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28TH DISTRICT
Livestock session held in Zapata
MEXICO
TEAM STUDIES BONES TO ID THE DISAPPEARED
S P ECIAL T O T HE T I ME S
Congressman Henry Cuellar and the Farm Service Agency held Emergency Livestock Assistance Program informational sessions in Hidalgo, Starr and Zapata counties. These sessions brought together ranchers, cattle owners, and members of the community to learn more about ELAP and how it can assist ranchers in combatting fever tick and keeping their livestock healthy. These sessions were hosted by the office of Congressman Henry Cuellar in conjunction with FSA. ELAP provides financial assistance to eligible producers of livestock, honeybees and farm-raised fish for losses due to disease, certain adverse weather events or loss conditions. In Texas’ 28th District, ELAP will reimburse ranchers that reside in each of the four quarantined counties (Zapata, Hidalgo, Webb and Starr) for rounding cattle up to transport them to dipping treatment sites. For years, Cuellar has helped secure millions of dollars for cattle health in areas like Starr, Hidalgo, Zapata and Webb counties in South Texas. In the fiscal year 2018 and 2019 appropriations bills, the congressman secured $96.5 million for cattle health, which included $6 million specifically for fever ticks. Cuellar said, “Our cattle producers contribute greatly to the economy and way of life in South Texas. They deserve our assistance in the face of threats to their vitality. The FSA Emergency Live Stock AssisCuellar continues on A8
Marco Ugarte / AP
In this March 23, 2018 photo, an Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team expert notes data at a lab in Cuauhtemoc, Mexico, collected from recovered bone fragments of victims who were dissolved or burned in drums. Selected fragments are sent to the team's laboratory in Argentina and hoped to be used as trial evidence.
The bodies of the victims were dissolved or burned in drums By Maria Verza ASSOCIATED PRE SS
BORDER PATROL
Rescues on the rise in Laredo Sector S P ECIAL T O T HE T I ME S
Over a recent six-day period, Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents rescued 23 undocumented immigrants in 11 separate events. The rescues were conducted by the Freer, Hebbronville, Laredo North, Laredo West, and Zapata Border Patrol stations with assistance from the Laredo Sector Border Patrol Special Operations Detachment and National Guard air support. Of all the individuals rescued, two were found in serious condition and required hospitalization. “These events illustrate how the men and women of the United States Border Patrol not only serve to protect our borders, but are also committed to the preservation of life and assist anyone in need,” said Assistant Chief Patrol Agent Gabriel H. Acosta. The Laredo Sector Border Patrol will continue to warn against the dangers of people crossing illegally into the United States through dangerous environmental conditions. The Border Safety Initiative (BSI) is a humanitarian, bi-national strategy designed to reduce deaths, educate and inform potential immigrants of the dangers and hazards of crossing the border illegally, and to respond to those who are in life-threatening situations.
CIUDAD CUAUHTEMOC, Mexico — A pair of rubbergloved hands carefully separates the red "Evidence" tape from a paper bag and empties the contents onto a table. Hundreds of burnt bone fragments spill out. The fragments look like bits of volcanic pumice. Yet for the hands that gently smooth them out over the table top, each one bears a name and holds a piece of a story that nobody knows, but that someone, somewhere is desperate to hear. The fragments laid out by
investigators for the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team are among the remains of tens of thousands of people who have simply disappeared in Mexico's long and bloody drug war. These particular bones come from one of three isolated ranches in the city of Cuauhtemoc in the northern border state of Chihuahua, where bodies of victims were dissolved or burned in drums. Nearby stand boxes and bags of other evidence bearing the names of the places and conditions in which they were found, such as "Dolores Ranch" and "(Bone) Fragments stained with diesel."
As President Enrique Pena Nieto prepares to leave office later this year, another administration has come and gone with little progress in solving one of Mexico's biggest problems: the disappeared. Distrust of Mexican authorities runs deep, and many families see the Argentine experts as the only ones to offer any answers to suffering that has stretched on for a decade or more. In January, Mexico passed a "very important" law that introduces good methods for conducting searches and classifying crimes, said Ariel Dulitzky, director of the Human Rights Clinic at the
University of Texas at Austin. But the law still needs funding and political will for enforcement, and it will only work together with a crackdown on corruption, he said. Meanwhile, the disappearances continue: 21,286 during this administration so far since Dec. 1, 2012. Cuauhtemoc, a rural hub that marks the entrance to the imposing Sierra Tarahumara mountains, has only 170,000 people, but is nicknamed "the capital of the disappeared" for its relatively high rate of abductions. The local state prosecutor's office has listed 676 disappearance cases in the region since 2008, and 395 are missing just within the city. One of the largest cases is of the Munoz family, where eight people disappeared Bones continues on A10
ELECTION
For Mexican presidential hopeful 'AMLO,' 3rd time a charm? By Mark Stevenson ASSOCIATED PRE SS
MEXICO CITY — While financial markets fret about left-leaning candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the man himself is calmly cruising toward what polls say is a likely victory in Mexico's July 1 presidential election, seemingly impervious to attacks — and without the angry tone that marked his previous two runs for the top job. The graying, slow-spoken Lopez Obrador, known to devotees and detractors alike as AMLO, lights up when he
tells supporters at campaign rallies that they are about to make history. "This is going to be a peaceful, orderly change, but at the same time, it will be radical," Lopez Obrador said recently, drawing cheers and cries of "Presidente! Presidente!" from a crowd in the colonial town of San Miguel de Allende. Markets wonder whether a President Lopez Obrador would cause the Mexican peso to tank — experts say probably not — or reverse the openings to private oil compaAMLO continues on A3
Anthony Vazquez / AP
Presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, known as AMLO, speaks to supporters at a campaign rally in Mexico City, Sunday, June 3, 2018.