Mexico: 48 Americans slain in first 6 months of 2010

Forty-eight Americans were killed in Mexico during the first six months of 2010 — a deadly pace that appears likely to exceed any previous year of homicides on record, according to the Houston Chronicle's analysis of the U.S. State Department's death registry. The tally doesn't include two Texans reported killed Sept. 30 in separate incidents in isolated areas of Tamaulipas. American killings in Mexico have risen steadily since 2007, when drug violence first began to rage out-of-control in border cities like Nuevo Laredo and Tijuana and later spread to Ciudad Juarez, currently ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Most homicides this year occurred in border states, like Chihuahua and Baja California, the analysis of State Department data from mid-2002 to mid-2010 shows. Last year, 80 homicides of U.S. citizens were reported in Mexico, compared with 57 in 2008 and 35 in 2007. At least 13 Americans have been slain in Ciudad Juarez in 2010, including an employee of the U.S. Consulate, Lesley Enriquez, 35, and her husband, Arthur Redelfs, 34. Jorge Salcido, the Mexican husband of another consulate employee, was killed minutes before the others in a coordinated attack on their two cars. Three U.S. citizens — a bridegroom, his brother and his uncle, all from New Mexico — were reported by Mexican authorities to have been abducted during a May wedding at the El Señor de la Misericordia Catholic Church in Juarez. Their bodies were later found dumped in a pickup truck, but those three homicides do not appear to be included in the registry...more