Violence reaches UTEP

The violence in Ciudad Juárez has directly affected the UTEP community.

According to Daniel Borunda's story in today’s El Paso Times, UTEP student Alejandro Ruiz Salazar and former student Jorge Pedro Gonzalez Quintero were killed near Juarez this weekend.

Ruiz, 19, was a sophomore nursing major who entered UTEP last fall. Gonzalez, 21, was an engineering student, who was enrolled at UTEP from fall 2006 through the spring semester of 2009.

This is the first time that we are aware of that UTEP students have been killed due to the violence in the Juárez area. Although many El Paso families have already been impacted by the violence happening in their neighboring city.

But when the violence affects students, people’s reactions are usually stronger.

At a recent national meeting, the rectores (the equivalent of a university president) of more than 150 public and private universities in Mexico expressed their concerns about how the violence is impacting campus life.  They said that students and faculty members have been assaulted, attacked, kidnapped, extort or killed due to the ongoing violence

In an interview with a local newspaper, the rector of the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez (UACJ), Jorge Mario Quintana Silveyra, said that in the last two years, two of the university's students have been reported as missing, another one was kidnapped and 11 students and professors have been killed.

The rector of the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Jesus Ancer Rodriguez, said that one of his students, a woman enrolled in their architecture program, died as a result of the violence. In the same state, two students of the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey were killed when they were trapped in the middle of a confrontation between organized crime and military forces.

Many of the rectores participating in the event said that they have substantially increased the funding assigned to security, something that was not a priority in previous years. Fernando Bilbao, rector of the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos (UAEM), said that his institution increased the funding for security by 100 percent.

Unfortunately, the more sophisticated security equipment won't protect citizens or students from being killed.

In the particular case of UTEP, the situation is even more difficult, given that many of the students commute everyday between Juárez and El Paso. They can't avoid going there because they live there and their loved ones are there.  Besides that, many probably can’t afford to move to El Paso.

Many people living in El Paso have stopped visiting Juárez. They are not visiting their relatives or friends. They are losing contact with their roots because they don’t want to expose themselves to a dangerous situation.

The killing of these UTEP students validates not only the existing dangers of Juárez, but it also might prompt parents to send their kids to live on the other side of the border.  Although this would disrupt these families emotionally and economically, unfortunately they don’t have many choices.

Comments

[Mr Hate]

Excuse me, the violence was in Juarez. Not at UTEP. A former student and student were gunned down across the border. WTF?

[Miner Niner]

How did the violence "reach UTEP" ? Are you dumb? or is this the typical ploy to get readers to view this????

Funny, I was at UTEP yesterday and i didn't see any gunmen (sarcasm). Typical El Paso Times with their crap reporting.

[joeb]

Well duh, Mr Hate. WTF with your juvenile comment? Lourdes is pointing out what is obvious to one as intelligent as yourself, that UTEP students are yet another group that has suffered with the drug "war." Any negative remark you can make about the inept, corrupt government of Mexico has already been said many times, by her. I am still amazed that the truly ignorant in the US cannot imagine such a thing happening here- where the elitist exploit the poor for 100 years, and then, bang bang boom! Suddenly there's a counter-culture! "Listen to the dull and ignorant; they too have their say," so the philosophers say.

[RoOsTeR]

joeb,

You have to admit she could've used a different title. The title makes it seem like it (drug war violence) has literally spilled over in to the campus. Yes, once you read the story you understand what is meant by the title, but titles like this could possibly give the University a black eye.

[English Speaker]

Don't begin sentences with "Although" Jeez. Did you go to journalism school at all?o

[joeb]

I agree, she could have used a different wording. Thanks for a civil comment.
For englishspeaker, you seem to be captured in grade school English class, jeez. Sorry, make that "JEEZ." Anyone who goes to journalism school who cannot break free from the rules and regulations is destined to remain non-essential. Remember Thomas Merton? Vonnegut? The important thing for me is to read Lourdes' comments, from the generous heart and mind, rather than from an embittered, prejudiced mindset.

[rmf]

Lourdes, your 20+ yrs in journalism did not serve you well.Yes it is sad that two UTEP students lost their lives to the violence that is consuming Juarez, there was no violence reported at UTEP. Your bad choice of words "violence reaches UTEP" must be a journalistic ploy to get people to read your work.

[Miriam]

Instead of discussing a title or Lourdes' years of experience, we should be discussing how to help our brothers and sisters in Juárez.
And just curious, would it make a difference for you if your son or daughter was gunned in your house or across the street? If it's a member of your family the place becomes irrelevant, don't you think?

[average joe]

These are two of the over 5000 homicide "victims" in Juarez since 2008. Were they selected at random? Doubtful, especially since it was reported that Gonzalez lost a brother to the violence two years ago. And now he was murdered. It is not rocket science to be able to say with a fair degree of certianty that he was mixed up in something sinister. The other kid, the current UTEP student, was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong guy.

[alice from Ky]

"average joe" suits this writer perfectly. "Average Sarah Palin " is more like it. There is not one shred of evidence, nor rocket science, to support the conclusions. I have said many times and others have, that the major problem with America is its ignorance.
Rocket science, by the way, has been around for thousand of years before the Hebrews, and before the first words of the Bible.

[el chuco]

I think average joe hit it on the head. Why else were these two killed? It was not a mass shooting in whcih they could have been by-standers. They were the two that were killed. Plain/simple