Border violence claiming young American lives

[Cafe GroupAdmin]

Border violence claiming young American lives

Girl's killing in Juarez is the latest in a string of cases

By LISE OLSEN
Copyright 2009 Houston Chonicle

July 4, 2009, 10:38AM

A teenage girl found beaten and left to drown in a storm-flooded street this week is the eighth reported homicide this year of an American teen or child caught up in the violence consuming Ciudad Juarez and its warring drug cartels.

Three victims — ages 12, 15 and 19 — died in June alone.

Most of the killed youths came from bicultural families with branches on both sides of the border, authorities said. They are among legions of El Paso/Ciudad Juarez-area youths who traditionally have crossed daily or weekly between the U.S. and Mexico to visit grandparents, parents, cousins and friends. Once routine, the crossings suddenly have become potentially life-threatening.

The death of Esmeralda Jazmin Portillo, 19, remains under investigation, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for state criminal investigators in Juarez. Her body was found Monday in Ciudad Juarez; she lived in El Paso where she apparently attended high school until 2008.

Another U.S. high school student, Raymundo Alejandro Perez, was shot dead in Juarez last week. Socorro Independent School District officials struggled to provide counseling and support to the 15-year-old boy’s grandmother and friends in El Paso, where he normally lived, as well as to his parents in Juarez, where he was spending the summer.

“Probably the majority of the (area) students have family members in Juarez. They visit grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles — it used to be safe,” said Vicki Icard, a spokesman for the Socorro ISD, one of the region’s largest school districts.

Gang members were identified as Raymundo’s suspected shooters, his mother told El Diario newspaper, but she says he had not done anything wrong.

Wrong place, wrong time

Javier Sambrano, an El Paso Police Department spokesman, confirmed that most young victims appear to be bystanders killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In April, Mary Jean Gamboa, only 4, and her brother, Ignacio Melero, 12, both born in the U.S., were trapped and then killed when a gunfight erupted on a major Juarez thoroughfare around them

Sambrano said none of the young U.S. murder victims were known to be working for Juarez drug cartel, though little information is available on the cases. Most remain largely unsolved, according to police and press reports.

On June 13, Priscila Ibarra Alfaro, a sixth-grader in El Paso, died after going out to get hamburgers in the small town of Barreales, near Juarez. Priscila, 12, was shot and killed when unidentified gunmen opened fire with AK-47s, killing her, as well as 14-year-old Victor Manuel Chuka Nevares, and two adults, according to police.

Fewer crossings for fun

The month of June ended with more than 216 murders in Juarez, making this year’s total so far nearly 890. Of those, more than 30 were teens and children from both sides of the border.

The surge in violence in 2008 — as well as curfews imposed on teens on both sides of the border — has radically reduced the numbers of students who cross purely for fun, El Paso officials said.

“It is still a problem for those who visit relatives,” said Icard, the Socorro school spokeswoman. “We’re trying our best to talk with our students and tell them about the danger and to be extra careful.”

What are your thoughts?

[mandygm]

What is happening there is extremely sad. We used to make trips out here annually to take clothing, food and toys to the poor, but because of what is going on, we haven't gone in the last two years. 

The number of total deaths in 2008, I believe was over 2000.. all in the name of corruption.