Border Saga at BorderReporter.com ...

MAY 30, 2007 - THE BORDER REPORT: HARSH LESSONS [for Giffords]

JUNE 1, 2007 - THE BORDER REPORT: CANANEA UPDATE

JUNE 2, 2007 - THE BORDER REPORT: ‘LOS SICARIOS ANDAN EN NACO’

JUNE 3, 2007 - THE BORDER REPORT: BREAKING NEWS

Q & A about the Cananea violence ...

MAY 29, 2007 - THE BORDER REPORT: QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Q: I’ve never thought of Cananea as a cartel-infested city. What can ordinary people on both sides of the border do to promote a free press and protect the messengers?
...

A headline the GOP will love ...

UPDATE: Here's how the Sierra Vista Herald starts the story:

'Joke' report leads to alarm on border by Jonathan Clark, Herald/Review

NACO, Sonora, Mexico — A false report Friday that a heavily armed team of gunmen were advancing on Cananea, Sonora, led to widespread alarm in the local border area, with schools and businesses closing in Mexico and U.S. citizens reporting rumors of massive carnage in Sonora and Border Patrol pullbacks in Arizona.

Apparently Jonathan Clark is actually a reporter. Not like the fiction writers at the Daily Star.

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Want an image of scared little people so the GOP can promise (promises being all their good for) to protect everyone while they rip them off. Well here's one:

Report of armed convoy alarms Naco

By Brady McCombs and Lourdes Medrano

Arizona Daily Star

NACO, Sonora — A report of an armed convoy of drug cartel gunmen heading toward Cananea and Naco sent local residents scrambling for cover Friday as police and government officials in Sonora and Arizona braced themselves for another round of violence.

Was that scary enough. The Arizona Daily Star has been writting GOP headlines for sometime now. Does the story get worse from there? Well no and then yes:

It turned out to be a false alarm, but the mobilization of law enforcement and the school and store closures in both Nacos illustrated the tension, fear and uncertainty that have overtaken the border region.

My all those scared little people, like we have here in the US, must be hidding behind the nearest Bush (as in vegetation not the one in the WH).

Keeeriiiiist, I think he just said that soldiers will be soldiers ...

There's continued violence in Sonora, Mexico. Yesterday I linked to this article: 20 dead following shootout in Sonora; gang had earlier killed four police in Cananea in the Sierra Vista Herald.

Today the Tucson Citizen passes on an Associated Press story about the continued violence. It appears that the military may be as bad as the 'criminals.'

Cops, copters pursue Sonora killers --City officers vanish after 5 executions, federal police

The official National Human Rights Commission said Tuesday that there was credible evidence that some of the newly deployed troops committed rapes, illegal search and other rights abuses.

"Soldiers are not trained to carry out police work," said Jose Luis Soberanes, president of the rights commission. "If you make them do it, they go overboard, and we see these type of cases."

But political analyst Oscar Aguilar said withdrawing the army from the countryside is not an option.

"It's one thing to say they've committed abuses, and entirely another to say 'send them back to their barracks,'" Aguilar said. "They are our last line of defense, our last bastion, and we know that."

Boys will be boys and soldiers will be soldiers? But we need them (in the way Iraq needs the US?) so let everyone else beware.

Closer to the border the Sierra Vista Herald writes: Sonoran violence concerns area mayors by Gentry Braswell

Borane traveled immediately to Agua Prieta for a briefing from Cuadras, then the Agua Prieta mayor traveled to Douglas for a meeting at Borane’s office.

The city government facilities in Agua Prieta are on very high alert, surrounded by police soldiers, Borane said. The same cautious attitude is taken by Douglas officials, he said.

Mayor of the border town of Douglas for 11 years, Borane maintains a close relationship with people in Mexico. Cuadros reported authorities in Cananea are still pursuing the people in the hills near Cananea, Borane said. He was escorted by armed guards, from the border to Cuadros’ offices for their meeting, Borane said.

Schools in Cananea, Sierra Vista, and Radebeul, Germany, interact with one another through a sister-cities program, and Sierra Vista Mayor Bob Strain said he sent a letter of concern and best wishes to the Cananea mayor Thursday. “Beyond that, I don’t know what it is, that we might have suggested to us,” Strain said.

Regarding any further assistance, Strain said, “I’ll admit the thought had crossed my mind, but I don’t know what it would be.”

Violence in Sonora ...

The Sierra Vista Herald reports: 20 dead following shootout in Sonora; gang had earlier killed four police in Cananea by Jonathan Clark

Many of the victims have been police officers, including several with connections to Cananea.

On Feb. 26, the head of public safety in Agua Prieta, Ramon Tacho Verdugo, was shot and killed by a group of unknown assailants as he left his office. He had served in a similar post in Cananea prior to taking office in Agua Prieta in September 2006.

On March 6, Federal Preventive Police officer Aldo Guzmán Palafox was fatally shot while driving through Cananea, and on March 22, another PFP officer, Gustavo Vega Rendón was gunned down in the city.

Then, on April 17, Cananea municipal police officers Blanca Noriega and Miguel Angel Caballero were shot and killed while on duty.

Following Wednesday’s violence, Sonora Attorney General Abel Murrieta said that 100 state police officers had been dispatched to Cananea to help reinforce security there.

Cananea, a copper mining city of approximately 35,000 inhabitants located 40 miles by highway from the Naco Port of Entry into the U.S., has a sister city relationship with Sierra Vista.