Note: Have to wonder how long before this spills over here in a big
way.
More guns for Sonora police
Report of armed convoy alarms Naco
By Brady McCombs and Lourdes Medrano
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 05.19.2007
NACO, Sonora — A report of an armed convoy of drug cartel gunmen
heading toward Cananea and Naco sent local residents scrambling for
cover Friday as police and government officials in Sonora and Arizona
braced themselves for another round of violence.
It turned out to be a false alarm, but the mobilization of law
enforcement and the school and store closures in both Nacos
illustrated the tension, fear and uncertainty that have overtaken the
border region. Wednesday's deadly shootout near Cananea between drug
gunmen and Mexican soldiers and police left 23 dead, including five
police officers and two bystanders.
"What else can you think?" said Javier Perez, who owns a money
exchange shop and liquor store in Naco, Sonora. "Three days ago, they
killed 22 people, so I'm pretty sure they believe everything they hear."
The alert surfaced about 10 a.m. in Mexico and quickly spread to
residents across Sonora and to law enforcement officials in the
United States, who began taking steps to respond. Shortly after noon,
the State Police in Mexico issued a statement saying it was just a
rumor, and by about 2:30 p.m. U.S. officials had confirmed that no
threat was present and called off operations.
Officials and residents on both sides of the border endured tension-
filled hours as they sorted through fact and fiction.
"I didn't feel scared but I felt a little pressured," said Juan
Alberto Bracamonte, police chief in Naco. "Not for my own life, but
for the lives of my officers and the lives of the people of Naco."
At about 11 a.m., the Naco police were informed from a command center
in Nogales that a caravan of 40 vehicles traveling between Cananea
and Imuris had engaged in a gunfight with police. They were
instructed to stay away from the police station, change into plain
clothes, conduct patrols in civilian cars and prepare for anything,
Bracamonte said. About 2 p.m., the police found out it was a false
alarm, he said. They were continuing to patrol in plain clothes and
non-police vehicles late Friday afternoon.
The U.S. Border Patrol heard about the situation from a "credible"
source between 10 and 11 a.m. and began taking the steps necessary to
ensure safety, said Gustavo Soto, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman.
At about 11:30 a.m., a large number of Border Patrol agents arrived
at the Naco port of entry and stood with M16s at the border and on
the roof of the Customs and Border Protection building there, said
Janet Warner, who works at the Gay 90s Bar, a few feet from the
border in Naco, Ariz. The Border Patrol wouldn't discuss the tactical
measures they took but confirmed that they took steps to ensure
safety, Soto said.
The port of entry never closed but officers were on alert, said Brian
Levin, Customs and Border Protection spokesman. For about an hour and
a half in the late afternoon Mexico closed the port of entry to
southbound vehicles but still allowed pedestrian crossings.
The Cochise County Sheriff's Office sent its SWAT team to the Border
Patrol's Naco Station at 12:15 p.m. to support the agency, said
spokeswoman Carol Capas. The Border Patrol told them its intent was
to close the port and have agents along the border, she said, and the
SWAT team was sent back to the station about 2:30 p.m. The Sheriff's
Office plans to remain on heightened alert throughout the weekend,
Capas said.
Residents in Naco, Sonora, heard about the supposed gunfight near
Cananea by radio and were instructed on the airwaves to stay off the
streets and take precautions because the gunmen could be heading
their way, said Eduardo Gonzalez, who owns an ice cream store in
Naco, Sonora. Schools there were evacuated about 11:30 a.m., said
Gonzalez, who has four children. The school in Naco, Ariz., was also
closed, said Warner.
Teacher Yogi Khalsa said: "A lot of of our students have relatives on
the Mexican side of the border, so they were very worried. Some were
very emotional — they were crying and trying to contact relatives."
All ended well, he said. Parents picked up some children, and buses
transported the rest of the students home by about 2 p.m., including
children who normally walk home.
In Naco, Sonora, many businesses closed and people were frightened
when Perez returned to town at about 11:30 from Agua Prieta. Pete
Brown, of Hereford, was making his monthly trip to Naco on Friday to
buy cigarettes at midday and said border agents told him as he was
walking over at midday, "Don't go over there without a bulletproof
vest."
"It felt like it was a Clint Eastwood movie — it's like the bad guys
are coming and you don't see kids in the streets," said Brown, who
added that at least 90 percent of the stores were closed.
About 5 p.m., some of the stores had reopened and children were back
in the streets, but local residents said they were still on edge.
"All the kids in Naco are scared," said Fernando Hernandez, 36, who
was coaching a soccer practice for a group of local boys near the
main park in town. "Because they know this about hit men."
The people in town are calm but on alert, said Cecilio Pereda, who
has a photo studio in Naco, Sonora. The attacks in Cananea hit close
to home, he said.
"We are neighbors, and you never know what kind of a reaction you are
going to see," Pereda said in Spanish.
Others downplayed the rumors and questioned why drug gunmen would
come to Naco, where they would be trapped without a way out,
surrounded by the U.S. border to the north and only one highway out
of town to the south.
"There is no way they are going to come here, because there is no way
out," said Perez, the store owner.
"The only way out for them would be the highway, so we know if they
come here they won't get out alive or we would have a major clash,"
Bracamonte said in Spanish. "But we can't be too confident, because
this type of bad buy — forget about it."
Meanwhile the death toll from fighting between the gunmen and Mexican
forces rose with the discovery of another suspect's body in the
mountainous region of Arizpe, the death toll involving the convoy of
armed assailants that burst into Cananea shortly after midnight
Wednesday rose to 23 — five police officers, two civilians and 16
suspects.
Mexican officials have attributed the violence to a fierce turf
battle between rival drug cartels — and the government's crackdown
— continued to take its toll in Northern Sonora.
In Hermosillo, a state police commander was gunned down about 9 p.m.
Thursday, said José Larrinaga, a spokesman for the Sonora Attorney
General's Office.
The commander, Pedro Emigdio Córdova Herrera later died at a
hospital, Larrinaga said.
The commander was shot twice in the head and once in the upper body
by a suspect or suspects riding in a white sedan, the spokesman said
Thursday.
The commander had been a target once before, while serving in Navojoa
last year, Larrinaga said.
Meanwhile, El Imparcial newspaper in Hermosillo reported Friday that
one of the suspects arrested after the Wednesday shootout near Arizpe
between law-enforcement agents and members of the convoy is an active
member of the municipal police in the state's capital city.
●Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment