Sunday, November 15, 2009 MEXICO CITY Authorities say a 7-year-old boy, three women and a university professor are among 15 people who were killed in a single day in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez.The carnage was even high for Ciudad Juarez, which has had 1,986 homicides through mid-October this year -- averaging seven a day in the city of 1.5 million people. The metropolis across the border from El Paso, Texas, is considered Mexico's deadliest city.State prosecutor's spokesman Arturo Sandoval said the child was traveling with his father in a pickup truck when gunmen opened fire Friday, killing them both.Mr. Sandoval said three women were shot to death in two separate incidents. A university professor was killed in a residential area.Mr. Sandoval said that nine other men were killed in six separate incidents.Last week, business groups in Ciudad Juarez called for United Nations peacekeepers to quell the drug-related violence that has given their city one of the highest homicide rates in the world.Groups representing maquiladora assembly plants, retailers and other businesses said they will submit a request to the Mexican government and the Inter American Human Rights Commission to ask the U.N. to send help."This is a proposal ... for international forces to come here to help out the domestic (security) forces," said Daniel Murguia, president of the Ciudad Juarez chapter of the National Chamber of Commerce, Services and Tourism. "There is a lot of extortions and robberies of businesses. Many businesses are closing."The government has sent more than 5,000 soldiers to the city, but killings, extortions and kidnappings continue."We have seen the U.N. peacekeepers enter other countries that have a lot fewer problems than we have," Mr. Murguia said.The groups appeared to be motivated by a sense of desperation and deep disappointment with the government's efforts to control crime in the city.Soledad Maynez, president of the Ciudad Juarez Association of Maquiladoras, said the joint police-army operation to quell killings and crime have yielded no results.
Sunday, November 15, 2009 MEXICO CITY Authorities say a 7-year-old boy, three women and a university professor are among 15 people who were killed in a single day in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez.The carnage was even high for Ciudad Juarez, which has had 1,986 homicides through mid-October this year -- averaging seven a day in the city of 1.5 million people. The metropolis across the border from El Paso, Texas, is considered Mexico's deadliest city.State prosecutor's spokesman Arturo Sandoval said the child was traveling with his father in a pickup truck when gunmen opened fire Friday, killing them both.Mr. Sandoval said three women were shot to death in two separate incidents. A university professor was killed in a residential area.Mr. Sandoval said that nine other men were killed in six separate incidents.Last week, business groups in Ciudad Juarez called for United Nations peacekeepers to quell the drug-related violence that has given their city one of the highest homicide rates in the world.Groups representing maquiladora assembly plants, retailers and other businesses said they will submit a request to the Mexican government and the Inter American Human Rights Commission to ask the U.N. to send help."This is a proposal ... for international forces to come here to help out the domestic (security) forces," said Daniel Murguia, president of the Ciudad Juarez chapter of the National Chamber of Commerce, Services and Tourism. "There is a lot of extortions and robberies of businesses. Many businesses are closing."The government has sent more than 5,000 soldiers to the city, but killings, extortions and kidnappings continue."We have seen the U.N. peacekeepers enter other countries that have a lot fewer problems than we have," Mr. Murguia said.The groups appeared to be motivated by a sense of desperation and deep disappointment with the government's efforts to control crime in the city.Soledad Maynez, president of the Ciudad Juarez Association of Maquiladoras, said the joint police-army operation to quell killings and crime have yielded no results.
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