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MEXICO VIOLENCE
Thousands disappear Since 2007, Tamaulipas has seen more than 5,000 people go missing By JASON BUCH SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico — Members of a special state police force grabbed Billy Martinez last year as he left home to visit his girlfriend, and he never was seen again, his sister said. That same police force dragged Victor Manuel Guajardo Rios, 37, out of his house in 2013, then denied ever arresting him, Guajardo’s mother said. And 11 members of the Tapia de la Garza family, including five children ages 12 to 19, disappeared from their house in 2012 after a birthday party for the youngest, relatives said. This border city, across the Rio Grande from Eagle
Pass, has seen an epidemic of forced abductions that human rights advocates say are just as often carried out by criminals as they are by the heavily armed police unit sent here to fight the drug cartels. “The government knows all about this; the press, too,” said María Hortensia Rivas Rodríguez, Guajardo’s mother and the president of a group that advocates on behalf of the families of the disappeared. “They know what’s happening, but they don’t do anything to stop it. There’s no security in Piedras Negras.” Disappearances at the hands of drug traffickers and authorities, and sometimes the two acting in
Photo by Jerry Lara | San Antonio Express-News
Luis Ruben Izquirdo Franco, 8 years old, holds a photo of his father, Luis Alejandro, in Piedras Negras, Mexico, on Aug. 30. concert, are a problem across Mexico. The border states of Tamaulipas, Nue-
vo León, Chihuahua and Coahuila, where Piedras Negras is located, are
among the worst in the country, Mexico’s Ministry of Government reports. Coahuila authorities said municipal police officers aided traffickers in a mass abduction from a town near here, and the state government has blamed local officials for disappearances in southern Mexican states. Of the more 25,000 people the Mexican government says have gone missing since 2007, more than 5,000 — the most of any state — are from Tamaulipas, which borders Texas from Laredo to the Gulf of Mexico. In Coahuila, which stretches along the Rio Grande from just west of Laredo to the Big Bend, 1,400 people are missing, the federal government’s
SIX-DAY VISIT TO US
database of missing persons shows. Ariana García, a human rights lawyer who works with Rivas’s group, said the numbers are likely much higher. Families are afraid to come forward, she said, and those that do often face roadblocks to reporting disappearances. Across the country, families are in limbo, wondering what happened to their loved ones and unable to grieve and move on with their lives. In Piedras Negras, Rivas said about 190 families have come forward and joined her group Families United in the Search and Discovery of Disappeared Persons, or Familias Uni-
See TAMAULIPAS PAGE 9A
ZAPATA COUNTY
POPE FRANCIS ARRIVES
The Zapata Times file photo
A volunteer places medication into a safe container to be destroyed later during a pill take back event in Laredo in 2013.
Photo by Andrew Harnik | AP
President Barack Obama walks across the tarmac with Pope Francis upon his arrival at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Tuesday.
Pontiff faces a nation polarized over inequality By NICOLE WINFIELD AND RACHEL ZOLL ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Pope Francis arrived Tuesday on the first visit of his life to the United States, bringing his humble manner and his
“church of the poor” to a rich and powerful nation polarized over economic inequality, immigration and equal justice. According a rare honor to the pontiff, President Barack Obama and his wife and daughters met Francis at the
bottom of the stairs on the red-carpeted tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland after the pope’s chartered plane touched down from Cuba. Presidents usually make important visitors come to them at the White House.
Emerging from the plane to boisterous cheers from a crowd of hundreds, the smiling 78-year-old pontiff removed his skullcap in the windy weather and made his way down the steps in his
See POPE FRANCIS PAGE 9A
US BORDER PATROL
Man arrested for smuggling By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
A man from Zapata was arrested near Laredo for human smuggling, according to court records obtained this week. Hugo Jaquez Ramos was charged with transporting undocumented immigrants. A criminal complaint filed Sept. 18 alleges that Ramos was driving three immigrants from Honduras and
El Salvador. In court statements, Ramos told agents he was transporting immigrants from Rio Grande City from Laredo for financial gain. “He was to get paid $400 … per person and they were to be dropped near Guadalupe (Street) next to Church’s Chicken,” records state. Ramos then invoked his right to an attorney. U.S. Border Patrol agents
encountered Ramos on Sept. 15 while performing their duties on Zapata Highway near Laredo. Agents said they conducted an immigration inspection on the occupants of a 2014 Dodge Ram. Identified as the driver, Ramos allegedly had his children and three adults as passengers. Ramos was then referred to secondary inspection. Agents said they discov-
ered that the three adults did not have legal documentation to be in the country. They were citizens from Honduras and El Salvador, records allege. “The passengers in the (pickup) all stated they were picked up at a house by Hugo Jaquez Ramos and were going to be taken to Laredo …” states the complaint. (César G. Rodriguez may be reached at 728-2568 or cesar@lmtonline.com)
Upcoming health clinic, pill drive By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
Zapata County residents are encouraged to take advantage of the services that will be offered Saturday. Hands & Feet Medical Missions by Baptist Student Ministries and the University of Texas Medical Branch Health will provide a free health care clinic on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Zapata County Pavilion at 23rd Avenue and Glenn Street. For appointments, call 956-728-0210. The clinic will offer pediatric and adult physician consultations, occupational and physical therapy consultations, vision consultations and free eye glasses, medications, blood pressure screenings and glucose screenings. Free gun locks will al-
so be available through Project Child Safe, an initiative whose purpose is to promote safe firearms handling and storage practices among all firearms owners, states the project’s website. In addition, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Zapata County Sheriff ’s Office will be collecting unwanted, prescribed medication as part of the National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. Joe Peña, a Sheriff ’s Office representative, encouraged the community to bring their unwanted medication to avoid the misuse of the prescribed drugs. “The reason why this is so significant is because we’ve been able to link the abuse of these prescription drugs to heroin use,” Assistant DEA
See HEALTH CARE PAGE 9A