Frontera NorteSur
July-August 2002

August 27, 2002
One-Sixth of Reynosa Police Fired Due to Drug Testing

In early August, 2002, 98 of Reynosa's 578 police officers were fired for failing a drug test or not showing up to take a drug test, according to an article in that city's El Mañana newspaper.  

Gumaro Hernández Gómez, a Reynosa city official, said that fifty police officers were fired after they failed scheduled drug tests. Ninety officers did not test at that time and eventually 48 of them were fired because they never reported for any drug testing.

The first-round of tests was done on June 17 and 18, 2002. 

Although the El Mañana article did not mention it, most Mexican law enforcement agencies test people a second time if their first test for drugs is positive. Officers are usually fired after failing both tests. 

Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), August 7, 2002.

August 20, 2002
Thirty-One Women Murdered in Nuevo Laredo Since 1993

An article in the Nuevo Laredo newspaper El Mañana reports that 31 women have been murdered in that city since 1993. Approximately 44% of the murders were preceded by rape and approximately 31% of the murders were committed by spouses or lovers, according to state police statistics. 

The El Mañana article stated that most of those women that had been raped and murdered had been raped by more than one man. The newspaper also reported it was "generally" prostitutes that are raped and murdered although no numbers or percentages were given. 

Eight Nuevo Laredo women have been murdered by their spouses since 1993 and, in two of the cases, husbands committed suicide after killing their wives. One woman was murdered by a lesbian partner, the article said. 

Three women were murdered with their male partners who were linked to drug trafficking. 

In 1997, only one woman was murdered in Nuevo Laredo. In 1998, seven women were murdered there. 1999 saw eight more femicides, the same as the year 2000. In 2001, five women were murdered. So far this year, two women have been murdered in Nuevo Laredo.

The official population of Nuevo Laredo in 2000 was 310,915. 

Source: El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), August 18, 2002. Article by Juan Edgardo Rodríguez.

August 7, 2002
Tamaulipas Goes Back to School: New Advisory Program, Wage Disputes & STDs

At its campuses across the state, the Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas (Autonomous University of Tamaulipas, UAT) is implementing advisory programs for undergraduate students, according to Juan José González Cabriales, director of the Unidad Académica Multidisciplinaria Reynosa Aztlán. González said that the goal of the program, which is based on US and European models, is to help familiarize students with university life, explain to students what is expected of them and what they can expect of the UAT, help them find scholarships and aid them with difficult courses. 

At his campus, González said that thirty teachers have received training on how to be student advisors. On average, advisors will work with ten students each. 

The advisory program is also part of a general attempt to improve the quality of education at the UAT. González said that Mexico City's massive UNAM was the first university to have an advisory program in Mexico and that the idea began to spread from there. 

The UAT's 2002-2003 school year begins on August 7. 

Reynosa Public-School Teachers Go Back to Classroom Unhappy about Raises

Under protest, approximately 4,500 Reynosa public-school teachers are returning to work to begin the next academic year. The teachers, who all belong to the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (National Educational Workers' Union), say that their pay raise from the federal government was too small.

Since the end of last year, the teachers' preschools, elementary, junior high, and special-education schools have been covered in sheets that state their demands of the federal government. The 2002-2003 school year begins on August 19. So far there has been no reported talks of a teachers' strike. 

Junior High Students Must Have STDs Treated Before Returning to School

According to an article in the Nuevo Laredo newspaper El Mañana, health officials in that city have found "two or three" young people with sexually transmitted diseases. The students will not be given the certificates of clean health they need to enter junior high until their illnesses are under control, said Bernardo Ramírez Mante, head of Health District 5.

Ramírez also stated that his office is seeing 170 students per day to help get them ready for school. Each day, approximately two or three students have illnesses that need to be treated, including nutritional problems. 

Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), August 6 & 7, 2002. El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), August 7, 2002, article by Lesy Karina Mendoza.

August 1, 2002
Counterfeiters Fool Tamaulipas Merchants and Citizens with Bogus $100s

Four well-dressed men entered a Telcel store in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas, and each bought a single phone card with a US$100 bill. After the men left, a manager at the business noticed that the bills were counterfeits. 

State police arrived to investigate and said that they are looking hard for the suspects in the case. The men were between the ages of 45 and 50 and were said to have Mexico City accents. The Policía Ministerial believe that the men have been active in the city for some time. 

Over a month ago, a woman sold her car to the same group of men for 34,000 pesos (approximately US$3,700), according to police. The woman was paid in US$100 bills and went to exchange them for pesos at a money exchange office. The person working at the office called law-enforcement officials when she discovered that the bills were counterfeit.

Police are now asking people to be careful when accepting US$100 bills. If they see anything suspicious they are to call police as soon as possible. 

Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), August 1, 2002.

July 22, 2002
Reynosa Prohibits Vendors on International Bridges

Over the past few years, Reynosa residents have respected a city prohibition on selling food and other goods on the international bridges. However, this past weekend, July 20 and 21, people were back on the Reynosa-Hidalgo bridge walking between cars selling gum, crafts and Spiderman costumes.

Julio Valdez Martínez, director of Inspection and Vigilance in the city commerce office, said that he will act immediately to restore order and tranquility on the city's bridges. 

At one point, vendors were on the US side of the Reynosa-Hidalgo bridge and were forced by US law-enforcement officers to return to the Mexican side. Valdez said that US officials remain on guard to intervene in case of further incursions.

Valdez also complained that Reynosa's Plaza de la República is under threat of being overrun by sidewalk vendors. 

To deal with the problems on the bridges and in the plaza, Valdez stated that he will order patrols of the various areas to make sure people obey the law.

Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), July 22, 2002. 

July 16, 2002
Mexico Fights to Insure the Rights of Citizens Working in the US

Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores) uses its consulates throughout the US to make sure that both documented and undocumented Mexican workers are treated justly in the work place. 

Consular officials in McAllen, Texas stated that citizen-protection officials from the Dallas consulate went to Arkansas to look into issues of worker safety and exploitation at a forestry company. 

The officials found that Mexican citizens had been forced to turn over car and home titles to their employer so that they would not leave their jobs for at least nine months. Inspection of employer-provided housing showed that 13 workers were living in a three-bedroom mobile home that was in unsanitary conditions. 

Although the workers are cutting trees 13 hours per day, six days a week, the consular officials found that the men had not been trained in the proper use of equipment. The workers also lacked helmets, safety goggles, gloves, boots and other safety equipment. The workers' chainsaws were also described as old and in bad condition. 

Despite working from 5 a.m. until 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, the workers are being paid just US$270 for three weeks of work. This is approximately $1.15 an hour. 

Three of the workers had been hurt in workplace accidents but did not receive medical treatment until they were visited by consular staff. 

Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), July 16, 2002. 

July 10, 2002
Chiapas Peace Bus Travels Border for Zapatista Schools

"The Little School Bus for Peace in Chiapas" has been traveling between US and Mexican cities for more than three weeks collecting supplies for new schools in Zapatista-controlled territory in Chiapas. The bus, staffed by seven volunteers, was in Nuevo Laredo yesterday before leaving for Monterrey. 

Leah Furumo, trip coordinator for Schools for Chiapas, said that this is her organization's third strip for educational centers in Zapatista areas. 

Furumo told the Nuevo Laredo newspaper El Mañana that there is currently one Zapatista run junior high (secundaria) in Chiapas and that four more schools will soon be opened. There is also a Zapatista teacher-training school that is in operation. 

"What they are doing in the schools is a new model for education that greatly interests us," said Furumo. She continued by saying that the schools respect local culture and roots but also modern technology and scientific advances. 

From Monterrey the bus will go to Ciudad Juárez, Zacatecas, and Puebla. It will then arrive in Chiapas on July 29. 

During its first three weeks on the road the bus has gathered quite a few goods for the schools. "The bus is filled to the roof: we have some computers, tons of pencils, paper, notebooks, school materials and a sewing machine among other things," said Furumo.

More information about the group and its bus trips is available at their web site:
http://www.schoolsforchiapas.org/tzotzil.html

Source: El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), July 10, 2002. Article by Cirenia Salazar Aguirre.

June 19, 2002
Second Prisoner Dies while in Custody of Federal Police in Nuevo León

A little more than a month after a suspect was allegedly tortured and killed by asphyxiation while being held by federal police in San Nicolas, Nuevo León, a second detained man was shot and killed at the same office in the early morning hours of June 17, 2002.  

According to the Reynosa newspaper El Mañana, Leonardo Garnica Adame, the head of the Ministerio Público Federal office where the death occurred, told local authorities that Roberto Carlos Mendoza, age 23, was shot and killed by three men that broke into the federal police building. Garnica also stated that Mendoza was being held in the cells of the Agencia Federal de Investigaciones. 

Another agent with the Ministerio Público Federal, Eduardo Garnica Dávila, also told local officials that Mendoza was killed by three men that stormed the building and went to the second floor to get at the victim. El Mañana reported that Garnica Dávila did not specify what the two federal agents on duty, César Alberto Meléndez Pérez and Alejandro Israel Huerta Rivera, did when the three alleged assailants entered Mendoza's cell.

Nuevo León state police that are currently investigating the death have a different version of events from those presented by their federal counterparts. El Mañana writes that, according to state police sources, Mendoza was shot by federal agent Huerta when Mendoza went for Huerta's gun during what the newspaper called a "heavy interrogation."

Mendoza was arrested on Sunday, June 16, 2002 for carrying an amount of marijuana sufficient to make eight marijuana cigarettes. 

Nuevo León Governor Fernando Canales has demanded an in-depth investigation of the killing. 

Luis del Toro, head of the Federal Attorney General's Office in the state, promised to resolve the case. Del Toro has yet to make an official declaration about the killing.

Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), June 18, 2002.