloa drug cartel, to two of the largest drug
tunnels discovered under the San Diego-Tijuana border.
(SFC, 10/5/12, p.A6)
2012 Oct 5, Mexico's President
Felipe Calderon announced that the state-owned oil company has found
possible reserves of as much as 125 million barrels of oil at a
deep-water well in the Gulf of Mexico. Petroleos Mexicanos
said the area known as the Perdido belt contains prospective
reserves that could amount to as much as 13 billion barrels of crude
equivalent.
(AP, 10/5/12)
2012 Oct 5, Mexican
archaeologists said they uncovered the largest number of skulls ever
found in one offering at Mexico City's Templo Mayor, the most sacred
temple of the Aztec empire dating back more than 500 years.
(AP, 10/5/12)
2012 Oct 6, The Mexican navy
nabbed Salvador Alfonso Martinez Escobedo, a suspected Zetas cartel
leader. He was captured in Nuevo Laredo and was believed to have
masterminded the massacre of 72 migrants in Tamaulipas state in
2010.
(SFC, 10/9/12, p.A2)
2012 Oct 7, In Mexico Zetas
drug cartel leader Heriberto Lazcano was apparently one of two men
killed in a firefight with marines in the northern border state of
Coahuila. Lazcano, also known as "El Verdugo" (the Executioner) for
his brutality, was suspected in hundreds of killings, including the
June 2004 slaying of Francisco Ortiz Franco, a top editor of a
crusading weekly newspaper in Tijuana that often reported on drug
trafficking. The next day a group of armed men raided the funeral
home where the bodies were kept, and stole both corpses. Trevino
Morales, also known as El 40 or the Monkey, became the uncontested
head of the Zetas after Lazcano was killed.
(AP, 10/9/12)(ABC News, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, Alejandrina
Gisselle Guzman Salazar (31), the daughter of one of the world's
most sought-after drug lords, was arrested at San Diego's San Ysidro
port of entry and charged with fraud and misuse of visas, permits
and other documents. Her father is Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, leader
of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel.
(AP, 10/15/12)
2012 Oct 15, Mexican police
raided three teachers colleges in the western state of Michoacan,
where dozens of students had been hijacking buses and delivery
trucks for a week to protest curriculum changes. The standoff at the
teachers colleges began over a week ago, when students seized the
campuses to protest plans to require them to take English and
computer science courses. The protesters say the colleges are meant
to prepare teachers for rural areas where basic skills are more of a
priority.
(AP, 10/16/12)
2012 Nov 4, In Mexico G20
finance ministers and central bank governors began a 2-day meeting
amid growing fears over the global impact of Europe's debt crisis
and the stalemate over a fiscal plan in the United States.
(AP, 11/5/12)
2012 Nov 5, In Mexico G20
finance officials called on countries to reject protectionism and
currency manipulation despite a raft of economic problems that
include the US deficit.
(AP, 11/6/12)
2012 Nov 8, Mexico’s navy
announced that Omar Juarez, an alleged commander of the Zetas
paramilitary cartel in Coahuila state, has been taken into custody
in Saltillo.
(SFC, 11/9/12, p.A2)
2012 Nov 8, Texas lawyer Marco
Antonio Delgado, a former Carnegie Mellon Univ. trustee, pleaded not
guilty to laundering over $600 million for a Mexican drug cartel.
Homeland Security Investigations linked him to the Guadalajara-based
Milenio cartel, active until 2010.
(SFC, 11/9/12, p.A19)
2012 Nov 9, Mexican prosecutors
charged 14 federal police officers with trying to kill two CIA
agents and a Mexican navy captain in an August 24 ambush south of
the capital.
(AP, 11/9/12)
2012 Nov 15, In Mexico the body
of Maria Santos Gorrostieta Salazar (36), former mayor of Tiquicheo,
Michoacan state, was found beaten and tortured, three days after
being abducted.
(Econ, 12/8/12, p.94)
2012 Nov 20, The US and Mexico
agreed to new rules on sharing water from the Colorado River.
(SFC, 11/21/12, p.A6)
2012 Nov 24, In Mexico Maria
Susana Flores Gamez (20), a Sinaloa state beauty queen, died in a
gun battle between soldiers and the alleged gang of drug traffickers
with whom she was traveling.
(AP, 11/26/12)
2012 Nov 25, Mexican
authorities in Chihuahua state said they have recovered the remains
of 19 people in two mass graves. 11 were found 25 mile southeast of
Ciudad Juarez and 8 others tossed along a road near Rosales.
(SFC, 11/26/12, p.A2)
2012 Nov 28, In Mexico
Juventina Villa Mojica, an environmental activist, was killed along
with her son (10) when some 30 gunment intercepted her police convoy
in souther Guerrero state.
(SFC, 11/30/12, p.A2)
2012 Nov 30, It was reported
that Mexico’s attorney general has compiled a list showing that more
than 25,000 adults and children have gone missing in Mexico in the
past 6 years.
(SFC, 11/30/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 1, Enrique Pena Nieto
took the oath of office as Mexico's new president vowing to restore
peace and security and take on the vested interests that have
hindered economic prosperity. Protesters opposed to Nieto's rule
clashed with tear gas-wielding police outside Congress just hours
before he was to take the oath of office and return the country's
old guard (PRI) to power.
(AP, 12/1/12)
2012 Dec 9, Mexican-American
singer Jenni Rivera and 4 others died in a plane crash near Nuevo
Leon that left no survivors.
(SFC, 12/10/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 14, A magnitude 6.4
earthquake was recorded at 2:36 a.m. in the Pacific Ocean 167 miles
west southwest of Rosarito, Mexico. There were no immediate reports
of damage or injuries.
(AP, 12/14/12)
2012 Dec 18, Mexico’s Pres.
Enrique Pena Nieto laid out a security strategy that creates a new
national force to combat organized crime. Mexico's new attorney
general said that as many as 80 small and medium-size drug cartels
are operating in the country, a number far higher than the last
formal government assessment.
(SFC, 12/18/12, p.A2)(AP, 12/18/12)
2012 Dec 18, In Mexico a prison
break in Gomez Palacio, Durango state, left at least 23 people dead
including 14 inmates and 9 guards.
(SFC, 12/20/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 20, In Mexico the
group Propuesta Civica, or Civic Proposal, released data on missing
persons. It said 20,851 people have disappeared over the past six
years. Not every case on the list has been proven related to the
drug war and the lsit was said to be incomplete.
(AP, 12/22/12)
2012 Dec 21, Dawn broke over
ancient holy sites in southern Mexico to celebrations, ushering in
the start of a new era for the Maya people that had been billed as a
possible end of the world.
(Reuters, 12/21/12)
2012 Dec 21, In Mexico US
Marine veteran Jon Hammar (27), jailed for months after trying to
carry a family heirloom shotgun across the border, was freed.
(AP, 12/22/12)
2012 Dec 24, In Mexico a group
of armed men stormed the town of El Platanar de Los Ontiveros in
Sinaloa state and shot 9 men to death. The town had become part of a
dispute between the sinaloa cartel and remnants of the Zetas.
(SFC, 12/27/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 27, Mexican
authorities discovered a sophisticated smuggling tunnel, as long as
a football field, equipped with electricity and ventilation not far
from the Nogales port of entry into Arizona.
(AP, 12/28/12)
2012 Dec 28, Mexico City
lawmakers approved prison terms for animal cruelty, previously
considered a civil offense sanctioned with fines and detentions.
(AP, 12/29/12)
2013 Jan 7, Mexican
authorities said wild dogs mauled and killed four people whose
bodies were found over the past two weeks in a park on the edge of
Mexico City.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 9, Mexico’s government
enacted a new law that require authorities to assist victims of
drug-related violence and establish as fund for possible
reparations.
(SFC, 1/10/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 14, Mexico's
best-known anti-violence activist and a prominent intellectual
presented a petition, signed by more than 54,000 Mexicans, to the US
embassy calling on the United States to take further steps to combat
weapons trafficking.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 23, In Mexico 6
victims were found dismembered in Tuluca. Prosecutors said the
dismemberment killings over the past 10 days of 16 people, allegedly
lookouts or informants for rival gangs, was the work of a drug
cartel.
(SFC, 1/24/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 24, Frenchwoman
Florence Cassez (38), who spent seven years in prison in Mexico on
kidnapping charges, returned to a hero's welcome in Paris. She was
ordered freed a day earlier because of flaws in her trial. She was
arrested in 2005 and convicted of helping her Mexican then-boyfriend
run a kidnapping gang.
(AP, 1/24/13)0
2013 Jan 25, In Mexico 16
members of Kombo Kolombia and their crew were reported missing early
today after playing a private show in a bar late last night in the
town, Hidalgo, Nuevo Leon state.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 26, Mexico City
authorities removed a much-disputed statue of Geidar Aliyev, the
late leader of Azerbaijan.
(SSFC, 1/27/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 27, In northern Mexico
at least eight bodies were pulled from a well in Mina, Nuevo Leon
state, near the site where 20 people went missing late last week,
including members of a Colombian-style band.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 29, Mexican
immigration authorities said they have broken up a bizarre cult that
allegedly ran a sex-slavery ring among its followers on the US
border. The "Defensores de Cristo" or "Defenders of Christ"
allegedly recruited women to have sex with a Spanish man who claimed
he was the reincarnation of Christ.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 31, In Mexico City an
office building blast killed 37 people and injured 121 at the
headquarters of Petroleos Mexicanos, the state-owned oil company. On
Feb 4 authorities said the basement explosion in an administrative
building next to the 51-story Pemex tower was caused by a gas
buildup ignited by an electrical spark or other heat source.
(AP, 2/1/13)(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Jan 31, In southern Mexico
vigilantes who have taken up arms against drug cartel violence and
common crime announced they will bring charges ranging from
organized crime to kidnapping and extortion against 50 men and three
women who they have been holding prisoner at improvised jails in
Ayutla, Guerrero state.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Feb 2, The US and Mexico
reached a tentative agreement on cross-border trade in tomatoes.
(SFC, 2/4/13, p.A8)
2013 Feb 4, In Mexico a gang of
armed, masked men raped six Spanish tourists in the Mexican resort
of Acapulco. On Feb 13 officials said they had arrested 6 men on
suspicion of the rapes.
(AP, 2/6/13)(SFC, 2/14/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 20, Human Rights Watch
called Mexico's anti-drug offensive "disastrous" in a report that
cited 249 cases of disappearances that the group says mostly show
evidence of having been carried out by the military or law
enforcement.
(AP, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 21, Mexico said it
will work with the Int’l. Red Cross on the search of thousands of
people who have disappeared during the country’s 6-year war on
drugs.
(SFC, 2/22/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 21, In Guatemalan
residents of Peten province reported a gunbattle between drug gangs
and said one of the dead resembled Mexico's most-wanted drug lord,
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Soldiers and police scanning the area
found no sign of any confrontation.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 23, In Mexico a
Belgian citizen, Jan Sarens (59), was shot to death in the Pacific
resort of Acapulco near the site of the Mexican Open tennis
tournament. He was a resident businessman working for a
transnational firm.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 25, Mexico's central
bank said that Mexican corporations invested about $25.6 billion
last year in buying up foreign plants and companies, more than twice
the $12.6 foreigners invested directly in Mexican firms. An official
confirmed that was the first time in recent memory that outflows
exceeded inflows.
(AP, 2/25/13)
2013 Feb 26, In Mexico Elba
Esther Gordillo (68), leader of the 1.5 million-member National
Union of Education Workers, was arrested afternoon as she landed at
the Toluca airport near Mexico City on a private flight from San
Diego. She was accused of embezzling millions in funds from her
teachers' union to pay for property, private planes, plastic surgery
and her Neiman Marcus bill.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Mar 3, Mexico's ruling
party changed its platform to allow for private investment in the
oil industry, paving the way for a possible overhaul of a
state-owned company that is seen as a pillar of the nation.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 4, Mexico's Economy
Department said that an agreement over trade in fresh tomatoes,
proposed in early February, has been signed with US Department of
Commerce officials.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 11, Mexico’s President
Enrique Pena Nieto moved to overhaul and strengthen the weak and
chaotic regulations that have allowed Carlos slim, the world's
richest man, and its largest Spanish-language media empire to exert
near-total control of Mexico's lucrative telephone and television
markets.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 13, Scientists said
that the number of Monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico dropped
by 59% this year, falling to its lowest level since record keeping
began 20 years ago.
(SFC, 2/14/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 15, In central Mexico
a truck loaded with fireworks exploded during a religious procession
in the rural village of Jesus Tepactepec, killing at least 13 people
and injuring 154.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 18, A new academic
study said an estimated 2.2% of all US gun sales are made to
smuggling rings that take the firearms to Mexico.
(SFC, 3/19/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 20, Mexico’s National
Institute of Anthropology and History said Mexico has sent a
diplomatic note to the French government seeking assistance in
heading off an auction of 51 pre-Columbian Mexican artifacts
scheduled in Paris for March 22-23, arguing they are protected
national historical pieces. Mexico has had laws prohibiting the
export of such artifacts since at least 1827.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 26, Earthquakes shook
a broad swath of southern Mexico, causing buildings to sway in the
capital and sending thousands fleeing into the streets. There were
no immediate reports of damages or injuries.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 27, In Mexico hundreds
of armed vigilantes took control of Tierra Colorado, a town on a
major highway in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, arresting
local police officers and searching homes in response to the March
25 killing of vigilante leader Guadalupe Quinones Carbajal (28).
Several opened fire on a car of Mexican tourists headed to the beach
for Easter week.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 30, In Mexico a bus
collided with a truck in Veracruz state and plunged over a cliff
killing 12 people.
(SFC, 4/1/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar, In Mexico 7 young
members of the National Ballet of Cuba defected while on a
performing tour.
(SFC, 4/4/13, p.A2)
2013 Apr 5, Mexico’s President
Enrique Pena Nieto visited Hong Kong, and said "I am convinced that
Mexican products should take advantage of the dynamism of China's
markets." A report by a chief economist for Bank of America Merrill
Lynch this week estimated that Mexico's labor costs are now 19.6
percent lower than China's.
(AP, 4/6/13)
2013 Apr 24, In Mexico the
hacked-up bodies of photojournalist Daniel Martinez Bazaldua (22)
and Julian Zamora (23) were found in the northern city of
Saltillo. A hand-lettered message appeared to indicate the Zetas
were responsible for the killings.
(AP, 4/25/13)
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End of file.