MEXICO: Thirteen people are dead and 15 others wounded after gunmen spray a family birthday party in Ciudad Juarez, latest

Record ID: 304064

  • Title: MEXICO: Thirteen people are dead and 15 others wounded after gunmen spray a family birthday party in Ciudad Juarez, latest
  • Date: 24th October 2010
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) CARLOS MANUEL SALAS, HEAD OF CHIHUAHUA POLICE SAYING: "Everything is being investigated. All the information, everyone that participated, anything that came from outside sources, everything is being investigated and the federal and local police are doing what they can." VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF HOUSE WHERE SHOOTING OCCURRED WITH ONE CANDLE BURNING AT THE FRONT ENTRANCE
  • Embargoed: 8th November 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA7HP0CYZ8KFZTHVCSTS621GPVB
  • Story Text: Gunmen sprayed bullets into a family birthday party in the violent Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, killing 13 people and wounding 15, authorities said on Saturday (October 23).
    It was the second massacre at a party this month in Ciudad Juarez, which borders El Paso, Texas, and is one of the world's most violent cities as drug cartels battle security forces and each other over smuggling routes into the United States.
    The celebration was for a boy's 15th birthday, sources said. At least one of the people killed was 16-years-old and a 9-year-old boy was wounded, the government of Chihuahua state said in a statement.
    "A group of heavily armed men arrived in two mini-vans. At least 10 men burst into the party," Carlos Gonzalez, a spokesman for state prosecutors, told the Reforma newspaper.
    It was not clear whether the shooting was related to Mexico's drug war, which has killed more than 6,900 people in Ciudad Juarez alone since early 2008.
    Mexican President Felipe Calderon is under pressure to show the military-led campaign he launched against the powerful drug cartels in December 2006 is working.
    With the death toll at nearly 30,000 people over the last four years, Washington and foreign investors are on edge as the violence escalates.
    Early on Saturday, a man used a broom and a hose to clean the blood-stained patio where the gunmen opened fire.
    "Everyone from the President on down are corrupt. Everything in Mexico is corrupt that's why Mexico is the way it is. I don't have trust in the police. What for? They don't do anything. There is just death and death and they, stay in their fancy hotels. So, what for?," said a witness, who declined to be identified.
    "I was in the house across the street and my wife came in to get something to eat when it started and I just grabbed my daughters in a room and hid and when you couldn't hear anything else, after about ten or fifteen minutes and nothing else could be heard, I went out and saw all the people screaming and people thrown everywhere. Blood everywhere and my wife in the door and my cousin outside," he said describing what he witnessed.
    Earlier this month in Ciudad Juarez, gunmen raided a party and killed six people.
    After that shooting, Calderon flew to the city to inaugurate parks and hospitals as part of the government's plan to increase social spending and rebuild the depressed city.
    "Everything is being investigated," assured the Head of the local police Carlos Manuel Salas.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register