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Pato
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Some 200 U.S. citizens left dead in MX . . .. .
Some 200 U.S. citizens left dead in wave of violence since 2004
BY LISE OLSEN
Houston Chronicle
HOUSTON - A 22-year-old man from Houston and his 16-year-old friend are hauled out of a minivan in Mexico, shot execution style by thugs in a black
Lincoln Continental, and left dead in the dirt.
The body of a 65-year-old nurse from Brownsville, Texas, is found floating in the Rio Bravo after a visit to a Mexican beauty salon.
A U.S. retiree, an ex-Marine, is stabbed to death as he camps on a Baja beach with his dog.
More than 200 U.S. citizens have been slain in Mexico's escalating wave of violence since 2004 an average of nearly one killing a week, according to a
Houston Chronicle investigation into the deaths.
Rarely are the killers captured.
The U.S. State Department tracks most homicides of U.S. citizens abroad, but the department releases minimal statistics and doesn't include victims'
names or details about the deaths. The Chronicle examined hundreds of records to document the personal tragedies behind them.
More U.S. citizens suffered unnatural deaths in Mexico than in any other foreign country, excluding military killed in combat zones from 2004 to 2007,
State Department statistics show. Most died in the recent outbreaks of violence in border cities Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez and Nuevo Laredo.
The Chronicle analysis showed some U.S. homicide victims were involved in organized crime. At least two dozen victims were labeled hit men, drug
dealers, human smugglers or gang members, based on published investigators' accusations. Others were drug users or wanted for crimes back home. But in
at least 70 other cases, U.S. citizens appear to have been killed while in Mexico for innocent reasons.
Congressman Juan Francisco Rivera Bedoya of Nuevo León, a former prosecutor who heads the national Public Security Committee, said he believes most
U.S. victims get killed after crossing the border to participate in illegal activities or venturing into unsafe areas. "Tourists visiting cathedrals,
museums and other cultural centers are not at risk," he said.
At least 40 U.S. citizens were among the thousands killed and dumped in gruesome methods favored by cartel killers last year, the Chronicle found. Two
Texan teens were victims of a U.S. serial killer in Nuevo Laredo, who bragged to a friend in a recorded cell phone call that he stewed their remains
in vats. Recent border victims include at least 15 U.S.-born children and teenagers.
In 2008, Austin Kane Danielsen, an 18-year-old Kansan visiting Mexico for the first time, was attacked, beaten and kicked after leaving a disco in
Matamoros. His attackers used a pickup to drag his brutalized body 30 yards and dumped it next to a railroad track.
In 2005, Eddy Vargas, an El Paso teen, was beaten to death on his way to a Juárez ice cream store. In 2004, two California-born women, Sandra Luz
Castro Pelayo and Vividiana Estrella Martínez, both 18, were raped, murdered and thrown into a canal in La Rosita by gang members.
A wave of killings in Juárez - a stunning 1,600 victims in 2008 and more than 210 so far this year - took the lives of three U.S. citizens in three
weeks, including an El Paso nurse and her physician assistant friend who were showered with bullets on Nov. 22 as they drove in a funeral procession
for her sister, who was a victim of an earlier slaying.
Yet the State Department has officially issued a statement of protest in only three homicide cases in the past five years, the Chronicle found.
Few killers in Mexico get caught. Nationally, only 20 percent of homicide cases result in arrests, according to a Chronicle analysis of data from the
Citizens' Safety Institute, a Mexico City-based nonprofit.
In Tlaxcala, a mostly rural state described in the press as a base for some of the nation's notorious human trafficking gangs, the clearance rate was
just 8 percent.
Records from the prosecutor in Baja California, where more than 90 U.S. citizens have been killed since 2003, showed none of the cases from 2004 to
2006 had been closed.
In nearly all cases involving U.S. citizens killed in Mexico, U.S. government response has been silent affected at every level by the complex
political and economic relationship between the two countries.
Embassy-based representatives of the U.S. government's Citizen Services program are supposed to help U.S. victims' families monitor developments in
homicide cases and keep them "informed" of police or judicial investigations, according to State Department regulations. In addition to those killed,
as many as 75 U.S. citizens, mainly from Texas and California, remain missing in Mexico, based on FBI data. U.S. authorities who monitor border crime
argue they are legally limited in helping families of U.S. citizens killed or kidnapped in Mexico, where they can investigate by invitation only.
Colombian officials have signed international treaties to tap U.S. databases used to track weapons, fingerprints and DNA. Historically, investigators
have not accessed the data, although guns used in many killings and suspects' DNA often can be traced back to the United States. These tools slowly
are being used in Mexican anti-crime efforts, including an initiative to identify U.S. victims' DNA in mass graves uncovered in border investigations.
In 2008, at least two men accused of killing U.S. citizens in Mexico were tracked back to the United States through binational initiatives.
Congressman Rivera Bedoya acknowledged that the increase in border homicides in Mexico, and the flow of guns from the United States that supplies most
of the murder weapons, is a binational security problem that has cost many innocent lives.
"We have to collaborate the security of Mexico is the security of the United States," he said.
http://www.thenews.com.mx/home/imprime_home.asp?cve_edicion_...
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barneyb
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Patito, how many Mexican Nationals have been killed in the US since 2004?
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Pato
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Yep barneyb, that's a good question. I'd guess that it's probably more.....
Many of us US folks hate to admit or even hear the fact that our good 'ol USA has some of the highest crime statistics in the world incl. the violent
ones. Compare those rates of the US with other so-called modern or developed societies and we see a night and day difference. Even some of the
"poorer" countries would/should make us blush.
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BajaGringo
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Mood: Let's have a BBQ!
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That's OK, I am wearing my Kevlar boxers today...
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Paulclark
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http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5703a1.htm-----ex...
Problem/Condition: An estimated 50,000 persons die annually in the United States as a result of violence-related injuries. This report summarizes data
from CDC's National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) regarding violent deaths from 16 U.S. states for 2005. Results are reported by sex, age
group, race/ethnicity, marital status, location of injury, method of injury, circumstances of injury, and other selected characteristics.
Makes yoiu think doesn't it?
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Pato
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I forget what I heard the 2008 MX stats were for homicides. I think it was less than 6000 but that might be a figure for only those narco related. But
if it is, then proportionally (& generously) comparing MX with the US, at least a 2:1 kill ratio exists. We could wonder and speculate why many of
us would feel safer in the US than here. At the very least, I'd guess that comparing the hotspot areas could seriously alter any figures and meaning.
Btw, your link didn't quite work for me with the "-----extract" attached.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5703a1.htm
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tjBill
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Interestingly, Thailand has the highest rate for American suicides abroad. I wonder why? 
[Edited on 2-11-2009 by tjBill]
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Eugenio
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Paulclark
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5703a1.htm-----ex...
Problem/Condition: An estimated 50,000 persons die annually in the United States as a result of violence-related injuries. This report summarizes data
from CDC's National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) regarding violent deaths from 16 U.S. states for 2005. Results are reported by sex, age
group, race/ethnicity, marital status, location of injury, method of injury, circumstances of injury, and other selected characteristics.
Makes yoiu think doesn't it? |
Your link doesn't work.
A violent death is not the same as a homicide.
I've never been able to find a good current comparison of homicides in the two countries - but here's one from 8 or 10 years ago - The source is the
UN.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_percap-crime-murde...
It shows that the per capita murder rate in Mexico was about 3 times that of the US.
In the past decade murder rates in Mexico have gone up - and down in the US.
I'd also expect crime reporting (including murder) in Mexico to be less than the US - think they'll ever know exactly how many bodies were liquified
by the "soupmaker"? - they're still stumbling on gravesites of murder victims around Juarez.
My point: - just be careful - know your surroundings - and have fun.
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CaboRon
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Eugenio,
Thank's for the link to the stats ..... I suspected that was the case.
Unfortunitely the nomadasses will keep trying to convince themselves that Mexico is in control of everything including their poilice and
politicians.
It ain't gonna happen 
CaboRon
[Edited on 2-13-2009 by CaboRon]
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Paulclark
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Mexico -- 13 murder per 100,000
US -- 4 murders per 100,000
Canada 1.4 murders per 100,000
Most dangerous occupation -- taxi driver -- drug dealer wasn't noted but i would think it is more dangerous -- life expectancy of a drug dealer/worker
in TJ is a low I imagine.
Safest city in the US - Honalulu
Most dangerous Washington DC
Most dangerous State - Louisiana - 13 per 100,000 -- just as dangerous as Mexico
http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/murder.html
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_percap-crime-murde...
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JaraHurd
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How many Mexican Nationals were killed in the U.S. since 2004? Don't know off the top of my head..but I will bet most were killed by.....Mexican
Nationals or persons from Guatemala or El Salvador. Just thinking back off of the top of my head recalling the last 50 or so homicides I can only
recall one non-Hispanic suspect......that is just the part of South Central Los Angeles where I work..but that seems to be the case most of the time.
I would suspect that folks in the U.S feel safer because they generally trust law enforcement and are allowed to possess weapons..atleast in their
homes. Most homicides (once again.in my area..) occur in lower income areas. According to statistics, the homicide rate in the U.S. is dropping. That
is amazing to me given the current state of our economy but that is what "they" say.
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Bajahowodd
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Statistical reports lag behind real time. I don't want to sound pessimistic, but inasmuch as we haven't even hit bottom with the economy yet, we
should likely see crime rates go up in future reports. In fact, it is a world-wide concern. Obama's new intelligence chief Dennis Blair testified
before Congress yesterday and cited the World economy as a major threat to U.S. security, noting that the economic downturn has already caused
"low-level" instability in 1/4 of the world's nations, citing anti-government rioting in Europe and Russia, and predicting a tide of refugees fleeing
unstable areas.
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JESSE
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Mexico gets about 16,000,000 american tourists a year.
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Bajahowodd
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I've made that point in other posts, Jesse. Canada is second, with about 12,000,000. So folks ought to be comparing stats on a per capita basis. Just
citing the number of deaths, by itself, does not allow a clear picture of the relative safety of American tourists in Mexico, versus, say Japan or
Greece.
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JaraHurd
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Good point. I am less concerned about which group of people is getting killed and primarily concerned that HUMAN BEINGS are being murdered. And at a
pretty good rate. The fact is that the situation appears to be out of control. I am conceding (begrudginly) that Baja has become a less safe place to
visit than in years past. this bothers me a lot. I don't really see it getting much better in the near future but my fingers are crossed..
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Bajahowodd
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Becoming less safe does not equate to being dangerous. one must maintain vigilance wherever they go.
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JaraHurd
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Well no one knows where the dangerous line is or how close we truly are to it right now. With such a target rich environment your odds of becoming a
victim of a violent crime in Baja are probably still pretty low. But the more you attract attention the more your odds go up. As long as we concede
that Baja is a less safe place today than it used to be, I can live with that. I just think that is important that people need to know that. And it
does not mean Baja won't be a safer place tomorrow....
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The Gull
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Dear Nomad Experts in Everything:
How many Mexicans are killed in Thailand every year?
How many Mexican taxi drivers are killed in Canada every year?
How many Thai beauticians are married to Mexican drug lords?
The yellow journalism in this instance noted that the 200 Americans were "left dead in Mexico". That would mean that 16,000,000 American tourists
went to Mexico and 15,999,800 returned. Last question: how many got "tourista"?
�I won\'t insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said.� William F. Buckley, Jr.
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Bajahowodd
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I think it's turista, sr. Curmudgeon. But I agree with the math. People need to
stop scaring people.
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fishbuck
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Boring
"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." J. A. Shedd.
A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it. – Albert Einstein
"Life's a Beach... and then you Fly!" Fishbuck
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