Amazing ain't it? This is goin' on a couple hundred miles (if we're lucky) from our house, yet it's taboo to our MSM. They're too busy being shocked and amazed that a mulatta with money cheated on his wife and soccor moms are drowning all the polar bears.
Beyond amazing,yesterday on the I-News, they had to put up more pictures of the Bleached Child Molester "Pop Star", and some drizzle about a movie star's hair.
........While THIS kinda'nonsense is headlining in our local Sunday paper,and clearly inching it's way Northward.
Beyond amazing, and well into the surreal
GTC
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No letup seen in violence by Sonora cartels
Tourists, fearful of gun battles, are avoiding Nogales
Link:
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/metro/322086.phpArizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.20.2009
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NOGALES, Sonora � A wave of narco-fueled violence this month has served as a harsh reminder that the bloodshed that erupted last year in this border city hasn't slowed down.
On Dec. 8, there were six shootouts that left five dead and three wounded. A threat from gunmen to finish off one of the wounded still inside a city hospital forced the evacuation of 62 employees and seven patients. And police found four large banners with messages from drug cartels hanging from city bridges.
The violence continued the following week with the discovery of a murdered body wrapped in a sheet and duct tape and the discovery of six bodies half-buried in a construction zone.
On Friday, police found a man's body in a plastic container bearing drug-related messages. Farther to the west in Sonora the same day, police found six bullet-ridden, decomposing bodies partially buried on a dirt road near the highway to Puerto Pe�asco. The resort town, also known as Rocky Point, is popular with Arizona vacationers.
The spate of violence prompted Sonoran Gov. Guillermo Padr�s El�as on Dec. 14 to call for 1,000 additional federal agents to restore calm to the state of Sonora. It's unknown when they will arrive, but more state police have already arrived along with a helicopter that flies above the city now.
There were 116 killings through Dec. 15, compared with 125 for all of 2008, according to a tally maintained by the El Imparcial newspaper. The latest official figures available from the Sonoran government show that there were 101 killings registered in Nogales through November � two more than at the same time last year. There were 50 killings in 2007.
The spike in violence has been attributed to the deadly battles between the powerful Beltran Leyva and Chapo Guzman cartels, who are vying for control of the prized Sonora-Arizona corridor.
The killing Thursday of cartel kingpin Arturo Beltran Leyva, the leader of the Beltran Leyva cartel, will certainly have some impact on the ongoing battle, but officials say it's too early to predict what exactly will occur.
Beltran was killed by Mexican navy special forces who raided an upscale apartment complex in Cuernavaca, triggering a two-hour gunbattle in the city just south of Mexico City, according to a navy statement. Three other members of the cartel were killed and another committed suicide, the navy said.
The Mexican government had listed Arturo Beltran Leyva as one its 24 most-wanted drug lords and had offered a $2.1 million reward for his capture.
"The reign of Arturo Beltran Leyva is over," said the acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Michele Leonhart. "His death has dealt a crippling blow to one of the most violent cartels in the world."
Nogales residents hope the killing will mean an end to the violence, but all the cartel battles of the past year seem to have made them more accustomed to the brutality of drug violence.
"We are a little less afraid than before," said Juan Martinez Rodriguez in Spanish. The 47-year-old is a taxi driver and father of two. "We have realized that the war is between them and not with the citizens. But the killings continue."
Residents should be cautious but not worried, said the assistant police chief in Nogales, Sonora, Adalberto Padilla Molina. The battles are nearly exclusively criminals against criminals or criminals against law enforcement. And municipal, state and federal police are working together to contain the cartels, he said.
"These events alarm the public, but the public should have confidence in their authorities," Padilla said. "We are attacking this head-on. We are not sitting here with our arms crossed."
He concedes, though, that innocent bystanders have been injured in the crossfire. Three people were hurt during the Dec. 8 events, he said. They were released from the hospital shortly after the incident, he said.
The worry about being in the wrong place at the wrong time is a principal reason violence hovers over the city like a black cloud.
Martinez said he worries about getting caught up in the crossfire and getting hit by a stray bullet. Fellow taxi driver Julio Lora Valdez said he and his family avoid being out late even though he knows the shootouts occur at all hours of the day.
Padilla hopes residents never get used to the violence.
"Nobody, in any part of the world, can get ever become accustomed to these type of situations," Padilla said. "We are fighting so the peace and calm returns to the residents of Nogales."
Reasons the same
On the morning of Dec. 8, police found three banners hanging from a city bridge. The "narcomantas," which include messages from cartels to rival cartels, individuals or the government, have become common in Nogales.
"We don't want Beltranes in Nogales, sincerely La Plaza," one of the banners said in Spanish. La Plaza is the Chapo Guzman cartel. The Beltranes refers to the Beltran Leyva cartel.
The combustible situation that caused killings to spike in Nogales, Sonora, in 2008 remains the same: The two powerful cartels are "jockeying for influence" within the Sonora-Arizona corridor, says Anthony Coulson, Drug Enforcement Administration assistant special agent in charge of the Tucson District Office.
"The more influence you have, the more dope you can pass through," Coulson said.
The corridor remains prime real estate for drug-smuggling organizations because the combination of cities and roads on both sides of the border and vast expanses in a harsh desert climate make it difficult for law enforcement to stop the smugglers. Law enforcement in Arizona seized a record 1.6 million pounds of marijuana in 2009, show figures from the Arizona High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, or HIDTA. Nogales is the epicenter, accounting for 60 percent of all drugs that come into Arizona, he says.
The battling cartels have stopped short of all-out warfare because they know it would bring too much attention to the area and clog up their drug-smuggling routes, Coulson said. But killings are normal, as they settle debts or struggle for territory. Neither group has total control of the corridor, meaning movement within the region creates friction � and sometimes bloodshed.
The other element that creates tension is that Mexican President Felipe Calder�n's campaign to weaken the cartels continues. The government has been putting the army along known drug-smuggling routes and trying to snuff out corruption. These activities disrupt drug smugglers' ability to get their loads across the border, causing panic and uncertainty among drug smugglers, Coulson said.
The DEA called the killing of Beltran this week a major victory for Calder�n's campaign.
Tourism
Store owners sit outside their small shops on the sidewalks of Avenida Obreg�n in downtown Nogales, Sonora. When one of the few shoppers walks by, the merchants break out their best sales pitch.
It's mid-December � what used to be the heart of peak season for shops that sell anything from curios to leather goods � and there's no movement on the streets.
The uptick in violence, on the heels of the economic recession in the U.S., has kept tourists away. Many businesses have closed and others, like the curio where Antonio Quiroz works, are on the brink.
"Four or five years ago, you couldn't walk along here," said Quiroz, pointing to the empty sidewalks. "They don't want to come here because of the violence."
Nogales, Sonora, officials have created a special tourism police and cleaned up and renovated the streets. And shop owners and police say the shootouts occur elsewhere.
But news reports of the cartel battles don't sit well with potential tourists, Quiroz said.
"The American thinks they are going to get hit by a stray bullet," he said.
It doesn't help that the U.S. State Department's travel alert for Mexico still includes a specific mention of Nogales: "Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana and Nogales are among the cities which have experienced public shootouts during daylight hours in shopping centers and other public venues."
Padilla, the assistant police chief, calls that wording unfair. Mexican law enforcement meets regularly with U.S. officials to inform them about their operations to keep people safe, he said.
"It's not fair because they know what we are doing here," Padilla said. "The tourism police works with other law enforcement to protect tourists so they can come to do their shopping, have fun and walk around."
Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs
azstarnet.com. The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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