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LAREDO GATEWAY ROTARY CLUB
MEXICO VIOLENCE
$1 trillion decrease U.S. budget deficit drops since 2009 peak By PHILIP BALLI THE ZAPATA TIMES
The U.S. budget deficit has decreased by nearly $1 trillion since its peak in 2009, Congressman Henry Cuellar said Monday at a Laredo Gateway Rotary Club meeting. Cuellar was a guest speaker at the meeting where he addressed attendees on a number of topics, including the nation’s budget deficit, job growth,
Ebola and the ISIS threat. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the U.S. government’s deficit will fall to $492 billion this year. Cuellar attributed the decrease to fiscal restraint, the wind down of two wars and economic growth. “The U.S. economy is doing a lot better; in the last quarter, we finally added all of the jobs we lost since the recession of 2008,” Cuellar said. “Now
that we’re back to normal, we are working to create more jobs.” Cuellar cited information from the Labor Department indicating there have been more jobs added to the economy under President Barack Obama’s first four years than all eight years of the George W. Bush presidency. Cuellar said that some areas are doing better than
Photo by Felix Marquez | AP
Firefighters try to extinguish the flames after the state capital building was set on fire by protesting college students in Chilpancingo, Mexico, on Monday.
CUELLAR
Alleged capo of drug gang kills self
See GATEWAY ROTARY PAGE 12A
LOS REYES LA PAZ, MEXICO
A SON’S LOVE FOR HIS MOTHER
Benjamin Mondragon committed suicide to thwart Mexican forces By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO AND FELIX MARQUEZ ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHILPANCINGO, Mexico — The alleged leader of a drug gang implicated in the disappearance of 43 college students committed suicide during a confrontation with Mexican forces, a day after protesters demanding an investigation into the students’ whereabouts burned government buildings in the southern state of Guerrero. Federal forces, which include federal police and military personnel, were carrying out an operation to capture Benjamin Mondragon, or “Benjamon,” the alleged head of the Guerreros Unidos gang in the neighboring state of Morelos, when a gunfight broke out, according to a federal official who was not authorized to be quoted by name. The official, who spoke Tuesday, did not say which federal force had taken part in the confrontation. Mondragon killed himself as he was about to be arrested, the official said, though he had no details on how. The official said it was unclear whether Mondragon had been involved in the students’ disappearances.
Photo by Dario Lopez-Mills | AP
Dario Guerrero stands for a portrait on the rooftop of his grandparents’ home in the outskirts of Mexico City on Oct. 3. Guerrero, a Harvard University junior, accompanied his dying mother to Mexico without government permission, and is now unable to return to the U.S.
Son took dying mom to Mexico, now stuck By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ AND PETER ORSI ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS REYES LA PAZ, Mexico — The chemotherapy stopped working last spring, as did the radiation. Doctors had already removed a kidney. So Harvard University junior Dario Guerrero Meneses did what any computer-savvy millennial might do for a dying parent — he searched online and acted quickly. Guerrero found clinics offering alternative treat-
ments in Mexico and took his mother across the border, hoping to keep her alive. In an immigration system where even the smallest mistake can bring dire consequences, Guerrero knowingly broke a rule by leaving the U.S. without federal authorization. It may have been the most costly decision of his 21 years. “He panicked. His dad and mom wanted him to go, and he did the best thing he thought he could do for his family,” said his lawyer
Alan Klein. Guerrero had lived in the United States illegally since he was 2. His parents brought him from Mexico City to California, and they overstayed tourist visas. He breezed through school, earning a scholarship to a John Hopkins University summer school program at 13. Eventually, along with hundreds of thousands of other young immigrants, he was granted a temporary reprieve from the threat of deportation under a 2012 Obama administration or-
der. The catch: If these immigrants ever leave the U.S. without government approval, they lose their protected status. Guerrero was at his mother’s side when she died weeks later. But now, instead of cramming for exams in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the film studies major is stuck at his grandparents’ house in a gangcontrolled suburb of Mexico City, hoping to persuade the
See SON’S LOVE PAGE 11A
Guerreros Unidos allegedly had ties to the family of the mayor of Iguala, the city in Guerrero where the students disappeared on Sept. 26 after a confrontation. Police in Iguala killed six people and carried off many of the students before reportedly turning them over to gunmen working for the gang. Investigators are conducting tests on 28 sets of human remains found at five mass graves outside of Iguala to determine whether they are the bodies of the missing students. Police also have found four other burial pits at a different site, but have not said how many bodies were recovered there. On Tuesday, Guerrero Gov. Angel Aguirre said many of the bodies appeared to have been in the graves for some time, suggesting they belonged not to the students but to earlier victims of criminal gangs operating in the region. “Some of these graves were not recently dug,” Aguirre told MVS radio. “Some of them are not recent, some are from months ago,” he said. Some of the bodies had been burned, making identification harder.
See VIOLENCE PAGE 12A
MEXICAN CHECKPOINT MODERNIZATION PROJECT
48 of 62 remaining plots of land acquired THE ZAPATA TIMES
The modernization project at the Mexican checkpoint at the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge continues as 48 of the 62 remaining plots of land needed have been acquired. But Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, Mayor Carlos Canturosas Villarreal said the Tamaulipas state govern-
ment could soon order the remaining land, an area totaling 4.05 hectares (10 acres), to be acquired under eminent domain. “We have continued to make progress as we said when we asked at a City Council meeting about eminent domain. We’ll no longer be buying land,” Canturosas Villarreal said in a press release. He said the city govern-
ment is offering situation, and landowners a the outcome will purchase price be determined above its asby the adminissessed value. trative authority “Our intention at that time.” as a municipal The project at government is to the checkpoint negotiate with includes inspecthe owners to CANTUROSAS VILLARREAL tion stations reach a settlefrom nine to 16, ment,” Canturosas Villar- and from six to 24 inspecreal said. “Then it will be tion tables; have areas for harder for them to fix the trailer parking and light
vehicles; offices and space for foreign trade officials and a warehouse for temporary storage of seized items. The plan, which is being done in conjunction with the Treasury and Public Credit Department and Mexican Customs, will occupy four blocks that include Leñado Valle and Degollado avenues. “Investment will include
about 350 million pesos ($26,028,692) from the federal government and 75 million pesos ($5,577,577) each from the city and state governments,” Canturosas Villarreal said. He said he will continue to negotiate with the owners of the 14 properties to reach an agreement that benefits all parties. (Translated by Mark Webber of the Times staff.)