15,000 trucks stranded in Ciudad Juárez as border chaos enters week No. 4

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April 19, 2019

Thousands of trucks are stranded in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and Tijuana, Baja California, as chaos at the northern border enters its fourth week.

The National Chamber of Trucking (Canacar) said yesterday that 15,000 trucks were stuck in the former city, where there are long lines at border crossings to El Paso, Texas, and Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

Long wait times at several ports of entry to the United States have been reported since March 28 – the day after U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced the reassignment of 750 border agents to deal with a large influx of migrants.

“It’s been catastrophic,” said Manuel Sotelo, a regional vice-president of Canacar.

He explained that the manufacturing industry in Chihuahua has incurred losses of around US $20 million a day since the delays began.

Sotelo, who is also the president of a Ciudad Juárez transport association, said he was told at a meeting with United States authorities that 100 border agents had returned to their port of entry posts, but most went to border crossings between Tamaulipas and Texas.

“We were confident that the [border] agents who were returning would come back to our area . . . but they were sent to Laredo,” he said.

Further complicating the situation in the Juárez area is that commercial border crossings are currently operating with reduced holiday hours even though Canacar requested that the normal schedule be maintained.

Lines of three, four and five kilometers were seen yesterday at the Bridge of the Americas, the Ysleta-Zaragoza Bridge and the San Jerónimo port of entry respectively. Sotelo said that trucks are waiting five hours on average to cross into the United States.

In Tijuana, long lines of trucks have been reported over the past two days due to the closure of commercial lanes at the border and an increase in Easter vacation traffic.

A report in the newspaper Milenio said there were lines as long as 10 kilometers in the border city yesterday.

Truck driver Miguel Ángeles said he would normally cross the border twice a day but now he can only cross once, and after a long wait at that.

Yesterday, he joined a line of trucks at 5:00am but didn’t cross into the San Diego area until 3:00pm. Average wait times at commercial ports of entry in the area have tripled to nine or 10 hours.

Another driver said his earnings had dropped by half in recent weeks as a result of the long border delays.

“In an economic sense, it’s hitting me really hard . . .” Francisco Javier said.

In an attempt to clear the congestion, commercial border crossings are operating with regular hours in Tijuana today but will close at 2:00pm tomorrow and Sunday.

Chihuahua Governor Javier Corral and other politicians, as well as representatives of several business groups, will meet with Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard in Mexico City on Monday to discuss the situation and consider their options to speed up cross-border trade.

Chihuahua government spokesman Mario Dena said Mexican authorities need to reach an agreement with their United States counterparts so that all personnel who were reassigned from ports of entry are reinstated.

Source: El Mañana (sp), Milenio (sp)

4 dead after gang attacks Celaya police station, frees jailed gang leader

By

Madison Koen

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April 19, 2019

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The suspect who was arrested yesterday and later freed by fellow gangsters.

A jailbreak by gangsters in Celaya, Guanajuato, left four people dead yesterday.

State officials reported that a group of uniformed men who identified themselves as judicial police entered a police station in the north of the city and proceeded to the cells.

There they freed a man police identified as Armando, apparently from a community that neighbors Santa Rosa de Lima, believed to be the base of a fuel theft cartel of the same name.

As the gangsters made their escape they shot and killed another prisoner and wounded a judge. He was rushed to a local hospital but later died.

Local, state and military police pursued the fleeing gang and a confrontation followed near the community of La Esperanza. Two members of the criminal band lost their lives in the gunfight, including the man who had been freed from jail, who was later identified as the band’s leader, Armando Soto González.

He had been arrested earlier yesterday while in possession of drugs.

Police detained one man before the rest of the gang fled the scene. Authorities seized three vehicles and three automatic rifles.

Around the same time police received reports of vehicles blocking the Celaya-Salvatierra highway. One had been set on fire and the other had been fired on with high-caliber weapons.

Source: El Universal (sp), Milenio (sp)

Kidnapped baby found; she was sold for 3,000 pesos and a gold chain

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MND Staff

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April 19, 2019

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The couple who admitted to buying eight-month-old Nancy.

A couple from México state have confessed to handing over 3,000 pesos (US $160) and a gold chain in exchange for an eight-month-old baby that was kidnapped in Mexico City on Sunday.

Four days after she was abducted from the Hospital General Metro station in the Doctores neighborhood, Nancy Tirzo Sánchez was found yesterday in Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, a municipality that borders the capital to the east.

The infant, who was unharmed in the ordeal, was reunited with her mother and other family members and is now in their care after leaving police custody early this morning.

Police arrived at an address in Ciudad Lago yesterday after receiving a report from a 59-year-old man that the tenants of a property he owns had a baby girl in their possession who looked very similar to the photo of Nancy that was circulated by police.

Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl police official Jorge Jiménez Vega told a press conference that officers confirmed that to be the case after arresting a couple when they left their home with the baby.

kidnapped baby — Nancy has been returned to her family.

A woman identified as Estela “N” and her partner Antonio “N” told police that they “bought” Nancy from a female friend.

The couple were later transferred to a prosecutor’s office in Mexico City. Before entering the facility, they told reporters that they had actually paid 6,000 pesos for the infant and that they had voluntarily turned themselves in to authorities.

Mexico City prosecutor Maribel Mayer Meade said last night that authorities were investigating to determine whether Estela “N” is the same woman who kidnapped baby Nancy. As of 10:00pm, neither she nor Antonio “N” had been formally interviewed by Mexico City investigators.

It was initially reported that the infant girl disappeared Sunday afternoon from the entrance to the General Hospital of Mexico, where she had been in the care of two of her cousins as her mother visited her sister.

A young woman reportedly offered to look after Nancy while her 15-year-old cousin Emilio and six-year-old cousin Jenni went to the washroom. While they were gone, she allegedly fled with the baby.

However, footage recorded by a security camera in the Hospital General Metro station showed that a woman made off with Nancy while Emiliano was inside a subway station store.

Before entering the store, the 15-year-old is seen speaking to the woman before handing over his baby cousin.

Prosecutor Mayer rejected any suggestion that Emiliano is complicit in the crime, stating that he is assisting authorities as a witness.

Source: El Universal (sp), El Sol de México (sp)

Feds allocate 386 million pesos for new dam in Nuevo León

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MND Staff

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April 18, 2019

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The federal government has agreed to provide 386 million pesos (US $20.5 million) to Nuevo León to build a new dam in the south of the state, the governor said yesterday.

Jaime Rodríguez Calderón said the federal money for the Libertad Dam – to be built on the boundary between the municipalities of Linares and Montemorelos – is expected to arrive shortly after Easter.

The state government will contribute another 386 million pesos to the construction costs, he explained.

The governor and former presidential candidate commonly known as “El Bronco” said that there will be a public tendering process to find a construction company for the project, which will supply water to as many as 750,000 people in the metropolitan area of Monterrey.

Earlier this month, the National Water Commission (Conagua) granted a 30-year concession for the San Fernando river basin to the state government, allowing it to move ahead with the dam project.

In the first stage of construction, an investment of 772 million pesos (US $41 million) will be needed to acquire more than 200 private and communally-owned properties in the area, and to carry out technical studies.

The dam will be built on a 2,292-hectare site and is expected to be completed in 2021.

Source: El Economista (sp)

Mexico, Canada to sign aircraft maintenance agreement

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MND Staff

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April 18, 2019

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Canada already has a strong presence in Mexico's aerospace industry with the Bombardier factory in Querétaro.

Mexico will sign an agreement with Canada this month to provide maintenance for Canadian planes, an air force general announced yesterday.

Rodolfo Rodríguez Quezada said the agreement will create new jobs in Mexico and bring a significant amount of foreign investment into the country.

The deal will be inked during the Mexico Aerospace Fair (Famex), which will be held at the Santa Lucía Air Force Base in México state from April 24 to 27.

“We’ve been working on this maintenance agreement for Canadian planes and airlines for more than 12 years,” Rodríguez said.

The general, who is also the president of the Famex organizing committee, explained that the agreement is backed by the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) and also involves the Mexican Federation of the Aerospace Industry, the Civil Aviation Agency (DGAC) and private companies.

“This accord that we will sign with Canada will be of great importance to Mexico. It will bring thousands of jobs to the country and millions in foreign investment. The agreement reaffirms the alliance that Mexico has with that nation, a strategic ally,” Rodríguez said.

Meanwhile, the general expressed confidence that Famex will continue to be held at the Santa Lucía site even after it becomes Mexico City’s new airport.

Canada will be the guest country of honor at this year’s event, which will be attended by exhibitors from 40 countries.

Source: Notimex (sp)

17 bodies found in secret graves on Zapopan property

By

César Hernández

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April 18, 2019

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Forensic personnel retrieve bodies in Zapopan.

A total of 17 bodies have been recovered from a property in the Zapopan neighborhood of Colli Urbano, part of the greater Guadalajara area, in the two weeks since Jalisco authorities started digging.

The state Attorney General’s Office was following a lead in the case of two missing persons that took them to an abandoned house on April 4. An initial search revealed two corpses that forensic specialists estimated had been interred between two and six months before.

Investigators returned to the scene last weekend and found another 15 bodies after four days of digging.

Unofficial reports have identified the Colli Urbano home as a drug distribution hub that later became a burial ground used by a criminal gang to dispose of the bodies of rivals.

The Jalisco coroner’s office has so far identified two of the 17 bodies. All were male.

Governor Enrique Alfaro Ramírez reported last month that the number of missing persons in the state was 7,117, nearly double the figure reported by his predecessor, Aristóteles Sandoval Díaz.

Source: El Universal (sp), Zona 3 (sp), W Radio (sp)

5 homicide suspects jailed 11 years ago are still awaiting trial

By

César Hernández

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April 18, 2019

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Five men arrested for homicide have spent almost 12 years in preventive imprisonment awaiting trial in Baja California.

They were accused of belonging to a gang and killing three individuals in Mexicali in 2007.

The 12 police officers involved said they arrested the men on the street but defense attorneys say the officers forced their way into their clients’ home to make the arrests.

The five were then transported to an unknown location where they were beaten before being placed them in custody, their lawyers claim.

They said the case has been plagued with incompetence and negligence as well as the implementation of the new criminal justice system.

In addition, they cited an earthquake in April 2010 that caused a hiatus of the entire state justice system, inquiries that were long and delayed and a heavy work overload in the justice system.

The attorneys claim that the defendants’ human rights have been violated due to the excessive time they have spent in preventive imprisonment.

A judge ruled four months ago that the case “should be resolved as soon as possible.”

Source: Reforma (sp)

New secret cemetery in Veracruz contains at least 36 graves

By

MND Staff

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April 18, 2019

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The area in Veracruz where hidden graves have been identified.

A property with a large number of hidden graves has been located in Veracruz, the state attorney general said yesterday.

Jorge Winckler Ortiz said that authorities have so far only examined 10% of the surface of the land but have already detected 36 graves.

“The property has already been secured by the Attorney General’s Office and after a preliminary inspection in which specialized search technologies were used . . . 36 positive points of probable hidden graves have been found,” he said.

Located in the municipality of La Antigua in the center of the Gulf coast state, the site is difficult to access, Winckler said, adding that the exhumation of bodies won’t start until next week.

The attorney general explained that statements from people interviewed in relation to missing persons cases helped locate the property.

Winckler said it is believed that the site was used by a criminal gang to dispose of the bodies of its victims but the date when it ceased to be used for that purpose is unknown.

He added that the preliminary inspection of the property indicated that bodies could be buried at a depth of less than one meter.

The newspaper El Financiero reported that there could be more than 200 bodies in the makeshift graves, according to non-government sources who have seen the property.

National Search Commissioner Karla Quintana Osuna said that collectives made up of family members of missing persons will be invited to supervise further search efforts at the property.

Since President López Obrador took office in December, she added, around 100 hidden graves have been found throughout Mexico.

Several clandestine graves where hundreds of people were buried have been found in Veracruz in recent years.

In September, at least 174 skulls were exhumed from 32 graves on a property in Arbolillo, a sleepy fishing village on the Gulf of Mexico, and in 2017 more than 200 bodies were found in mass graves in Colinas de Santa Fe, a neighborhood on the outskirts of the port city of Veracruz.

Source: El Financiero (sp), e-veracruz (sp)

3 Jalisco cartel hitmen get sentences of 17 to 37 years

By

César Hernández

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April 18, 2019

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The three CJNG members sentenced for drug trafficking and weapons offenses.

Three members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) who had been active in the Lagos de Moreno region of Jalisco have been sentenced to between 17 and 37 years in jail.

The three criminals operated as hitmen in collaboration with the Familia Michoacana cartel, targeting rival organizations such as the Gulf and Valencia cartels. The three were also known to be involved in a drug trafficking operation that extended to the greater Guadalajara area.

The judge found them guilty of possession of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine with intent to sell and possession of restricted firearms.

Jairo Josué N. was sentenced to 36 years and 11 months in prison and fined 47,782 pesos (US $2,500), while his accomplice, Genaro N.,, got 31 years and must pay a fine of 38,772 pesos.

Eduardo N. will serve 16 years and 11 months and pay a fine of 18,717 pesos.

The three men were arrested in 2011 by army personnel after an anonymous citizen’s report said a group of armed men was traveling in a vehicle between San Julián and San Diego de Alejandría.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Landfill fire triggers air quality emergency in Guadalajara

By

Madison Koen

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April 18, 2019

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The landfill fire that started Sunday in Guadalajara.

A fire at a landfill in Guadalajara, Jalisco, that had burned out of control since Sunday evening and triggered an air quality alert has been controlled.

State Civil Protection officials announced shortly after noon today that the fire had been controlled.

The agency reported that 134 firefighters from different fire departments had fought the blaze at the Los Laureles landfill.

The state health and transportation departments also responded to the emergency, distributing face masks and basic medical care.

Emergency crews also kept an eye on an apartment complex just 500 meters away from the fire.

Residents in the area blamed the blaze on a garbage company and government authorities, claiming that the landfill was supposed to have closed in 2008.

Contributing to the city’s air quality emergency, yet another fire broke out in Guadalajara’s Primavera Forest yesterday. Seventy firefighters and three helicopters worked to control the blaze, dumping thousands of liters of water from above.

Source: El Universal (sp)

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