U.S. SENDS NEW ALERT ON TRAVEL IN CHIHUAHUA

EL PASO -- The U.S. State Department is warning travelers about the
resurgence in drug violence in the state of Chihuahua that has claimed
the lives of U.S. citizens, activists and bystanders.

Americans should "exercise a high degree of caution" when in Juarez
and other parts of Chihuahua, said an advisory, called a Warden
Message, from the U.S. Consulate in Juarez.

"Drug cartels and associated criminal elements have retaliated
violently against individuals who speak out against them or who they
otherwise view to be a threat to their organization, regardless of the
individuals' citizenship," said the advisory, posted Friday.

The alert apparently re fers to the death of anti-kidnapping activist
Benjamin LeBaron, a dual U.S.-Mexico citizen, killed two weeks ago by
gunmen who took him from his home near Galeana in the northwestern
part of Chihuahua.

Because of murders and kidnappings, Americans should avoid
nonessential trips to that corner of Chihuahua, including the towns of
Nuevo Casas Grandes, Madera and Namiquipa, whose mayor was slain last
week, the consulate advised.

The consulate also re-stated a call made in February for U.S. citizens
to stay out of the violent Valley of Juarez, situated across the Rio
Grande from Fabens and Fort Hancock.

More than 2,600 people, including nine U.S. citizens this year, have
been killed in the Juarez area since a drug-cartel war erupted in
January 2008.

The State Department also has a travel alert for all of Mexico because
of violent crime.

Tuesday morning, the body count in Juarez continued to grow when
unidentified men were found floating in irrigation canals.

Three bodies, one of them headless, were found in a canal near the
Antonio J. Bermudez industrial park in east Juarez, state police said.

A fourth body, wrapped in a blanket bound with wire, was pulled from a
canal in the village of Praxedis G. Guerrero.

In Chihuahua City, federal police caught a man with four fragmentation
grenades, two rifles, three bulletproof vests and Kevlar helmets and a
banner with a drug-cartel message.

The man, Antonio Venavides Vaz quez, also had a handgun tucked into
his waistband when police stopped his pickup, authorities said.

"So you know the one who gives the orders here is La Linea," the
banner read, referring to the name of what is known as the Juarez drug
cartel.