EL PASO MAN KILLED IN SHOOTOUT LED CARTEL HIT SQUAD

An El Paso man killed by Mexican soldiers in a shootout on Monday was
the mastermind behind the massacre of 16 people at a birthday party
over the weekend in Juarez, federal officials said Tuesday night.

Adrian Ramirez, alias "Ramon, El 12 or El Rama," allegedly led a hit
team for the Juarez drug cartel also known as La Linea, authorities
said in statement that included artist renderings of other suspects
in the slayings.

Federal officials said the team of shooters believed the people
attending the party were members of a rival gang known as Artistas
Asesinos. Officials refused to say whether any of the victims were
gang members, but most of them were identified as students and athletes.

The attack shocked Mexico because of its brutality, and it caused an
immediate response from officials, who offered a million peso --
about $76,000 -- reward.

Authorities said they discovered that Ramirez was from El Paso. El
Paso law enforcement said they did not immediately have information
about Ramirez.

Ramirez had an "EPT" tattoo on his abdomen, according to a photograph
provided by Mexican authorities. Officials have said that "EPT"
stands for El Paso, Texas, and that the insignia is also used by
members of the El Paso-based Barrio Azteca prison gang.

Mexican officials said Ramirez, who is also suspected in the killing
of four people at the Bandoleros nightclub on Monday, was shot and
killed about 3 p.m. Monday after a chase that ended in a shootout
with soldiers.

Ramirez and Jose Dolores Arroyo Chavarria were driving away after a
roadway shooting in an attempt to kill Daniel Elias Becerra Vicencio,
a member of the Artistas Asesinos, authorities said. Arroyo was
arrested. The car, a 2002 Pontiac Grand Am, had been reported stolen
in the U.S. Artistas Asesinos, also known as AA, or Doblados, are
rivals of the Azteca gang, which is aligned with the Juarez cartel.

Arroyo is allegedly a "halcon" (falcon), slang for lookouts during
"jales," or jobs, done by cartel operatives. Investigators are
looking for a dozen other shooting suspects, identified only by
numbers the cartel uses as identifiers.

A man known as El Diego, or "El 10," ordered Ramirez to attack the
party where members of the Artistas Asesinos were believed to be
celebrating, Arroyo told investigators, according to a narrative
provided by investigators.

The attack at the birthday party began when lookouts first scouted
the neighborhood to make sure there were no police. Four vehicles
then arrived with 24 men, some armed with AK-47s and AR-15 assault
rifles to shoot the partygoers, authorities said.

The statement offered by Mexican authorities does not go into detail
about what happened inside the party, but bodies were found in three
locations, and blood was spilled on floors and splattered against walls.

In all, 16 died and 12 were wounded. The youngest killed was a
13-year-old girl and the oldest was 42. Wakes took place Tuesday for
some of the victims.

President Felipe Calderon condemned what he called the "cowardly
murder of a group of young people."

Some Juarez school officials, lawmakers and the human-rights
commission demanded that the government reshape its strategy to fight
organized crime.

"The society in which we are living is already very ill," said the
principal of high school CBTIS 128, which seven of victims attended.
She did not want her name published because of safety concerns.

Four CBTIS 128 students died, and three were hospitalized in stable condition.

"Now the situation is critical. We, faculty and administration, are
very shocked," the principal said.

CBTIS 128 will start classes today without Rodrigo Cadena Davila,
Juan Carlos Medrano and Brenda Ivonne Escamilla, all 17, and Carlos
Lucio Moreno Avila, 18, who were killed. "I'm scared more fear will
be spread," the principal said.

At the Juarez campus of the Autonomous University of Chihuahua, dean
Jose Eduardo Borunda Escobedo said it was a disgrace to lose two
college students in the attack.

"We are demanding the government to investigate thoroughly and that
the full weight of law fall upon those responsible for the killings,"
Borunda Escobedo said.

Mexican Sen. Fernando Baeza Melendez of Chihuahua said a minute of
silence for the victims was observed during Monday's session of
congress in Mexico City.

"There's a need to revise the strategy against organized crime
followed by the federal government," said Baeza Melendez, of the
Institutional Revolutionary Party. "The Calderon administration began
with the wrong diagnosis."

More than 4,400 people have been killed in Juarez since a war between
the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels began in January 2008. Calderon
has deployed about 45,000 soldiers nationwide to fight the cartels,
including about 8,000 in Juarez.

"We are asking to redefine the strategy," Baeza Melendez said.

Mexican Rep. Adriana Terrazas Porras, of Juarez, used the massacre as
an example to tell other legislators about the rising brutality of
crimes that have spread uncertainty and mistrust among residents.

"It cannot be possible that only the military and federal police are
sent as a measure to patrol streets," she said in a news release.

Other groups blamed officials for the lack of public safety.

The Frente Nacional Contra la Represion en Ciudad Juarez, or National
Front Against Repression in Juarez, said residents of the Villas de
Salvarcar neighborhood, where the massacre occurred, criticized
soldiers when they arrived at the crime scene.

The group alleged that soldiers sealed off the scene, harassed
passers-by and prevented wounded victims from receiving medical
attention. A spokesman for Coordinated Operation Chihuahua said he
could not comment because the investigation continued.

"We blame the three levels of government -- federal, state and city
- -- for the massacres that occur in the city, and for failing to
protect our community," the group said in a statement.

Mexico's National Commission of Human Rights urged citizens to report
anything they knew about the massacre.

Dennis Blair, director of the National Intelligence Center, spoke
about Mexico's drug cartels and violence during his testimony Tuesday
before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He said more than
7,000 people died in Mexico last year in drug-related violence.

According to Blair's Annual Threat Assessment report for the
committee, President Calderon "is determined to break the cartels'
power and influence and reduce drug flows despite slow progress and
continued high levels of violence ... the drug cartels probably will
not destabilize the political situation even with escalated violence."

Times reporter Diana Washington Valdez contributed to this story.