Mexico Drug Violence Leaves Wife, Daughter Of Governor Cesar Duarte's Guard Slain

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Gunmen killed the wife and 5-year-old daughter of a state governor's bodyguard in northern Mexico on Tuesday, authorities said.

Brenda Carrillo, 28, and her daughter were gunned down as they left their home in Chihuahua city, the capital of the state by the same name, the state attorney general's office said in a statement.

Carrillo worked as an investigator for the state attorney general's office and was married to a bodyguard of Chihuahua Gov. Cesar Duarte. The motive of the shooting was unclear.

Many police and investigators have been assassinated in Chihuahua, a state bordering Texas that has been wracked by a turf war between the Sinaloa and Juarez drug cartels.

The mayor of a town in the northeastern state of Nuevo Leon, meanwhile, said he survived an assassination attempt Tuesday – the second attack against him in less than two months.

Garica Mayor Jaime Rodriguez told reporters that his vehicle was ambushed by gunmen in at least 10 cars. He said he was saved because he was riding in an armored vehicle but that two of his bodyguards were wounded when they got out to repel the attack.

Rodriguez escaped unharmed from a similar attack Feb. 25. Three gunmen were killed that day in a shootout with his bodyguards.

Several mayors have been assassinated over the past year in Nuevo Leon and neighboring Tamaulipas state, battlgrounds between the Gulf and Zetas drug gangs.

In the central state of Morelos, meanwhile, prosecutors confirmed that Juan Francisco Sicilia, the son of Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, was among seven people found dead Monday in a car in an exclusive gated community near the picturesque city of Cuernavaca.

Javier Sicilia is known in Mexico for his religious poetry and won a national prize in 2009. Friends of the family gathered in downtown Cuernavaca on Monday night to protest the killings and leave floral offerings.

Police have reported no leads in the killings.

Several mysterious banners were hung around Morelos state Tuesday vowing that the perpetrators would be hunted down and punished. Such banners have been a hallmarks of drug cartels around Mexico.

Violence has spiked in Morelos since the Dec. 2009 death of kingpin Arturo Beltran Leyva as splintered groups began fighting for control.

Four men were gunned own inside a home Tuesday in San Marcos, a town in southwestern Guerrero state, another battleground for remnants of the Beltran Leyva cartel, a police report said.

Comments

[Contra Bandista]

07:33 PM on 04/02/2011

the problem no one to stand up to these Chavalas .Until some does then It will be a more peaceful

WORLD one on one they cant no guts no glory Contra Bandista

[RojoVivo]

03:31 PM on 03/31/2011

If what is happening in Mexico confuses you its because you might not see the dept of the problem in Latin America. I'll sum it up as neatly as I can with no disrespect intended towards the readers.
The price of the cocaine is exaggeratedly high because the criminality for this drug is exaggerated. A gram of cocaine costs about a dollar to make in the jungles of South America. By the time it gets to Mexico the profit is better than having a goldmine. The more illegal the drug the greater profit for the cartels. The USA and its people have an enormous amount of money to spend on drug control and drug use hence the price of the drug just keeps becoming greater and greater. Latin American countries can not afford the drug war at the level (price) that the USA and Europe have taken it to. We lose far more children to drug violence than to drug overdoses. We lose far more money to the drug war than for any type of drug abuse treatment we could offer for free to all who are addicted to any type of abusive use. There is no chance at all that Latin America will win or survive the drug war.
In Mexico a man is given a choice, take $10,000 and look other way or we will kill your wife and baby daughter. What would you do?

[AZreb]

10:23 AM on 03/31/2011

The killing of seven, including the son of the Mexican poet, in an exclusive gated community near Cuernavaca should serve as a warning to all U.S. citizens who seem to believe that these "gated communities" are safe for all who live within the gates.

[Erin7373]

07:25 PM on 03/31/2011

True gates are not that much of protection, but we also do not have drug cartel wars occuring with such dominance in our states.

[AZreb]

09:18 PM on 03/31/2011

Guess I wasn't clear with my remark - meant that so many U.S. citizens who are now living in Mexico seem to think that because they live in the "gated communities" in that country that they will not be touched by the drug cartels' violence.

You are right - gates are not total protection but since we have drug cartels in over 200 of our U.S. cities at last count, the violence may get worse here, too.

[Holypat777]

09:45 AM on 03/31/2011

I hope the afterlife reserves a special Hell for these child-killing psychos!!!

WTF do kids have to do with it?

[Kenz300]

12:44 AM on 03/31/2011

The Mexican people deserve a better government than they have had for 40 years.

For too long crime, bribery and police corruption were tolerated.

The Mexican people need to demand more from their politicians, business leaders, police force and military.

The concentration of wealth in the top 2% and the politically connected has been tolerated for too long. Any society that has little or no middle class is destined for trouble.

[Eric Flanagan]

11:16 PM on 03/30/2011

This is the war that we SHOULD be fighting.

[josephking]

02:23 PM on 03/30/2011

Go operation gunrunner! Go ATF!

[josephking]

02:16 PM on 03/30/2011

Wonder if they were killed by "operation gun runner" guns?

See cbs news "operation gunrunner"

[joebiteme]

01:53 PM on 03/30/2011

Yet the Mexican govt refuses to take on the cartels and allows them to operate as long as the $$ keeps coming

[who38]

10:01 PM on 03/30/2011

I don't think that they have a choice; do they?

[caribindian]

01:53 PM on 03/30/2011

I'm going to guess that if you are alive and work for the government of Mexico you are on the take cause everyone else who would fight the drug cartels is dead or on a hit list to be killed.

[totaldisbelief]

07:17 PM on 03/30/2011

a fair guess

[americanstudent]

01:43 PM on 03/30/2011

All of this can be easily avoided by simply legalizing w33d. The cartels won't make money if people can get it legally. Keep the illegalization of h3roin and cok3, because the cartels make most of their money off the green stuff.
Also, the government of Mexico is totally corrupt and can't govern 2/3 of it's land. I'm just waiting for them to flee to the Yucatan Peninsula and declare it independant from Mexico. That's their primary source of revenue, all that tourist money. If the peninsula seceded, it would be rich like a gulf oil state as long as it kept the resorts beautiful and clean, and secured itself from the cartels.
BTW, show me a Mexican politician, cop,soldier, or doctor who ISN'T corrupt, and I'll show you Jesus Christ.

[who38]

01:20 PM on 03/30/2011

Why doesn't Mexico just hire Blackwater, or whatever they are called these days, to deal with the drug cartels?  The only downside would be that  Blackwater might want to take over the Mexican government or the drug trade or both.

[totaldisbelief]

07:19 PM on 03/30/2011

does Zetas mean anything to you?

[who38]

10:00 PM on 03/30/2011

No, but I remember the Beta boys.

[IgnatiusJ]

01:12 PM on 03/30/2011

Fortunately, Texans have Governor Rick "Coyote Killah" Perry to protect them from these evil zombies. He hates the Federal government, but wants mo money from them.

[KIVPossum]

01:01 PM on 03/30/2011

If we Really wanted to be humanitarians, we would help the Mexican government instead of bom.bing Libya

[who38]

01:18 PM on 03/30/2011

Way too sensible. Besides if that country got its act together, people might not want to leave and then where would the US get their cheap labor?

[holyghostie]

09:39 PM on 03/30/2011

When Mexico nationalized the Oil Fields and took them away from TEXACO...they sealed their fate with the USA to stay a 3rd world nation.

If they wanted to help themselves they would repeal the Mexican Constitution that deals harshly with illegal immigrants, and prevents foreign investment and ownership.

[omobob]

12:40 PM on 03/30/2011

>Gunmen killed the wife and 5-year-old daughter of a state governor's bodyguard in northern Mexico on Tuesday.Brenda Carrillo, 28, and her daughter were gunned down as they left their home in Chihuahua city.The motive of the shooting was unclear. Police have reported no leads in the killings..Four men were gunned own inside a home Tuesday in San Marcos, a town in southwestern Guerrero state, another battleground for remnants of the Beltran Leyva cartel.

And so it goes on and on. 43,000 people killed in the last two years. This is not about fences. This is about supply and demand. At least we need to decriminalize marijuana. Let California lead the way.

[who38]

01:19 PM on 03/30/2011

Hear, hear.

[Catothemuchyounger]

12:48 AM on 03/31/2011

"This is about supply and demand"

I strongly disagree. The drug laws are not enough to explain what is going on in Mexico. Every Nation has criminals. Every Nation has drug dealers. The people in Mexico committing these crimes do things most criminals shy away from. They have absolutely no conscience or compunction.

This is about the taking root of a subculture of astoundingly violent depravity. It is also about the struggle of the Mexican government to maintain a civil society in the face of such a subculture.

So sure, drug money fuels this. But it is not sufficient in itself to produce the kind of violence we are seeing. It takes a fair number of people who are willing to commit the most unspeakable crimes.

[omobob]

01:07 PM on 04/05/2011

This is about Americans buying drugs from the Cartels. Legalize it and things will change. Legal medical marijuana works while collecting taxes or the bankrupt CA Government.