Tuesday, March 8, 2011

53 slain in 72 hours in Juárez, Mexico


Just last week President Obama announced in a press conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderon that US agents working in Mexico would not be allowed to carry weapons to defend themselves because it violates Mexican law.

In a report today from the ElPaso Times we get a reminder of just what kind of environment these agents are being asked to work in without the ability to defend themselves.

I don't think most Americans realize how dangerous the situation in Mexico is. To put things into perspective, there has been a total of 35,963 murders by Mexican drug cartels between 2006 and today. The US has lost just under 6,000 soldiers in combat since 2001. When you look at these numbers you see that it it would be safer to walk the streets of Baghdad than to go for tacos in Juarez.

It is obvious that there is a drug WAR going on along our southern border, but for some reason Obama wants to ignore this fact. It is ludicrous to even suggest that our federal agents go into Mexico unarmed. Whats next, disarming our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan because it offends the locals?

Here is the article from today's news:

from the ElPaso Times:
In one of the deadliest three days that officials can remember, more than 50 people were killed in Juárez.
Among the 53 victims between Thursday and Saturday were a Juárez police officer, a municipal patrolman and a state investigator.
 
According to Chihuahua state officials it was the most violent three-day period seen this year. State police reported that on average eight people are killed in Juárez every day.
 
More than 150 people have been killed in Juárez this month, according to the state police.
 
Since a war broke out between the Juárez and Sinaloa drug cartels in 2008, more than 7,600 people have been killed in Juárez. Last year, 3,112 people were murdered in Juárez.
 
The violence began to pick up Thursday with 14 slayings, including a municipal police officer and an investigator with the state police.
 
A shootout between police and hit men Thursday morning left a police officer and two alleged hit men dead. Two other police officers and two suspects were wounded during the attack that occurred at the Arroyo Sur and Moro Macho streets in the Las Lilas subdivision.
 
Chihuahua police identified the officer as Ricardo Torillo Sandoval, who had worked for the Juárez police department since 1998.
 
Later that day, state police investigator Jesús Manuel Cruz Landin, 28, was shot and killed on his way home in the Lázaro Cárdenas neighborhood.
 
Police arrested Jesús Agatón Juárez, 18, in connection with