Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

Go figure - a new ranking shows El Paso moved up to the second-safest large city in the nation even while a vicious drug cartel war has turned Juárez into one of the deadliest cities in the world... ... and the violence in Juarez, Mexico, continues relentlessly, despite thousands of soldiers from the Mexican Army patrolling the streets.

Baby wounded, 23 slain over weekend in Juárez

By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
Posted: 11/30/2009 12:00:00 AM MST

An 11-month-old baby boy was wounded in a shooting as the violence that has suffocated Juárez for nearly two years continued with more than 20 killings over the weekend.

Chihuahua state police said the baby was hurt Saturday evening when gunmen fired 21 rounds at a Ford Explorer in colonia Division del Norte in the southern part of the city.

The driver, Carlos Javier Dominguez Sigala, 38, died in the vehicle. The child was taken to a hospital. There have been no arrests.

Channel 26-KINT reported Dominguez is the baby's father.

The shooting was one of at least 11 homicides on Saturday and at least four as of early Sunday. There were eight killings Friday.

Children this year have increasingly become victims of violence in Juárez, often as bystanders, when shooters open fire at their intended targets including vehicles occupied by families.

Also over the weekend, funeral services took place for Juárez police officer Oscar Valenzuela Acosta, who was shot and killed Wednesday on his day off. Valenzuela was with the police department for nearly eight years.

More than 2,000 people have been slain in Juárez this year due in part to a war among drug traffickers.

Whoa.
Thank you for this post
H

Hardly makes the news outside of Phar Lepht
The news media too busy keeping us informed of the importatnt stuff like Tiger Woods' accident. Pardon my sarcasm.

Not to change the subject but I don't think there was any link to the drug killings but there seems to be some connection to the machiadoras but
What about the murdered women Cecil. What is the body count now, I lost count a couple years ago when it was about 300 bodies found in the desert. That has been going on for almost twenty years now I think. Have the murders stopped? I have heard that the cops were involved in them.

This is from 1998 when the body count stood at 121.

Murder stalks the women of Ciudad Juarez
Most of the women are workers in the machiadoras, largely American-owned factories that have proliferated along the border opposite El Paso, Texas
Correspondent Chris Kline and Reuters.
CNN REPORT

I used to camp out at the old truck stop on Airways Blvd. Right there on the river. River, ha. It looked like a drainage ditch with two inches of water in it. Picked up a woman hitchhiker who was scared as hell. I did not want to, but she was so scared.

More ramble, sorry
I always liked that Billy Joe Shaver song "There Ain't No God In Mexico"
But I think Old Waylon got it wrong there is a god in Mexico and his name is Tezcatlipoca

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truck: "What about the murdered women Cecil. What is the body count now, I lost count a couple years ago when it was about 300 bodies found in the desert."

Sadly, I've not seen or heard anything on that in a long time, truck. All this cartel violence and the numbers killed have overwhelmed the maquiladora murders unfortunately. I guess the media can only print up so much on Juarez.

The cartel wars seem never ending and listening to the news nearly nightly with several murders here and there and most everywhere in and around Juarez makes the listener ho hum about it, not being able to do a damn thing to stop it. Did you hear recently where some business people in Juarez have called for U.N. troops to come there and assist the Mexican Army? No telling how that would pan out.

I don't suppose there is much the US can do to help even if the guns and money are coming from here. Have you ever heard the saying "Poor Mexico, so far from god and so close to the united states?"

No, truck, I've never heard that one... but it did remind me of a t-shirt i came across in cyberland that read:
<center>new mexico
(a new mexican landscape picture here)
not dirty like old mexico</center>

They've got a reputation for sure, and it continues to evolve. I remember when Mexico meant slow and relaxed, no sweat/no hurry compared to now with corruption, drug dealers, murders and poverty. A shame really because the average Mexican is hard working, industrious, kind, friendly and generous... pleased to share what they have... and family oriented.

sad...

So close but yet so far...

This is a picture of the skyline of El Paso with the tall buildings in the center. Not far beyond that lies Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, just across the Rio Grande (which is not visible in this picture). The mountains in the far background are in Mexico, and Juarez is built around those mountains, much like El Paso is built around the Franklin Mountains.


*photo: Cecil - taken on Scenic Drive a day before our first snowfall this year.