Juárez Massacre largest mass killings since President Filipe Caldron’s war on drugs began

Sept. 3, 2009 - PRLog -- By Michael Webster: Syndicated Investigative reporter. Sept 3, 2009 at 12:01 AM PDT

 
Somewhere between eighteen and twenty patents being treated in a rehabilitation center in Juárez were shot and killed and others may have been wounded when Mexican Drug Cartels hired gunmen burst in and opened fire with automatic weapons Wednesday evening, according to Mexican law enforcement sources.
Mexican authorizes are keeping the details of the attack close to the chest but they do say that these killings are the largest mass killings since President Filipe Caldron’s war on drugs got underway in 2006
Officials said the rehabilitation center is located Diez y Seis de Septiembre Street. The shootings occurred about 8 p.m.
An unknown number of armed men entered the facility with assault riffles, said Joint Operation Chihuahua spokesman Enrique Torres. They demanded all 20 people in the building lineup in a hallway, he said.
The assailants then began firing the military type AK-47 riffles.
Torres said 16 people died at the scene. Four people, he said, were taken to a hospital in serious condition where two of them died a short time later.
The other two wounded remained in serious condition, he said
It was not known how many gunmen opened fire on the victims.
The death toll from this massacre is expected to grow higher
Drug rehab centers have been targeted during the past year, including eight men killed at one center during a religious service in August last year.
Since the cartel violence started, more than 3,000 have been slain in Juárez.
The mayor of Juárez is asking the Mexican army to stay six more months in the violence-plagued city, where August ended as the deadliest month ever, with more than 300 homicides.
The request by Mayor José Reyes Ferriz comes as federal authorities moved troops and federal police last month to Michoacán in response to a major increase in death and violence in the Mexican President’s home state of Michoacán. President Felipe Calderon sent more than 5,500 additional troops and federal police to protect, defend and support federal forces already there and other Mexican law enforcement personal who have taken a stand against the Mexican Drug Cartel known as La Familia.  Many of those troops sent where taken from the Juarez area. Locals feared that would leave Juarez vulnerable and many now believe that is true and is at least part of the reason for the recent record in violence that has plagued Juarez. Just across the border from El Paso Texas where related Mexican Drug Cartel violence is also accruing. Some leaders in the Mexican Congress believe that the forces being used by the Mexican Government to combat the Mexican Drug Cartels are inadequate and that the Caldron administration is loosing the war on drugs.
With those troops not returning to Juarez and the contemplation by the Mexican President of withdrawing more soldiers and federal police from Juarez, is alarming to many citizens.
Concerned citizen Jose Carlos said "we as residents of Juarez fear for our safety even more now since the troops were pulled out and the city is more vulnerable."
There are 6,000 soldiers and 1,500 federal police in Juárez as part of Joint Operation Chihuahua, said operation spokes man Enrique Torres.
In an effort to bolster local enforcement, 2,400 of the soldiers are working in tandem with police and transit patrols.
Mexican national defense and federal police officials are expected to decide by Sept. 15 about any removal
Mexican Army units have been in Juárez on a rotating basis since spring 2008. "There will be a review how many members of the military can remain in the operation," Torres said.
For example, military police could be moved from working with transit and city police but would stay in Juárez to focus on the fight against drug smugglers.
"The army will determine what the final destination (is) of the members who leave transit (department), whether they assign them to fight narco-trafficking or return them to their places of origin," Torres said.
The military's presence has also been the source of criticism about the military's efforts being ineffective and involving civil-rights abuses. Bottom line the deployment of troops and federal police has not diminished the violence
 
August ended with an unofficial tally of more than 300 homicides, surpassing the record of 258 homicides set in July, said a Chihuahua state police spokesman.
Despite multiple homicides a day, the mayor said the army's presence has led to decreases in other crimes.
Bank robberies are down from 10 to two a month. Convenience store robberies have dived from 10 to three a day. Neighborhood store robberies have dropped from 17 to five a day. And auto thefts have also decreased, the mayor said in a statement.
The soldiers are necessary, Reyes Ferriz said, to allow the police department to grow stronger with more officers and better equipment. The police force is expected to reach 2,700 after an academy graduation this month.
The military has had some success. Last week, the army announced the arrests of two hit squads accused of working for La Linea drug organization, as the Juárez drug cartel is known.
But deaths of their own, street shootings, executions and mutilations continue to be common in the war on drugs, which has claimed over 3,000 lives in the Juárez area alone since it started in January 2008.
Late Tuesday night, the body of a man was found handcuffed to a fence behind the Seven & Seven bar. State police said the unidentified man, whose face was covered with gray tape, had been shot several times.
On Aug. 17, eight people were killed two Americans inside the Seven & Seven in what was thought to be a cartel-related shooting.



.U.S. President Barack Obama (R), Mexican counterpart Felipe Calderon (C) and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper pose for official photo at the Cabanas Cultural Center in Guadalajara on August 10, 2009. (Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images)
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Michael Webster’s Syndicated Investigative Reports are read worldwide, in 100 or more U.S. outlets and in at least 136 countries and territories. He publishes articles in association with global news agencies and media information services with more than 350 news affiliates in 136 countries. Many of Mr. Webster’s articles are printed in six working languages: English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish. With ten more languages planed in the near future.
Mr. Webster is America's leading authority on Venture Capital/Equity Funding. He served as a trustee on some of the nation’s largest trade Union funds. A noted Author, Lecturer, Educator, Emergency Manager, Counter-Terrorist, War on Drugs and War on Terrorist Specialist, Business Consultant, Newspaper Publisher. Radio News caster. Labor Law generalist, Teamster Union Business Agent, General Organizer, Union Rank and File Member Grievances Representative, NLRB Union Representative, Union Contract Negotiator, Workers Compensation Appeals Board Hearing Representative. Mr. Webster represented management on that side of the table as the former Director of Federated of Nevada. Mr. Webster publishes on-line newspapers at www.lagunajournal.com  and www.usborderfirereport.com  and does investigative reports for print, electronic and on-line News Agencies. All of Mr. Webster's articles, books/CD's can be read or downloaded free at: http://www.lagunajournal.com/michael_webster.htm or MICHAEL WEBSTER'S OTHER WRITINGS

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