Roswell Daily Record
Egypt Cabinet lacks Islamists
Vol. 122, No. 170 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
SENATE REGROUPS WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate stepped away from the brink of a meltdown on Tuesday, one of confirming President Barack Obama’s long-stalled nominees, agreeing to quick action on others.. - PAGE A8
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s interim leader swore in a Cabinet on Tuesday that included women and Christians but no Islamists as the military-backed administration moved swiftly to formalize the new political order and present a more liberal face that is markedly at odds with the deposed president and his supporters. The changes came at a time of deep polarization and violence in Egypt, including new clashes that
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
July 17, 2013
WEDNESDAY
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killed seven people as part of the continuing bloodshed that has marked the days following the armed forces coup that swept President Mohammed Morsi from office and cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt’s military already wields great influence behind the scenes, and the army chief, Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who ousted Morsi on July 3, was given a promotion in the Cabinet. He became a first deputy prime minister in addition
to keeping his post as defense minister.
For most of the two years since the overthrow of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, the country has been split into two camps — one led by Morsi, his Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies, and another led by secular Egyptians, liberals, Christians and moderate Muslims. The fault lines remain, except that the Islamist camp is no longer in power.
It does not include members of any Islamist parties — a sign of the enduring division that follows the removal of Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president.
The interim president’s spokesman had earlier said posts would be offered to the Muslim Brotherhood, but the group promptly refused, saying it would not take part in the militarybacked political process and would continue
protests until the legitimately elected Morsi is reinstated. “We refuse to even discuss it,” a senior official of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice party, told The Associated Press. “What is built on illegitimacy is illegal,” he said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media before the party issued a formal statement on the for mation of the Cabinet.
PVACD discusses drought
Reflecting pool
JILL MCLAUGHLIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
TOP 5 WEB
For The Past 24 Hours
• Construction begins on new Marshalls • .Crash claims woman • Family seeks help to solve murder • Luncheon to focus on education • Concert series unites community
INSIDE SPORTS
Water lilies sprout above the water at the Kenneth Smith Bird Sanctuary, Tuesday afternoon.
Mark Wilson Photo
Roswell-area water levels have reached an “all-time low.” Three years of severe drought and a state-ordered water seizure on the Pecos River has reduced flows to levels not seen since 1970—the worst year on record, said Pecos Valley Artesian Conservancy District Board member Dick Smith. Water district officials asked county and city officials to consider restricting domestic water wells as a solution to the problem Tuesday. “Man, we’re having some hard times lately,” Smith said. PVACD officials delivered the unsettling news to a group of residents and county, city and agriculture officials. Since the Carlsbad Irrigation District’s demand to the state
City seeks grant for Arias sentenced to 4 years national vet cemetery IS IT TIGER’S YEAR? GULLANE, Scotland (AP) — British Open champions at Muirfield are more likely to be found on a ballot for the Hall of Fame than the bottom of a betting sheet. It has never been known as a... - PAGE B1
TODAY’S OBITUARIES
• Eugene Daniel Sena • Ursula M. Chaves • Alice Smeal • Van Sonny Sedillo • William Ray Hardcastle
- PAGE A8
HIGH ..72˚ LOW ...65˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........B7 COMICS.................B5 ENTERTAINMENT...A10 FINANCIAL .............B6 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ......A10 LOTTERIES ............A2 NATION .................A8 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ............A10
INDEX
JILL MCLAUGHLIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
A coalition of area veterans and leaders said Tuesday they will seek to be the first to submit an application to the state to provide a national veterans’ cemetery in Roswell. The statement followed Gov. Susana Martinez’s announcement that her administration is developing a statewide strategic veterans’ cemetery plan to establish cemeteries for the state’s rural-area veterans. “The goal is to provide resting places that meet the highest federal standards for the largest portion of New Mexico’s veteran population that live a great distance from the three federal cemeteries currently avail-
able to them at Santa Fe, Ft. Bayard and Ft. Bliss,” Martinez said in a press release. The New Mexico Department of Veterans’ Services will hold meetings with state mayors through September and community and county commission meetings through November. The department will develop applications for three or four locations with the hope of identifying up to 10 sites that are 3- to 5-acres in size. Greg Neal, vice president of Southeastern New Mexico Veterans’ Transportation Network, said an effort led by Mayor Del Jurney, City Planner Michael Vickers, Cabinet Secretary Col. Tim
JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Jose Arias, 21, was sentenced in District Court, Monday morning, to four years following his conviction for involuntary manslaughter with a firear ms enhancement and tampering with evidence. The conviction stems from the shooting death of 22-year -old Victoria Velasquez-Arias that occurred on May 20, 2011, just four days after Arias was released from jail on charges of battery of a household member for beating his wife. Arias was apprehended as he tried to leave the scene at 2800 W. Fourth St. with the weapon, a Taurus Model 38S, in the trunk
See PVACD, Page A3
of the vehicle. During the sentencing hearing, City Councilor Elena Velasquez spoke on behalf of her family about their loss, reading three letters from various family members. Then she showed a video that they had created for Victoria’s funeral. The video had been updated with pictures of one of Victoria’s two daughters looking at her mother in the casket. Arias’ grandmother asked the judge for mercy in sentencing. She said that she hoped everyone would have time to heal. Mention was made of Arias’ two-and-a-half year old son by another woman, whom he had not been able to see, except through glass at the jail. Originally, Arias was
charged with first-degree capital murder; however, the jury ruled in favor of involuntary manslaughter. Victoria’s grandmother collapsed when the judge read the jury’s verdict.
State Prosecutor Debra Hutchins asked for the maximum sentence, 18 months for involuntary manslaughter, with a 1year firearms enhancement and 18 months on the charges of tampering with evidence with each sentence to run consecutively, for a total of four years. Defense attorney Anna Marie Bell recommended time served, based on the fact if the sentences ran
Zetas leader captured in precision operation
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s most brutal drug cartel leader built a business empire stretching from the Southwest United States to Central America, but Miguel Angel Trevino Morales’ final days of freedom were spent lying low in the hinterlands of Tamaulipas state, traveling only at night over back roads as Mexican marines closed in on his trail.
The last of the Zetas drug cartel’s old-guard leaders saw fate swoop in on him in the pre-dawn hours Monday when a military helicopter flew low over his pickup truck, then almost touching the ground, faced down the vehicle with its guns, Mexico Federal Security spokesman Eduardo
See GRANT, Page A3
Sanchez said.
tle,” Sanchez said.
Time was clearly running out for the cartel leader better known — and feared — by his nickname, “Z-40,” a play on police radio code for a commander. Mexico’s navy, which has brought down a number of top drug lords, “found out that he had been traveling in the early morning hours on dirt roads. They had been corralling him in little by lit-
Instead, the government released a single video of a rumpled-looking, un-handcuf fed T revino Morales walking through prosecutors’ headquarters, saying it wanted to avoid glamorizing drug traffickers or risk
The vehicle stopped, and three men emerged. Two hit the ground while the third tried to run. All were captured by marine ground forces who had been watching the movements of 40-year -old T revino Morales, Sanchez told The Associated Press Tuesday. Not a single shot was fired.
Trevino Morales had $2 million in cash and eight rifles with him when marines caught him outside the border city of Nuevo Laredo, long the Zetas’ base of operations. He was taken to Mexico City for questioning, but unlike the days of former President Felipe Calderon, there was no perp walk by a handcuffed suspect or piles of cash and guns put on display for the TV cameras.
rights violations that could lead to a dismissal of charges. Authorities didn’t even refer to his nickname, Z-40. The Zetas are Mexico’s most violent, if not richest, cartel, with the largest turf. A New York indictment against T revino Morales estimates he received $10 million per month in income from cocaine sales alone, not to mention the money brought in by the cartel’s myriad other illicit activities, including kidnapping, extortion, migrant trafficking, weapons trafficking, even theft of oil from state pipelines. His arrest was particularly pleasing for the United See ZETAS, Page A3
See ARIAS, Page A3
AP Photo
This photo released on Tuesday by the Mexican Navy shows Zetas drug cartel leader Miguel Angel Trevino Morales after his arrest in Mexico.