Category: Breaking News

May 15th, 2018 Breaking News Comments Off on The aggressive prosecution of border-crossers is straining the courts. Will ‘zero tolerance’ make it worse?

The aggressive prosecution of border-crossers is straining the courts. Will ‘zero tolerance’ make it worse?

(RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH) — The Mexican migrant, slouching in his baggy jail garb, was caught crossing the border and the federal judge in San Diego wanted an explanation.

“I’ll stay in Mexico and won’t come back again,” said Carlos Arizmendi-Dominguez, 34, a former dairy farmer who was trying to return to his family in Idaho. “I ask forgiveness.”

“I’m not here to forgive,” Magistrate Judge William V. Gallo replied.

Across the Southwest border, the crackdown on illegal crossings announced in April 2017 by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is gaining traction, as immigration caseloads soar and overburdened judicial districts struggle to keep up. Detention space is reaching capacity, courthouses are scrambling to maintain security, and some judges say they have reached their limit.

On May 7, Sessions expanded the crackdown to include more first-time crossers, asylum seekers and parents who will be separated from the children to face prosecution — a move toward “zero tolerance” that will probably further overload the system.

Nowhere are the changes more noticeable than in California. In the southern federal district in San Diego, 1,275 cases were filed in the first three months of this year. Prosecutors plan to boost criminal immigration filings to about 1,000 per month, according to district data and attorneys at the Federal Defenders of San Diego, who have been notified of increasing prosecution levels by the U.S. attorney’s office.

At that pace, prosecutions could top 9,000 for the year, triple last year’s total and the most since at least since 2000, according to district data.

Prosecutions have gone up about 70 percent this fiscal year in Arizona, where the chief U.S. District Court judge said last week that the courts can’t take more cases without additional judges, attorneys, interpreters, deputy marshals and courtroom space.

“If they want to increase prosecutions to a level more than (the) 75 per day that we’re doing, we need pretty much everything,” Judge Raner Collins said.

Most migrants caught at the border are still sent back to Mexico without being prosecuted. By boosting criminal filings, the Trump administration hopes to deter illegal crossings, even as border arrests remain near historical lows.

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April 21st, 2018 Breaking News Comments Off on Some 50 members of migrant caravan reach Mexico, US border

Some 50 members of migrant caravan reach Mexico, US border

(CNBC) — A group of 50 Central American migrants who set out from southern Mexico in late March have reached the U.S. border, having endured the long journey despite threats by President Donald Trump to secure the border with National Guard personnel.

Since peaking at around 1,500 people, the so-called migrant “caravan” has dwindled under pressure from Trump and Mexican migration authorities, who vowed to separate those migrants with a right to stay in Mexico from those who did not.

“Since yesterday, some began to cross into the United States to turn themselves in from Tijuana and request asylum. We understand more of (the migrants) will do the same,” said Jose Maria Garcia, director of Juventud 2000, an organization dedicated to assisting migrants.

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April 21st, 2018 Breaking News Comments Off on 29,168 murders in one year, so is it safe to travel to Mexico?

29,168 murders in one year, so is it safe to travel to Mexico?

(NEWS.COM.AU) — Kate Schneider

MEXICO has hit the headlines time and time again this year, for all the wrong reasons.

Last Sunday tourists watched as a man’s body washed ashore at Caletilla Beach in Acapulco, located in the state of Guerrero. Horrifying images show stunned beachgoers standing near the water as officials removed the body.

On Thursday, 16 people — including six police officers — were killed in two confrontations also in Guerrero, during a bloody gunbattle that lasted half an hour.

The next day, gunmen on water scooters shot at a roving vendor on a beach in Cancun’s glittering hotel zone, an incident believed to be unprecedented for the Caribbean city.

According to a police report, the afternoon shooting happened in front of a hotel in the heart of Cancun’s resort-studded strip. The vendor was unhurt.

It’s just the latest in a string of violence and gruesome murders in the country. In Cancun last week there were 14 killings reported in a period of just 36 hours — the highest ever in the country’s recorded history, according to Mexico news outlet Noticaribe.

More than 100 people have now been slaughtered in Cancun since the beginning of 2018, as cartels continue to spread fear throughout Mexico.

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April 21st, 2018 Breaking News Comments Off on Priest shot dead in Mexico marks 2nd clerical murder in week

Priest shot dead in Mexico marks 2nd clerical murder in week

(SACRAMENTO BEE) — A young Roman Catholic priest was shot dead in the west-central Mexican state of Jalisco, becoming the second cleric slain this week in a country said to lead the region in such killings.

Juan Miguel Contreras Garcia, 33, was murdered late Friday at a parish in Tlajomulco de Zuniga, on the outskirts of Guadalajara, the Catholic Multimedia Center said Saturday, adding that he was apparently performing the sacrament of penance at the time of the attack.

The Jalisco state prosecutor’s office said early indications suggest two men entered the sacristy, fired directly at the priest and then fled in a car. It said Contreras suffered multiple gunshot wounds, and paramedics who arrived at the scene were unable to keep him alive.

The center said Contreras became a priest just two years ago.

The killing came two days after Rev. Ruben Alcantara Diaz, 50, was stabbed to death in his church on the outskirts of Mexico City. Local media reported he had argued with his killer, who fled after the attack.

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April 21st, 2018 Breaking News Comments Off on 11 killed in Tijuana in 24 hours — 650 murdered in 2018

11 killed in Tijuana in 24 hours — 650 murdered in 2018

(BREITBART) — by Robert Arce

Cartel violence in Tijuana continues with no end in sight as 11 killings were registered in a 24-hour period earlier this week. The deaths brought the number of homicides to 650 in 2018, according to government statistics as reported by local media. Authorities reported more than 100 homicides during the month of April.

Breitbart Texas previously reported that according to the attorney general’s office of Baja California, most homicides are going unsolved. This has contributed substantially to the current drug cartel violence. Of 132 registered homicides to start 2018, only five resulted in arrests with a total of 11 suspects detained.

This week’s violence began during the early morning hours of Monday, April 16 in the colonia Reforma neighborhood, local news outlets reported. Officials discovered the decapitated corpse of an unknown male, 30-35 years of age.

Later that day, at 11 am, police located the body of a 40-45-year male with gunshot wounds in the Hacienda Las Delicias Tercera Sección. At around 2 pm, in colonia El Lago neighborhood, officials located the body of a 41-year-old female who sustained numerous knife-type stab wounds.

Several hours later, a 25-30-year-old male died after being shot in a vacant lot in colonia Los Venados neighborhood. Shortly thereafter, officials discovered the decomposing corpse of an unidentified female in the colonia San Ángel neighborhood. Several minutes later, police found the body of a 35-year-old male in the colonia García neighborhood with gunshot wounds.

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April 18th, 2018 Breaking News Comments Off on ‘We are watching you’: Dozens of political killings shake Mexico election

‘We are watching you’: Dozens of political killings shake Mexico election

(YAHOO) — Magda Rubio had just launched her campaign for mayor of a small city in northern Mexico, when a chilling voice came through her cell phone. “Drop out,” the caller warned, “or be killed.”

It was the first of four death threats Rubio said she has received since January from the same well-spoken, anonymous man. She has stayed in the race in Guachochi, located in a mountainous region of Chihuahua state that is a key route for heroin trafficking. But two armed body guards now follow her round the clock.

“At 2 a.m., you start to get scared, and you say, ‘something bad is going on here’,” she said.

An explosion of political assassinations in Mexico has cast a pall over nationwide elections slated for July 1, when voters will choose their next president and fill a slew of down-ballot posts.

At least 82 candidates and office holders have been killed since the electoral season kicked off in September, making this the bloodiest presidential race in recent history, according to a tally by Etellekt, a security consultancy based in Mexico City, and Reuters research.

Four were slain in the past week alone. They include Juan Carlos Andrade Magana, who was running for re-election as mayor of the hamlet of Jilotlan de los Dolores, located in Mexico’s western Jalisco state. His bullet-ridden body was discovered Sunday morning inside his Toyota Prius on the edge of town; Andrade had just attended a funeral. State prosecutors are investigating, but have made no arrests.

The victims hail from a variety of political parties, large and small, and most were running for local offices far removed from the national spotlight. The vast majority were shot. Most cases remain unsolved, the killers’ motives unclear.

But security experts suspect drug gangs are driving much of the bloodshed. With a record of about 3,400 mostly local offices up for grabs in July, Mexico’s warring cartels appear to be jostling for influence in city halls nationwide, according to Vicente Sanchez, a professor of public administration at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana.

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April 17th, 2018 Breaking News Comments Off on Cartel attacks leave 6 Mexican border state cops dead, 8 wounded

Cartel attacks leave 6 Mexican border state cops dead, 8 wounded

(BREITBART) — by Robert Arce

A deadly April in Chihuahua has so far left six police officers dead and eight wounded in at least seven attacks.

The events required the State to deploy additional personnel to affected areas to quell cartel violence, according to local media.

On April 14, three separate attacks were recorded with the first occurring at 8:30 am in Valle de Zaragoza. Two ministerial police commanders of the State Attorney General’s Office (PGE) were ambushed on the Parral-Chihuahua highway while heading to training exercises. The two victims, identified as Commander Salvador Bárcenas Saavedra and Deputy Commander Ricardo Ruvalcaba González, were both assigned to the municipality of Parral.

According to media reports, the two police commanders attempted to repel the attack then flee but were outnumbered. During an ensuing chase, the two were murdered and their police vehicle torched.

The second attack occurred in Jiménez where a convoy of state police searching for the gunmen responsible for the earlier attack was shot at on the Parral-Jiménez highway. The head of security for State Security Commissioner Óscar Aparicio Avendaño was wounded.

The third event occurred in Álvaro Obregón in the municipality of Cuauhtémoc when cartel gunmen attacked municipal police officers outside the Pollo Bronco Restaurant. Local media reported that one officer was wounded a second died from his injuries. A cell phone video was later posted online, capturing the aftermath of the attack with one wounded police officer lying in the street and what appeared to be a long rifle abandoned several feet from him. The second officer appeared next to a marked police vehicle which had been parked in front of the restaurant.

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April 11th, 2018 Breaking News Comments Off on SUN, SEA AND SLAUGHTER – Mexico’s party hotspot Cancun sees 14 murdered in 36 hours as tourist town is overrun by drug gang violence

SUN, SEA AND SLAUGHTER – Mexico’s party hotspot Cancun sees 14 murdered in 36 hours as tourist town is overrun by drug gang violence

(THE SUN) — MEXICO’S most popular holiday hotspot has become overrun with drug gangs, as violence in the tourist party town escalates to unprecedented levels.

Cancun has seen 14 murders in just 36 hours – the highest ever in the country’s recorded history, according to Noticaribe.

The latest violence on April 4 saw 14 people killed and at least five others left with gunshot wounds, in six separate instances in the party town.

The figures surpass Cancun’s previous ‘record’ of nine killings in a day on November 25, 2004.

More than 100 people have now been slaughtered in Cancun since the beginning of 2018, as Mexico’s cartels continue to spread fear throughout the country.

The Mexican tourist hotspot’s growing crime wave threatens to leave it a ghost town, with most murders in Cancun remaining unsolved.

Amid a thriving drug trade and widespread extortion, fear is rampant and threatens to have a knock-on effect on the country’s multi-billion dollar tourism industry.

British journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy recently traveled to Mexico for SBS’s Dateline to investigate why so many murders are taking place.

“This is one of the most beautiful views in the world and we are the only people here,” Guru-Murthy said from Cancun’s main beach.

Later, just before sunset, he found himself in the middle of a crime scene — a man had been gunned down in the sand.

Four men had come in through a luxury hotel and attacked the man, who later died in hospital.

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April 4th, 2018 Breaking News Comments Off on Violence in Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Los Cabos threaten Mexico’s tourism industry

Violence in Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Los Cabos threaten Mexico’s tourism industry

(USA TODAY) — PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico — Tourists taking the ferry from this tourist town to the island of Cozumel now walk down a wharf lined with police, heavily armed soldiers and bomb-sniffing dogs.

Those safeguards came after a Feb. 21 explosion ripped through one of the ferries, injuring 24 people, including five Americans. Explosives were later found on another ferry owned by the same company.

“It’s something that makes you feel safer,” Roberto Cintrón, president of the Cancún hotel owners’ association, said about the soldiers and security after a recent ferry ride to Cozumel. “It’s the complete opposite situation of the insecurity many people think of.”

Numerous reports about crime and tourist tragedies have made recent headlines as the violence plaguing this country erupts in cities popular with foreign visitors.

Incidents causing concern in Cancún and outlying Quintana Roo state range from bars allegedly serving adulterated liquor to unsuspecting tourists to police targeting visitors in rental cars for bribes.

A vacationing Iowa family of four was found dead March 23 in a condo in Tulum on the Caribbean coast. Authorities suspect the cause was a gas leak from a faulty water heater

Violence in resort cities such as Cancún, Playa del Carmen (in Quintana Roo state) and Los Cabos resembles the rest of the country, but it threatens Mexico’s lucrative tourism industry.

“The common thread in Los Cabos and Quintana Roo is the public security system had been totally dismantled,” said Francisco Rivas, director of the National Citizen Observatory, which monitors security issues in Mexico. “There were prosecutor’s offices that didn’t investigate and police that couldn’t prevent or react to crime.”

Analysts offer a variety of explanations for the rising crime across Mexico, from drug cartels to the U.S. opioid crisis prompting cartels to switch from growing marijuana to producing heroin.

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April 4th, 2018 Breaking News Comments Off on Mexican cartel dumps bodies near Texas border

Mexican cartel dumps bodies near Texas border

(BREITBART) — RIO BRAVO, Tamaulipas — Cartel gunmen continue their gruesome executions in this border area as part of a territorial war. In one of the most recent cases, they dumped the bodies of two tortured victims and set a vehicle on fire to attract attention to threatening narco-messages left behind.

The execution took place in Rio Bravo before Mexican authorities responded to a highway overpass where a white Volkswagen Jetta was on fire. When emergency crews responded, they found the bodies of two men and a poster-board with a cartel message.

The two male victims were described as having a slim build, showing obvious signs of torture, and apparent gunshot wounds to their faces.

The two victims are part of the ongoing wave of violence that continues to take hold of the border cities of Rio Bravo and Reynosa. As Breitbart Texas reported, the bloodshed is tied to an ongoing war for control of the region between two rival factions of the Gulf Cartel.

The escalating violence is leading to daily shootouts in Reynosa where cartel gunmen recently performed ambush attacks on Mexican state police officers deployed for Holy Week and Easter.

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