Official Says Shootout Revealed Communication Issues (TX)
10 November 2011
KRGV News
STARR COUNTY - Starr County sheriff deputies are finished investigating a Mexican national found after a shootout on the Rio Grande.
Deputies say they turned the investigation over to Border Patrol because the only crime the man committed was crossing illegally into the United States.
Border Patrol reported smugglers on Tuesday. More than a hundred officers from four different departments responded. Starr County sheriff's deputies led the investigation. One deputy says it can be difficult to keep track of that many officers. Officers came from all over, Department of Public Safety, Border Patrol, Mission police and Starr County.
“Sometimes you are bumping into each other, but it's always good to see fellow officers that got your back,” says the Starr County sheriff’s Deputy.
He says talking to those officers is the hard part. Responding departments usually get their information from the radio.
“You're going to have radio coverage, people talking over each other, messages not going through,” he says.
Officers are not the only ones listening to the scanner. Smugglers are known to track law enforcement plans on the radio waves.
“More and more often officers are using their cell phones to transmit information,” he says.
A hundred officers cannot dial their phones at once. It is easy to lose contact with other departments; some officers find themselves in strange areas with no sense of direction. Tuesday’s call led them into miles of thick brush and unknown territory.
“The majority of our calls that come through our dispatch don't have cross streets or don't have a labeled number on the residence, so it's much more difficult to locate that area,” says Rios.
Officers will set up a command center to organize if there is time. Smugglers do not usually wait. It is not clear who shot the Mexican national. It is another example of violence on our border.
Source: [www.krgv.com/news/local/story/Official-Says-Shootout-Revealed-Communication/-PUsV9QKcU2CNEU-OAIGRw.cspx]
Return to Contents
Mexican Legislators: Punish Those Who Glorify Drugs, Violence (DF)
11 November 2011
Latin American Herald Tribune
MEXICO CITY – Mexican lawmakers want to punish those who promote violence and drug trafficking in films, on the radio, on television and over the Internet, including composers of the “narcocorridos,” or ballads, that praise drug traffickers, with prison time, Congressman Oscar Arce told EFE.
The goal is to punish those convicted of glorifying the illegal drug trade with up to four-and-a-half years in prison, Arce, who is sponsoring the legislation, said.
The current punishment for a conviction is just a fine.
The Federal Criminal Code and the Federal Criminal Procedure Code will have to be overhauled to add prison time to the offense, Arce, a member of the conservative governing National Action Party, or PAN, said.
Praising drug trafficking leads people to become involved or indirectly approve of the criminal activity, the congressman said.
Those who publicly incite others to commit a crime would be punished with prison terms of one to three years, with the term rising to four-and-a-half years if a crime is actually committed, Arce said.
The bill cites the increased air time given to ballads about drug lords, messages from drug cartels left alongside victims’ bodies and the posting of violent videos on Web sites.
A provision introduced by Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, Congressman Armando Corona would prohibit the publication of images of murdered, mutilated or bloodied people to avoid helping criminals terrorize society.
The provision “does not seek to limit freedom of expression but to make the contents of the Law on Publishing Crimes more clear,” the lawmaker said. EFE
Source: [www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=442221&CategoryId=14091]
Return to Contents
Campaigning Ends Ahead of Election in Violent Mexican State (MICH)
10 November 2011
Fox News Latino
Morelia – The gubernatorial candidates in the western state of Michoacán have wrapped up their campaigns ahead of Sunday's election in one of Mexico's most violent regions.
Luisa Maria Calderon, the sister of President Felipe Calderon, Silvano Aureoles, of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, and Fausto Vallejo, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, are vying for the governorship.
A total of 133 mayoralties and state legislative seats are also up for grabs in the election.
The three gubernatorial candidates concluded their campaigns Wednesday in the wake of the murder of La Piedad Mayor Ricardo Guzman Romero and the withdrawal of several candidates from mayoral and legislative races due to the drug-related violence in the state.
Michoacán has been the scene of a turf war between the La Familia Michoacana and Los Caballeros Templarios drug cartels.
Calderon, known as "Cocoa" and the candidate of her brother's conservative National Action Party, or PAN, and the New Alliance Party, or PANAL, spent her last day on the campaign trail in La Piedad, where her fellow party member was gunned down last week.
"On Sunday, our votes will break the silence and fear, they will let us live safely and with certainty," Calderon, who several polls indicate is the favorite, said in a posting on social-networking sites.
The leftist alliance formed by the PRD, Convergencia and the Workers Party is trying to keep Aureoles in power, accusing Calderon, a psychologist, of using federal funds in her campaign.
Michoacán has been a PRD stronghold since 2002, when Lazaro Cardenas Batel, the son of former presidential candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, won the governorship.
Vallejo, mayor of Morelia, the state, is trying to win Michoacán for the PRI and continue the party's streak of victories ahead of the 2012 presidential elections.
Michoacán, located on the Pacific coast, is used by drug cartels to smuggle drugs from South America into Mexico.
The drugs are then moved via the Pacific corridor or through central Mexico into the United States, the world's largest consumer of illegal drugs.
Michoacán has been experiencing a wave of drug-related violence blamed on the break-up of La Familia, which was considered one of Mexico's most powerful drug cartels.
La Familia has been severely weakened in recent months by infighting and government operations targeting the gang.
The cartel began unraveling after the death of one of its top bosses, Nazario Moreno, last year, officials and analysts say.
Moreno, known as "El Chayo" and considered La Familia's ideological leader, was killed in a shootout with the Federal Police in December 2010.
The La Familia faction led by Jesus Mendez, who was arrested in June, has been fighting the group led by Servando Gomez and Enrique Plancarte, who formed the Los Caballeros Templarios cartel in March.
Michoacán was the first state where President Calderon deployed federal security forces shortly after taking office in December 2006 and declaring war on Mexico's drug cartels.
Source: [latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/11/10/campaigning-ends-ahead-election-in-violent-mexican-state/]
Return to Contents
Share with your friends: |
