All posts in Sinaloa cartel

Guardian to host exhibition about Mexican journalists’ murders

by Admin on March 26, 2012 in Mexican Cartel War, Sinaloa cartel, Zetas with No comments

Via: US Open Borders

Readers of this blog will be aware how often I write about the killing and intimidation of journalists in Mexico.

In the overwhelming majority of murders there has been no worthwhile investigation let alone any arrest. Most of them have died at the hands of drugs cartels.

The figures show that, since the start of this century, Mexico has been one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists to operate.

To highlight that fact, and to raise awareness of the problem of impunity, an exhibition is to be staged at The Guardian‘s headquarters from 3 May, world press freedom day.

It is being mounted by the Catholic overseas development agency (CAFOD), a British-based charity.

Organisers expect to show the photographs of the 67 journalists killed in Mexico since 2000 – a wall of silenced voices. This will be accompanied at the launch by the reading of extracts from their articles.

There will also be a panel discussion in The Guardian’s offices on 3 May.

I’ll have more details closer to the event. Meanwhile, a little more detail on the situation in Mexico…

According to the latest press freedom index compiled by Reporters Without Freedom (RSF), Mexico is ranked 136th (out of 178) in the world. The accompanying explanation states:

“Drug cartels and corrupt officials are implicated in most of the crimes of violence against journalists, which almost always go unpunished. As a result, journalists often censor themselves and some have to flee into exile.”

Both RSF and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists point out that journalistic deaths (and the deaths of thousands of other people) have increased since Mexico’s president, Filipe Calderon, launched an offensive against the cartels in 2006.

The situation has worsened for journalists working near the US border, especially around Chihuahua.

There has been one positive political step. Earlier this month, the Mexican senate approved a constitutional amendment that, if passed by a majority of states, would mean that all anti-press crimes would become a federal offence.

This might lead to proper investigations into murders by the special federal prosecutor. At present, there is a 90% impunity rate for journalists’ murders.

The International Press Institute’s “death watch” shows that 10 journalists were murdered in Mexico last year and 12 the year before, giving it by far the worst record in Latin America.

I’ll provide more information about the exhibition in coming weeks.

Sources: CAFOD/CPJ/RSF/IPI

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Thirteen suspected criminal gangs members were killed in Nuevo Lared

by Admin on March 3, 2012 in Mexican Cartel War, Sinaloa cartel, Zetas with 1 Comment

Thursday afternoon heavy gunfire was reported in the city Laredo (Texas, United States), , no casualties reported bygovernment forces

Thirteen suspected criminal gangs members were killed in Nuevo Laredo

Thirteen suspected criminal gangs members were killed in Nuevo Laredo

 

NUEVO LAREDO, March 1. – Thirteen suspects were killed during a shootout with the Mexican Army and police in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, the military said.

This afternoon, heavy gunfire was reported in that city, on the border with Laredo (Texas, United States), on the southern bank of the Rio Grande and where several areas of the town were blocked.

The sources corresponding by telephone said, the military zoned off the area and that thirteen suspected criminal gangs members were killed in the fighting, and added that government forces had no casualties. They did not specify whether anyone was arrested during the operation.

The state of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Laredo has been one of the most affected by the violence generated by drug cartels in the country.

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The Deadliest Place In Mexico

by Admin on March 3, 2012 in Mexican Cartel War, Sinaloa cartel, Zetas with No comments

Who’s killing the people of the Juarez Valley?

The Deadliest Place In MexicoPhotos by Julian Cardona

TO REACH THE DEADLIEST PLACE IN MEXICO you take Carretera Federal 2, a well-paved stretch of highway that begins at the outskirts of Juarez, east for 50 miles along the Rio Grande, passing through cotton and alfalfa fields until you reach the rural Juarez Valley, said to have the highest murder rate in the country, if not the world.

The Juarez Valley is a narrow corridor of green farmland carved from the Chihuahuan desert along the Rio Grande. Farmers proudly say it was once known for its cotton, which rivaled Egypt’s. But that was before the booming growth of Juarez’s factories in the 1990s left farmers downstream with nothing but foul-smelling sludge to irrigate their fields. After that, the only industry that thrived was drug smuggling. Because of the valley’s sparse population and location along the Rio Grande’s dried up riverbed, a person can easily drive or walk into Texas loaded down with marijuana and cocaine.

For decades, this lucrative smuggling corridor, or “plaza,” was controlled by the Juarez cartel. In 2008, Mexico’s largest, most powerful syndicate—the Sinaloa cartel, run by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman—declared war on the Juarez cartel and moved in to take over the territory. The federal government sent in the military to quell the violence. Instead the murder rate in the state of Chihuahua exploded. The bloodshed in the city of Juarez made international news. It was dubbed the “deadliest city in the world.” So much blood was being shed in Juarez that few outside the region noticed the violence spilling into the rural valley to the east, where killings and atrocities began to occur on a daily basis. Police officers, political leaders and community activists were shot down in the streets. By 2009, the valley, with a population of 20,000, had a shocking murder rate of 1,600 per 100,000 inhabitants—six times higher than its neighboring “deadliest city in the world”—according to government estimates. In one particularly gruesome stretch in 2010, several valley residents were stabbed in the face with ice picks, and a local man aligned with the Juarez cartel was skewered with an iron bar, riddled with bullets, then roasted over an open fire. The Juarez newspapers began to call the rural farming region the “Valley of Death.”

Keep reading…

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Drug traffickers executed evangelical pastor and priest

by Admin on February 25, 2012 in Mexican Cartel War, Sinaloa cartel, Zetas with No comments

Los Zetas and other criminal groups are killing and harassment of religious leaders. The two latest targets, a pastor and a Catholic priest attacked in January, officials said.

On January 28, Father Genaro Garcia Avina was murdered in his Church of the Immaculate Conception in Atizapan, State of Mexico, the Catholic Center Multimedia, CCM.

“I had three fingers mutilated and a bullet hole in his head,” said police chief of Atizapan, Pedro Gonzalez Mendoza.

Three weeks earlier, on January 9, an evangelical pastor in Guatemala, Naphtali Lewis Alva, was shot dead in the town of Nentón, south of the border with Mexico. The pastor was killed by the Zetas, said in a statement the Church of God.

Keep reading….

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Update: El Paso police chief confirms woman shot by bullet from Juarez

by Admin on February 22, 2012 in Crime and Border Security, Gulf Cartel, Illegal Immigration, Immigration, Mexican Cartel War, Sinaloa cartel, Zetas with No comments

Via: El Paso Times

View Shots fired in Downtown El Paso in a larger map
Police investigated in the 200 block of E. Overland Tuesday… (Ruben R. Ramirez / El Paso Times)
  • Update, 5:25 p.m.:

By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times

El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said the woman was a 48-year-old mother who was pushing a child in a stroller when she was shot in the upper right calf.

Allen said the round went through her leg. She was taken to University Medical Center of El Paso.

Allen, El Paso Mayor John Cook and El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles conducted a press conference late Tuesday afternoon at City Hall.

Allen said the woman is a Mexican citizen but has a residency card and lives in El Paso.

Allen said that the bullet came from a gunfight between carjackers and law enforcement in Juarez.

Cook said that the public should not panic over this incident and that El Paso is still a

Juárez police found, chased and exchanged gunfire with car theft suspects Tuesday morning. The suspects crashed at the intersection of Malecón Avenue and Xochimilco Street, less than half a mile away from the border. (El Paso Times)

safe place to live.Allen said the Police Department received about 10 911 calls reporting the sound of gunfire during the time of the shooting. Allen said that El Paso authorities are working with law enforcement in Juarez regarding this case.

Keep reading…

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INSURGENCY IN AMERICA? UPCOMING GBTV REPORT ON MEXICO BORDER WILL SHOW HORRIFIC VIOLENCE AND INSTABILITY

by Admin on February 6, 2012 in Creeping Communism, Creeping Sharia, Gulf Cartel, Illegal Immigration, Islamization of America, Mexican Cartel War, Sinaloa cartel, Zetas with No comments

You know the border is a place where drugs and illegal immigrants transit every day. But you have no idea how bad things really are.

Insurgency in America? GBTV Report on Mexico Border Will Show Horrific Violence and Instability

If you watch the Glenn Beck Show on GBTV this Tuesday at 5PM, you will learn about the frightening– and immediate– threats coming across the U.S.-Mexico.

Of course, the mainstream media refuses to tell you the real story. They claim a need to shield the public from the horrific violence, and fall into politically correct narratives.

GBTV will tell you the truth about the border, including the following shocking revelations:

1) Al Qaeda-style terrorism tactics, including beheadings and extensive body mutilations, have become standard tactics for the bloodthirsty drug cartels at the U.S. border.

Insurgency in America? GBTV Report on Mexico Border Will Show Horrific Violence and Instability

2) Hezbollah, the global Islamic extremist group and Iranian terror proxy, is aligned with the cartels– the only question remaining is the ultimate purpose of that alliance. There are reports that Hezbollah operatives are involved in human smuggling operations across the U.S.-Mexico border, including terror cells. Could these be sleeper cells ready for activation?

3) Forget the media narrative– the border is unsecured and wide-open. US Border agents are undermanned and being prevented from doing their jobs properly by bureaucrats and legislation that ties their hands. Sanctuary cities, and vast tracts of federal land that can’t be patrolled. And there are even threats coming across the northern border with Canada.

Insurgency in America? GBTV Report on Mexico Border Will Show Horrific Violence and Instability

Estimates are as high as 35,000 deaths have resulted from the Mexican cartel wars. Many of these deaths involved extremely brutal torture and sadistic public displays of the victims’ bodies. What this amounts to is a drug-fueled insurgency that is spilling onto U.S. soil.

This all poses grave and immediate risks to U.S. national security.

The media won’t tell you the truth about the border. Glenn Beck will, this Tuesday at 5PM EST, only on GBTV.com

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Details emerge about deadly cross-border shooting

by Admin on February 3, 2012 in Gulf Cartel, Hamas, Hezbollah, Illegal Immigration, Mexican Cartel War, Sinaloa cartel, Zetas with No comments

The Monitor

NEAR SULLIVAN CITY — The five men who illegally crossed the Rio Grande to reportedly avoid apprehension Thursday by the Mexican military were unarmed when soldiers shot at them from Mexico, a U.S. law enforcement source close to the investigation said.

One man died on U.S. federal land, another suffered a non-life threatening gunshot wound to the ankle and three others were taken into custody by U.S. federal authorities, San Antonio FBI Spokesperson Eric Vasys said Friday.

U.S. authorities have yet to disclose the events that drove the men to cross the Rio Grande about 6 p.m. Thursday near the Mexican town of Diaz Ordaz, which is southwest of the U.S town of Sullivan City.

“We’re looking into the circumstances that led to these individuals crossing over,” Vasys said. “(The investigation) is still ongoing and we’re trying to sort it out.”

A Border Patrol agent not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation told a Monitor reporter that a U.S. Customs and Border Protection chopper radioed in a shots-fired call about two hours prior to the shooting.

Someone on U.S. soil apparently shot at the helicopter that was allegedly carrying advisors to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security as they toured the border near La Joya, he said.

Vasys said he had not heard of any such reports.

A second law enforcement official, also not authorized to speak publicly, said that likely did not happen.

“It was not a U.S. law enforcement helicopter that got fired on, but rather a Mexican government helicopter,” the second U.S. law enforcement official said.

A Mexican military chopper began chasing after the men during an operation along the river, and the men shot at it at one point or another while in Mexico, he said.

It’s unclear if they swam across the river or simply found a location where they could cross the border by foot, but the individuals apparently ditched their weapons before crossing into the U.S. because authorities did not find any on them, he added.

“When they got to the U.S. side, the illegals that had crossed over started taunting the Mexican military — doing all kinds of obscene gestures and cuss words — and then the military fired upon them,” he said. “We don’t believe the illegals that came across were armed.”

 

Bad Blood?

A source outside law enforcement said that for a long time, certain members of the Mexican military had been working alongside members of the Gulf Cartel.

In order to keep up appearances, drug smugglers would leave behind vehicles loaded drugs for the soldiers to seize so the members of the military could report back to their superiors, the source said. The communications to coordinate the drops between drug smugglers and soldiers were carried out with Nextel radio communication telephones that are difficult to trace.

However, during the organization’s internal struggle that began last September, some of these troops were caught in the crossfire.

“They are mad and now all bets are off,” the source said. “Remember, last week (Jan. 26), the military killed some people in the morning, and then the ambush happened. The ‘Verdes’ are out for blood.”

In an apparent day of firefights last week, the Mexican military was ambushed in the streets of Reynosa by members of the Gulf Cartel who set up a bait car to draw out the soldiers. The Mexican military didn’t issue any news releases in connection with the firefights that day.

Prior to that, unknown assailants had lobbed two grenades at the headquarters of the Matamoros military police, killing one man and critically injuring another.

Vasys did not have information about whether the men taken into custody Thursday night were armed or not, he said, adding that U.S. authorities did not discharge their weapons at any time during the incident.

Authorities, who remain tight-lipped about the shooting, did not release the men’s identities.

Mexican Consulate officials in McAllen also were waiting to learn the identity of the deceased man, Consul Jose Manuel Gutierrez Minera said about 4:30 p.m. Friday. He expected the information to come from federal authorities late Friday.

“Out of respect for the family, we usually wait to contact them first before releasing information,” he said.

U.S. authorities do not know if anyone died in Mexico during the incident, Vasys said.

The FBI is heading the investigation because the incident happened on land owned by the federal government.

“It’s not a common theme for FBI to be involved in altercations (along the border) because so much of what we do is long-term investigation,” he said. “Historically, the FBI is a follow-up investigative entity unless we’re working an active investigation of drug trafficking by the cartels or gang activity along the border.”

The agency, however, does get involved any time a federal agent is wounded or killed, he said. So if a Border Patrol agent is hurt along the border, the FBI will take over those investigations, too.

Vasys would not comment on whether the shooting could be classified as spillover violence.

“I’m not going to speak to that,” he said. “FBI deals with investigation and enforcement. So what we’re doing is the follow up to the death that occurred on U.S. property. I’m not going to speak to what this may or may not be characterized by other government sources.”

 

Spillover

“The situation in Mexico has been a concern for our agency,” said Texas DPS Director Steve McCraw.

“Our concern is that criminal organizations in Mexico combating each other or the Mexican military could attempt to flee to our side of the border. To address those concerns, we have established contingency plans and work alongside federal and local agencies.”

The incident in Havana is just one of the many types of incidents law enforcement in the area is prepared for.

“The average citizen should know that there are state, local and federal law enforcement professionals working in a proactive fashion to address any contingency. Texas has been very proactive in this; we have increased our patrol presence and our tactical capabilities to deter any situation.”

While McCraw was not able to discuss details of the situation, he said his agency dissects and studies all border incidents that it responds to.

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Former DEA Chief: Hezbollah Eyeing Southwest Border, ‘Hell to Pay in the Not Too Distant Future’

by Admin on February 3, 2012 in CAIR, Creeping Communism, Creeping Sharia, Gulf Cartel, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Islam, Islamization of America, Islamo-Fascism, Israel, Mexican Cartel War, Sinaloa cartel, Zetas with No comments

Via: CNS News, by Penny Starr

February 2, 2012

Michael Braun, former Chief of Operations at the Drug Enforcement Agency, testified at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Feb. 2, 2012 that Iran's influence in the Western Hemisphere reaches all the way to the U.S. border with Mexico. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)

(CNSNews.com) – The Iranian-supported Shi’ite terrorist group Hezbollah has spread its influence all the way to the U.S. border with Mexico, a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Iran’s influence in the Western Hemisphere heard on Thursday.

Michael Braun, a former chief of operations at the Drug Enforcement Agency, said Hezbollah had developed relationships with the powerful Mexican drug cartels to “move their agenda forward.” He cited a plot, recently uncovered by the DEA, involving an Iranian operative in Mexico allegedlyplanning to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, D.C.

“Hezbollah are absolute masters at forming close relationships with existing organized crime groups around the world that helps them facilitate what they need to do to move their agendas forward,” Braun told CNSNews.com following the hearing. “And if anyone thinks for a moment that they don’t have their eye on the southwest border and all of our country, then they couldn’t be more wrong.”

In his prepared remarks Braun, who also served as interim director of the Department of Justice’s Drug Intelligence Fusion Center, said Hezbollah and other terrorist groups understand that the Mexican cartels are already operating successfully inside the United States.

“If anyone thinks for one moment that these terrorist organizations do not understand that the Mexican drug trafficking cartels now dominate drug trafficking in our country – reportedly in more than 250 cities – than they are very stupid or very naive,” he said.

“And these groups most assuredly recognize the strategic value of exploiting that activity, and all that has been built to support it, for moving their vision forward in this part of the world.”

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairwoman of the committee, said on Feb. 2, 2012, that Iran has changed it tactics to include planning attacks on the United States. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), chairwoman of the committee, cited Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force and its connections to the Zeta drug cartel in the foiled assassination attempt on U.S. soil.

She asked Braun whether he believed Iran had “strategic interests” in Central America and the southwest border.

Braun said Quds Force and Hezbollah work “very, very hard” to develop relationships with criminal groups that already have in place systems for illegal activities, including drug and human trafficking, money laundering and forged document operations.

“And by developing those relations it provides them with the ability to operate far from home in our neighborhood and – as I said earlier – on our doorstep,” he replied.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), committee member and chairman of the Homeland Security Committee’s subcommittee of oversight and investigations, asked about Hezbollah’s relationship to criminal organizations in the Western Hemisphere and what it means for U.S. security.

Braun warned that those relationships allow “these groups to operate freely in our neighborhood” and said the U.S. would regret it if the threats were not taken seriously.

“I don’t want to sound too crude, but I think there’s going to be hell to pay in the not too distant future,” he said.

For the most part the tone of the hearing was bipartisan in nature, with Democrats on the committee agreeing that Iran is trying to exert influence in the Western Hemisphere.

Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent trip to Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador and Nicaragua, is proof that Iran is “up to no good.”

But Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), ranking member of the committee, defended the Obama administration against claims that it is complacent about the threat Iran poses closer to home.

“Our government is fully attentive to this matter,” he said.

An expert witness testifying before the panel, Norman A. Bailey, called for Venezuela to be named a state sponsor of terrorism for “facilitating Iranian illicit activity,” noting among other things Iran’s role in the Venezuelan banking system.

“Responding to this threat requires the United States and allied governments to complicate Iranian access to the Americas, and penalize those involved in facilitating Tehran’s intrusion, said Bailey, who served in the Reagan administration’s National Security Council and later in the Office of the Director of Na­tional Intelligence, where he served as “mission manager” for Venezuela and Cuba.

“This includes measures such as the designation of certain Venezuelan banks and affiliates by the U.S. Treasury Department and other agencies for their role in facilitating Iranian illicit activity, and even the outright declaration of Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism – a move that would open the door for the U.S. to take more direct and punitive action against the Chavez regime for its collusion with both Iran and Hezbollah,” Bailey said.

Ros-Lehtinen recalled what Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said at a Senate hearing on Tuesday, focused on global threats to the U.S.

“[Clapper] stated this week, ‘Iranian officials – probably including supreme leader Ali Khamenei – have changed their calculus and are now willing to conduct an attack in the United States.’”

Ros-Lehtinen said Iran’s alliances in Latin America provide it with “a platform in the region to carry out attacks against the United States, our interests, and allies.”

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“Iran’s Latin America Ties Pose Threat to US”

by Admin on February 3, 2012 in Creeping Communism, Creeping Sharia, Gulf Cartel, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamization of America, Islamo-Fascism, Israel, Mexican Cartel War, Sinaloa cartel, Zetas with No comments

From the Voice of America

Members of a U.S. congressional panel expressed concern Thursday that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s ties to several Latin American leaders could pose a threat to U.S. national security. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs that senior Iranian officials are “now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States.“  He said Iran is trying to penetrate and engage in the Western Hemisphere.

The chairwoman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, said some people might question whether the Iranian-Latin American connection is a threat, but she said there is cause for concern.

“Iran’s [President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad recently returned from his ‘Tour of Tyrants’ trip to visit Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Ecuador.  Media reports have indicated an increased presence of Iran’s Quds Force in these countries and offices of Iran’s intelligence services surfacing throughout the region,” said Ros-Lehtinen. “The fact that the military arm of a state-sponsor of terrorism has its operatives within multiple countries in our hemisphere is certainly cause for alarm and merits congressional focus.“

Obama administration officials say the United States is keeping a close watch on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s ties to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. During Ahmadinejad’s recent visit to Venezuela, he and Chavez praised each other and joked about concerns in the West about Iran’s relations with Latin America.

Could be? Could be?????? COULD BE??????????????????

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TX MISSIONARIES FOUND MURDERED IN MEXICO — DRUG VIOLENCE FEARED

by Admin on February 2, 2012 in Gulf Cartel, Mexican Cartel War, Sinaloa cartel, Zetas with 1 Comment

Missionaries John and Wanda Casias Murdered in Monterey, MexicoMEXICO CITY (AP) — A couple from Texas who moved to a remote and violence-plagued area of northern Mexico to run a Baptist church were found slain at their ransacked home, their children said.

John and Wanda Casias was originally from Amarillo, Texas, but relatives said they moved to an area outside the city of Monterrey in the late 1970s or early 1980s and made it their home

Valerie Alirez, the eldest child of John Casias, told The Associated Press from her home in Greeley, Colorado, that one of her brothers found her father and stepmother on Tuesday dead in their home in Santiago, Nuevo Leon.

John Casias was a Baptist preacher and the couple ran the First Fundamentalist Independent Baptist Church in Santiago, Alirez said.

Her brother, Shawn Casias, who lives in Monterrey, said he went to his parents’ home around 4 p.m. Tuesday to pick up a trailer. After he had hooked up the trailer outside he went into the home to say goodbye. He said he found Wanda Casias lying on the floor with an electrical cord around her neck and a gash from a blunt object on her head.

Missing from the house were a couple of computers, a plasma television and a safe that had been chiseled out of the wall.

The couple’s Chevrolet Suburban was also missing, and Casias said he initially thought his father had been kidnapped.

But about four or five hours later, he said, a forensic investigator informed him that his father’s body had been found in a storage room of a small building on the property. His father also had an electrical cord around his neck.

Fighting between the Zetas and Gulf drug cartels has brought a surge of violence and other crimes to Monterrey and the surrounding region since 2010. In poorer suburbs, entire blocks have been held up by gunmen and young people snatched off the streets.

Casias said a sister-in-law in Dallas had spoken to their mother around 11 a.m. Tuesday and everything was fine. So he believes there was about a five-hour window when the killings could have occurred before he showed up.

He said the killers did not take everything they could have, leaving two of the three TV sets. He said perhaps they were warned that he was coming, because anyone watching the winding road approaching the home could have alerted them.

“They’re scum. They’re not sophisticated,” he said.

Speaking from his parents’ home, Casias said the house was burglarized two years ago when the couple were on one of their periodic visits to the United States to talk at churches about their work in Mexico.

“We‘re convinced that it’s somebody he knew,” Casias said of the killers. He said authorities had some leads based on people seen around the home.

John Casias was 76. He had recently priced a knee replacement because he couldn’t walk more than 100 yards (100 meters) without having to sit down, Shawn Casias said. Wanda Casias was 67.

Casias said his parents held services and prayer meetings at a church about 3 miles (5 kilometers) from their home.

The couple maintained a website, http://www.casias.org , with details of their lives and their missionary work

“The only hope for the Mexican people today is Jesus in them, the HOPE of glory,” they wrote in one dispatch from last summer. “I confess that it’s getting easier to witness to the wealthy, at least they are listening. The wealthy are fleeing to Canada and the USA for protection. The only problem is that when they return to re-new their visas the cartel is waiting, and either kill them of (sic) kidnap them for thousands of dollars, in some cases millions. The cartel has NO mercy or value for life. They are ruthless murderers!”

It was the second slaying involving American missionaries in a year in the Mexican region bordering Texas.

In January 2011, a Texas couple who had been doing missionary work in Mexico for three decades were attacked at an illegal roadblock in one of the country’s most violent areas.

Nancy Davis, 59, was fatally shot in the head while her husband, Sam, sped away from suspected drug cartel gunmen who may have wanted to steal their pickup truck, authorities said.

The Davises were driving along the two-lane road that connects the city of San Fernando with the border city of Reynosa in the state of Tamaulipas, which borders Nuevo Leon.

—

Associated Press writer Katherine Corcoran reported this story in Mexico City and Christopher Sherman reported from McAllen, Texas.

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