Mexico fires official in flap over influence abuse

Published May 15, 2013

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY –  The Mexican government has fired an official whose daughter sent inspectors to shut down a restaurant that didn't give her the table she wanted.

It's the latest comeuppance for the wealthy and well-connected who have recently caused anger in Mexico with arrogant behavior in public.

Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong says the government decided to fire the head of the country's consumer protection agency because his daughter got inspectors to partly close an upscale Mexico City bistro.

Osorio Chong said Wednesday that the actions by the daughter of Humberto Benitez Trevino and inspectors she sicced on the restaurant had hurt the agency's image.

The daughter had earlier expressed her anger on social networking sites about not getting the table.

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Victim dies from Mexico wreck that set off uproar

Published May 14, 2013

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY –  A driver who tried to escape arrest by claiming political connections was charged with manslaughter Tuesday after the woman she hit with her Porsche last week in Mexico City died of her injuries.

Mexico is experiencing a backlash against the common practice of wealthy or well-connected people trying to browbeat police and businesses, after a series of such incidents were pilloried on social networking sites.

On Thursday, suspect Dalia Ortega lost control of the Porsche she was driving in a quiet Mexico City neighborhood, striking a pedestrian before crashing into another vehicle, authorities say.

When police arrived, she purportedly said she knew a high-ranking police official and said any policeman who tried to arrest her would lose his job.

Police said officers later determined she was drunk, and arrested her. She was initially held on charges of causing injuries, but those charges were upgraded to a form of manslaughter after the victim died Monday night.

"The police arrested her and the prosecutors charged her. This is very compelling proof ... that we are not going to permit any influence-peddling or arm-twisting," Mexico City Attorney General Rodolfo Rios said.

He said Ortega actually did not have the connections she claimed.

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Mexico sets shelters as volcano shakes, spews ash

Published May 12, 2013

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY –  Seismic activity has increased at the Popocatepetl volcano near Mexico City, leading authorities to alert towns in two central states and the capital.

Mexico's National Disaster Prevention Center says the white-capped volcano spewed a plume of steam more than a half mile (1 kilometer) into the sky. The volcano shook during Saturday night, sometimes emitting glowing rock over the crater.

The government deployed soldiers and federal police to the area Sunday in the event of a bigger eruption, and officials closed off a seven-square-mile (18-square-kilometer) zone around the cone of the 17,886-foot (5,450-meter) volcano. State authorities prepared shelters.

Popocatepetl has put out small eruptions of ash almost daily since a round of activity began in 1994. The eruptions started strengthening two weeks ago and have increased even more this weekend.

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Mexico has violent weekend, despite supposed drop

CULIACAN, Mexico –  Mexico saw a wave of killings over the weekend, despite what the government says is a drop in the number of deaths related to drug violence.

In the northern state of Sinaloa, 17 bodies were found over the weekend, including six dumped in a pile along a highway. The Sinaloa state prosecutors' office said two of the men were decapitated.

The discovery on Sunday came just over two weeks after another pile of six bodies was found in another Sinaloa town.

State Attorney General Marco Antonio Higuera called the two sets of killings "very different," but said officials would hold an urgent meeting to discuss the apparent upswing in killings.

In a northern suburb of Mexico City, officials said Monday that seven bodies were found on a street near two cars in the city of Ecatepec. Most of the seven men were found bound, gagged and had been shot to death, state prosecutors' spokesman Claudio Barrera said.

In the same suburb in October, police found the bullet-ridden bodies of eight people dumped on streets, including five men and one woman between the ages of 20 and 25 who weren't wearing clothes.

Mexico City has largely been spared the drug violence afflicting some parts of the country, but in recent years there have been a spate of gang-style killings in the suburbs of the capital, including multiple bodies dumped in one spot, often bound, mutilated or shot to death. Since the larger Beltran Leyva and La Familia cartels were broken up by government attacks on the leadership, smaller gangs have been fighting over turf. Attacks on La Familia in its home state of Michoacan have pushed the gang eastward into the state of Mexico and the capital's biggest suburbs.

On Saturday, officials in Michoacan said they discovered the bodies of three men and three women buried in a clandestine grave in a rural area. All of the victims were gagged, had their feet tied at the ankles and apparently were tortured.

The Michoacan state prosecutors' office said the shallow grave was found after neighbors noticed dogs digging at the spot, uncovering human remains. The bodies were apparently buried about a month ago.

The office said three of the men and one woman found in the grave had their hands cut off. Drug cartels sometimes mutilate corpses' hands or heads to make identification difficult.

Mexico's Interior Department reported in April that drug-related deaths have fallen 14 percent from December into March, as compared to the same period a year earlier. But non-drug-related deaths actually rose by 6.8 percent during the same period, raising the question of whether some deaths have been reclassified to improve the country's image and to help President Enrique Pena Nieto appear to meet one of his key campaign pledges: to reduce drug-related violence.

"Does this mean that the narcos are killing less, but that all other possible forms of violence are growing? Has there been some kind of explosion in domestic violence, bar fights, land disputes?" wrote security analyst Alejandro Hope in a column for the news site Animal Politico. "Or it could it be that they have changed the standards to reclassify drug-related killings?"

"To me, it is very suspicious that the numbers show everybody killing more, except the narcos," Hope wrote.

The Interior Department said it would not comment on the allegations.

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Associated Press writer Mark Stevenson in Mexico City contributed to this report.

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Parishioners start fund for stabbing victims after attack at New Mexico Catholic church

Published May 05, 2013

Associated Press

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  In a Monday April 29, 2013 photo, defendant Lawrence Capener, center, makes a first appearance before Metropolitan Court Judge Sharon Walton in Albuquerque. Walton raised the bond for stabbing suspect Lawrence Capener to $250,000 cash or surety, citing “the harm done to the alleged victims” and comments attributed to Capener in a criminal complaint. Capener, charged with stabbing three people at an Albuquerque Catholic church because he thought a choir leader was a Mason, vandalized a Masonic lodge hours before his attack, police said. (AP Photo/Albuquerque Journal, Pat Vasquez-Cunningham)The Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. –  Members of a Catholic church where three people were stabbed during Mass a week ago launched an effort on Sunday to raise money for victims hurt in the attack.

The start of the campaign came as Sunday services resumed at St. Jude Thaddeus Church. Parishioners were also collecting cards and well wishes to give to families.

"God is working in and through all of life's circumstances," a message seeking donations said on the church's website. "Thank you for your prayers and concern and for answering God's call."

Police said Lawrence Capener stabbed three people on April 28 as Mass was ending because he thought a choir leader was a Mason. He has been charged with aggravated battery and was being held on $250,000 bail.

Santa Fe Archbishop Michael Sheehan re-consecrated the Albuquerque church on Wednesday by sprinkling holy water and spreading incense through the building. The move was part of a Catholic ritual required after a sacrilege has been committed at a church.

St. Jude Thaddeus' pastor, the Rev. John Daniel, said he believes parishioners have already forgiven Capener and continued to pray for him and his family.

"What can you do? This is what we are taught to do," he said.

Capener, 24, told police that he also tagged the Sandoval No. 76 Masonic Lodge in Rio Rancho with spray paint just before the stabbing attack, authorities said.

Police later found red and blue spray paint on signs, outside walls and a door. Investigators said he also left the message, "I hope you guess who I am."

Parishioners said they rarely saw Capener attend services but were aware that his mother is active in the church, which is on the city's Westside.

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Attack on train in Mexico injures 10 migrants

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  **CLARIFIES WHEN MIGRANT WAS INJURED ** A migrant who did not want to be identified, rests at a shelter in Acayucan, Mexico, Thursday, May 2, 2013. The unidentified migrant was attacked on a freight train he was riding through Mexico in mid-April, resulting in the amputation of his foot. In a similar incident, migrants bound for the U.S. on a freight train traveling through the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz were assaulted by armed men, Wednesday, May 1, 2013. Some jumped from the train to escape and others were thrown off, said migrants' rights activist Tomas Gonzalez Castillo. At least 10 Honduran migrants are recovering from wounds suffered in the attack. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)The Associated Press

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  A group of Central American migrants rest at a shelter after they were attacked on the freight train they were riding through Mexico, in Acayucan, Mexico, Thursday, May 2, 2013. The United States-bound migrants had hopped on the train in southern Mexico and were traveling through the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz when attackers shot and cut them with machetes. Some jumped from the train to escape and others were thrown off, said migrants' rights activist Tomas Gonzalez Castillo. At least 10 Honduran migrants are recovering from wounds suffered in the attack. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)The Associated Press

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  A group of Central American migrants wait in line to call their relatives at a shelter after they were attacked on the freight train they were riding through Mexico, in Acayucan, Mexico, Thursday, May 2, 2013. The United States-bound migrants had hopped on the train in southern Mexico and were traveling through the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz when attackers shot and cut them with machetes. Some jumped from the train to escape and others were thrown off, said migrants' rights activist Tomas Gonzalez Castillo. At least 10 Honduran migrants are recovering from wounds suffered in the attack. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)The Associated Press

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  A group of Central American migrants read the news of their ordeal from a local newspaper outside of a shelter after they were attacked on the freight train they were riding through Mexico, in Acayucan, Mexico, Thursday, May 2, 2013. The United States-bound migrants had hopped on the train in southern Mexico and were traveling through the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz when attackers shot and cut them with machetes. Some jumped from the train to escape and others were thrown off, said migrants' rights activist Tomas Gonzalez Castillo. At least 10 Honduran migrants are recovering from wounds suffered in the attack. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)The Associated Press

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  Christian Arteaga Navarro, a migrant from Honduras, waits for his turn to call his relatives back home at a shelter after being attacked on the freight train he was riding through Mexico, in Acayucan, Mexico, Thursday, May 2, 2013. Several United States-bound migrants had hopped on the train in southern Mexico and were traveling through the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz when attackers shot and cut them with machetes. Some jumped from the train to escape and others were thrown off, said migrants' rights activist Tomas Gonzalez Castillo. At least 10 Honduran migrants are recovering from wounds suffered in the attack. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)The Associated Press

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VERACRUZ, Mexico –  An assault on mainly Honduran migrants traveling on a freight train through Mexico left at least 10 of them injured, authorities said Thursday. Activists and paramedics said dozens of the U.S.-bound migrants were hurt, many badly.

The migrants had hopped on the train in southern Mexico and were traveling north through the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz when armed men demanding money attacked them with machetes and guns. Some jumped from the train to escape and others were thrown off, said migrant rights activist Tomas Gonzalez Castillo.

Gonzalez Castillo said he received reports of dozens of migrants seriously injured in the attack. Red Cross worker Daniel Fernandez said at least 200 migrants were treated for contusions and cuts at a migrant shelter in the town of Acayucan.

Veracruz's government, however, only confirmed that 10 people were injured in Wednesday's attack near the town of Cosoleacaque. It said nine of the injured had been treated at local hospitals and released, and that one remained hospitalized.

The government said the attackers were Hondurans already on board the train who tried to extort protection money from their fellow passengers.

"The injured, who are Honduran citizens, told immigration authorities that ... other migrants of the same nationality, who were also on the train, tried to charge them a fee and this led to a fight," it said.

Rev. David Hernandez Tovilla, who helps migrants in the Veracruz town of Coatzacoalcos, said witnesses told him the attackers were members of an organized crime group and that at least eight migrants were killed. He said witnesses saw dozens being injured, including some thrown off the train by gunmen.

Veracruz Gov. Javier Duarte told reporters that no one died in the attack.

Jose Castro Marin, a 31-year-old migrant from Honduras, said the assailants were traveling among them.

He said that when the train started slowing down near Cosoleacaque at least 15 men pulled machetes and handguns and demanded $100 from each migrant if they wanted to continue on their journey.

"They started shooting at us and wounded one person on the leg," Castro said. "People started to run, some jumped off. I almost fell among the train's wheels."

Castro said at least 500 people were riding the train and that he's still looking for his brother who was traveling with him.

"My brother is missing," he said from a shelter in Acayucan. "People who saw him tell me the gunmen threw him off the train and that he hurt his head really badly. I don't know if they have him, if they kidnapped him."

Mexican drug gangs often recruit Central Americans to prey on their countrymen, who frequently have to pay off thieves, immigration officials, police and railroad employees as they head north on the sun-scorched trek. They also have to cross territory controlled by the Zetas gang, which has increasingly targeted migrants, kidnapping them for ransom or holding them for forced labor.

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Once-touted corruption cases collapse in Mexico

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  Retired Mexican Army General Tomas Angeles Dauahare, center, is escorted by unidentified members of his legal team as he leaves the Altiplano maximum security prison in Almoloya de Juarez, Mexico, Thursday, April 18, 2013. Federal prosecutors have dropped organized crime charges against Dauahare, accused of aiding a drug cartel after determining that the witness testimony was not enough to sustain their case. He had been in prison since last year, charged with protecting members of the Beltran Leyva cartel. (AP Photo)The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY –  Some of Mexico's most high-profile corruption cases have unraveled recently on thin or made-up evidence, reinforcing long-held notions that the Attorney General's Office is more focused on political vendettas or favors than justice.

Among the cases to collapse or suffer setbacks are those of a former drug czar and a former No. 2 in the Defense Department, both accused of links to drug cartels, as well as corruption proceedings related to a former governor of Coahuila state who saw $3 billion in public funds go missing during his tenure.

Experts say the faulty prosecutions are the product of questionable police work, organizational problems and a justice system dominated by political interests. All three cases began during the government of President Felipe Calderon and were thrown out or quietly shelved during the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto.

"There is a deficiency in the organization, in the presentation of investigations. There are serious technical flaws," said Javier Oliva, a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico who studies defense and security. "If the question is, 'Why did these cases fail?', it is because they have no legal support."

The first to be freed was former anti-drug czar Noe Ramirez, who was arrested in 2008 in an internal sweep known as "Operation Clean House" on charges that he took $450,000 a month from the Beltran Leyva drug cartel.

Last week, a federal judge in western Nayarit state, where Ramirez had been held at a maximum security prison, ordered his release after determining that the main witness in the case lied and prosecutors might have fabricated evidence.

The case against Ramirez was launched following the arrest of Gerardo Garay, then the country's acting federal police chief, for stealing money from a Mexico City mansion during a drug raid, according to Samuel Gonzalez, who occupied Ramirez's anti-drug post a decade earlier.

Gonzalez said Garay's boss and ally, federal Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna, was reportedly incensed by the arrest and demanded that Calderon prosecute someone at the Attorney General's Office in revenge.

"Garcia Luna was the one who demanded that Calderon go after Noe Ramirez, because charges had been brought against Garay, he wanted someone of the same level charged," Gonzalez said.

Two days after Ramirez was freed, retired army Gen. Tomas Angeles Dauahare was also ordered released after the Attorney General's Office dropped the drug corruption case against him because of a lack of evidence.

Angeles Dauahare, a former assistant defense secretary, told The Associated Press that he believes the case against him was also political.

He had openly criticized Calderon's strategy of cracking down on the drug cartels and appeared at a May campaign event for then-candidate Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Days after the campaign appearance, he and other senior military leaders were arrested on accusations of helping the Beltran Leyva cartel.

"They tried to destroy everybody who didn't share their opinions," Angeles Dauahare said of the Calerdon government. "The Attorney General's Office was used to carry out this reprisal."

Calderon's conservative National Action Party government had touted the arrests as proof of Mexico's fortitude in fighting internal corruption.

Both men were freed by officials in Pena Nieto's administration after he took office Dec. 1, returning his party returned to power after a 12-year hiatus.

Eduardo Medina Mora, who was attorney general under Calderon and is now its ambassador to the United States, did not respond to requests for comment.

Some say prosecutors erred in largely resting their accusations on the testimony of protected witnesses, without verifying independently if additional evidence existed.

Both Ramirez and Angeles Dauahare were arrested on the testimony of a protected witness known as "Jennifer," a former associate of the Beltran Leyva cartel who is now in the U.S., according to trial documents.

In announcing his decision to absolve Ramirez, the judge said that accounts from people in Mexico's witness-protection program were unreliable.

As the case unfolded, prosecutors scrambled to gather whatever evidence they could against Ramirez, even reportedly calling U.S. agents to see if they had anything on him.

One former U.S. law enforcement official, who couldn't speak on the record for security reasons, said such requests were not uncommon.

Mexican officials "would detain someone and then call us up and say, 'Do you have anything on him?" the former official said. "It was arrest first and ask questions later. This isn't against their law, not out of the ordinary. That's the system."

He agreed with Oliva, the university researcher, that prosecutors lack investigative skills and have difficulty building a case.

Current Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam told local media that his office will launch an investigation into "Jennifer" and the cases involving the witness' false testimony.

A third case that arose during Calderon's term involved former Coahuila governor and ex-PRI national party chief Humberto Moreira, who resigned as party president in December 2011 because of the $3 billion in state debt racked up during his time as governor.

The corruption case, which could potentially prove embarrassing for the ruling PRI, was aimed at two of Moreira's close associates who were discovered with unexplained wealth, including his state treasurer at the time who is now wanted in the U.S. on money-laundering charges.

The case was quietly dropped by federal prosecutors who turned it over to local prosecutors in Coahuila state, where Moreira's brother is now governor, leading to fears the case will end in impunity.

Authorities didn't announce the decision at the time and it only recently became public that the decision was taken in early December during the first weeks of Pena Nieto's administration.

An Attorney General's Office official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said he didn't know why federal prosecutors decided they had no jurisdiction in the case.

This week, the Senate committee on justice asked for Mexico's attorney general to answer questions on what his office was investigating in the Coahuila debt scandal if the case against the treasurer had been dropped.

Another case from the Calderon era that concluded with embarrassment was that of an alleged plot to smuggle the son of late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi into Mexico as his regime crumbled.

Calderon's office had bragged about the "careful intelligence work" that dismantled the complex scheme in the months leading up to Mexico's 2012 presidential election.

Suspects Cynthia Vanier of Canada and Gabriela Davila Huerta of Mexico were released from custody last week after three judges determined that much of the evidence against them was collected illegally and that their basic rights were violated.

Murillo, the current attorney general, has said that he inherited a justice department in disarray and is reviewing previous cases as part of a reorganization.

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Adriana Gomez Licon on Twitter: http://twitter.com/agomezlicon

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Mexico judge acquits ex-drug czar linked to cartel

Published April 15, 2013

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY –  A Mexican judge has acquitted a former drug czar who was charged with organized crime after he allegedly accepted $450,000 to leak details of police operations against members of the Pacific cartel, an alliance once headed by the Sinaloa drug cartel.

Noe Ramirez was Mexico's top anti-drug prosecutor and the highest-ranking law enforcement official detained in 2008 as part of then President Felipe Calderon's sweeping effort to weed out corrupt officials with ties to organized crime.

Mexico's Federal Judiciary Council said in a statement that a federal judge acquitted Ramirez on Monday after determining the main witness in the case lied and prosecutors might have fabricated evidence.

Ramirez was one of five top officials and two federal agents detained in 2008 as part of Calderon's "Operation Clean House."

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Mexico breaks up armed gang's plot to kill 2 congressmen

MEXICO CITY –  Mexican prosecutors said Thursday they have broken up a plot by an armed gang to assassinate two federal legislators in Mexico City.

The plan, had it succeeded, would have marked a rare attack on federal officials, who have largely escaped the drug-fueled violence that has claimed the lives of many state and local officials.

The intended victims are brothers, one a senator and one a congressman, from the north-central state of Zacatecas. Both Sen. David Monreal Avila and Congressman Ricardo Monreal Avila were warned and placed under protection once the plot was uncovered, based on intelligence information.

The armed gang was arrested Thursday at a hotel in downtown Mexico City, Assistant Attorney General Mariana Benitez told reporters. She did not specify how many were detained, what weapons they were carrying or whether they had any ties to drug gangs.

"Early today the raid was successfully carried out without violence, and apart from the individuals arrested ... guns and communication equipment with which they planned to carry out the assassinations were seized," Benitez said.

Describing the detainees' statements to police, Benitez said "they said they were in Mexico City to kill the legislators."

Benitez did not give any possible motive in the failed plot.

The brutal Zetas cartel has been fighting turf battles and engaging in leadership struggles in Zacatecas, a key trafficking route. Both Monreals are members of leftist parties, and Ricardo Monreal served as Zacatecas governor from 1998-2004.

He later served as a key campaign official for former leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in his failed bids for the presidency in 2006 and 2012.

In 2009 army troops acting on a tip raided a chile-drying warehouse owned by another brother, Candido Monreal, and found people loading marijuana onto trucks. More than 11.4 tons of the drug were seized at the plant, near the city of Fresnillo, Zacatecas.

The Monreals said the warehouse had been broken into, and Candido was never charged. Ricardo Monreal told reporters later quoted his brother as saying "the (locks) had been broken, and he reported it to police."

That same year, Ricardo Monreal accused the Zacatecas government of being completely infiltrated by drug traffickers. He resigned from the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, which governed Zacatecas at the time, to protest what he called a smear campaign against him.

While state and local police officials, mayors and local prosecutors have often been murdered by drug gangs or rivals in Mexico since 2006, federal officials have seldom been targeted.

A federal congressmen from the southern state of Guerrero was killed in 2011, and prosecutors blamed the killing on a local mayor, who allegedly ordered congressman Moises Villanueva killed because he "got in the way" of the mayor's political plans.

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Audit: Mexico failed with cookie-like monument

MEXICO CITY –  Construction of a monument that Mexico City residents say resembles a giant cream-filled wafer was soured by overspending and building code violations, an audit has found.

Formally known as the Pillar of Light, the 104-meter (343-foot) high structure on the capital's emblematic Reforma Avenue was supposed to cost around $35 million, instead tax payers shelled out $100 million, according to the report released Wednesday by the audit unit of Congress.

The audit found that Mexico's anti-corruption agency failed to oversee spending and ignored costly errors during its construction.

Previous comments by federal officials and contractors had revealed that the monument's construction was plagued with wrongdoings and overspending. But the audit also found that the Public Administration Department, the anti-corruption watchdog, ignored violations of construction codes and full compliance with spending regulations.

The monument, which is made of a series of columns sandwiched by panels of quartz backlit by LED lights, was built to commemorate the bicentennial of Mexican independence. It was meant as a gleaming symbol of hope and inspiration in a country beset by drug violence.

But its construction became a topic of debate in Mexico and it is now commonly known as "suavicrema," a cream-filled cookie with a gridded surface. The tower has also earned nicknames like "the Monument of Shame" and "the Monument of Mexican Dependence."

It was scheduled to be inaugurated on Sept. 15, 2010, but was finished a year-and-a-half late and was not well-received by many Mexicans who saw little of Mexico in it.

The construction company brought stainless-steel columns from Italy, quartz panels from Brazil and a specialized lighting system made by a German-owned company.

The audit concluded that the construction company inflated steel prices and overspent on the quartz and it lied on the actual weight of the tower to justify more expenses.

"They made decisions without the proper coordination and full compliance with regulations," the report said.

The audit also found the committee that oversaw the work signed a contract for an incomplete project that contained errors, including having to dig deeper than it had been established in the beginning.

The management company Triple I Services could not be reached by The Associated Press Wednesday. A spokesman for the Public Administration Department said it would not comment on the report because it referred to faults by the previous administration of President Felipe Calderon, who left office on Dec. 1.

"Those audits belong to the past six-year term. Right now, the department has nothing to say about it," said spokesman Emilio Estrada.

_________

Adriana Gomez Licon is on Twitter http://twitter.com/agomezlicon

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Mexico demands Sotheby's halt auction of artifacts

Published March 21, 2013

Associated Press

Mexico City –  The Mexican government is demanding that the Sotheby's auction house halt the planned sale of 51 pre-Colombian Mexican artifacts, arguing they are protected national historical pieces.

The National Institute of Anthropology and History says Mexico has sent a diplomatic note to the French government seeking assistance in heading off the sale scheduled in Paris for Friday and Saturday.

A description of the pieces listed on the French website of Sotheby's describes the collection as containing sculptures from Mexican and other pre-Hispanic cultures.

Sotheby's did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A statement issued by the Mexican institute Wednesday says it objects to "the international trade in protected cultural objects" and says the pieces are "property of the nation."

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Death toll in Mexico fireworks blast rises to 16

Published March 17, 2013

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY –  The death toll in a gruesome fireworks explosion during a religious procession has risen to 16, after three people more died at hospitals of their injuries.

A spokeswoman for the central Mexican state of Tlaxcala says a mass funeral is being held Sunday for 13 victims.

Spokeswoman Teresa Ramirez says about 80 people have been hospitalized. A total of about 154 were injured when a rocket malfunctioned and landed on the truck, igniting the fireworks it carried.

Residents told local media about finding bits of human remains blown into their yards, trees and patios by the blast.

The victims were marching in an annual procession Friday in honor of Jesus Christ, the patron of Jesus Tepactepec, a village of about 1,000 people 70 miles (112 kilometers) east of Mexico City.

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9 dead, dozens hurt in Mexico fireworks explosion

Published March 15, 2013

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY –  Authorities in central Mexico say at least nine people were killed and dozens injured when a pickup truck carrying fireworks caught fire and blew up during a religious celebration at a small village.

Tlaxcala state Civil Protection director Jose Morales says the explosion in Jesus Tepactepec happened as people were in a procession and a firework malfunctioned and landed on the truck carrying the rest of the fireworks.

Morales says nine people are known dead and adds that there are also injuries but he doesn't know how many. Authorities in neighboring Puebla state say 45 injured people have been taken to hospitals in their state.

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Monarch butterflies drop ominously in Mexico

MEXICO CITY –  Scientists say the amount of Monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico dropped 59 percent this year, falling to the lowest level since comparable record-keeping began 20 years ago.

It was the third straight year of declines for the orange-and-black butterflies that migrate from the United States and Canada to spend the winter in mountaintop fir forests in central Mexico. Six of the last seven years have shown drops, and there are now only one-fifteenth as many butterflies as there were in 1997.

The millions of Monarchs cluster so densely on tree boughs that researchers don't count their individual numbers but rather measure the amount of forest they cover. This winter, they covered just 2.93 acres (1.19 hectares), down from 7.14 acres (2.89 hectares) last year.

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Criminal complaint in Mexico Frenchwoman case

MEXICO CITY –  Mexico's top human rights body says it is bringing a criminal complaint against former and current high-ranking law enforcement officials in the case of a Frenchwoman freed after seven years detention on kidnapping charges.

The National Human Rights Commission said Wednesday that it will deliver a complaint to prosecutors this week against four former police commanders and 17 officers for abuse of authority in the case of Florence Cassez. She was released in January after the Supreme Court found numerous violations of her rights.

Commission director Raul Plascencia says a former head of the federal police could be one of the targets of the complaint.

Cassez was paraded before TV cameras after her arrest and forced to participate in a televised reenactment of her capture.

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Mexico nabs 21 in newspaper, politician attacks

GOMEZ PALACIO, Mexico –  Mexican police have detained 21 alleged members of a drug gang linked to the Sinaloa cartel in connection with as many as 30 killings and the abduction of five non-editorial employees of a newspaper who were later released.

Prosecutors in the northern state of Durango say the kidnap-killing of a local politician was among the crimes charged.

A Thursday statement from the state prosecutor's office says the suspects included at least six females who were arrested in the northern city of Gomez Palacio and surrounding areas.

Police say they recovered 20 rifles and bags of drugs in making the 21 arrests.

State Attorney General Sonia de la Garza says the gang dealt drugs, but also acted as an enforcement wing for the Sinaloa cartel led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

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Belgian killed in Mexico had been threatened

MEXICO CITY –  What had seemed to be another attack on a tourist in Acapulco appeared to turn into something a bit more involved but equally sinister on Monday, when the company of a Belgian businessman shot to death in the Pacific resort over the weekend said he had received death threats following a legal dispute with a former business associate.

The killing of Belgian Jan Sarens outside a shopping center on Saturday cast a pall over this once-glittering but now violence-plagued resort, which is preparing to host the Mexican Open tennis tournament this week. It was the second violent attack involving foreigners in Acapulco in less than three weeks. On Feb. 4, a band of masked gunmen invaded a beachfront home and raped six visiting Spanish women.

Sarens' company, the Belgium-based Sarens Group, said in a statement Monday that he had received death threats, after he filed a lawsuit against a former Mexican associate, Gruas Industriales Ojeda.

Both companies are involved in the industrial crane business, and the dispute apparently involved the ownership of cranes.

"A short while after the start of the activities in Mexico the Sarens Group became the victim of scams by their then partner, the Mexican enterprise Gruas Ojeda. This conflict led to a long judicial struggle, which was finally arbitrated in favor of Sarens, but the agreement has still not been executed," the Sarens Group said in a statement.

"After the Sarens Group had been able to recover a part of their material ... however this success was overshadowed by the fact that the ex-associate didn't keep to his refund obligations and the Sarens Group was forced once again to call in the help of the Mexican court. Within this situation death threats have been made against Mr. Sarens and the director of the Mexican group association," the company said.

Gruas Ojeda did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the case. Local media reported on a $9.8 million judgment against Gruas Ojeda in the case in 2011, but the Mexico City judiciary council was not immediately available to confirm the ruling.

Prosecutors in the southern state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located, said Sunday they were looking into robbery or "personal revenge" as motives in the killing.

Sarens, 59, a longtime resident of Mexico City who was visiting Acapulco on the weekend, was found dead near his Mercedes-Benz convertible; the car was not stolen.

"The lines of probable investigation point to personal revenge or robbery," the state government said.

Acapulco has been plagued by drug-related shootouts, beheadings and killings in recent years, and officials have been quick in the past to rule out any involvement of drug cartels in crimes against tourists. One of Mexico's chief arguments to support it tourism industry is that cartels don't target tourists.

One of the first statement Acapulco's mayor made after the Spanish tourists were raped was that the crime didn't appear to be related to drug cartels.

In the end Sarens' killing may not have been either, but experts say the lawlessness and impunity created by the drug gangs has created an atmosphere in which other kinds of crimes can occur. Law enforcement is overwhelmed by violence, poor prosecution and public mistrust, to the point where Mexico's National Human Rights Commission estimates that only 8 percent of crimes are even reported, and only 1 percent are punished.

Law enforcement in Guerrero has been so weak that villagers in many towns of the state have started armed self-defense patrols to combat cartels and common criminals.

Alejandro Hope, a security analyst and former high-ranking official in Mexico's national intelligence agency, said "an atmosphere where impunity thrives is an environment that gives rise to all types of violence, in which people settle their differences outside of the law."

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Belgian killed in Mexico resort was businessman

Published February 24, 2013

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY –  Local prosecutors in Mexico say a Belgian citizen killed in the coastal resort of Acapulco was a resident businessman working for a transnational firm.

The Guerrero state district attorney's office on Sunday identified the man as 59-year-old Jan Sarens. He was an executive with the Belgian firm Sarens, which supplies heavy transportation equipment for construction, mining and energy. It has offices in 50 countries, including Mexico.

An attorney for the firm's Mexico office said it had not identified the body. Attorney Celia Gomez said the company had a board member named Jans Sarens who lived in Mexico.

The man was shot to death Saturday afternoon in a shopping center parking lot near Mexican Tennis Open headquarters. His body was found outside his Mercedes Benz vehicle, which had Mexico City plates.

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Mexico pledges hunt for disappeared

Published February 21, 2013

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY –  Mexico says it will work with the International Red Cross on the search for thousands of people who have disappeared during the country's six-year war on drug cartels.

Officials provided few details of the arrangement signed Thursday and did not release a copy, but one Interior Department official said the search would include the creation of a database with genetic information from relatives of the disappeared.

Human Rights Watch released a report Wednesday that describes 249 cases of disappearances, most of which appeared to have been carried out by the military or law enforcement. The same day, Mexican officials said they had a preliminary count of more than 27,000 people reported missing over the last six years. The majority of those are blamed on drug cartels or smaller gangs.

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