Jose R. Rivera Fierro
Related Links
These links provide background information and current news on the Barrio Azteca, originally founded and led by Jose R. Rivera Fierro, on November 13, 1985. The Barrio Azteca has continued to expand under new leadership to the transnational level and is currently the largest known gang in the Texas Prison system.
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Wikipedia on the Barrio Azteca
The Barrio Azteca (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈbarjo asˈteka]), or Los Aztecas (pronounced: [los asˈtekas]), is a Mexican-American gang originally based in El Paso, Texas. The gang was formed in the jails of El Paso in 1986 and expanded into a transnational criminal organization. They are currently one of the most violent gangs in the United States and are said to have over 3,000 members in the U.S. in locations such as New Mexico, Texas, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania and at least 5,000 members in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
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NPR News Clip (7mins) March 25, 2014
Vicious Gang, Barrio Azteca, Gets Its Start In El Paso by MONICA ORTIZ URIBE
In Texas, an El Paso-based gang has spread across the U.S., and has also sent some members to Mexico for training with the Zetas. They became a transnational gang due to the drug trafficking industry.
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Charles Bowden on "Murder City: Ciudad Juárez and the Global Economy’s New Killing Fields"
The city of Ciudad Juárez, which borders El Paso, has by far been the most violent area, with more than 4,300 people killed in the past two years. That’s in a city of 1.3 million, making Ciudad Juárez one of the deadliest places in the world. Charles Bowden is a reporter who’s extensively covered drug violence in Mexico for many years. He’s the author of eleven books; his latest is Murder City: Ciudad Juárez and the Global Economy’s New Killing Fields. Charles Bowden joins us now here in our Democracy Now! studios.
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Q&A with Molly Molloy: The Story of the Juarez Femicides is a ‘Myth’
Molly Molloy: Female murder victims have never comprised more than 18 percent of the overall number of murder victims in Ciudad Juárez, and in the last two decades that figure averages at less than 10 percent. That’s less than in the United States, where about 20 to 25 percent of the people who are murdered in a given year are women. Ciudad Juárez is experiencing profound social distress, and the elevated violence in the city is a continuing crisis. But this idea that Juárez is a place of disproportionate violence against women is a misperception.
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Charles Bowden and Molly Molloy: Who Is Behind the 25,000 Deaths In Mexico? | The Nation
What has Mexico's US-funded War on Drugs accomplished? On the ground in Ciudad Juárez, the answer is written in blood.
With at least 25,000 people slaughtered in Mexico since President Felipe Calderón hurled the Mexican Army into the anti-cartel battle, three questions remain unanswered: Who is being killed, who is doing the killing and why are people being killed? This is apparently considered a small matter to US leaders in the discussions about failed states, narco-states and the false claim that violence is spilling across the border.
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