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January 29, 2002
Two More Women Murdered in Cd. Juárez
Like most of the victims of Ciudad Juárez's serial
killer or killers, Lourdes Ivette Lucero Campos worked in a maquiladora,
had long brown hair, was attractive and young, age 26.
However, Lucero was also quite different from the hundreds of
other women that have been murdered in Cd. Juárez since
1993. Lucero did not work on her maquiladora's production line
but was instead employed as a nutritionist in the Motores Eléctricos
kitchen.
Unlike most of the women who disappeared either going to or
from their bus stop on the way to work or home, Lucero disappeared
with her own truck. Also, Lucero was married and lived with her
husband while many of the Cd. Juárez rape-murder victims
were single and lived with their mothers or parents.
Perhaps because of these differences it was not surprising when
after a few days, Lucero's death was linked to an ex-boyfriend,
Daniel Magallanes, and not to an anonymous bus driver.
According to a number of articles in the Cd. Juárez
newspaper, El Diario, that quote sources within the Chihuahua
Attorney General's Office, Lucero was allegedly murdered by her
ex-boyfriend after a verbal argument turned violent.
While Lucero's husband was the original suspect in the case,
the Attorney General's Office learned about Magallanes through
coworkers at the maquiladora. When investigators began interrogating
Magallanes they said he gave contradictory testimony and then
confessed to the crime. According to El Diario's sources in the
Attorney General's Office, Magallanes began hitting Lucero with
a metal tube when she would not give him back his hat.
Lucero was murdered on Friday, January 18, 2002 and buried on
January 21.
In a separate case, a woman's body was found on January 27, 2002
near the Cerro Bola in Ciudad Juárez, her face destroyed
from damage inflicted by heavy rocks. The Cerro Bola is an area
where the burned bodies of some the city's rape-murder victims
have been previously found. However, just as in the case with
Lucero, initial similarities in the cases proved to be false
leads.
Later identified as Merced Ramírez Morales, the 35
year old mother of two now orphaned children, Ramírez
was not sexually attacked. The Attorney General's Office believes
that the concealment of a robbery may have been the motive for
the killing and that the murderer may live in the area.
So far this year there have been four women murdered in Ciudad
Juárez.
Source: El Diario, January 19-29, 2002.
January 25, 2002
Ciudad Juárez's Grupo Beta and US Border Patrol
Héctor Manuel Escobar Navarro, local coordinator for
the Grupo Beta immigrant aid and rescue organization, told the
Ciudad Juárez newspaper El Diario that Grupo Beta and
the US Border Patrol can work together to make sure that would-be
migrants are exposed to less dangers at the border.
Escobar said that while no formal accord exists between the Cd.
Juárez Grupo Beta and the Border Patrol, contact has been
made between both organizations' supervisors. When Jaime Arturo
Paz García, the general director of Beta, next comes to
Cd. Juárez, Escobar stated that an official relation between
the two groups can be established.
Doug T. Mossier, the public affairs officer for the Border
Patrol's El Paso sector, told Frontera NorteSur that there has
been contact between the El Paso sector and the Cd. Juárez
Grupo Beta. Mossier expressed that this contact was along the
lines of making sure that streamlined communications exist between
the two groups in case of an international incident.
Mosier also stated that the Border Patrol has a Mexico liaison
unit that regularly interfaces with Mexican law enforcement.
Grupo Beta's Cd. Juárez force just began functioning
approximately one month ago, Escobar told El Diario. While it
only has eight people patrolling an area from Cd. Juárez
to Ojinaga (approximately 200 miles), the group does hope to
receive Cd. Juárez funding for another ten agents.
At the time a Cd. Juárez Beta force was first discussed,
some city and state officials were against the idea because of
Beta's apparent involvement in drug and immigrant trafficking
in other states. Indeed, over the last few weeks a Baja California
Beta Group has been investigated for drug trafficking.
Source: El Diario, January 23, 2002. Article by Pedro Torres.
January 16, 2002
Chihuahua Population Passes Three Million Mark
Chihuahua's Consejo Estatal de Población (State Population
Council, CEP) estimates that by the middle of 2002, the state's
population will have reached 3,169,000. The CEP also stated that
Chihuahua's population is increasing by an annual rate of 1.55%.
Women in Chihuahua currently have an average of 2.08 children
during their lifetime. By 2004, the CEP estimates that this figure
will drop to 1.98 children per woman. The national average is
currently 2.27 children per woman.
Chihuahua is the twelfth largest state in Mexico as measured
by population (although the largest in terms of area). It has
approximately 3.1% of the nation's 102.3 million inhabitants.
According to the Ciudad Juárez newspaper El Norte, roughly
27,000 people come to Chihuahua each year from other parts of
Mexico. The primary sender states are Veracruz, Coahuila and
Zacatecas.
Each year about 14,000 Chihuahuenses leave the state, mainly
for Coahuila, Durango, Sonora, Sinaloa, Nuevo León and
Mexico City. The primary international destination for Chihuahuenses
is the US.
Source: El Norte, January 13, 2002. Article by Rodrigo Ramírez
Tarango.
January 10, 2002
Ciudad Juárez Public Transportation: "Slow, High-Priced,
Polluting Junk"
A recent article in the Ciudad Juárez newspaper, El
Diario, described the city's busses as "slow, high-priced,
polluting junk."
The transportation system, which is also described as inefficient
in the article, wastes much of its users' time. Getting to and
from work or school, the average user loses eleven hours per
week. This translates into 572 hours per year, or nearly 24 full
days out of a year.
According to Salvador González Ayala, general coordinator
for the study of transportation at the City Institute for Planning
and Investigation (Instituto Municipal de Investigación
y Planeación, IMIP), Cd. Juárez's bus lines are
based on routes that zig-zag their way into the center of town.
For greater efficiency, González said the city should
establish a system of trunk and feeder lines.
However, González says that because of political differences
between the city and state governments, there will be no immediate
reform of the bus system. Other efficiency problems according
to González are related to the age of the busses , which
are old school busses, the busses' slow speed (especially in
unpaved areas) and the high number of transfers that riders must
make. All of these factors combine to mean that a 15 or 20 minute
car ride translates into a 40 to 50 minute-long bus ride.
Architect José María Rivera had this to say
about the public-transportation experience, "Getting on
the bus is like entering another dimension. It's absurd that
an enterprising city like ours does not have a transportation
system that rises to the level of the city. We are the people
that ride the busses and it's up to us to demand better quality,
it's up to us to ask the authorities to intervene for better
service."
Source: El Diario, December 30, 2001. Article by Guadalupe Salcido.
January 8, 2002
New Attorney General for Chihuahua, Feds to Investigate Cd. Juárez
Murders
The Ciudad Juárez newspaper El Diario reported that
Arturo González Rascón was removed from his position
as Chihuahua Attorney General and named as Secretary of Desarrollo
Social (Social Development) by Chihuahua Governor Patricio Martínez.
The newspaper said that González originally sought to
resign as Attorney General because of the constant criticism
of his investigation of the rape and murder of women in Cd. Juárez.
However, the governor did not accept his resignation and instead
gave him a new post in his government.
The new Attorney General for the state of Chihuahua is Jesús
José Solís Silva. Solís was previously the
head of the Consejo Estatal de Seguridad Pública (State
Council for Public Security). It is not yet known who will take
the place of Solís at the Consejo.
Maurilio Fuentes Estrada, the head of Canacintra, a state-wide
business group, criticized Governor Martínez for giving
González Rascón a new place in government. Fuentes
said the move was a return to past times and that people should
not be given a new government position when they did not do good
work at their previous positions.
PGR to Investigate Rape-Murders in Cd. Juárez
On December 13, 2001, Mexican President Vicente Fox ordered
the Procuraduría General de la República (Federal
Attorney General's Office, PGR) to begin investigating the Cd.
Juárez rape-murders that have gone mostly unresolved since
1993.
As per Mexican law, rape and murder are crimes that are investigated
at the state level. However, "mixed" groups of local,
state and federal agencies are allowed to work together on investigations.
In this case the Agencia Mixta de Investigaciones (AMI) will
be involved.
The 70 unresolved cases of rape and murder were to have been
sent to the PGR at the AMI by 12:00 p.m. on Monday, January 7,
2002 but so far paperwork on only 10 cases has been received
at the AMI's office. However, a state law-enforcement official
told El Diario that the rest of the cases should be transferred
over the next few days.
Given the PGR's negative reputation in Cd. Juárez, women's
activists in the city have told FNS that they doubt any good
will come from the PGR's assignment to the cases. Over the past
two years, the PGR has also been much criticized by Governor
Martínez and previous Cd. Juárez Mayor Gustavo
Elizondo.
Source: El Diario, January 8, 2002. Articles by Armando Rodríguez
& El Diario Staff.
January 2, 2002
Juárez Rape Crisis Center Receptionist Murdered at Work,
Center Loses Funding
María Luisa Carsoli Berumen, age 33, was murdered
on December 21, 2001, in Ciudad Juárez, outside of the
Casa Amiga Rape and Abuse Crisis Center where she worked as a
receptionist. Carsoli Berumen had four children, ages 2, 3, 6
and 8. Police are still looking for Carsoli Berumen's husband,
Ricardo Medina Acosta, the suspect in the case.
The Cd. Juárez newspaper El Diario reported that an unnamed
cleaning woman that works at Casa Amiga stated that Carsoli Berumen's
husband, Ricardo Medina Acosta, approached Carsoli Berumen as
she arrived at work. The two began to argue and then Medina Acosta
twice stabbed his wife, the woman said. The cleaning woman tried
to stop Medina Acosta but could not. She yelled for help but
no one came to assist, she said.
After the murder, Carsoli Berumen's four children were picked
up by authorities because Medina Acosta allegedly threatened
to kill them if police attempted to arrest him. According to
Adela Lozoya of Casa Amiga, the children have been living with
their maternal grandmother since December 24, 2001.
According to Esther Chávez Cano, the director of the not-for-profit
Casa Amiga, Carsoli Berumen first came to Casa Amiga about a
year ago because her husband had been beating her often. At the
time of the murder, Carsoli Berumen and her husband were living
separately.
In a press conference after the killing, Chávez said
that in Cd. Juárez, men believe they own women. The killing
she said is proof that Casa Amiga, the only rape and abuse crisis
center in the city of 1.2 million people, can not attend to the
needs of all of the city's women.
Citing a lack of available funds, the interim mayor of Cd. Juárez,
José Reyes Ferriz told El Diario that the city had to
end its monthly contribution of 30,000 pesos (approximately US$3,200)
in October, 2001. However, Reyes said that the city will look
into how it can support Casa Amiga in the future.
The previous city administration had supported Casa Amiga for
three years until its term ended in October, 2001.
Source: El Diario, December 22, 2001. Article by Armando Rodríguez.
December 17, 2001
25,000 Candles Lit in Ciudad Juárez for Recent Murder
Victims
Shortly after dark on the night of Sunday, December 16, more
than 25,000 candles were lit in memory of the eight young women
whose bodies were found approximately five weeks ago in a field
near central Ciudad Juárez. The candle-lighting ceremony
took place in the field where the bodies were found and was accompanied
by a Catholic mass.
The event was organized by Cd. Juárez radio announcer
Samira Izaguirre who went on a 56 hour fast to gather 10,000
candles. The response to the request for candles was so great
that Izaguirre decided to hold out for 20,000 candles. Eventually,
25,286 candles were received.
Miguel Márquez, standing at the bottom of a cross made
out of candles, told the Cd. Juárez newspaper, "No,
I didn't know any of the young victims, but they were people,
human beings just like us and they did not deserve this type
of death." Márquez, a nineteen-year old student,
was accompanied by his seven-year old sister and his mother.
""Here are my mother and my sister, they are women,
just like the victims for whom I came to pray," he said.
In other news, President Fox announced that the Federal Attorney
General's Office (Procuraduría General de la República,
PGR) would begin a parallel investigation into the numerous rapes
and murders that have ocurred in Ciudad Juárez since 1993.
Reaction to this announcement by victims' families and city NGOs
was positive as they hope the PGR's investigation will be more
thorough than the one done by state officials. They also hope
that the PGR will bring in FBI experts--something state officials
have not done since the recent discovery of the eight bodies
in central Cd. Juárez.
Source: El Diario, Decembew 17, 2001. Article by Luz del Carmen
Sosa.
December 11, 2001
Alleged Bus Company Smuggling Ring Dismantled
A 39-count federal indictment aimed at 32 people associated
with a bus company is, "the largest immigrant smuggling
case ever brought against a United States commercial carrier,"
said Attorney General John Ashcroft. At a December 10 press conference,
federal officials said they broke up an immigrant-smuggling ring
that allegedly used a bus line to transport 50 to 300 undocumented
immigrants per day. Charged in the case are company owners, administrators,
drivers and six alleged human traffickers.
Officials began the investigation of Golden State Transportation
two years ago after a tip off to Border Patrol agents in Tucson.
According to Ashcroft, there were 300 federal, state and local
law-enforcement officers, mainly from the INS, FBI, Border Patrol,
South Tucson Police department and the Arizona Department of
Safety, that were involved in the investigation. Arrests took
place in numerous western cities and states where Golden State
has bus terminals.
Federal agents said that human smugglers would buy blocks of
tickets ahead of time and sell them for $80. Company employees
would record fake names for the passengers.
Border Patrol officials told the El Paso Times that they could
not comment on how buses with numerous undocumented immigrants
aboard made it past Border Patrol checkpoints for such a long
period of time.
In El Paso, no one was arrested although agents searched computers
for information. Customers at the bus station at the time of
the raid were allowed to leave the building, according to the
El Paso Times.
Source: El Diario, December 11, 2001. Article by Lorena Figueroa.
El Paso Times, December 11, 2001. Articles by Louie Gilot, Tammy
Fonce-Olivas & Sergio Bustos.
December 5, 2001
TB on the Texas-Mexico Border
The tuberculosis (TB) rate in the Texas-Mexico borderlands
is three times higher than it is in other parts of Texas, according
to an article on the disease in the Ciudad Juárez newspaper
El Diario. Luis Ortega, an epidemiologist with the Pan American
Health Organization (PAHO), said that the cause of this phenomena
is due to various elements. He said that high population growth
on the border means that health services are always one step
behind. The highly mobile nature of the border also means that
people often do not finish their TB treatments.
Rogelio García, interim director of the Laredo Department
of Health, told El Diario that TB is curable although contracting
the disease is easy. Tuberculosis can spread through the air
when someone coughs or sneezes and can infect anyone. Common
symptoms include frequent coughing, sweating at night, fever,
tiredness, loss of weight and appetite.
Source: El Diario, December 5, 2001. Article by Rubén
Terrazas Sáenz.
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