"Narco" terrorism claims more victims in Monterrey

By all accounts, according to the authorities, the media and of course their neighbors and families, the five men traveling in the Ford pick-up were heading home at the end of the work day on Avenida Romulo Garza in the municipality of San Nicolas, a suburb of Monterrey.

Their names in life were: Jacinto Hernández Gómez, 35, his father-in-law Andrés González Ramírez, 52, and is brother-in-law David González Juárez, 20, and Juan Marcial Genaro, 24, and his nephew Luis David Julián Marcial,16.

The five men, of Otomí ethnicity and originally from the central Mexican state of Queretaro, were albañiles (masons) working in construction, with no apparent links to gangs or drug traffickers. They carried no weapons of any kind.

While stopped in traffic and waiting for a green light at the intersection of Romulo Garza and Churubusco, witnesses state that sicarios (gunmen) on board a Ford Explorer and a VW Jetta intercepted the vehicle and riddled it with gunfire, killing all five men. It only took seconds for the sicarios to end the mason’s lives, no doubt an easy task when facing unarmed victims.

Symbolic of the threat that these roving gunmen pose to the residents of Monterrey, the vehicle was hastily loaded on a wrecker by authorities and taken to a state police facility with the dead men still on board after rumors spread that that a convoy of criminals was headed to the site of the shooting to retrieve the bodies.

All the evidence points to a case of mistaken identity, five men on board a late model pick-up truck in a city with no lack of five men traveling in late model pickups, armed to the teeth and hunting rivals in the streets. Golfos hunting Zetas and vice versa, and all hunting targets of opportunity such as poorly armed municipal or transit police moving singly, or plump victims to kidnap for ransom, or just other late model pickups to carjack and add to their fleets.

The confusion that led to their deaths may also have been caused by the front passenger wearing a military service t-shirt or the Tennessee Police sticker on the windshield of the truck.

The spouse of one of the men said that he had saved part of his earnings for six years in order to buy the Ford “Lobo”, or wolf as F-150’s are known in Mexico.

On Wednesday, April 11th, his pride and joy became his coffin. The men, in death referred to as collateral damage by the bureaucrats in government, left orphans, wives and extended families without any means of support, a tragedy multiplied.

They were poor, reportedly living with their families in the poverty stricken colonias of “Genaro Vasquez”, “Fomerrey 25” and “Lomas Modelo Norte”.

These are neighborhoods that spring up on unused land, unplanned and poorly serviced, often on steep slopes. Many have names whose theme is social justice, such as “Tierra y Libertad” or the just mentioned “Genaro Vasquez”, named for a teacher turned guerrilla fighter in the 1970’s in southern Mexico.

Although home to street gangs that are breeding grounds for drug cartel cannon fodder and plagued by drug and alcohol addictions, it should be no surprise that the majority of the residents are hard working decent people, most of the couples with families usually trying their best to provide for a proper education for their children.

Many, if not most, of the residents work in the informal economy. If living in these poor colonias, these men may have been day laborers, if lucky making in a day what a construction worker in the U.S. makes in an hour. Back in Queretaro, they would probably make much less.

The bodies of Juan Marcial Genaro and Luis David Julián Marcial were transported Friday morning for services and burial back to their home state of Queretaro.

A wake was held for Jacinto Hernández Gómez, Andrés González Ramírez, and David González Juárez in a Christian Evangelical temple “Sobre la Roca” (Church of the Rock) not far from their homes in “Lomas Modelo Norte”. It is the wish of their families that these men also be buried in Queretaro.

Descansen en Paz, hermanos Otomís.

These men were only five of the fifteen deaths of gangsters, police and civilians linked to organized crime that occurred in the Monterrey metropolitan area on Wednesday.

The affected municipalities included Monterrey, Guadalupe, Escobedo, San Nicolas and Linares.

In Monterrey the body of a man with gunshot wounds was left by the unidentified occupants of a van outside a private clinic in the Tecnologico de Monterrey, where he died minutes later while being administered emergency services.

The deceased was abandoned at the private hospital located on Avenida Junco de la Vega in front of the Tec de Monterrey dormitories at approximately 6:30pm.

San Nicolas

In addition to the five masons executed on the Avenida Romulo Garza, a clash between a group of state ministerial police officers and organized crime suspects occurred at the intersection of Miguel Aleman and Las Torres in San Nicolas resulted in the deaths of at least four suspects.

According to witnesses, a convoy of gunmen came across the group of state police officials on Las Torres avenue at 4:00pm, sparking the shootout.

Escobedo

In Escobedo gunmen on board two vehicles executed a “halcon”, or lookout, belonging to a rival gang in the Colonia Nueva Esperanza area and then attacked a municipal police patrol while fleeing, resulting in the death of a police officer.

The executed civilian was suspected of ties to a criminal organization as he was in possession of radio equipment and a Nextel telephone.

The gunmen then attacked the Escobedo police officers at 5:00pm at the intersection of Monterrey and Zaragoza streets with gunfire and grenades.

In addition to the police officer killed in the attack, another officer and two innocent bystanders were wounded.

The civilians, a woman and her two year old daughter, were reportedly hit by grenade shrapnel and were taken to a Red Cross University Hospital in undetermined condition.

Earlier in the day, in the predawn hours, police reported the discovery of a body of a 25 to 30 year old male showing signs of torture and gunshot wounds underneath a railroad bridge in the Colonia Celestino Gasca.

Guadalupe

In Guadalupe a female police officer was killed and a companion was wounded by gunfire at the intersection of Avenida Pablo Livas and Santa Rosa de Lima, near the area where two attacks against Guadalupe’s chief of police had occurred the previous two days.

According to initial investigations, the municipal police officers were ambushed while responding to reports of a bank robbery at an HSBC bank located in the Santa Maria Soriana shopping center.

Four police officers responded to the call and were met by a volley of gunfire when they descended from their units.

Linares

A gunman dressed in military-style clothing was shot at noon after a clash with Nuevo Leon’s Joint Rapid Response Team, in the municipality of Linares.

The agents were supporting the army and state police in the investigation and recovery of human remains found in newly discovered “narcofosas” (clandestine graves) in the Community of La Cebadilla, when gunmen approached the area in a Dodge Journey.

After a chase and shootout, one gunman was killed, while four gunmen managed to escape. An AR-15 rifle was found with the deceased.


Sources:
Suman 15 muertos en jorna violenta
http://www.elnorte.com/seguridad/articulo/625/1248496/

Velan albaniles ejecutados
http://www.elnorte.com/seguridad/articulo/625/1249190/?compartir=bfe549dd710b12b0d545017358f082c0

Dan ultimo adios a albañiles……
http://www.milenio.com/node/718114#foto