MORE THAN A DOZEN DIE IN JUAREZ MASSACRE

14 Others Hurt In Attack At Party

Gunmen shot and killed fourteen people and wounded 14 others in an
appalling attack at a birthday party Saturday night in Juarez.

The victims ranged in age from 13 to 42, eight of whom were students.
They were shot by 15 gunmen with 9 mm handguns, .40-caliber handguns
and .223-caliber weapons, normally associated with assault rifles,
officials said.

Photographs taken by media outlets showed a ghastly scene with large
amounts of blood on the floor of a home, blood splattered on walls
and footprints of blood left by soldiers or investigators.

Authorities said 10 people died at the scene and four at a hospital.
The other victims were being treated for their wounds.

Juarez, which has been involved in a bloody drug war since January
2008, has had several multiple-slaying shootings. In September, two
drug rehabilitation centers were attacked -- 18 were killed in one
and 10 were killed in the other massacre.

The latest moved officials into action.

Mexican authorities announced a reward of a million pesos -- about
$76,000 in dollars -- for information leading to the arrest of the
people who committed the latest mass killing.

Chihuahua state Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez and Juarez Mayor
Jose Reyes Ferriz called a news conference Sunday to condemn the
murders at a southeastern Juarez neighborhood.

Gonzalez said city, state and federal law enforcement officers were
collaborating in the investigation. She said they did not know what
led to the attack.

At the news conference, officials said the youngest victim was
13-year-old Yomira Aurora Delgado Lara, one of eight students who
were slain that night. Two of the male victims had not been identified.

Most of the students attended the CBTIS 128 and Bachilleres 9
campuses. CBTIS was founded 30 years ago to help train professionals
and technicians for jobs in the maquiladora industry.

Witnesses said several armed men in four vehicles showed up Saturday
night at a house on Vista del Portal, where the party was in
progress. The assailants separated the males and females before they
began mowing them down.

The killers used their vehicles to block the street at both ends and
chased several people who tried to escape. The victims reportedly
were celebrating a school soccer championship and the birthday of one
of their friends.

When police arrived at the scene, they found bodies scattered across
three properties on Vista del Portal. Neighbors who became aware of
what happened rushed the injured to clinics, and washed away several
pools of blood.

In the other multiple slayings, suspects arrested in the cases led
authorities to believe that the killings at the rehabilitation
centers were directly connected to the drug war between the Juarez
and Sinaloa drug cartels.

On Sept. 2, 2009, 18 men at the Casa Aliviane rehabilitation center
were gunned down and on Sept. 15, 2009, 10 people at the Nexo Vida
rehab center were killed in similar fashion. Smaller groups of people
have been shot to death in nightclubs, restaurants and motels in Juarez.

Although authorities did not suggest a link between the latest
multiple slayings to the drug violence that has claimed about 4,400
lives since 2008, officials have said warring drug cartels are
responsible for most of the deaths.

On Sunday, the National Latino Congreso, which met for three days in
El Paso, passed a resolution to join with the El Paso City Council to
call for immediate action to end the violence in Juarez.

El Paso city Rep. Beto O'Rourke said the latest massacre "underscores
that Juarez does not need our sympathy -- Juarez needs action. This
was another day we have allowed these events to continue."

"The prevailing drug-prohibition policy is literally killing the
people of Juarez."

O'Rourke said the violence across the border affects El Paso, while
the violence nationwide in Mexico affects the United States.

Chihuahua state governor candidates Pablo Cuaron (National Action
Party) and Cesar Duarte (Institutional Revolutionary Party) issued
statements repudiating the murders.

The other victims authorities identified Sunday were Jesus Armando
Segovia Ortiz, 15, student; Brenda Ivonne Escamilla Pedroza, 17,
student; Rodrigo Cadena Davila, 17, student; Jose Adrian Encina
Hernandez, 17, student; Carlos Lucio Moreno Avila, 18, student.

Also, Horacio Alberto Soto Camargo, 19, student; Jose Luis Aguilar
Camargo, 19, college student; Edgar Martin Diaz Macias, 23,
unemployed; Eduardo Becerra, 35, worker; Jesus Enriquez Miramontes,
39, worker; and Jaime Rosale Cisneros, 42, contractor.

The reward is offered through the Crime Stoppers 800-220-8477
telephone line the Juarez city government set up for people to
provide tips confidentially.