Pubdate: Sun, 14 Dec 2008
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Page: A - 28
Copyright: 2008 The Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Julie Watson, Associated Press

KIDNAP THREATS DEMAND MEXICO TEACHERS' BONUSES

Ciudad Juarez, Mexico -- Fourth-grader Ricardo Ivan Ortega knows he 
is a target in this violent city. His school closed temporarily last 
month after an anonymous note demanded teachers hand over their 
year-end bonuses - or students would be kidnapped.

Ricardo has a plan.

"I will just hide," the shy 9-year-old said in late November, waiting 
in the family car while his mother inquired when Luis Urias 
Elementary would reopen. "My mom told me not to get near the front 
gate, and if I need to, to run out of my classroom."

Across Ciudad Juarez, parents and students are stricken by reports of 
kidnapping and extortion threats, starting with a sign that appeared 
Nov. 12 on the front door of another school, the Elena Garro 
kindergarten, demanding: "Either give us your bonuses, or we will 
start to kidnap the children."

Police removed it before the children arrived.

Some speculate that cartels now are targeting schools to supplement 
income with the Mexican government's crackdown on drug trafficking, 
much as they've already extorted businesses. Others say common 
criminals are trying to cash in on the fear that pervades border 
cities, where terrified residents are seeing ever more brutal murders 
- - more than 1,300 so far this year in Ciudad Juarez.

"This is part of the psychosis caused by the situation between the 
cartels, and other gangs are taking advantage of that to make money," 
said Luis Urias sixth-grade teacher Martin Valles, who talked to a 
reporter through a chain-link fence.

Classes at Luis Urias have now resumed without incident. Luis Urias 
officials wouldn't discuss the threats, but they were confirmed by parents.

Guillermo Narro, the state education secretary's official in Ciudad 
Juarez, said only one threat was found, the sign at Elena Garro, 
which closed briefly but is now operating normally. But a reporter 
found at least four schools had closed.

At the colorfully painted Yitzurani kindergarten, a woman who 
identified herself as a teacher but declined to give her name said 
only about half the students have returned since classes resumed there.

Nobody knows whether the threats are real or a prank in this city of 
1.5 million across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. The schools 
received no instructions on how or to whom the teachers would hand 
over their bonuses, usually paid Dec. 15, to prevent the kidnappings.

City officials have sent hundreds of unarmed police academy cadets to 
patrol schools and try to ease fears.

There have been no arrests or suspects in Ciudad Juarez. But seven 
police officers detained for allegedly taking drug money in nearby 
Ascension told authorities they were ordered to threaten teachers for 
their bonuses, a police news release said.

Narro said education officials have changed how and when the bonuses 
will be distributed because of the threats, though he wouldn't 
elaborate for security reasons. Amounts vary across Mexico and in 
some parts are equivalent to three months' pay. Teachers can make up 
to $840 a month, according to Mexico's education secretary.

Mexico's children are increasingly caught in the middle of the 
country's escalating drug violence, with bullet-riddled bodies - and 
even a human head - dumped outside schools in border cities.

Mexican officials say they don't track the number of child deaths 
from drug-gang violence. But in Tijuana, another border city, 37 
slayings one recent weekend included two brothers, ages 4 and 13, 
killed when gunmen opened fire on a convenience store, and a 
14-year-old boy working at a locksmith's kiosk when gunmen attacked a 
neighboring business. A 12-year-old boy was killed the same weekend 
when bullets sprayed the car he was riding in.

Many Ciudad Juarez children and parents have had to hide on the floor 
of their cars as hit men opened fire in afternoon traffic. Instead of 
cowboys and Indians, preschoolers pretend to be assassins and tell 
people they are carrying imaginary AK-47s, their parents say.

Last month, seven men with their hands bound were shot to death in 
front of a soccer field next to the private Sierra Madre school, 
which runs from kindergarten through high school. Security guards 
kept students from walking through the field lined by a bloodstained curb.

Sierra Madre officials say they believe the killers picked the 
location because it is relatively isolated, and the bodies were not 
placed as threats.

Teacher Lilia Perales says that people cannot give into fear and that 
she will dock students who do not come to class, even if they are too afraid.

"A lot of my colleagues are really scared, but I don't think classes 
should be suspended," says the veteran fifth-grade teacher at Luis 
Arnoldo Nunez elementary school. "The children are going to fall 
behind, and it will just give the bad guys what they want - which is 
to terrorize us so they can have absolute control over life here. 
Acting out of fear is not the solution."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake