"Clown" shoots Mexican mobster at birthday party, nine killed around country

A gunman reportedly dressed as a clown shot on 18 October a member of Mexico's Tijuana cartel, one of the country's powerful gangs of the 1990s, at a family or children's party in the resort zone of Los Cabos in Baja California. The victim was identified as 63-year-old Francisco Rafael Arellano Félix who headed the Tijuana cartel with two brothers and was briefly imprisoned in the United States in 2007-8. Reports did not immediately clarify if the cartel remained active. The newspaper Reforma cited witnesses as saying that a "clown" walked up to him and shot him in the chest and head; police and troops apparently failed to find the gunman in spite of a subsequent search, Proceso reported on 19 October. In other incidents, two children aged 12 and 13 and a 19-year-old girl identified as their cousin were shot dead in Mexico City late on 18 October, Tabasco Hoy reported. They were shot with assault rifles used by the Army, and Proceso cited investigations as provisionally attributing the incident to a settling of criminal accounts. The review reported on 19 October the discovery of the bodies of four men shot days earlier, in a ditch south of the district of Culiacán in the north-western state of Sinaloa, while shooting incidents in the western port of Acapulco injured 10 and killed one on 19 or 20 October, Milenio reported. A young man was stabbed to death in the eastern city of Villahermosa early on 20 October, after refusing to "share a can of beer" with two suspected gangsters on the street, Tabasco Hoy reported.

Over 60 killed around Mexico in days, minister says crime down

Thirty nine were reported executed or killed in gunfights around Mexico from late 9-10 April, 14 of them at least in the western state of Michoacán, Proceso reported. In that state the army and police shot dead between 14 and 17 suspected criminals or armed civilians in gunfights in the districts of Uruapan and Apatzingán. Authorities identified one of the dead as head of the cartel Caballeros templarios in several districts of Michoacán including Uruapan, La Jornada reported on 11 April. The 39 also included seven executed in the Pacific resort of Acapulco, five of whom were young men found almost naked, with "torture" signs on their bodies. Two messages left beside them alleged they were thieves or kidnappers, and warned "the cleansing has begun." Another victim in Acapulco was a local policeman shot to death after leaving his children at school. Seven were separately executed in the north-eastern state of Tamaulipas over 6-8 April, including two identified as army informants and thought killed by the Zetas cartel, Proceso reported. The review counted "at least" 15 other victims of crime on 8-9 April. These included a local director of the steel firm ArcelorMittal, found dead in a ditch near the port of Lázaro Cárdenas in Michoacán, three armoured-van guards shot in Zamora in Michoacán, three women including a mother and daughter shot dead in Acapulco and a 19-year-old with a criminal record apparently executed in the north-western city of Ciudad Obregón. On 10 April, the interior ministry (Gobernación) stated in a report that murders and kidnappings dropped in Mexico in the first four months of the government of Enrique Peña Nieto, who took power on 1 December 2012. The interior minister, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, told the press that the report showed a 17.1-per-cent fall in homicides and 25-per-cent drop in kidnappings in that period compared to the last four months of the preceding presidency, La Crónica de Hoy reported. Osorio said this was an incipient "trend" subject to immediate changes: "nobody, I am saying it is very early, should be surprised if this tends to go up or...down....we are aware we still have some way to go and the result Mexicans expect," he said. The ministry report counted 4,249 victims of  homicides - many thought linked to drugs and cartels - from December 2012 to 25 March or the end of March 2013, compared to 5,127 victims for the last months of the government of Felipe Calderón. Osorio Chong also compared 202 registered homicides for the first week of April 2013 to the 308 reported killed in the same week in 2012.

Almost 50 reported killed, dead around Mexico

Twelve at least were reported killed or found dead in presumed criminal incidents in Mexico on 25-26 March, including several teenagers and a political activist linked to the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Gerardo Israel Facio Huerta, a leader of the Citizens' Networks (Redes Ciudadanas) grouping in the northern state of Durango, was said kidnapped at a roadside restaurant on 24 March and found floating in a canal in the city of Gómez Palacio the next day, Proceso reported on 26 March. Investigations indicated he was stabbed in the neck, Proceso reported. A hot-dog seller died in a hospital in the northern city of Monterrey on 27 March, two days after being shot by his food stand for refusing to pay money local gangsters had demanded, Proceso reported. Thirty-four-year old Enrique Ramírez Rosas had opened his stall a week before. Also on 27 March, unidentified individuals dumped seven rubbish bags containing human remains by a military base in the north-eastern city of Victoria in Tamaulipas; authorities were not yet certain how many bodies the bags contained, Proceso reported. The review reported no less than 10 violent deaths around the country for 26-27 March, and 10 through 27-28 March. A gunman separately shot dead seven people in a bar in the northern city of Chihuahua on the night of 28-29 March, Milenio reported. The daily Excelsior reported that the victims were said to have been shot by a masked man "apparently" wearing a police-type uniform. In the western state of Guerrerro, state prosecutors declared on 29 March that a clandestine grave found on 27 March in the district of Acapulco had "so far" yielded eight bodies, Proceso reported.

Dozens reported killed around Mexico

The webpage Valor por Tamaulipas, run by anonymous users and which monitors violent crime in Mexico's north-eastern Tamaulipas state, claimed that 50 people - most of whom may have been gangsters - were killed in gun battles between "armed civilians" in the city of Reynosa on 10 March and later. With these, some 60 were reported to have died in presumed criminal incidents or were found dead around Mexico on 10-12 March. Valor por Tamaulipas rejected the authorities' count of two deaths in the shootout and observed they omitted to count "dozens" of bodies thrown into one or more ditches in the district, Proceso reported on 12 March. The review reported continuing "movements" by armed groups that day. The shootout was attributed to rivalry between factions of the Gulf Cartel in Reynosa. Authorities separately found on 12 March seven bodies - of possible victims of drug cartels - left in clandestine graves in the northern and north-western states of Chihuahua and Sonora, Proceso reported. A spokesman for the Chihuahua state prosecutor's office said police believe the four found buried outside the district of  Rosales in Chihuahua may have been killed by gunmen linked to the Sinaloa Cartel headed by Joaquín Guzmán Loera. He said more bodies may be found. The grave was located after police questioned 11 suspected drug dealers and gunmen, detained in the state at an unspecified date. On 10 March the army arrested four police officers and a traffic policeman of Rosales, these being suspected of having ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, Proceso reported. Also, the police chief of the district of Tarímbaro in the western state of Michoacán was kidnapped on 10 or 11 March, then beaten and shot to death; his body was found elsewhere in Michoacán, Proceso cited the mayor of Tarímbaro as saying. Four people were in turn shot dead in the western resort of Acapulco on 11 March: three in a parked minibus, and another in an Internet café he owned, Proceso reported.

Over 20 reported killed, dead across Mexico

Twenty three at least were reported killed or found dead around Mexico through 23-27 February, including policemen and a nine-year-old child. Five of these including a nine-year-old girl were shot dead in the northern district of Lerdo on 24 February; four of them were a relatives, Proceso reported. A policewoman died on 23 February of gunshot wounds received in one of the attacks that killed five policemen on 21 February in the northern districts of Gómez Palacio and nearby Lerdo. A Belgian businessman was shot dead in the west-coast resort of Acapulco in Guerrero on 23 February. The next day a spokesman for the state of Guerrero, Arturo Martínez Nuñez, said initial investigations suggested theft or a personal vendetta as possible motives of the murder, Proceso reported. The review reported the discovery of four bodies on 23-24 February in several districts of the northern state of Chihuahua, two or three of them being headless. A restaurant owner and his son were shot dead at their workplace in the city of Morelia west of Mexico City on 23 February, Proceso reported. It counted at least four violent deaths around Mexico on 25 February, including of an infantryman shot while on patrol in the western state of Michoacán. Two died on 26 February when gunmen attacked police on the streets of the north-central city of Zacatecas, although state authorities did not immediately state who the victims were, Milenio reported, citing Notimex. Armed residents or members of the self-styled community police in a part of the state of Guerrero were reported to have found ditches or secret graves that yielded the bones of four individuals on 26 or 27 February, although the site was expected to possibly yield more. Members of the Tecoanapa community police found five ditches in a locality called La Parota in the district of Tototepec, Excelsior reported on 27 February. Locals had earlier claimed gangs tortured and murdered victims in this area, Excelsior wrote. In northern Mexico on 26 February, armed men freed 12 inmates from a prison in the district of Miguel Alemán, Proceso reported, citing declarations by police and the chief prosecutor's office of the state of Tamaulipas.

Seven shot dead around Mexico, gang suspects held

Police in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila shot dead three gunmen on 10 February, reportedly in response to an ambush on a police convoy driving to the frontier city of Acuña. A shootout began after the gunmen fired on the convoy that had stopped on a highway over a puncture, Proceso reported. On 9 February in the northern district of Piedras Negras in Coahuila gunmen fired on a bullet-proof car carrying policemen and bodyguards of the state Public Security or police chief Gerardo Villarreal Ríos. This prompted gunfire and a car chase around the city, with the participation of soldiers and marines, Proceso reported. Four men were separately reported shot dead early on 10 February in and outside the west-coast resort of Acapulco, Milenio reported. In Culiacán in the north-western state of Sinaola, a man identified separately as head of security for one of two prominent drug traffickers was reported arrested alongside four associates. Jonhatan Sales Avilés - El Fantasma - was identified by sources as either the security chief of Mexico's leading trafficker Joaquín Guzmán Loera or of another trafficker Ismael Zambada; he was surprised and detained on the night of 9-10 February at a safe house earlier located by the army, CNNMéxico reported. The broadcaster observed that state authorities had earlier thought and hoped, that the army killed Sales in a shootout near Culiacán on 4 March 2012.

Mexican community policemen said kidnapped child

Masked individuals identifying themselves as members of a self-styled community police briefly kidnapped a child in the Ayutla district of the western Mexican state of Guerrero on 4 February, prompting community police chiefs to order their policemen to work unmasked. The masks were very likely intended to help community policemen avoid identification by the criminals they have vowed to fight. Residents of at least four districts in Guerrero have formed the militias to police their part of the state, in response to the authorities' inability to curb violent crime. State authorities and civil observers have already expressed concern about the legalit of such armed groups, but locals have in turn denounced the state's failure to assure security. After the kidnapping, three local community police chiefs decided their policemen would only bear masks during "operations" or patrols, La Crónica de Hoy reported on 5 February. Community forces detained dozens of suspected criminals during January at road blocks set up around relevant districts; they recently announced relatives of 54 detainees held in the locality of El Mesón could visit on Sundays. Separately in the resort of Acapulco in Guerrero masked men raped six or seven female tourists lodged in bungalows on the edge of the city on the night of 4-5 February, media reported. Six were Spanish and one Mexican, and seven Spanish men who were with them were tied up; their belongings were robbed. The group later received medical assistance and counselling, Europa Press reported on 5 February.

Around 30 reported killed in Mexico

Just under 30 were provisionally reported as gunned down or found dead around Mexico in the period from the evening of 5 to 8 January. Nine including three policemen were reported killed or found dead on 8 December; three of those including a policeman were found in an advanced state of decomposition in the  district of Durango in the northern state of Durango, Proceso reported. The policeman, from the district of Mezquital in that state, was reported disappeared in mid-December 2012. Two policemen were separately shot dead in the northern city of Saltillo and in Mexico City, while two charred bodies were found in a car in the north-western city of Culiacán, all on 8 January. Proceso reported 19 killings on 5-6 January, most of these occurring early on 6 January. One of the victims, found in the western city of Guadalajara, was identified as belonging to the cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación. Two of his brothers were reported arrested in September 2012. Separately on 8 January three teenagers or children and an adult were detained in the western resort of Acapulco with over 14.5 tonnes of "green weed" thought to be marijuana. Interrogations indicated the four were a local gang led by the adult, a 28-year-old dubbed El Chapito, Milenio reported. Police also detained on 8 January a gang of six including a mother and her 22-year-old son in the northern district of Escobedo, all suspected of drug trafficking and the kidnapping and murder of a taxi driver, Milenio reported.

Over 35 shot dead around Mexico

Over 35 were killed in criminal "executions" and shootouts between gunmen and state forces around Mexico in the 19-21 December period. Of these 14 were reported dead on 19-20 December, including a 22-year-old who died in a shootout with the army on 20 December in the northern state of Chihuahua. Five bodies were found that day by a road in the north-central state of San Luis Potosí, with unspecified messages left beside them from one of the drug cartels, Proceso reported. Authorities in the east-coast state of Veracruz declared that troops and police shot dead on 20 December a man identified as Jesús Daniel Vargas Ramírez - El Popeye - head of The Zetas cartel in the district of Cardel or José Cardel in Veracruz, Proceso reported. The website counted at least 22 victims of criminal and related incidents from late 20 to 21 December. These included: 10 people including five teenagers killed in the northern district of Monterrey late on 20 December, and seven or nine shot dead in and around the western resort of Acapulco, including a journalist and a court official. On 21 December, authorities of the northern state of Nuevo León presented eight detainees identified as members of the Zetas cartel thought involved in the murder of 11 policemen including a police chief in 2011, Proceso reported. The state security spokesman Jorge Domene Zambrano declared that the eight were thought to have kidnapped then executed the police chief of Apodaca and 10 colleagues, in the district of Benito Juárez in April 2011, and were suspects in several murders in 2012. They were detained at an unspecified time in December.

Twenty reported killed in Mexico over weekend

About 20 people were reported to have been killed or found dead in Mexico over 1-3 December, suspected victims of criminal executions, Milenio and Proceso reported on 3 December. Eight of them were killed in different districts of the northern city of Monterrey, and eight on 3 December in several districts of the north-central state of Zacatecas. One of two men shot dead on 2 or 3 December in the north-western town of Cosalá, north of the resort of Mazatlán, was provisionally identified as the mayor's nephew, Milenio reported. More than 25 suspected criminals were also arrested in recent days. Navy personnel were reported to have caught six presumed members of The Zetas cartel in the northern district of Saltillo, one being one of 131 prisoners who escaped from the northern Piedras Negras prison last September, Milenio reported on 3 December. The daily noted that 32 of the escapees had been caught and eight shot dead so far; assault rifles, ammunition and 900 grammes of marijuna were confiscated from this group. The chief prosecutor of the western state of Colima announced on 3 December the arrests of seven members of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, some suspected of killing policemen in the state in 2011. Yolanda Verduzgo Guzmán told the press arms, cash and bags of a synthetic drug called "ice" were confiscated, Proceso reported. The same day authorities in the state of Guerrero presented 14 presumed members of a kidnapping gang active in and around the west-coast district of Acapulco and thought responsible for at least one killing. They were detained on 28 November by the Navy and police, Milenio reported.

Over 30 killed, found dead around Mexico in a day

Thirty two people were reported shot or found dead around Mexico on 28 November, the websites of Milenio and Proceso reported that day, including two policemen. One policeman, reported as kidnapped hours previously, was apparently tortured before he was found hanging from a bridge on the edge of Gómez Palacio in the northern state of Durango. Another police official was shot in his car outside a hospital in the northern city of Chihuahua as he arrived to donate blood to an injured colleague, Milenio reported. In other incidents: in Torreón next to Gómez Palacio the remains of a "mutilated corpse" were found scattered around streets in the city centre. Three men were gunned down in a workshop and a couple shot dead while talking in the street that day, also in Torreón; seven were reported shot dead in different parts of the north-western state of Sinaloa, while a gun fight between gangs killed four participants in the locality of Huitzila north of the western city of Guadalajara. Marines were reported separately to have found on 28 November "at least" nine bodies buried in two ditches near a nature reserve in the west-coast district of Acapulco.

About 30 killed, found dead in Mexico over three days

More than 30 people were reported killed or found dead from apparent criminal incidents around Mexico on 14-16 November, including gangsters, civil servants and policemen and children, Proceso reported on 15 and on 16 November. The victims included: an official of the state prosecutor's office gunned down while driving in the north-central district of Guanajuato, seven shot dead in the western resort of Acapulco, and two policemen shot dead, in the south-central state of Morelos and in Piedras Negras near the US frontier. The decomposing body of a 12-year-old boy was found on 15 November in Madera in the north-western state of Chihuahua; police believed he was strangled or suffocated to death 30 days earlier. Eleven or 12 of the dead were suspected gangsters shot dead in gun battles with troops in different parts of the country. In one incident gunmen in a convoy of 10 cars began firing on a military patrol in the north-eastern district of Tamaulipas; in another late on 16 November troops shot dead four suspected gangsters on a road in the northern state of Zacatecas, El Universal reported on 17 November. The troops were said to have fired after coming under attack. The former mayoress of Tiquicheo in the western state of Michoacán was found dead on 15 November, in Cuitzeo in the same state, El Universal reported on 17 November. María Santos Gorrestieta Salazar was twice the target of attempted assassinations when she was mayoress in 2008-11, in 2009 when a gun attack killed her husband and in 2010.

At least 20 killed in Mexico mid-week

"At least" 20 were reported killed or found dead around Mexico on 12-14 November, presumed victims of criminal violence and most likely of organized crime. These included: a bus driver shot before a bus-full of passengers in Acapulco on the western coast, four gunned down outside a brewery in Ciudad Valles near the eastern port of Tampico, five bodies found at the back of an estate car in Ecatepec outside Mexico City and two including a journalist shot dead in Tehuacán, in the eastern state of Puebla, Proceso reported on 13 and 14 November. The journalist was shot while driving from an assignment; the other victim was a former policewoman, CNN reported. In the north-eastern state of Nuevo León, police arrested on 10 November, 22 suspects identified as members of the Gulf Cartel and working in a team led by a 19-year-old, Proceso reported on 14 November. The "cell," including three members aged 15-17, was thought involved in drug trafficking, kidnapping and murders in the district of China where the suspects were arrested, Nuevo León's security spokesman Jorge Domene Zambrano said. Authorities revealed on 13 November the arrests of three other presumed members of cartels, Proceso reported. These were identified as Mario Arturo Zurita, head of The Zetas in the northern district of Saltillo arrested on 12 November, and two members of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, detained on 9 November in the eastern port of Veracruz. Separately the mayor of El Bosque in the southern state of Chiapas and two municipal offficials were shot and injured in an ambush, while driving to nearby Simojovel on 13 November, Proceso reported.

Police find 24 bodies in Acapulco

Police have found 24 bodies buried in 10 graves in an isolated point in Mexico's west-coast resort of Acapulco, after a month-long search that followed an anonymous phone tip; a caller informed police in September that criminals seemed to be burying their victims in La Piedra del Chivo, a high point overlooking the Bay of Acapulco. A first body was found on 12 September and excavations so far have yielded 23 more "human remains," Milenio reported on 22 October. The point is located between the Icacos and Costa Azul neighbourhoods, and reached after walking 2.5 kilometres. Another phone call on 21 October led a police patrol into an ambush wherein a policeman was killed and three were injured, in the district of Coyuca de Benítez also in the west-coast state of Guerrero. Police were fired on when they arrived at the spot to which they had been called; the assailants escaped after a shootout, Milenio reported. The daily cited police sources as saying that practically all settlements in the highlands of Guerrero between the Coyuca de Benítez and Atoyac de Álvarez districts further north became "ghost towns" after 19:00 hours, as residents stayed inside their homes for fear of crime. Police and troops were reportedly to launch an operation to flush out criminals from this part of Guerrero.