EFE NEWSWIRE
Photo by: El Diario
Extortionists set fire to a preschool in this lawless Mexican border city after the facility's owners refused to pay protection money, authorities said Monday.
The arsonists scrawled the phrase "Son of a bitch, pay us" on one wall of the school in Ciudad Juarez's San Antonio neighborhood, where teachers told parents that classes were suspended until further notice.
Authorities said the owners of the Constitucion preschool had earlier received a demand for money.
It emerged last month that teachers in Juarez were being threatened with attacks on themselves and their students if they didn't hand over their Christmas bonuses to extortion gangs.
The threats appeared in the form of letters left inside schools or graffiti messages painted on walls in Ciudad Juarez, which lies just across the border from El Paso, Texas.
"Payment Nov. 30 Bonus" was the message received Nov. 11 at one high school in Mexico's murder capital.
Since then, some of Juarez's roughly 1,500 schools have virtually shut down, as parents aware of the threats are keeping their children home.
While Juarez's mayor, Hector Murguia, announced a special police operation to protect the teachers, the Chihuahua state education department said it would alter the procedure for the payment of the bonuses.
Instead of giving the teachers' cash-filled envelopes at school, the department will pay them by check or direct deposit on undisclosed dates, department spokesperson Eva Trujillo said.
The department is also drafting a manual for principals instructing them on how to keep schools functioning in the face of threats, Education Secretary Jorge Quintana said.
He also announced that 100 security cameras would be installed at schools in Ciudad Juarez.
Ciudad Juarez has suffered more than 2,700 homicides this year. Authorities blame the violence on turf wars among drug cartels.
Is this La Linea? Talk about the bottom of the barrel, extorting schools, as if they have any money? Just go get day jobs. Amado Carillo must be turning in his grave, Vicente has disgraced himself and his group.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I am too quick to judge, could this be just local extortion groups/scumbags working on their own?
ReplyDeleteWhy can't this be handled with some kind of sting?
ReplyDeleteIt seems they could easily set something up and capture the people who show up for the cash.
Anyone have any insight?
Is it a problem with intelligence gathering?
Technology?
Are the extortionists so brilliant that they know how to pull this stuff off without any risk of being pulled into a sting?
The marines should surround the city and searching house to house...weed them all out and zero tolerence...shoot them all...
ReplyDeletelol a sting operation. How familiar are you with Mexico/cartel/narco business? I don't want to be a jerk, or post a bunch of explanations, if you already know, but it's enough to say the idea you presented is not practical at all.
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be a lack of countertactics here....the bottom line is that there is too much untrained and corrupted officials....u never hear city cops finding drugs or catching thieves, extortionist, etc...its always the military....
ReplyDeleteYou're not being a jerk at all, J.
ReplyDeleteYou're actually being very sweet because I know I sounded like a dumb ass in my post.
The only things I "know" about these cartels are from my family members who have recently left Reynosa and the area of Nuevo Progreso. In other words, not much.
I really thought there was a fairly big military presence in Juarez right now. If so, this seems like such a poorly conceived attempt to extort that it would be an easy job for them to tackle.
Either way, they are putting up cameras at the school now which is sort of what I was talking about by "sting." Not like some deep cover operation with wigs and wires.
They knew demands had been made. Why didn't they put a couple of cameras up then?
But I have all kinds of questions about the technicalities behind a lot of these things.
Good, don't want to add to the idiotic comments I see on here by acting like a jerk.
ReplyDelete1. The Federal/Munipical police, and certainly elements of the military are complicit with the cartels.
2. The cartels and their soldiers aren't necessarily scared by the police or military, and even if they caught the extortionists, it wouldn't mean much, except clarification on who was doing the extorting and who the cell leader was. The point is that Juarez (most likely) has their sights on the school, and will in all likelihood keep coming. It angers me that they are doing this, I hate to see them terrorizing and taking money from the community, that doesn't have it, how do they live with themselves? No honor in the Juarez cartel it seems.
Faggots that is so low, why do kids have to be hurt by these rat basards. Probly cartel de juarez lowlifes
ReplyDeleteI have never seen a call for a fight against these cartels than the one there starting right here with these kids. If they threaten pre school children you need have the whole freakin army there waiting on them.
ReplyDeleteThose parents need to arm themselves and face down those coward losers like the great DON ALJEO GARZA, Give them a taste of bullet lead posioning that they will never forget....
ReplyDeleteI saw this in the AM and I have to admit I was wrong in saying I did not see money in extrotion of the schools. BUT I had not thought about Christmas bonuses. I may have been mistaken...however this and many kinders are private qoned and operated so in essence it is not unlike any other business, so it would make sense they would treat it as another opportunity. I still am not convinced they would extort from the government schools, truly there is no money.
ReplyDeleteThe treat with the Nov 30 dealine...I was waiting to exhale on that one...but what happened? I have not read of any consequence, and if they were willing to pay they would not have publicized the fact that a threat was imposed.
@ J
ReplyDeleteof course it would make a difference if the extortionist were caught!! Just maybe the school would not give in to demands or pay.
as for a "sting" Ay dios...this is Mexico! just about every business is extorted, so where do they start? and the corruption is so great on every level especially municipal who does one trust? I had a break in in my coahuila office and I told my staff to call the police, they looked at me as though I had 3 heads, and said "they will not come unless someone is dead...."maybe" ...so I went to the station to file a report 3 police at the front desk eating ...then it was their turn to look at me as though I had 3 heads. They refused to make a report, 15K USD of equipment for disabled kids was not important enough "unless you have photos"
I can see where to org crime they would view these private schools as just another business.
If this one has a "öwner" it is a private business.
The HS threatened a month ago was a gov school either state or federal. they had a november 30 deadline...I am unaware that they made good on the threats. and the school would not have made the threats public if they intended to pay.
has anyone read or heard anything? I still am with the opinion the rumours of schools being threaten is bogus. No money there, they do get a little extra for christmas bonus, but a lot of trouble for a few pesos. The private schools bring in 125-175 USD per student, if anyplace those are the schools I see that have more vulnerabilty
the real cartels dont do this type of stuff there involved in large amounts of cash these ass holes are probably underlings operating on the low in secret probably if these jag offs will be executed if they come across the real cartel members for heating up the area
ReplyDeleteI laugh at all your comments haha, maybe all of you should do some research before you comment. I live in Juarez and this is all wrong, what set the fire where stupid gangsters who were trying to steal some electric cables which caught on fire and set part of the school on fire. All three gangsters were caught. Heard it from friends and the local newspaper.
ReplyDeleteI agree with cartels not doing this.I mean come on how could people say its the multi billion dollar juarez cartel empire and even name dropping Viente Carrillo into this as if he has something to do with the torching.i personally think its 2 or 3 meth or crack heads off the streets looking to get those bonuses to get there crack rocks what happen there with that has junkies written all over it.
ReplyDeleteWindy city kid,
ReplyDeleteTotally agree, that it was most likely a dope-head, I seen it growing up in the Chi, crackheads breaking in to homes to steal the copper pipes, climbing telephone poles take down hundreds of feet of wire, etc.
Extortionist in Mexico take money from anyone they view as having access to extra funds. Privately run schools, Mental hospitals, clinics, Daycare centers, rehab center, all required money to run. The extortionist know they are easy targets and as a result mess with them if they are not connected to someone with juice.
Frequent readers of the blog will agree that the public needs to stop letting themselves be fooled by the whole "its the cartels fault" or "its the war between the cartels"!! Its so easy to just label events that happen in Juarez and blame everything on the DTO's.
yeah i agree ..a lot of minor crooks are taking advantage of the general confusion to make some hay...
ReplyDeleteyeap..last winter some methheads down the road from me stripped the tin from outside of their trailer to sell for dope...it was pretty funny seeing the insulation hanging out..
then they burnt the place down cookin the shit...
now they got another trailer...these pinche madres look just like zombies...all hollow eyed and emaciated
they just need drowned
I'm not in Juarez, so I have to take the story as I read it, but I don't know how it was all a scheme to steal cables, when the graffiti threats/demands are right there in color. Maybe two different stories.
ReplyDeleteI agree, that common criminals not linked to cartels are probably capitalizing on the confusion and increase of criminal actvity, but La Linea is documented/known for being heavy in the extortion racket in Juarez, I don't know why this is any different, I mean, they are extorting bus drivers, but they probably draw the line at schools? Doubtful.
@December 8, 2010 3:33 PM
ReplyDeleteBut like you said J "I'm not in Juarez, so I have to take the story as I read it" So listen wtf im saying I live in Juarez and I am telling you the truth...so much you know about la linea and Juarez haha...
These criminals don't work for the cartels, but they're drawn to these extortion gangs for the same reason that some are drawn to the cartels; unbelievable poverty. I live in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. A neighbor of mine, a six-year-old, told me that he wanted to be a sicario (hitman) when he grew up. When I asked him why, he answered "because I don't like being poor."
ReplyDelete