Frontera NorteSur
March 2003

March 26, 2003
Ciudad Juárez Families Worry about Their Sons, Husbands and Brothers in US-Iraq War

At least three members of the US military stationed in or near Iraq--Oscar Adolfo Gómez Almanza, Enrique Rosalío Carreón Tavares and Benjamín Carrasco González--were born in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, or grew up there, according to an article in the Cd. Juárez newspaper El Diario. 

The Gómez Family

Oscar Gómez was born in Cd. Juárez in 1974 but went to California at age twelve where he later became a US citizen. Now married with three children, Gómez is greatly missed by his family.

Since he last spoke with his family in Cd. Juárez, Gómez has not learned that his grandmother died two days after he headed into combat or that his three-year old son, Andrés, broke his arm while jumping on the bed. His older daughter, Claudia, age six, cries all night for her absent father and has insomnia. His younger daughter, Valeria, eight-months old, still suffers from respiratory problems she contracted over the winter. 

Isabel, Gómez's wife, said she last spoke with her husband a few days before the US launched its attack on the US. "He only told me not to worry, that he was well, although things were getting ugly . . . " she said. An anti-missile defense operator, Gómez told his wife that he is far from hand-to-hand combat but Isabel is not fully confident in her husband's safety, "This morning I dreamed that they had kidnapped him, I felt very bad, and sometimes I lose hope and I want to run away but I have to survive this."

To help their son deal with the situation, Isabel explained to Andrés that his father had to go to work a long way off, in a different country, but that he would return when his work is done. Three-year old Andrés responded to this by saying that his mother should take his father a car so that he can drive home. 

The Carreón Tavares Family

Filomena Tavares cries when she thinks about her son, Enrique Carreón Tavares, the youngest of eleven. Born in Cd. Juárez like the rest of his siblings, Filomena Tavares took her family to the US to find a better life for them. Although she has not spoken to her son since December, she has received news of him through one of her daughters that lives in Los Angeles where Enrique lived before joining the US armed forces. 

Weeping as she spoke, Filomena Tavares told El Diario that Enrique should fulfill his commitments to the military as both a man and a soldier. However, she fears that it was her own admiration of government uniforms that led Enrique to join the military. She also told him once that she would like it if he joined the Army. 

"I don't think I'm going to see him again . . . Why? Because of how things are going . . . he's very passionate, he said . . . he would be one of the first into combat," Tavares stated. 

Despite her bad feelings about her son's future, Tavares says she wants him to return "even if he's missing an arm or a leg, as long as he's alive."

The Carrasco González Family

Although Benjamín Carrasco González was born in El Paso, he grew up in Cd. Juárez, in the Kilómetro 5 neighborhood, according to his brother Javier Carrasco González. Benjamín, age 26, is on the USS Rushmore and left a few weeks before the attack on Iraq began. Left behind in San Diego are Benjamín's wife and two children, Javier Carrasco noted. 

About his family's reaction to Benjamín's involvement in the war, Javier stated, "We're pretty calm now because he's on a ship, he won't go ashore, they're on the sea. It's harder for them to be attacked, they're in less danger than those that are in direct combat, although of course there are still risks."

Javier said that he misses his brother's advice and that it seems like he has been gone a long time already. If he could communicate with his brother, Javier would tell him "we are with you and your shipmates, be cautious . . . and return home safely of course."

Source: El Diario, March 26, 2003. Article by Martín Orquiz. 

March 19, 2003
Rumors Unfounded: US-Mexico Border Not to Be Closed in Case of US-Iraq War

Roger Maier, El Paso spokesperson for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, told the El Paso Times that there are no plans to close the US-Mexico border in case of war between the US and Iraq. A rumor to the contrary has been circulating in recent days. More specifically, even if the US moved to the highest level of terror alert, which is red, the entire border would not be closed, according to Maier. 

"It would take an exceptional event, specific to one location to close the border at that location," Maier told the El Paso Times. "But the closing of the entire border is not even on the drawing board."

Maier is with the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection which was created on March 1, 2003 when the border inspection functions of the U.S. Customs Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and the U.S. Border Patrol, were transferred to the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection.

On September 11, 2001, in the immediate aftermath of the attacks on the US, it was also rumored that the entire US-Mexico border had been closed for security reasons. A number of border radio and television stations reported this even though it was false. 

Third Ciudad Juárez police chief in seven months

In other security related news, the Ciudad Juárez police chief resigned on March 18, 2003. José Refugio Ruvalcaba Plascencia quit his position after just 43 days. While chief, he was criticized for traveling with an excessive number of armed guards and dressing flamboyantly. His support of a curfew for minors and the establishment of an investigative unit for the local police were both seen as unconstitutional by many Cd. Juárez observers. 

The new Cd. Juárez police chief is Ramón Domínguez Perea. Domínguez has a background in intelligence and in state and federal law enforcement. In 2001, Domínguez was city police chief for 16 days. 

In Cd. Juárez, the private sector has been very critical of the constant changes in law enforcement. Business leaders worry that the chiefs have not had time to implement new plans and evaluate them. 

Sources: El Paso Times, March 19, 2003. Articles by Louie Gilot. 
El Diario, March 19, 2003. Articles by Martín Orquiz and Rocío Gallegos. 

March 10, 2003
El Paso Mass for Slain Immigrant, El Paso-Juárez Women's Day Rally 

El Paso Bishop Armando X. Ochoa and Las Cruces Bishop Ricardo Ramírez celebrated a Mass in memory of Juan Patricio Peraza Quijada, age 19, who was shot and killed by the Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas on February 22, 2003. In attendance among the crowd of approximately 200 people were Peraza's parents, Cesar Peraza and Irene Quijada. 

Peraza, who had been staying at an El Paso shelter, Annunciation House, was taking out the trash when he was approached by Border Patrol agents. He allegedly fled, threw a ladder at the agents and held out a piece of pipe. Peraza was shot twice and died of his wounds. The Border Patrol contends that the shooting was an act of self defense but the incident is under investigation. Currently, the FBI, the El Paso Police Department and the Border Patrol shooting review team are looking at Peraza's death. 

Peraza's parents told the El Paso Times that their son's life-long dream was to go to the US and work like other men in his family. They also remembered the nineteen-year old's generosity saying that he doted on his younger siblings and used his first-ever paycheck to buy them a Nintendo game set. 

The family was told of Peraza's death two weeks ago and was asked to identify him through a photo of his corpse faxed to them by a Mexican consulate. 

Before coming to the US, Peraza divided his time between his father's house in Mexicali and his mother's home in Puerto Peñasco. 

Peraza's funeral in Puerto Peñasco was attended by hundreds of people, according to Mexican newspapers from around the country that covered his death. 

Binational Women's Day Rally

Other border deaths--including the approximately 93 Ciudad Juárez serial-killing victims--were remembered on March 8, International Women's Day, at joint rallies in El Paso and Ciudad Juárez. Approximately 200-300 people assembled in both El Paso and Ciudad Juárez to protest violence against women on both sides of the border and to celebrate the achievements and advancements of women around the world. Later, the El Paso event attendees walked to Cd. Juárez to have a combined rally with another round of speakers. 

The El Paso rally, organized by the Coalition Against Violence Towards Women and Families, addressed the need to stop violence in the region and to ensure wage parity between women and men. 

Texas State Senator Eliot Shapleigh, an El Paso Democrat, addressed the crowd in both English and Spanish saying that the event was a reminder to those in power about the specific needs of women in the region. He also condemned violence against women in the El Paso-Cd. Juárez community. 

Both the El Paso and Cd. Juárez events were attended by people from New Mexico and a group of students from Wisconsin's Beloit College that were in the region learning about issues that affect the area. 

Fox Criticizes Investigation of Cd. Juárez Murders

Also on International Women's Day, Mexican President Vicente Fox heavily criticized Chihuahua state and local police officials for not solving the Cd. Juárez serial-killings. 

Speaking at a March 8 event in Mexico City, Fox said the rape murders are unpardonable and are acts of barbarism. He called on state and local authorities to severely punish the perpetrators. 

A spokesperson for Chihuahua Governor Patricio Martínez said that the governor was not planning to reply to Fox's comments. 

Source: El Paso Times, March 9 and 10, 2003. Articles by Louie Gilot and Darren Meritz. 

February 25, 2003
Chihuahua Attorney General and Supreme Court Justice Complain About NGOs and Press, Statistics Inconsistent

Just days after at least three young women and a six-year old girl were found murdered in Ciudad Juárez, the state attorney general, Jesús José Solís Silva, complained to a team of journalists from El Heraldo de Chihuahua that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) struggling to end the serial rape-murders in Cd. Juárez are unjustly accusing him and his team of being human rights abusers, killers and drug traffickers. "It's as if we authorities were from another planet, they don't respect our human rights," he said. 

Although Solís does not like the way he is treated by international and Mexican human rights groups, he says that the Chihuahua group Mujeres de Negro (Women in Black) is the worst because their attacks are almost personal. "They accuse people, from the governor on down, of being killers, criminals, drug traffickers and there's no one to stop them," he told the Chihuahua City newspaper El Heraldo.

Solís cited a specific incidence in November, 2002 when he went to Washington D.C. for an international meeting. At the meeting, Solís alleges that Mujeres de Negro accused him of being the Chihuahua government functionary with the most Human Rights Commission findings against him. Solís said the alleged accusation is false because he has no state, national or international findings against him. 

Authorities unclear on statistics 

According to Solís, Mujeres de Negro "are the ones that most frequently go [to D.C.] and make accusations and the last time they went to Washington they said in front of me that 30 women were killed last year, which is completely false, but there they say it and nothing becomes of it."

When a reporter asked him about statistics and numbers related to the killings of women in Cd. Juárez, Solís responded that he does not know why the NGOs keep statistics because they only confuse people. 

However, the government itself often gives contradictory figures. In October, 2002, state police investigator Manuel Esparza Navarrete, who works with the Special Investigator of Crimes Against Women in Cd. Juárez, said that there have been 67 serial killings since 1993. This contrasts with a figure of approximately 90 serial killings used in October by some NGOs, the El Paso Times and an academic study. Adjusted for the discovery of three more young women's bodies in February, 2003, this number would now be 93--exactly the number given by the president of the Chihuahua Supreme Court. 

Pablo Zapata Zubiaga, the head of Chihuahua's Supreme Court, told El Heraldo de Chihuahua that the Attorney General's Office recognizes that there have been 93 sex-related serial killings but added that some NGOs put the number at more than 300. 

Press Cautioned

Zapata went on to tell El Heraldo that Mexico has been heavily discredited because news of the Ciudad Juárez serial killings has spread around the world via the media. Zapata requested that the media think about the consequences of publishing information about the serial killings, especially the local media, because that is where national and international news providers get their information. 

Source: El Heraldo de Chihuahua, February 23, 2003.