GANGS SAY THEY'LL HURT KIDS IN CIUDAD JUAREZ TO GET TEACHERS' HOLIDAY BONUSES

MEXICO CITY -- Elementary school teachers are the latest victims of
an exploding extortion racket in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, as
criminal gangs threaten educators to either hand over their coming
Christmas bonuses or see harm done to their families or students,
teachers' groups say.

With Monday a school holiday and news of the threats spreading in the
media, on the Internet and by word of mouth during the long weekend,
there were fears that an increasing number of parents would keep
their children at home today, forcing additional schools to close.

At least two schools shut down early Friday because of a lack of students.

The extortion against teachers was the latest escalation of the
violence and fear that have taken over the city across the border from El Paso.

On Sunday, full-page ads were taken out in local papers by a wide
coalition of business, religious, political and social groups asking
President Felipe Calderon for more help. The federal government has
already sent thousands of federal police and soldiers, but crime has
only gotten worse.

Even amid the chaos of drug cartel violence, street crime and
protection rackets, the extortion of schoolteachers -- highly
respected in Mexican society but often poorly paid -- was unprecedented.

"There are a lot of things that are happening for the first time in
Juarez," said Oscar Maynez, a professor at the Autonomous University
of Ciudad Juarez who is also a former forensics investigator. "First
time teachers have been extorted like this, the first time businesses
have been burned to the ground for not paying protection money. All
types of crimes are exploding."

An estimated 1,400 people have been killed in drug-related violence
in Juarez this year.

Mr. Maynez said the threats against teachers are real and not rumors,
as officials first characterized them.

"I know a teacher in this situation who is worried he will have to
give up half of his Christmas bonus and who says other teachers are
very worried, too," said Mr. Maynez.

Officials were not available for comment Monday.

But a Chihuahua state education official, Guillermo Narro, told
teachers last week that their concerns would be addressed.

"They came to express their concerns about insecurity," he told
reporters afterward. "Some teachers told us that they had been
threatened by telephone, that they had received messages asking them
for money, that this is extortion or an attempt at extortion, and at
the same time some of these messages made reference to their students."

Mr. Narro told the teachers to continue teaching classes and leave it
to the local and state governments to investigate the threats and
seek security solutions. He said the city government had promised to
install up to 1,000 "panic buttons" like those used at banks to
discreetly signal trouble, according to media reports.

The modus operandi of the extortionists was similar in many schools,
says Alfredo Quijano, editor of the Norte newspaper, which first
reported the phenomenon two weeks ago.

"At the public schools, various men show up at the time school is
about to start or just after it ends because that's when the teachers
have their daily meetings." Mr. Quijano said. "Some of the men enter
the school, and others stay outside."

Once all the teachers are together, "the men threaten them at
gunpoint to hand over their wallets and their purses; they take
personal documents with the teachers' names and addresses, and they
tell them that they will return on the day that the teachers receive
their bonuses," he said.

Called an aguinaldo in Mexico, the Christmas bonuses are far more
than a few extra pesos for holiday shopping. For teachers, whose
union negotiates such payments with the federal government, which
employs them, it could amount to a month or more of salary.

Depending on a teacher's seniority and other factors, the amount
could range from $1,500 to $3,000 or more. The bonuses are given via
check or direct deposit in the last week of November and the first
week of December, depending on the school zone, and finding out the
date for any given school would not be hard.

Mr. Quijano said that his newspaper has documented both personal
visits by the extortionists and also threats made via banners hung
near school properties. He estimated about 50 schools have received
threats of some kind.

Where they are coming from is tough to tell, since there are so many
drug cartels and organized crime groups operating in Juarez.

"The men say they are from the 'Chapo' group [in reference to the
Sinaloa cartel], or they are Zetas [gunmen affiliated with the Gulf
cartel] or that they are from 'La Linea,' which is the Juarez
cartel," said Mr. Quijano. "Nobody knows who they really are. They
could be imitators, local street gangs."

What is certain is that as bonus day approaches, teachers, parents
and students alike are getting nervous, he said. "It's going to be a
crisis when they come to collect their extortion money."