Mexico Under Siege

MEXICO ATTACK KILLS 10 YOUTHS

The Students Were on Their Way to Pick Up Scholarships When They Came
Under Fire at a Roadblock

Ten students on their way to receive government scholarships were
killed by gunmen at a checkpoint in the state of Durango, officials
said Monday. Half of the victims were 16 or younger.

The checkpoint appeared to be the ad hoc type of roadblock often set
up by drug traffickers who control parts of Durango, not a military
installation, state prosecutors said.

Gunmen opened fire and hurled grenades at the youths, who were
traveling in a pickup truck and apparently failed to stop at the
roadblock, the officials said.

The dead included three girls, ages 8, 11 and 13; the rest were teens
except for the eldest, who was 21. Four of the dead were siblings.
The massacre occurred early Sunday afternoon.

The students were traveling over isolated rural roads to receive
scholarships as part of a federal program called "Opportunities" that
supports low-income students, Ruben Lopez, spokesman for the Durango
state prosecutor's office, said in a telephone interview.

Parts of Durango have fallen under the sway of drug-running gunmen
called the Zetas, who are battling for control of market and
distribution routes.

Interior Minister Fernando Gomez Mont, at a news conference Monday,
read out the names and ages of the victims, who he said were
"cowardly murdered" by criminal gangs.

He denied that the checkpoint was staffed by soldiers.

Daniel Delgado, mayor of Pueblo Nuevo, a town in the region where the
attack took place, said he felt powerless to challenge the gangs.

"We need more military presence . . . more police who are trained and
equipped to fight the kind of criminals we are facing," he said in an
interview with Milenio television.

Milenio said 993 people have been killed so far in March, more than
in any other month in the last 3 1/2 years.

Also Monday, authorities announced the capture of a suspect in the
March 13 slaying of three people attached to the U.S. Consulate in
the border city of Ciudad Juarez.

Enrique Torres, spokesman for the joint police-military command that
controls Ciudad Juarez, said the army, acting on information from the
FBI, detained a leader of the Barrio Azteca gang.

Two U.S. citizens, Lesley A. Enriquez, a consular officer, and her
husband, Arthur H. Redelfs, were killed on their way home from a
children's birthday party in Ciudad Juarez.

Jorge Alberto Salcido, the husband of another consular officer, was
killed about the same time after leaving the same birthday event.