Five Decapitated bodies found in Michoacan State

Authorities have found five decapitated bodies in western Mexico, with letters left with the corpses purportedly signed by a drug cartel, officials have said.

The bodies, with their heads laying nearby, were found shortly before dawn on Saturday in two different locations in Michoacan state, a region struggling with gang turf wars.

Three of the corpses were found on display on a bridge's traffic circle in Tarimbaro, a suburb of Morelia, the state's capital, said Michoacan chief prosecutor Marco Vinicio Aguilera.

"A knife that may have been used to cut the heads was found in the area," he told the AFP news agency.

About an hour later, two more were found in a Morelia public square, with the heads on a pavement a little further away, Aguilera said.

A letter signed with the initials of the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel were found with all the bodies.

The gang, which operates in the neighbouring state of Jalisco, is engaged in a heated turf battle with the Knights Templar cartel, which has dominated Michoacan's drug trade in recent years.

Michoacan's murder rate rose in 2013 compared to declines in most states.

Last month, dozens of mutilated corpses were found buried in mass graves in an area on the border between the states of Michoacan and Jalisco.

Vigilante groups

The extortion and murders committed by the Knights Templar prompted several towns to form vigilante armed groups in February.

Authorities say some of the self-styled "self-defense" units are supported by the Jalisco drug cartel, a charge the vigilantes deny.

The federal government deployed thousands of troops to Michoacan in May to crack down on the cartels, but gruesome acts of violence have continued.

Just last week, three local police officers were assassinated in the span of two days.

Decapitations became an increasingly common form of gangland vengeance across Mexico since five heads were tossed onto a barroom dance floor in the Michoacan town of Uruapan in 2006.

B.C. Mexico Highway Damaged by Earthquakes.

Mexico says a 300-meter section of a highway near the U.S. border has collapsed, sinking about 30 meters after a series of small earthquakes.

Mexico's federal highway authority says the collapse occurred about 93 kilometres south of the border city of Tijuana. The road leads to the port city of Ensenada, on the Baja California peninsula.

The agency said Saturday the road was closed in the early morning hours, after the collapse was detected.

The agency said the collapse was caused by seven small earthquakes ranging in magnitude from 1.3 to 4.3. It said the roadway runs over a known geological fault in the area, and that it had been raining heavily. No injuries were reported.

Traffic was being diverted onto a smaller, non-toll highway.

Death of Chief and Asst. Murders updated

The police chief and deputy police chief of Tarimbaro, a city in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, were murdered, police said Wednesday.

The bodies of chief Luis Manuel Gonzalez Magaña and deputy chief Osvaldo Rendon Salcedo were found Tuesday afternoon after police received a report that two bodies were lying by an SUV parked behind the Las Chalupas bar in the community of Uruetaro.

Officers found the bodies of the two chiefs, who were holding their pistols and had been shot several times, by the vehicle.

Gonzalez Magaña and Rendon Salcedo had been reported missing Monday, police said.

Investigators are trying to determine the motive for the killings and find those responsible, the Michoacan attorney general’s office said.

Salvador Gonzalez Magaña, the former police chief in Tarimbaro and brother of Luis Manuel Gonzalez Magaña, was murdered in March, media reports said.

Michoacan has been rocked by a wave of drug-related violence in recent months.

Michoacan’s forests and mountains are used by drug traffickers to grow marijuana and produce synthetic drugs.

Seven Dead in Bus Accident

122613   Bus Roll over

According to authorities, weather and the lack of experience with the driver may have been the cause to a bus rollover that killed seven people, trapping one between the tires.

Diario Campio reported that the incident happened Wednesday morning in the town of Ramos Arizpe, Coahuila

The bus 9505 was headed to Guadalajara on the Monterrey-Saltillo highway.
Police said that seven were dead from the rollover, including a pregnant woman and a child under the age of four.

According to Diario Campio, one person was trapped between the tires.

Xoximilco No. 2: Another spot in Mexico for 'fiestas on the water'

Imagine a fabulous city built on an island in the middle of a lake, and edging the island a maze of canals lined by floating gardens. The city was the ancient Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, and the gardens provided the local folks with fruits and vegetables for centuries – until the early 1500s, when Hernan Cortes and his conquistadores showed up. The area of the canals was called Xoximilco  (pronounced sho-she-mill-ko).
Fast-forward 500 years, and the lake is filled in, Mexico City -she-mill-ko).
stands on the ruins of Tenochtitlan, and brightly painted gondola-like barges glide along the old canals of Xoximilco. Steered by guys with long poles, the barges – called trajineras – are often packed with Mexican families who've rented them (and maybe a second barge filled with a Mariachi band) for picnics. They've long been a big hit with tourists, too.
As of today (Dec. 20) you can enjoy a new version of Xoximilco 1,000 or so miles east of Mexico City on the Yucatan Peninsula. You'll find it a few miles away from Cancun International Airport, the busy terminal serving Cancun and the Riviera Maya on the powdery beaches of the Mexican Caribbean.
Called “Xoximilco Cancun,” the new attraction features nearly five miles of canals cutting through 140 acres of the Yucatan jungle. Workers pole the park's 40 trajineras from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. A Cancun spokeswoman said the new Xochimilco (a project of Experiencias Xcaret) “offers tourists a fun and unique way to hang out with friends and family, enjoy delicious local food and listen to live Mariachi music for an authentic Mexican fiesta on the water.”
In other news around the resort area, the Ritz Carlton Cancun just won its 16th AAA Five Diamond Award, reportedly making the luxury property the first to achieve this distinction. Also, the Hotel Flamingo Cancun, which released 28,000 newly hatched sea turtles from 316 nests in 2013 alone, was recognized by local authorities for “25 years of successful conservation and preservation of sea turtles.”
Getting there: Cancun International Airport is served by nonstop hops from major U.S. gateways including Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago-O'Hare, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York-JFK, Phoenix and San Francisco, among others.


Visit http://www.examiner.com/article/xoximilco-no-2-another-spot-mexico-for-fiestas-on-the-water?cid=rss 

Mexican Priests preform Mass for Inmates

Mexico City, Mexico, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City will inaugurate a series of Masses on Dec.18 that will be celebrated during the Christmas season in various prisons in the Mexican capital.

The Apostolic Nuncio to Mexico, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, will help celebrate some of the Masses, along with six auxiliary bishops of Mexico City.

According to the Archdiocese of Mexico City’s News Service, Cardinal Rivera has been celebrating prison Masses during Christmas over the last 18 years.

This year includes a Dec. 18 Mass at a juvenile detention center.

In addition, Archbishop Pierre will celebrate Mass at the Femenil Tepepan Prison on Dec. 20 and will launch a new outreach to juvenile delinquents to encourage them to share the hope and joy of the faith among their fellow inmates.

Wreaths and blankets will also be distributed to the prisoners.

“The purpose is to encourage them in this journey that they are experiencing, especially the young people who need a lot of attention,” said Father Francisco Javier Guzman Carreno, the director of prison ministry.

“As the Church, we wish to bring them love, peace, joy,” he explained, “and who better than our pastor to convey this joy of Christmas in community as brothers and sisters?”

Another Drug Tunnel found in Nogales, Mexico

Officers find border drug tunnel in Nogales

 

               

Courtesy ICE

Federal authorities shut down a completed drug smuggling tunnel on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2013, in the backyard shed of a Nogales residence, following a multi-agency investigation by the Nogales Tunnel Task Force. Courtesy U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement

A completed drug tunnel was found Tuesday night in the backyard shed of a Nogales house.
A tip led officers from the Nogales Tunnel Task Force to a house about a half mile north of the Arizona-Sonora border where they found the entrance to the tunnel in a backyard shed, according to a news release from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which heads the multi-agency taskforce.
The crude, hand-dug tunnel is about 52 feet long and about two feet wide. It is about three feet tall and has wood shoring. No people or drugs were found inside the tunnel. However, authorities claim they seized eight pounds of heroin, three pounds of marijuana and U.S. currency from inside the house. Information on criminal charges in the case was not immediately available.

 

           

 

Five Killed in Military Chase Northern Mexico

5 teenagers killed when struck by gunmen in pickup truck running from Mexican soldiers

MEXICO CITY - Mexican authorities say five teenage students were killed when they were run over by armed men trying to escape from soldiers in a northern border city.

 

Tamaulipas state prosecutors say the students were waiting for a bus to take them home after class Wednesday in Reynosa, a city across from McAllen, Texas. Their ages ranged between 13 and 15.

Two armed men were being chased by soldiers when they lost control of their pick-up truck, skidding and striking the students on the side of the road. They also hit two cars parked outside the school, injuring a woman and her 5-year-old daughter.

The men fled.

Tamaulipas has been the scene of fighting between the Zetas and the Gulf drug cartels. Soldiers and marines have taken over regular police duties.

Million of seized drugs

Federal agents made two large methamphetamine busts on the Arizona border:
Border Patrol agents at the checkpoint on Interstate 19 on Monday night arrested one woman and seized nearly 30 pounds of methamphetamine worth more than $460,000, according to a Customs and Border Protection news release.
Agents found 27 packages of meth during the inspection of a Mercury sedan driven by a U.S. citizen. A drug dog alerted agents to the vehicle, leading to the discovery of meth, which was wrapped in clear packaging tape between the back seat and trunk of the vehicle, the release said.
The car and drugs were seized. The driver was arrested.
In a separate incident in Nogales, Ariz., two female Mexican nationals were arrested Saturday for attempting to smuggle about 41 pounds of meth, worth an estimated $635,500, across the border, the CBP said in a separate news release.
CBP officers sent the driver and passenger of a 2006 Jeep Liberty for secondary inspection when the driver tried to cross at the Mariposa Port of Entry. During the inspection, officers found 30 packages of meth in the vehicle’s gas tank.
The drugs and vehicle were seized.
The driver, Rosalinda Salazar-Lopez, 21, and her 19-year-old passenger, were turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.

Five Dead from Shootout involving Military and Federal Police

At least five people were killed in a shootout involving federal police and military officials this morning near Rocky Point's Sandy Beach area, the Sonora state attorney general confirmed.
The shootout was part of a federal police operation, but couldn't say whom it involved,  Carlos Alberto Navarro Sugich, the state attorney general, told reporters.
Two people died when the vehicle they were driving crashed into a pole and burst into flames, Navarro Sugich said. The other two were killed during the operation outside a hotel in the tourist area of the city. The State police has not released their names or details on how the fifth person died.
He couldn’t say how many law enforcement officers, including the Navy, participated in the operation, but an American resident who moved into the Bella Sirena complex six months ago said at one point there were between 100 and 200 officers in the area, not including those shooting from the two helicopters.
An American man who lives in the Esmeralda Resort complex on Sandy Beach told the Star today that he awoke to the sound of gunfire about 4:30 or 5 a.m.
"An absolutely unreal experience,” said Stephen Heisler. "Whoever they were going after must have had a tremendous amount of power . . . To actually see a helicopter gunship firing into a dense residential area will haunt many for a very long time."

Rollover leaves illegal immigrants in critical condition

Authorities are currently investigating a chase that ended with a rollover accident involving 17 people.
The accident happened on Monte Cristo near Mon Mack around 5 p.m. Thursday.
Investigators said the victims are believed to be illegal immigrants.
Sources said that at least four people were transported to McAllen Medical and two to Rio Grande Hospital.

CBP Complaints of Abuse of Migrants. Claims of Out of Control

Is Border Patrol out of control? Study points to abuse of migrants.

Critics say the study confirms that the Border Patrol lacks meaningful oversight. The growth of the Border Patrol and its potential role in immigration reform has brought the issue to the fore.

Tucson, Ariz.

A new study is adding to long-standing concerns that the Border Patrol is subject to inadequate oversight, with border-crossers claiming mistreatment and abuse at the hands of agents.

The issue has grown in importance as the Border Patrol itself has more than doubled in size during the past decade to more than 21,000 agents. The Border Patrol recorded 1.67 million apprehensions on the Southwest border form 2009 to 2012. With border enforcement central to immigration reform proposals in Washington, the Border Patrol's footprint could grow even further.
About 1 in 10 migrants detained for crossing the border illegally reported some form of physical abuse – such as hitting, kicking, and pushing – at the hands of border agents, according to the study, released this week by the Immigration Policy Center, a liberal think tank in Washington. And about 1 in 4 reported that while in custody they were yelled at, threatened, or verbally abused, some with nationalistic or ethnic slurs.

    

"This is an agency that has almost total impunity in many, many areas," says David Shirk, a border expert and political scientist at the University of San
 Diego who was not involved in the study. "We need the Border Patrol to take criticisms, to respond thoughtfully and seriously to these kinds of questions and
 allegations."
Under current practices, if an agent is reported for bad conduct, he says, "It all stays within the agency, and it is not subject to outside scrutiny."
For its part, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Customs and Border Enforcement, which includes the Border Patrol, did not respond directly to the study, but released a statement saying it takes seriously the safety of detainees as well as complaints against its employees.

 

"Accusations of alleged unlawful conduct on or off duty, are investigated thoroughly and if substantiated, appropriate action is taken," the statement reads.
The new study is based on interviews with 1,110 migrants surveyed shortly after deportation in six Mexican cities – Mexico City and the border cities of Nogales, Ciudad Juárez, Tijuana, Nuevo Laredo, and Mexicali – from 2009 to 2012. About 1 in 3 migrants said they did not recover possessions taken from them while in custody; such as money, clothing, jewelry, and identification cards. In addition, a handful of women reported inappropriate touching during searches.
"They felt the way they were searched was taken too far," says Daniel Martinez, a sociologist at Georgetown University who was a co-author of the study.
Researchers say the lack of oversight and accountability goes far beyond the Border Patrol.
"This is not a question of a few bad apples, this is a systematic and consistent problem at the institutional level," says Jeremy Slack, a researcher at the University of Arizona in Tucson who worked on the study.
The findings echo complaints from human-rights groups and border-watch organizations. Indeed, criticism against the Border Patrol has escalated in recent years as confrontations between border-crossers and agents have left several migrants dead on both sides of the border. Calls for greater oversight of the agency, as well for agents to stop firing guns against rock-throwers, have grown louder.
After a September report by the DHS inspector general concluded that many border agents were unclear on when to use lethal force, Customs and Border Protection announced new guidelines that included enhanced training, better record-keeping and more nonlethal tactics.
But in November, the agency rejected a recommendation from the nonprofit Police Executive Research Forum, which reviewed agency practices and policies, to eliminate deadly force against rock attacks.
"We shouldn't have carve-outs in our policy and say, except for this, except for that," Border Patrol chief Mike Fisher told the Associated Press. "Just to say that you shouldn't shoot at rock-throwers or vehicles for us, in our environment, was very problematic and could potentially put Border Patrol agents in danger."
To Erik Lee, executive director of the North American Research Partnership, a think tank that looks at the strategic relationship of the US, Canada, and Mexico, the study shows there is a long way to go. It is too early to assess if the new guidelines are having an impact on an agency that is resistant to change, he adds.
"The large issues remain, and it takes time for any of these agencies to change."

 

Mexican AG, confirms 6 have Symptoms of Radiation Poisoning

Tests conducted on 6 persons with symptoms of radiation sickness in Hidalgo, Mexico

Personnel of the Attorney General of the Republic in Hidalgo have applied security protocols on radioactive materials and instructed state health authorities to give medical attention to six persons exposed to cobalt-60.

According to the Hidalgo health secretary, Pedro Luis Noble Monterrubio, five adults and a 16-year-old male were in Pachuca General Hospital because of the symptoms they presented, which are associated with radiation exposure.

He confirmed that the Attorney General instructed them to care for more victims of exposure to the substance, used for medical purposes, and then to begin corresponding inquiries.

The state office of the Attorney General said that owing to the magnitude of the case, the Secretariat of the Government will release official information on the patients' health and the progress of the investigations.

Drug Krokodil or Desmorphine Effects

The dangerous Russian codeine creation known as krokodil has apparently spread to parts of Mexico and caused people to be desperate enough to inject it into sensitive body parts.
Desmorphine, also known as krokodil, a drug that is a cocktail of codeine and other chemicals, has mesmerized the media and the medical community due to its spread across countries and detrimental physical effects.
The Huffington Post reported that another addict has made headlines in Mexico based on where she injected the heroin-like concoction.
It reported on Friday that Mexican newspapers spoke to officials about a case where a 17-year-old woman administered the drug into her genitals.
"The young woman who used this drug had an infection that had rotted her genitals,” Mexico’s National Institute of Migration said in the report.
According to El Periodico Correro on Monday, the teenager from Jalisco, Mexico has been getting the drug for the past two months. She showed up to the Instituto Mexicano Social Security building with noticeable sores on her genital area.
Poorer areas have apparently taken to the drug because of its potency and low price. The most gruesome side effect is that the drug damages a person’s vascular system and triggers a rotting effect to limbs.
The effect makes people appear scaly like a crocodile, hence it’s street name.
Initial reports came out of Russia that the drug was spreading among poorer youth, but soon spread to other areas of the world.
A medical journal removed a suspected case of the drug in a patient from St. Louis, Missouri from a paper.
The St. Louis Dispatch reported on Tuesday that doctors claimed that they treated a man who injected krokodil and was suffering from missing tissue due to the drug.
St. Mary’s Health Center pulled the article over patient confidentiality concerns. Spokespeople said that the article was published too soon without a comprehensive review.
There have been very few cases of the drug in the state or elsewhere in the U.S.

radioactive high jackers, shipment recovered.

Officials were engaged Thursday in the delicate task of recovering a stolen shipment of highly radioactive cobalt-60 abandoned in a rural field in central Mexico state.
The material, which the International Atomic Energy Agency called "extremely dangerous," was found removed from its protective container. The pellets did not appear to have been damaged or broken up and there was no sign of contamination to the area, the agency said Thursday, quoting Mexican nuclear safety officials.
Juan Eibenschutz, director general of the National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards, said it could take at least two days to safely get the material into a secure container and transport it to a waste site.
"It's a very delicate operation," Eibenschutz said. "What's important is that the material has been located and the place is being watched to guarantee no one gets close."
The missing shipment of radioactive cobalt-60 was found Wednesday near where the stolen truck transporting the material was abandoned in central Mexico. The atomic energy agency said it has an activity of 3,000 curies, or Category 1, meaning "it would probably be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period in the range of a few minutes to an hour."
Hospitals were on alert for people with radiation exposure, though none had been reported so far. Mardonio Jimenez, a physicist for Mexico's nuclear safety commission, said those who exposed themselves to the pellets could not contaminate others.
A family that found the empty container that had been used for the radioactive material was under medical observation, he told Milenio television. Hueypoxtla Mayor Javier Santillan later told the TV station that the family suffered no harm.

Alerts issued in 6 Mexican states

The cobalt-60 that was missing for nearly two days was left in a rural area about a kilometre from Hueypoxtla, a farm town of about 4,000 people. Officials said it posed no threat to the residents and there was no evacuation. Federal police and military units on the scene threw up an armed cordon about 500 meters around the site.
Alerts had been issued in six Mexican states and the capital when the cargo went missing, and also with customs officials to keep the truck from crossing the border, Eibenschutz said.
The White House said Thursday the Obama administration has no reason to believe that the stolen shipment posed a threat to the United States. White House spokesman Jay Carney said that U.S. President Barack Obama was briefed about the status of the shipment Wednesday.
But townspeople complained they hadn't been given any information about what had been found in the nearby field.
"We just want to know," Maria del Socorro Rostro Salazar, a lawyer who has lived in the town eight years. "There's a kindergarten about 50 meters away [from the cordoned area] and they were operating normally yesterday. No one told them the container was nearby."
The cargo truck hauling the cobalt-60 was stolen from a gas station early Monday in the neighbouring state of Hidalgo, about 40 kilometres from where the material was recovered, Jimenez said.
The material had been removed from obsolete radiation therapy equipment at a hospital in the northern city of Tijuana and was being transported to nuclear waste facility in the state of Mexico, which borders Mexico City.
Eibenschutz said there was nothing to indicate the thieves were after the cobalt or in any way intended for an act of terrorism. The thieves most likely wanted the white 2007 Volkswagen cargo vehicle with a moveable platform and crane, he said.

Truck stolen at gunpoint

According to authorities, a truck marked "Transportes Ortiz" left Tijuana on Nov. 28 and was headed to the storage facility when the driver stopped to rest at a gas station in Tepojaco, in Hidalgo state north of Mexico City.
The driver told authorities he was sleeping in the truck when two men with a gun approached him. They made him get out, tied his hands and feet and left him in a vacant lot nearby.
Eibenschutz said the transport company did not follow proper procedures and should have had GPS and security with the truck.
"The driver also lacked common sense because he decided to park along a highway so he could sleep," he said.
The company that owns the truck couldn't immediately be located for comment. One Mexico City company called "Transportes Ortiz" said the truck was not theirs and they had nothing to do with the incident.

Selena Gomez to headline BorderFest 2014

Pop singer Selena Gomez is returning to the Rio Grande Valley to headline BorderFest 2014.
Festival organizers made the announcement during a Friday morning press conference.
The theme for BorderFest 2014 is "Celebrating Argentina."
Gomez is scheduled to appear at the State Farm Arena on Saturday, March 8th.
Tickets for the show go on sale at 10 a.m. on Saturday, December 14th.
According to the singer's website, she will spend January and February on tour in Japan, China, Malaysia and Australia before coming to Hidalgo.
The former Disney Channel star-turned-pop princess is no stranger to the Valley.
Gomez previously headlined BorderFest back in April 2011.

Thieves Likely to Die via Stolen Cobalt-60

Stolen Cobalt-60 Found;

 

A cargo truck stolen early on Tuesday while transporting cobalt-60, a radioactive cobalt isotope, was found yesterday afternoon. The truck, along with its contents, had been abandoned in a rural area about a kilometer from the farm town of Hueypoxtla, Mexico, the National Post reported.

Mexican authorities had been searching urgently for the truck — and its contents — since it was nabbed by two armed men en route to a nuclear waste storage facility.

During the search there was some concern that the thieves had stolen the cobalt-60, originally used for radiation therapy in a Tijuana hospital, to make a “dirty bomb” — in other words, a bomb that uses conventional explosives to “disperse radiation from a radioactive source,” as per CBC News. However, the consensus now is that the men were only after the truck and its movable platform and crane.

Mardonio Jimenez, a physicist and high-ranking official with Mexico’s nuclear safety commission, told The Washington Post, “I believe, definitely, that the thieves did not know what they had. They were interested in the crane, in the vehicle.”

Unfortunately, in their ignorance, the men removed the cobalt-60 from its protective casing. Jimenez believes that as a result they will have “severe problems with radiation” and “will, without a doubt, die.” Residents of Hueypoxtla will not be affected.

Garment units in Mexico’s border regions to pay 16% VAT

November 29, 2013 (Mexico)

Garment manufacturing units in Mexico’s border regions would have to pay value-added tax (VAT) at the rate of 16 percent from January 1, 2014, as compared to the current VAT of 11 percent.   It is because Mexico’s Congress has passed a tax overhaul proposal of President Enrique Pena Nieto that would make changes to customs practices and raise the VAT on export assembly plants (known as maquiladoras) in the regions bordering the US.   The VAT increase in the border region states like Baja California Norte, including Tijuana, Rosa Lido, Ensenada and Tecate, will bring the tax in these area at par with the 16 percent VAT currently being paid by the businesses in the rest of Mexico.   The maquiladoras along the US-Mexico border had enjoyed a low tax rate for years, as they were intended to increase competitiveness of these regions with US cities, and thereby attract businesses to Mexico.   The new rules also mean an increase in the retail sales tax along the border, from the current 11 percent to 16 percent, to be effective from January 1, 2014.   The new reforms would especially trouble the Chinese-American garment manufacturers that produce apparel in the border areas between the US and Mexico.   Industry analysts opine that the American firms operating in the border areas might cut-down their operations, but may not move their plants back to the US, although President Barack Obama has outlined proposals to revive American manufacturing sector and bring back jobs to the US.   In 2012, there were 8,750 active apparel companies in Mexico, according to Cámara Nacional de la Industria del Vestido (CANAIVE or National Chamber of the Clothing Industry).