Narco-violence in Mexico showed no let-up during the Easter holiday season. Press reports from just the three days between Holy Thursday, March 21, and Easter Sunday, March 23, registered at least 59 homicides connected to organized crime. In some ways, the news leads were very similar to the headlines coming out of war-torn Iraq during the same period of time.

Widespread in nature, slayings were reported in the states of Baja California, Sonora, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Quintana Roo, Mexico, and Chihuahua. Once again, the geographical pattern of killings demonstrates how organized crime has extended its violent reach to virtually every nook and cranny of the country.

The victims included former and current policemen, four soldiers, used car salesmen, street-level drug dealers, and a Cuban-American, Humberto Febles Santana, who was murdered in Cancun. At least four of the victims were women. In Tijuana, the corpse of a female estimated to be between 15 and 20 years of age was found wrapped in a blanket.

In the border city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, the body of 47-year-old Araceli de la Cruz, who was kidnapped on March 13 of this year, was dumped in front of an army installation. Blindfolded and with a mutilated hand stuck in the mouth, de la Cruz´s body was accompanied by a message to a Mexican army general that warned of the fate awaiting alleged informers. De la Cruz was the 11th woman murdered in Tamaulipas state this year so far.

Bordering Texas and New Mexico, Ciudad Juarez and the state of Chihuahua accounted for a disproportionate share of the violence, with nearly two dozen slayings reported from March 21 to March 23. Four of the victims were found burned on the ironically-named Los Lamentos (“The Regrets”) ranch near Palomas. In recent days, violence in and around the small town on the New Mexico border got so bad the entire police department resigned and the police chief requested political ayslum in the United States.

In Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, the narco-violence is threatening to trigger a larger crisis. ”Tourism in Juarez has plummeted drastically, not even the countrymen pass through here during Holy Week,” wrote Jorge M:
Torres Pares for Ciudad Juarez´s Lapolaka website. Fed up with the carnage, the Del Rio, Superette and Farmacias Latino business chains announced an investment strike. Company executives said they will not open new outlets as long as violence rages.

What stands out about the Ciudad Juarez violence is the weak response, until now, of the Mexican armed forces. Unlike in Baja California or in Tamaulipas, states where the army has been visibly deployed with decidedly mixed results, the military has stood largely on the sidelines as warring drug gangs shoot it out for control of Ciudad Juarez.

By all accounts, Ciudad Juarez´s citizens are terrified by the seemingly endless string of killings. Shootings have occurred on main streets, in front of commercial malls and other businesses and in bars and motels. As many as 218 executions were reported in Ciudad Juarez and different regions of Chihuahua from Jan. 1 to March 25 of this year.

“These types of events, which were isolated within the ranks of organized crime, are now seen by everyone, at any hour, in broad daylight, and worst of all, in 100 percent family places,”wrote Ciudad Juarez reporter Gamaliel Carrasco Arjon.

At presstime, the violence showed no signs of abating. In Ciudad Juarez, at least nine more murders were reported on March 24 and March 25.

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Sources:
-- Lapolaka.com, March, 22, 23, 24, 25, 2008.
-- Norte, March 22 and 23, 2008. Articles by Herika Martinez Prado, Gamaliel Carrasco Arjon, Antonio Rebolledo and Antonio Flores Schroeder.
-- La Jornada, March 22, 24 and 25, 2008. Articles by Ruben Villalpando and M. Breach.
-- El Sur/Reforma, March 24, 2008.
-- El Diario de Juarez, March 22 and 23, 2008. Articles by Alejandro Quintero and editorial staff.
-- Enlineadirecta.info, March 22, 2008. Article by Benny Cruz Zaota.
-- El Sol de Morelia/DPA, March 22, 2008.
El Universal, March 22 and 23, 2008. Articles by Luis Cano, Xochitl Alvarez, and the Notimex news agency.
-- Frontera.info, March 22, 2008.
-- Proceso/Apro, March 21, 2008.
-- Las Cruces Sun-News, March 21, 2008. Article by Kevin Buey.

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Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news Center for Latin American and Border Studies New Mexico State University Las Cruces, New Mexico

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