Brothers' Border Murder Brings Violence Into Focus...Fronteras Desk reporting from El Porvenir
Molly Molloy
Brothers' Border Murder Brings Violence Into Focus
Lorne Matalon
Gap in the border wall at El Porvenir, Chihuahua, Mexico and Fort Hancock, Texas.
In El Porvenir, Mexico across from Fort Hancock, Texas, drug cartel battles for control of the long-established smuggling route have triggered multiple killings on the Mexican side, most recently the murder of two brothers.
The violence rarely spills across the border, but the psychological impact does.
Two men, Jorge and Enrique Molina, shot dead, their bodies left by the river, a footnote to a well of misery in Mexico. No media reports on either side of the Rio Grande, here where Fort Hancock, Texas and El Porvenir, Chihuahua hug the river about an hour southeast of El Paso.
A huge stretch of the rusty brown metal wall that separates the two countries goes right through here before giving way to emptiness just west of town. Border security is not an academic discussion here.
“He worked for me for five years. He was a very nice, honest person,” said cotton farmer Craige Miller of Jorge Molina. Molina, a legal United States resident from El Porvenir, had worked at other farms on the Texas side. Now Miller says people are speculating about why Molina was murdered.
“Word on the street is that his brothers were involved in it, but that he was clean,” Miller said. “But nearly anyone who has been associated with drugs in this area is dead.”
When you’re cut down in Mexico, it’s said you die twice. First you’re physically killed. Then your character is assassinated. Both Miller, and a woman who asked that her name not be revealed, say that’s just wrong — but inevitable when you live beside a long-established smuggling corridor, or plaza.
The woman says something drew Jorge Molina to El Porvenir that day. She says she heard he crossed over to settle something, on behalf of either his parents or brother, with people who may have been trying to kidnap all three.
“When he got over there he saw that they were taking the parents and the brother. And he decided, ‘No take me instead of my parents.’ So they let the parents go and they took him and the brother that they already had,” the woman said.
Elizabeth Rogers is the chief Federal Public Defender of the Western Division of Texas. Her brother also employed Molina.
“My brother called me and told me his worker had been gunned down,” Rogers said. “He’d gone to the funeral with his brother-in-law Craige Miller. And he said it was one of the saddest days because it turned out it was not a funeral for one. It was two brothers, both gunned down in front of their mother’s house.”
Gene Henderson is a former U.S. Border Patrol tracker.
“That’s just the way it is over there right now,” Henderson said.
The murders have amped up the discussion of what constitutes a safe border against the backdrop of a Mexico where a new federal government’s pledge to substantially cut crime hasn’t yet been realized.
In a tone strikingly similar to others you hear in borderland Texas, people are conflicted about immigration and the metal wall that runs through their yards. They say the wall does slow floods to a trickle. But that trickle never stops. And they say a wall wouldn’t be needed were Mexico not swaddled in corruption.
“All those politicians over there, they’re all on the take. And the cartels and those little sicarios, the little killers, sicarios, that’s who is doing the killing,” says Henderson.
Jim Ed Miller, the County Commissioner here says that sadly the killing of the Molina brothers doesn't jolt anyone. “It’s not the first time this has happened. But it always happens in Mexico, not here.”
Craige Miller, who employed Jorge Molina, said, “The violence quit for a while until Jorge’s murder. And I wasn’t that concerned about it. But we are still armed.”
What might sound strident to some, ”we are still armed,” resonates with people living beside a gap in the border wall. A place where undocumented crossings into the U.S. are a part of the landscape. Where violence in Mexico, and not for the first time in this part of Texas, has destroyed a family living legally in the U.S.
UPDATE ON MAN KILLED AT GAS STATION
He had just been released from the state CERESO, was picked up there by his girlfriend and went to a gas station. There, a man told the girl to get out of the way that there was a score to settle with her partner. He then shot the driver at least 15 times, killing him in the driver’s seat.
Rodriguez Najera had been arrested with marijuana in June 2012 and spent a year in the prison.
http://diario.mx/Local/2013-06-17_5ff45a23/lo-ejecutan-al-salir-del-cereso/
Lo ejecutan al salir del Cereso
Staff
El Diario | 2013-06-17 | 20:24
Instantes después de salir del Cereso Estatal número 3, un hombre fue ejecutado en una gasolinera ayer a las 11:30 de la mañana.
Martín Rodríguez Nájera, de 30 años, acababa de abandonar el penal y su novia había ido a recogerlo.
Ambos viajaban en un vehículo Chevrolet, Cavalier, color azul, modelo 2001, con placas DD1G 254 del estado de Texas.
Inmediatamente después de que abandonaran las instalaciones carcelarias se enfilaron hacia el Bulevar Óscar Flores, por la calle Barranco Azul, pero al llegar a ese cruce llegaron a la estación de servicio para que les despacharan el combustible.
De manera intempestiva un hombre descendió de un vehículo empuñando una pistola y le dijo a ella que se fuera del lugar porque tenían que arreglar cuentas pendientes con su acompañante.
Al retirarse ésta, el sujeto armado le disparó en por lo menos 15 ocasiones a la humanidad de Rodríguez Nájera, quien se encontraba en el asiento del piloto y donde quedó finalmente sin vida.
Tras los hechos, los agresores que viajaban a bordo de una camioneta pick up y en un Honda Verde se retiraban del lugar.
Martín Rodríguez Nájera había sido detenido el 2 de junio del 2012 junto con otro hombre y una mujer por policías municipales luego de que les encontraron en un vehículo algunas dosis de droga y dos pistolas cuando circulaban por la colonia Fidel Ávila.
En aquella ocasión y de acuerdo a información emitida por la Secretaría de Seguridad Pública Municipal (SSPM) el arresto ocurrió a las 4 de la tarde en la intersección de las calles Valle del Sol y Camino a Ortiz Rubio. En ese punto, oficiales municipales que patrullaban la zona observaron un auto conducido a exceso de velocidad, citó personal de la dependencia.
Por este motivo los uniformados les marcaron el alto, y al revisarlos se les encontró 36 envoltorios de mariguana.
También les hallaron dos armas tipo escuadra, una calibre .40 milímetros, con un cargador abastecido con 10 cartuchos útiles y otra que resultó ser de postas.
Los detenidos se identificaron como Mario Alberto Gracia Meza, de 22, Martín Rodríguez Nájera, de 29 y Griselda Flores Quintero, de 19.
Ellos fueron presentados junto con la evidencia ante el juez de Barandilla de la Estación de Policía del Distrito Universidad.
reda...@redaccion.diario.com.mx
http://diario.mx/imagesnotas/2013/06/LOC932068a2aa3453_0.jpg
Shot to death while filling the tank
A 30 year old man was murdered by more than a dozen gunshots by several men while he was putting gasoline in his vehicle. Before opening fire, they ordered the man's girlfriend to get out of the car and run.
The victim was driving a blue 2001 Chevy Cavalier with Texas plates, DD1G254 and drove into the gas station at Oscar Flores and Barranco Azul with his partner. Suddenly an armed group arrived. The men ordered the girlfriend to get out and run and then they opened fire on the driver. It was about 11:30 am. The dead man was identified as Martín Rodríguez Nájera, 30, and he was fatally shot in the face, neck and arm.
Lo acribillan cuando carga gasolina; asesinos perdonan a la novia
Staff
El Diario | 2013-06-17 | 11:53
Un hombre de 30 años fue asesinado con más de una docena de balazos cuando cargaba gasolina a su vehículo, por varios hombres que, antes de abrir fuego, le ordenaron a su novia bajar del automóvil y retirarse.
La víctima viajaba en un Cavalier 2001 de color azul, placas de Texas con los caracteres DD1G254 y llegó con su acompañante a una estación de servicio que se ubica en Óscar Flores y Barranco Azul.
Repentinamente llegó el grupo armado, los hombres le ordenaron a su novia descender y alejarse, y luego abrieron fuego contra el conductor. Eran aproximadamente las 11:30 horas.
El fallecido fue identificado como Martín Rodríguez Nájera de 30 años, quien recibió balazos en cara, cuello y un brazo que le quitaron la vida.