See other Immigration Articles
Title: Nuevo Laredo attack claims policewoman The law officer is 15th slain in the border city in '05
Source:
Houston Chronicle
URL Source: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3305591
Published: Aug 11, 2005
Author: Dudley Althaus
Post Date: 2005-08-11 09:21:34 by Zipporah
Keywords: policewoman, officer, Laredo
Views: 242
Comments: 9
NUEVO LAREDO, MEXICO - A Nuevo Laredo policewoman was killed and a former one injured Wednesday in the latest of the gangland-style street shootings that have racked this border city for many months. Two gunmen described as "very young" by witnesses reportedly pulled alongside the women and opened fire as they were driving along a working-class residential street not far from the international bridge about 5 p.m. The dead policewoman, radio operator Adriana de Leon Martinez, had just finished her shift and was being given a ride by Maria de la Paz Rangel, who was wounded in the shoulder and elbow, investigators said. The ages of both women, and how long they had worked on the force, were not immediately available. Rangel was fired from the police force a month ago, city officials said. Scores of municipal police have been purged from the department since federal authorities suspended all its officers in mid-June on suspicion of being corrupted by local drug gangs. De Leon is the 15th local law officer to be killed in Nuevo Laredo so far this year, including Police Chief Alejandro Dominguez, who was gunned down June 8 just seven hours after taking office. The city councilman who oversaw the troubled police force, Leopoldo Ramos, was killed by three gunmen wielding automatic rifles Friday as he drove down the street a few blocks from City Hall. "We're worried," Mayor Daniel Peña said a few hours after the shooting. "It's like they are hunting them down like objects." The young shooter pulled himself out of the passenger-side widow and fired his pistol at the women over the top of his car, witnesses said. After the shooting, the killers' car turned the corner, perhaps headed north toward the border, a witness said. "They were heading for the bridge," said one witness an hour later. "They're probably having dinner in Texas right now." Gangland violence has been pulsing in Nuevo Laredo for the past several years. Narcotics smugglers from the so-called Gulf Cartel — whose territory stretches along the Mexican side of the border from Laredo to Brownsville — are battling others allied with another organization based in the Pacific Coast state of Sinaloa. The border crossing here is the most important along the U.S.-Mexico line, accounting for 60 percent of the commercial traffic traded over land between the countries. The city also has become a premier crossing point for South American cocaine and locally produced heroin, marijuana and crystal methamphetamine heading for U.S. consumers. The latest killing comes just two days after the U.S. Consulate reopened after being closed a week in protest of a wave of violence. U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza ordered the consulate closed July 29, the day after a gang shootout in one of the city's better neighborhoods that involved automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. The killing also came as the city's merchants begin a promotion, paid for by the state, to bring tourists here free of charge from San Antonio to convince them that the city is safe for visitors. Indeed, almost all of the 110 killings tallied in the city so far this year have been linked to organized crime. And even city officials say most of the slain police died because of their ties to one smuggling band or the other, rather than in the line of duty. In addition, hundreds more gray-uniformed federal police, many of them active-duty soldiers on loan to the force, were sent to Nuevo Laredo over the weekend, following Ramos' killing. "There are 1,200 federal policemen here now," said Peña, the mayor, who since Friday has been traveling in a bullet-proof vehicle. "I don't know what they're doing." Most Nuevo Laredo businesses, including its downtown bars and restaurants, began a midnight curfew today in what organizers say is an effort to aid in the crackdown. "This is what the government is hoping to end," said Mario Quintanilla, one of those who gathered to watch police clean up the scene of Wednesday's killing. "I don't think they'll be able to."
Witnesses tell of attack
Witnesses, who declined to give their names, said the women's killers pulled alongside them on the right in a late-model car as they drove down the quiet street a few blocks from downtown. Federal police move in
Federal and state authorities say they've launched a second phase of a crackdown here, begun in June following the killing of Dominguez. State and federal officials said federal intelligence agents are now operating in the city, targeting the criminal gangs.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 2.
#2. To: Zipporah (#0)
Parts of the S/W are sounding like Baghdad. At some point, we have to either make Washington responsive to our security needs, or change government by any means necessary.
There are no replies to Comment # 2. End Trace Mode for Comment # 2.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestNarcotics smugglers from the so-called Gulf Cartel — whose territory stretches along the Mexican side of the border from Laredo to Brownsville — are battling others allied with another organization based in the Pacific Coast state of Sinaloa.
Replies to Comment # 2.