Mexico: News Update Share This /

Entire Country

• Despite ongoing drug violence, tourism in Mexico was up 12.4 percent in the first quarter of 2011.

• Julian Zapata Espinoza, the ringleader of the group of men responsible for killing U.S. ICE agent Jaime Zapata in February may be extradited, according to The Houston Chronicle. Mexico is expecting that the U.S. will formally lodge an extradition request, after which a Mexican federal judge must decide if there are grounds for extradition.
• Only half of the U.S. firms would go ahead with new investment plans in Mexico, according to a recent survey by the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce. Several corporations, among them Whirlpool Corp., have said they will find somewhere else to put new factories, due to security concerns.

Chiapas

• TUXTLA GUTIERREZ: On Tuesday police found 513 migrants inside two trailer trucks headed for the U.S. The migrants were discovered by using x-ray equipment on the trucks at a checkpoint in Chiapas. A statement from the National Immigration Institute stated that of the 513 migrants, 410 are from Guatemala, 47 are from El Salvador, 32 are from Ecuador, 12 are from India, six are from Nepal, three are from China and one each are from Japan, the Dominican Republic and Honduras. Thirty two are women and there are four children that were discovered in the trucks. The migrants say they were charged $7,000 each to go in the trucks to the U.S. Four people, from Central and South America and Asia, were arrested in connection with the smuggling operation.

Durango

• DURANGO: Nine more bodies were found in Durango on Sunday, bringing the total found in mass graves since April 11 to 218.

Guerrero

• 17 people were killed over the weekend in Guerrero state, reports Proceso. A confrontation between police and gunmen left four police and nine gunmen dead in Petatlán on Saturday evening. A couple in Acapulco was also shot and killed Saturday night and Sunday morning in Eduardo Neri a man was found gunned down. Another man was killed in the Montaña region early Monday morning, around 2:00.
• ACAPULCO: Four police officers and two bystanders were killed when gunmen opened fire on the police officers Monday in downtown Acapulco. Police say the four officers and the two bystanders, a woman selling fruit in the area and a taxi driver, all died at the scene.

Morelos

• CUERNAVACA: Police chief, Juan Bosco Castañeda, was arrested on Thursday for suspected ties to drug gangs. His arrest came after Víctor Manuel Valdéz Arteaga, alias “El Gordo Varilla”, who is believed to be the second-in-command of Cartel de Pacifico Sur and was also arrested Thursday, told soldiers that Bosco Castañeda was paid 15,000 pesos ($1,290) a month to tip off the cartel to army and police crackdowns.

Nuevo León

• GUADALUPE: Three police officers were killed Wednesday in Guadalupe by unidentified gunmen. The policemen were attacked by the gunmen at approximately 2:00 a.m. Wednesday morning and one other police officer was injured in the attack.
• GUADALUPE: Seven young people were killed in a shooting in the neighborhood of Riberas de la Silla, also known as Fomerrey 31, according to reports Monday. The security spokesman, Jorge Domene, said that he hasn’t ruled out that the youths may have been linked to organized crime.

Oaxaca

• SANTIAGO CHOAPAN: Three people were arrested in connection with the weekend shooting of 10 people at a political rally in Santiago Choapan, a municipality in Oaxaca state. The victims were part of a caravan of people from outside Santiago Choapan, who came to the municipality’s city hall to demand their right to vote. The three suspects are all residents of Santiago Choapan. An election was annulled there in December after four or five townships protested that they were denied the right to vote.

Tabasco

• CADENAS: Gunmen opened fire in an auto body shop late Tuesday, killing eight and wounding two. No one has been arrested for the killings and a motive has yet to be determined. Cadenas, in the southern state of Tabasco, has not seen much of the drug violence that plagues the rest of the country but on Monday police found a woman’s body with a message to residents to stay indoors after midnight.

This post was written by CIP Intern Erin Shea