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SHOOTING DEATH INVESTIGATION
Longing for the truth Victim’s father believes investigation is one-sided By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
CUELLAR JR.
The father of a sheriff ’s deputy shot and killed by a Laredo police officer in November said he believes the investigation is one-sided. “We the family are convinced that the investigation regarding the murder of Cesar Cuellar Jr. is ... intended to make Cuellar Jr. a villain instead of conducting the investigation in a non-bias manner,” he read from a statement on behalf
of the family. “The investigation should be focused on whether Laredo Police Officer Priscilla Hernandez intentionally, knowingly or recklessly caused the death of Cesar Cuellar Jr. “I’m thinking to justify what they did, the murder of my son. That’s exactly what it was. It was a murder.” Cuellar said investigators have focused their interviews and interrogations
See TRUTH PAGE 12A
Photo by César G. Rodriguez | The Zapata Times
Cesar Cuellar Sr. shows the phone call he received from dispatch after his son’s ex-girlfriend called police, saying she feared he may attempt to die by suicide.
IGUALA, MEXICO
MEXICAN BORDER
LIFE AFTER DISAPPEARANCE
Raids to deport families US targets those who surged border By JERRY MARKON AND DAVID NAKAMURA THE WASHINGTON POST
Photo by Dario Lopez-Mills | AP
In this Oct. 20, 2015 photo, people with missing family members meet in the basement of San Gerardo Church where the Spanish word "Welcome" hangs from the window in Iguala, Mexico. Iguala’s new mayor wants to "turn the page" on the ugliest chapter in the history of this southern Mexican city.
New mayor wants city to “turn the page” By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
IGUALA, Mexico — The previous elected mayor is in jail, and the new one wants to “turn the page” on the ugliest chapter in the history of this southern Mexican city. Fifteen months ago, when 43 rural college students disappeared at the hands of local police and cartel thugs, Iguala became the symbol of Mexico’s narco-brutality. Now, federal police are in charge of security, the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party controls city hall — and Mayor Esteban Albarran Mendoza wants to move forward. “Ask the businesspeople, ask the cab drivers, the housewives, those who live daily here in the city, what they are enduring right now ...,” Albarran said. “There is anxiety. There is not peace. There is not security. We want to turn the page on all these kinds of things.” But how can this city move on when, according
to a local newspaper’s count, there were five murders during Albarran’s first week in office, and 25 in his first two months? Disappearances continue, and most of the missing have not been found. For hundreds of families around Iguala there is no possibility of turning the page as long as they have no proof of death or a body to mourn. On Tuesdays, they gather in the San Gerardo church basement to listen to the new numbers from the attorney general’s office: bodies found, bodies identified, bodies returned to their families. Most leave without answers and return home to await a call to view photos of clothing or evidence of a genetic match. While seeking resolution of old horrors, there are new ones. Zenaida Candia Espinobarro already spent her Sundays with other families searching the
See DISAPPEARED PAGE 9A
Photo by Dario Lopez-Mills | AP
In this Dec. 2, 2015 photo, Guerrero State Police patrol in Iguala, Mexico. Authorities disbanded the local police force that allegedly turned 43 students over to the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel.
Photo by Dario Lopez-Mills | AP
In this Dec. 2, 2015 photo, the new Mayor of Iguala, Esteban Albarran Mendoza, speaks to reporters at City Hall. Albarran has plans: a transparent government, a growing and more prosperous city.
The Department of Homeland Security has begun preparing for a series of raids that would target for deportation hundreds of families who have flocked to the United States since the start of last year, according to people familiar with the operation. The nationwide campaign, to be carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as soon as early January, would be the first large-scale effort to deport families who have fled violence in Central America, those familiar with the plan said. More than 100,000 families with both adults and children have made the journey across the southwest border since last year, with the majority of those families crossing into Texas. This migration has largely been overshadowed by a related surge of unaccompanied minors. The ICE operation would target only adults and children who have already been ordered removed from the United States by an immigration judge, according to officials familiar with the undertaking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because planning is ongoing and the operation has not been given final approval by DHS. The adults and children would be detained wherever they can be found and immediately deported. The number targeted is expected to be in the hundreds and possibly greater. The proposed deportations have been controversial inside the Obama administration, which has been discussing them for several months. DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson has been pushing for the moves, according to those with
See RAIDS PAGE 12A