Frontera NorteSur
June 2002

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. 

June 10, 2002
Fifty-five Murders in 2002 along the Tamaulipas Border with Texas

Since the beginning of 2002, fifty-five people have been murdered along the Mexican-side of the Tamaulipas border, according to Arturo Solís Gómez of the Centro de Estudios Fronterizos y de Promoción de los Derechos Humanos (Center for Border Studies and the Promotion of Human Rights, Cefprodhac). Approximately 90% of the killings have been in the three major border cities of Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros.

Solís stated that Nuevo Laredo had the highest number of murders, 23, of any city along the Tamaulipas border. Reynosa had 19 killings, Matamoros 9, Miguel Alemán 3 and Río Bravo and Camargo, one each. Solís' figures come from a count of murders reported in the Tamaulipas press.

At least 50 of the murder victims were identified by family or friends, said Solís. The other five victims were buried in a common grave.

By comparison, nearly 300 people are buried annually in Tijuana's common grave (see FNS's December, 2001 story http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/dec01/Tijuananews.html).

Thirty of those murdered were killed by firearms, 16 by physical beatings and the remaining 9 by other means.

Solís also stated that according to police investigations, 16 of Nuevo Laredo's 23 murders were drug related. In Reynosa, three murders were related to narcotrafficking as was one murder in Miguel Alemán and one murder in Río Bravo.

Thirty-five of the 55 murders have not yet been resolved, according to Solís. Fourteen people have been arrested in 13 cases and 8 other people are wanted in relation to 6 other murders.

Source: El Diario de Nuevo Laredo, June 10, 2002.

June 6, 2002
Unlined Nuevo Laredo Landfill to Receive 20,000 Tons of Treated Sewage

Following up on a tip, journalists from the Nuevo Laredo newspaper El Mañana found a field where 20,000 tons of treated sewage are to be buried. The newspaper also reported that the landfill lacks any sort of lining or other technology that would prevent the waste from possibly affecting ground water in the region.

The landfill is located near the 18 kilometer marker on the Nuevo Laredo-Piedras Negras highway, on either the San Francisco or Altos Amarillo ejido lands, a few miles from the Rio Grande. The source of the waste was not indicated in the article.

Unnamed experts contacted by El Mañana said that although the treated sewage is not toxic, it should be confined so that it does not contaminate area aquifers.

So far, about 3 hectares (7.5 acres) have been covered in the waste which exudes a bad odor. Once the waste has been left in a field, heavy machinery covers it with dirt.

The company running the project is Materiales Regionales, according to El Mañana.

Company owner José Luis Carranza Reyes went out to the site to meet El Mañana's reporters and quickly showed them a document from the Secretaría de Desarrollo Urbano y Ecología (Secretary of Urban Development and Ecology) that gives his company permission to operate the landfill. However, Carranza did not allow El Mañana reporters to closely examine the document he showed them.

The newspaper also reported that workers at the site said they had no idea what they were burying and stated that they had just been hired a few days previously.

Source: El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), June 6, 2002. Article by Gastón Monge.

June 5, 2002
Tamaulipas to Develop Beaches, Attract Tourism

Over the next two years, 47 million pesos (approximately US$5,000,000) will be spent on developing tourism to Tamaulipas beaches. While officials recognize that the investment is low for a development project, they are confident that the money will spark visits to the region. Tamaulipas has 420 kilometers (250 miles) of coastline along the Gulf of Mexico.

Alfonso Salazar Arzola, the director of Turismo y Asuntos Internacionales (Tourism and International Affairs) for the state of Tamaulipas, said that the first step in the development project is to resolve land ownership issues between federal and city governments and private landowners.

The project's first initiative is already underway: 14 condominiums being built at the cost of 10 million pesos on the Miramar beach.

After finding a solution to property conflicts in the cities of Madero and Tampico, another 112 condominiums will be constructed in that part of Southern Tamaulipas along with a 200 room hotel.
A private company, Villas Bagdad, is working on a US$2 million project at Matamoros' Bagdad beach. The company will develop houses and condominiums there and is currently engaged in bringing water, sewers and electrical service to the area.

Tamaulipas' beach development effort is overseen by a council composed of the state government, the Fondo Nacional de Turismo (Fonatur), the city of Madero, and the Tamex company, according to Salazar.

Salazar said that any groups interested in acquiring land along the Tamaulipas coast must immediately begin construction and may not take part in land speculation. Business ventures that do not follow these rules will have their land reacquired by the state, he stated.

Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), June 3, 2002.

May 29, 2002
All Tamaulipas Five-Year Olds to Go to School

The Tamaulipas Congress passed legislation to require public or private schooling for all five-year old children. Currently, 25% of the state's five-year olds do not attend school.

With a current kindergarten enrollment of 81,591 students, the state estimates that it will have to hire 677 new teachers and build 268 new schools.

State and federal funding will pay for the new project.

In rural areas, where kindergarten programs were not previously possible because of physical distances, local officials will work with the federal government to decide how to meet the needs of area residents.

Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), May 29, 2002.