TOP BORDER NEWS OF THE DAY
by the Frontera NorteSur staff
Fri., May 29: Blackouts Leave More Than 50,000 without Water
A power outage Wednesday caused low or no water pressure Wednesday and Thursday for more than 50,000 users of the Municipal Meeting of Water and Sanitation (JMAS), according to El Diario.
The lack of electricity caused 58 wells and many pumping stations to stop working, JMAS officials told El Diario. Higher elevation areas of the city were most affected, they said. JMAS workers managed to get the wells and pumping stations working again Thursday morning, but pressure was still low, officials said.
JMAS tanker trucks made extra runs to bring water to residences still without pressure, according to El Diario.
Source: El Diario
Thurs., May 28: Water Conservation Measures Take Effect
Juarensens caught wasting water will face fines starting at 150 pesos and increasing relative to the amount of water wasted, officials of the Municipal Meeting of Water and Sanitation (JMAS) told El Diario Wednesday.
The real intent of the measure is not to scare potential violators, but appeal to the conscious of citizens so that they do not waste water, president of JMAS Luis Monroy Madrigal said.
JMAS recommended that citizens take caution with their use of water, and only water lawns and gardens on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, between 7:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. The goal is to reduce water consumption from the current 350 liters a day to 200 liters a day, so that residents of poorer sections of the city have adequate water, Monroy Madrigal told the paper.
Source: El Diario
Wed., May 27: PAN to Open Campaign Books
The National Action Party (PAN) will open the records of its campaign finances to public inspection by the State Electoral Institute (IEE), PAN Secretary General Cruz Pérez Cuéllar announced Tuesday, according to El Diario.
His campaign had not yet spent 50 percent of the public financing it had received, PAN gubernatorial candidate Ramón Galindo told the newspaper.
"We have nothing to hide. If somebody has some doubt about the expenses of our campaign, we do not have the disadvantage of investigating ourselves. On the contrary, I believe that campaigns must be transparent, open, they must be honest," Galindo told El Diario.
"Leave the speculations in the news media alone. Let's go to the numbers," PAN representative to the IEE Jorge Bermúdez told the paper, in what El Diario called a "unequivocal reference to the Institutional Revolutionary" Party (PRI).
Meanwhile, PRI officials said they would not open their books until the audit of PAN expenses was complete.
Source: El Diario
Tues., May 26: State Government Reacts to Federal Recommendations on Murders of Women
While the Chihuahua state legislature (Congreso del Estado) announced it will follow a national human rights commission's recommendations, Gov. Francisco Barrio Terrazas disputed some of the commission's findings Monday.
The legislature announced it would form a commission to collaborate on investigating the murders of women in Juárez, as the National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH) recommended. Meanwhile, Gov. Terrazas said there is neither negligence nor omission in the investigation so far, and he felt sure the CNDH would agree once it knew more about the cases. The head of the commission, Mireille Roccatti, denied there were political motives to the recommendations.
"To anybody, a recommendation to a PANista government must seem strange, " Roccatti told El Diario. The only reason for the recommendations was a very "grave" situation and a lack of justice in the city, he said.
The CNDH also suggested the state attorney general initiate an investigation into the potential responsibility of public servants for the previous investigations into the rapes and murders of more than 130 women in Juárez, according to the paper. The commission also recommended collaboration between federal prosecutors and other police forces, according to El Diario.
Source: El Diario
Mon., May 25: Up to Three Cars a Day Seized by Customs
Seizures of foreign vehicles that are intended for Mexican citizens had become common at local border crossings, a Juárez customs official told El Diario.
Customs agents seized an average of two or three cars a day, customs administrator Juan Manuel Rodríguez Cid told the paper. Many are cars with plates from the United States, but driven by Mexican citizens, according to Rodríguez Cid. While sometimes these are intentional attempts, often they are only driven by friends or relatives of United States citizens who were unaware of the paperwork required for such a crossing, he told El Diario.
Source: El Diario
Thurs., May 21: Federales to Return to Mexico City
The office of Mexico's federal attorney general (la Procuraduría General de la República, or PGR) Wednesday ordered the special Federal Judicial Anti-Narcotics (PJFA) brigade commissioned to investigate disappearances in Chihuahua to return to Mexico City, according to a PGR press release reported in El Diario.
The move came following the Saturday arrest of three men with identification from the brigade and four accomplices in the kidnapping of a woman. The PGR will support state authorities in their attempts to fix legal responsibility for the "lamentable facts," of the case, the press release said. Attorney General Jorge Madrazo Cuéllar also ordered the special prosecutor for the Attention of Crimes against Health, Mariano Herrán Salvati, the equivalent of the U.S. anti-drug "czar," to investigate whether other members of the PJFA could be implicated in the matter, El Diario reported.
Source: El Diario
Wed., May 20: President Zedillo to Visit Juárez
Members of the presidential general staff arrived in Juárez Tuesday to prepare for a Friday visit from Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, a state official told El Diario.
The president will arrive in Juárez at 10:00 Friday morning, and immediately inaugurate el Boulevard Paso del Norte Cuatro Siglos (The Northern Pass Four Centuries boulevard, named for the 400th anniversary of Don Juan de Oñate's arrival in the area), according to a tentative schedule. His next stop will be will be Technical School 36 to participate in the "Viva mi Escuela" program organized by the Secretariat of the Environment, Natural Resources and Fishing, El Diario reported.
From there the president was scheduled to go to Juárez' Central Park, where he and Chihuahua Gov. Francisco Barrio Terrazas will preside over a ceremony giving families from six colonias title to their property.
The president is expected to leave Juárez for Chihuahua City around 1:00 Friday afternoon, officials told El Diario.
Source: El Diario
Tues., May 19: Women Reject New Prosecutor
Representatives of many non-governmental organizations protested Tuesday, against the head of the Special Unit on Sexual Crimes and Crimes Against the Family, Martha Pérez, El Diario reported.
Protest leaders asked that María Antonieta Esparza, who resigned as Special Prosecutor for the Investigation of Homicides of Women Saturday, take over as new head of the Sexual Crimes Unit.
A lack of sensitivity towards sexual crime survivors was one complaint. None of the doctors or psychologists at the unit were women, there were no signs in the building's main area with directions to the Sexual Crimes Unit, and women needed to make an appointment to see unit personnel, leaders told El Diario.
Source: El Diario
Mon., May 18: Federal Police Among Captured Kidnappers
State Judicial Police (PJE) captured three apparent members of a federal anti-kindapping and organized crime task force after a shootout with the men who tried to collect the ransom for a kidnapped woman Saturday, a state attorney general's office spokesman told El Diario and Norte de Ciudad Juárez.
The federal agents were among a group of seven, the papers reported. Authorities did not reveal the name of the woman initially, but El Diario identified her Monday as Reyna Pérez, 35. Pérez was kidnapped May 6, the spokesman said. The alleged kidnappers noticed state police watching the ransom drop-off point, and tried to escape, leading a car chase through the streets of Juárez, according to El Diario. The alleged kidnappers and police exchanged shots, before a police vehicle blocked the getaway car and captured the suspects.
Although the kidnappers fired first, according to the state spokesman, no bullet holes were noticed on PJE vehicles, according to El Diario.
Officials were also investigating the leader of the alleged kidnappers in connection with another kidnapping, El Diario reported Monday. PJE sources also revealed that Pérez had been tortured, and two members of the band of alleged kidnappers were still on the loose. Police who searched the home where Pérez was held also found evidence of drug distribution, as well as electric cords allegedly used to torture Pérez and automatic weapons, according to the paper.
Sources: El Diario, Norte de Ciudad Juárez
Fri., May 15: Gubernatorial Candidates Meet
"A climate of respect," prevailed at a forum for the candidates for Governor of Chihuahua the editorial board of El Diario held Thursday, according to an acount in the paper.
In fact, despite differences in approaches, all the candidates agreed strengthened public security, more efficent administration of justice, and more qualified and coordinated police bodies were necessary, El Diario said.The candidates agreed on fighting narco-trafficking on two levels: direct action against small-scale distributors and elevating the quality of life for the population by increasing opportunities for sports and culture, according to the paper.
The five major candidates for Governor, from the National Action, Institutional Revolutionary, Democratic Revolutionary, Green, and Workers' parties, all participated in the forum.
Source: El Diario
Thurs., May 14: Juárez Reacts to El Paso Poll
Juárez city leaders took offense Wednesday to a poll that said 70 percent of Hispanics in El Paso, Texas, regarded Juárez as dangerous, according to El Diario.
The poll was conducted by the El Paso Times and Channel 7-KVIA television as part of a week-long series on race and ethnicity that included an El Paso town hall meeting Wednesday night. It also reported 74 percent of Anglos said it was dangerous to visit Juárez.
"Recently, Carlos Ramírez, Mayor of El Paso, has said that one ought not to generalize about the insecurity in Juárez, since their margins of crime are within the normal ones for a city of its size," vice-president of the National Chamber of the Restaurant Industry in Juárez Raymundo Domínguez told El Diario. Nevertheless, El Pasoans do not promote the attractions of Juárez to tourists, that could generate tax revenue for Texans as well, Domínguez said.
Common problems of the neighboring cities would not be solved with accusations, however, president of the National Chamber Chamber of Transformation Industry Efrén Holguín Cárdenas said.
Sources: El Diario, El Paso Times
Wed., May 13: Villalva Salas Declared Winner in PRI Elections
A recount of votes held Tuesday gave businessman José Eleno Villalva Salas the Insititutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) nomination for Mayor of Juárez over Héctor González Mocken by 11 votes, according to El Diario.
The recount came after a controversial election Saturday that saw both Villalva Salas and González Mocken claiming victory amid accusations of ballot box stuffing, a take-over of PRI headquarters by Mockenistas with police called in to restore order, and the anonymous release Monday of a taped phone call in which alleged PRI officials mentioned the influence of drug cartels on the election.
"I believe that we have accelerated much, the same internal process of selection has been very intense in the search of greater transparency and internal democracy," Villalva Salas told El Diario in response to the recount results. González Mocken, however, was not so positive.
"The unrest the priístas showed in the day, proved that there was machination around the process and that they were external agents that handled the internal process," he told the paper.
Sources: El Diario, Norte de Ciudad Juárez
Tues., May 12: Special Prosecutor in Murdered Women Cases Resigns
The head of the office of the Special Prosecutor for the Investigation of Homicides of Women, María Antonieta Esparaza, resigned her office Saturday, the state attorney general's office told El Diario Monday.
Agent of the Public Ministry Silvia Loya Miyamoto will temporarily fill the position, the paper reported.
State Attorney General Arturo Chávez Chávez was auditing the special prosecutor's office with the intention of finding out the state of each of the investigations the office had initiated in the last six months, unofficial sources told El Diario. Esparaza presented her resignation because she did not feel the attorney general had enough confidence in her, the paper continued.
The resignation came at a critical time while murdered women continued to appear, the paper reported. Non-governmental organizations and members of the federal Congress of the Union were protesting what they considered an atmosphere of violence in Juárez, according to El Diario. Although they had demanded the creation of the special prosecutor's office, non-governmental organizations had always criticized its lack of results, according to the paper.
The lack of results led to attention from the Commission on Equality and Gender of the federal Congress. The commission asked Gov. Francisco Barrio Terrazas to form a special investigating body that would include elements of other organizations, El Diario reported. The series of murders of women in Juárez was also related to drug trafficking, and the federal attorney general should be involved in the investigations, the commission said.
Source: El Diario
Mon., May 11: "No Winner" in PRI Elections After Accusations of Fraud
Accusations of ballot box stuffing and robbing may have been among the "irregularities and inconsitencies" that led state president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) Jorge Sandoval to refrain from declaring a winner in Saturday's pre-election (akin to a U.S. primary) to decide the party's nominees for Juárez mayor and city council, according to El Diario.
Preliminary results Saturday night showed lawyer Héctor Gonazalez Mocken and his slate with a 413 vote lead, 1.32 percent of the votes cast, over industrialist José Eleno Villalva Salas, with 50 polling places left to report, according to El Diario. Moncken supporters located in PRI headquarters confiscated a dozen ballot boxes which were destroyed while supporters of Villalva Salas protested, according to Norte de Ciudad Juárez. Police patrols responded to the headquarters with weapons drawn, according to Norte.
Both Gonzalez Moncken and Villalva Salas claimed victory Saturday night, both El Diario and Norte reported.
"There is no winner, it can not be said that there is a candidate," however, a member of the State Commission for the Development of the Internal Process (Cedepri), told El Diario. Delegate from the National Executive Committee (CEN), Arturo Lisa, and Cedepri secretary Humberto Martínez Delgado personally interviewed Villalva Salas and Gonzalez Moncken, and a commission of Juárensens met behind closed doors with various directors of Cedepri Sunday night, but did not release the results of that meeting.
The elections could be annulled, but they could not make a decision until examining all the evidence, officials told El Diario.
Sources: El Diario, Norte de Ciudad Juárez
Fri., May 8: University Workers Strike for Two Hours
Administrative workers walked off the job and blocked access to the building for more than two hours in the political and social science department at the Autonomous University of Chihuahua (UACh) campus in Juárez Thursday, university administrative head Jesús Hinojos Calderón told El Diario.
The strike lasted from noon until 2:30 p.m., representative of the Union of Administrative Workers of the UACh (Sindicato de Trabajadores de la UACh, or STAUCh), Martín Chávez, told the newspaper. The workers returned to their jobs after receiving orders from Chihuahua City, according to Chávez. Although he did not know why the union in the state capital called off the strike, he believed they were going to hold an extraordinary meeting concerning the matter.
Simultaneous strikes took place at UACh branches in Chihuahua City, Delicias, Parral, and ranchos Teseachi, Canoa, and Tabaloapa, according to El Diario. The union presented a list with 23 points, according to Chávez. Credit for construction of housing and fulfilling scholarships for children of workers were among those points, Chávez told the paper.
Work proceded normally after the strike, Hinojos Calderón said.
Source: El Diario
Thurs., May 7: Study Reveals Slowness on International Bridges
The crossing time on the international bridges between Juárez and El Paso increased remarkably in April, according to a monthly study by the Mexican Consulate in El Paso.
For people who have to cross these bridges everyday, for work, study, recreation or business, time is a factor of extreme importance.
Marco Antonio Fraire, spokesman of the Mexican Consulate, said,according to the study, at least two international bridges revealed an increase in the slowness of the lines in April.
In the international bridge "Américas" or "El Libre," during the morning traffic between 7:00 and 10:00 the estimated crossing time averaged 35 minutes to cross from Ciudad Juárez to El Paso, 10 minutes more than the average in March.
" The factors for delaying can be several," said the Mexican Consulate's spokesman. "Works and border operations influence the crossing time."
The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), also reported a slight increase in the crossing time, but did not consider it very relevant, according to El Diario. Operations to detect and stop the illegal entrance of drug traffic and illegal immigrants to the United States are taking place more frequently, explained Daniel Kane, INS spokesman.
The INS detected more than 11,000 false documents of identification during fiscal year 1997, he said.
The operation called "Brass Ring" has been responsible for the seizure of 11 tons of drugs from its beginning through February 22 .
"We have managed to reduce crossing times and increased the seizures of drugs," Roger Maier, spokesman of the Customs service, said.
Source: El Diario.
Wed., May 6: Environment Hurt by Pollution in a Vast Border Zone
Pollution from both Mexico and the United States is affecting the air of the Big Bend National Park, located in southern Texas along the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo border with Mexico, according to a study done by U.S. and Mexican authorities and released Tuesday.
The study was financed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and directed by the U.S. National Park Service and the Mexican Secretariat of the Environment during September and October 1996.
U.S. authorities agreed that some of the pollution came from the electric power plants Carbon I and Carbon II located in the Mexican state of Coahuila, about 100 miles from Big Bend National Park. However, a greater concentration of Selenium, by-product of the combustion of Carbon, was detected coming from the electric power plants in Texas.
Investigators pointed out that the study was limited in duration and in geographic area, and that only through a follow up, with deeper work they could come with better results. Investigators expect to do another environmental study this summer, according to El Diario.
Source: El Diario.
Tues., May 5: State Legislators to Prolong Vacation
Representatives to the Chihuhua State Congress have decided to take an extra week of vacation between May 5 and May 12 this year, president of the State Congress Alfonso Luján Gutiérrez told El Diario.
The "diputados" usually meet on Tuesday and Thursday, but the Tuesday session this week was suspended for Cinco de Mayo Mexican independence day festivities. The Parliamentary Coordination Meeting, which includes representatives of all political parties in the Congress, decided to substitute a session the Congress held in Rosales Sunday for Thursday's meeting, according to Luján Gutiérrez.
Although Sunday's session was "symbolic" and "without a pre-established agenda," celebrating the 300th anniversary of the town's founding, according to El Diario, it was in fact a solemn session which "counts" for the regular Thursday meeting, Luján Gutiérrez said.
Representatives will be busy with work in their respective parties, according to the congressional president. The PAN, PRI, and PRD are in the process of picking candidates for mayor and city council in Juárez and many other cities in the state, Luján Gutiérrez explained. The legislature has been working at an "exceptional rate" so far, he said, and the time off should not affect the work it still has left to do.
Source: El Diario
Mon., May 4: "Captive Beauty" Women Will Visit Museums in the City
Women finalists in the beauty contest called "Captive Beauty," will visit several important tourist sights in the City of Juarez. This activity is part of the surprise prize for the women who won the beauty contest in the Cereso (Center of Social Readaption for Adults) jail on April 25.
As part of their agenda, a meal is scheduled at the Babícora police station, offered by the Director of the Local Police José Luis Reygadas, said Abelardo González, director of the penitentary.
Some of the activities that the women will work during their reign would be to organize and participate in events inside the penitentary center, directors of the prison told El Diario.
Source: El Diario
Fri., May 1: 40 Thousand Will Participate in Parade Today
In the city of Juárez thousands of workers from the Mexican Workers Confederation (CTM), the Revolutionary Confederation of Laborers and Farmworkers (CROC), school teachers and state employees, will participate in a parade today May 1 to celebrate "Labor Day."
Labor activities will be suspended in banking institutions, Municipal Government offices, and schools from May 1 through May 5. The May 5 holiday commemorates another anniversary of the victorious Battle of Puebla. Normal activities in governmental offices and school will continue on May 6.
The Government Secretariat suspended the sale of alcohol from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. City police, Fire Department and the Civil Protection Unit will keep the same hours during the holidays.
Source: El Diario.