See other Immigration Articles
Title: Bit by Bit, a Mexican Police Force Is Eradicated
Source:
[None]
URL Source: http://www.blacklistednews.com/index.php?news_id=12284
Published: Jan 13, 2011
Author: Staff
Post Date: 2011-01-13 12:47:17 by Horse
Keywords: None
Views: 107
Comments: 6
GUADALUPE DISTRITO BRAVOS, Mexico — Her uncle, the mayor who gave her the job nobody else wanted, warned her to keep a low profile, to not make too much of being the last remaining police officer in a town where the rest of the force had quit or been killed. But in pictures for local newspapers, Érika Gándara, 28, seemed to relish the role, posing with a semiautomatic rifle and talking openly about the importance of her new job. “I am the only police in this town, the authority,” she told reporters. Then, two days before Christmas, a group of armed men took her from her home, residents say, and she has not been seen since. It was an ominous punctuation mark on the wave of terror that has turned this cotton farming town near Texas into a frightened outpost of the drug war. Nearly half of its 9,000 residents have fled, local officials say, leaving block after block of scorched homes and businesses and, now, not one regular police officer. Far from big, infamous cities like Ciudad Juárez, one of the most violent places in the Americas, the war with organized crime can batter small towns just as hard, if with less notice. The cotton towns south of Juárez sit in territory disputed by at least two major drug trafficking groups, according to government and private security reports, leading to deadly power struggles. But the lack of adequately trained police officers, a longstanding crisis that the government has sought to address with little resolution, allows criminal groups to have their way. “Small cities and towns are really highly impacted,” said Daniel M. Sabet, a visiting professor at Georgetown University who studies policing in Mexico. “They offer strongholds organized crime can hold and control.” Some towns consider themselves so vulnerable that they have gone out of their way not to antagonize criminals. Believing that those involved in organized crime would be less inclined to harm women — and because fewer men are willing to take the job — local officials have appointed a handful of women in the past year to senior police ranks in small cities and towns here in Chihuahua, the country’s most violent state. After a spate of violence in a neighboring town, Praxédis Guerrero, local officials selected a 20-year-old college student in November as police chief to run the force of nine women and two men, hoping that criminal networks would see her as less threatening. Marisol Valles, the young police chief, has made it clear that she leaves major crimes to state and federal authorities to investigate. Really, she said, she just reviews civil infractions issued by other officers and rarely leaves the office. “I am more like an administrator,” said Ms. Valles, who does not carry a gun or wear a uniform. But the criminals have not discriminated. Hermila García, the woman appointed police chief of Meoqui, a small city in central Chihuahua, was killed on Nov. 30 after only a month in the job. Guadalupe tried to put a nonthreatening face on law enforcement by appointing Ms. Gándara chief in October. But it appears that she tried — or at least talked about — taking the job more seriously, to the regret of her uncle, Mayor Tomás Archuleta. He had good reason to counsel a low profile: He took office after his predecessor was killed last summer, part of a wave of assassinations of local officials across Mexico. “I told Érika, ‘Be careful,’ to not make waves,” Mr. Archuleta said, openly frustrated by the picture of her with the rifle. Like Ms. Valles, her role is more to issue citations, leaving serious crimes to state and federal authorities. Guadalupe has plenty of them to investigate. There are as many abandoned homes and businesses — several of them gutted — as occupied ones. One recent morning, four homes smoldered from an attack and two people had been shot dead with high-powered weapons, the bullets leaving several gaping holes in cinder-block walls. Few people here leave their homes after 5 p.m., and see soldiers and police officers only briefly after a major crime or when they are guarding the monthly delivery of government pension checks for retirees. “We lock ourselves in most of the time,” said Eduardo Contreras, 26, as he watched residents douse and pick through the embers of their smoldering homes. In a voice choked with tears, María Torres, 70, who grew up here, said, “This is so sad what has happened here,” as she carried a sign for a church service. Mr. Archuleta, the mayor, said the town mainly gets its protection from soldiers based at a recreation center in Praxédis Guerrero. Maybe, Mr. Archuleta suggested, not having local police officers is better. He said local residents had told him that common crimes like burglary had dropped out of fear of drawing the attention of a military patrol. “There aren’t any” minor crimes, he said, his voice dropping to a near whisper. But townspeople disputed that, complaining that the soldiers or state and federal police officers were rarely seen except after major violence had occurred. “There is no police, no fire department, no social services, nothing here,” said the middle-aged matriarch from one burned-out home, declining to give her name for fear of reprisals. “People get away with everything here. Nothing gets investigated, not even murders.” Not long afterward, a four-truck caravan of federal police officers arrived from another town, hopping down from their vehicles, taking notes and asking her and other family members for a word. The family refused even to open the gate for the police, apparently out of fear of being seen talking to them, and the officers moved on. The officers appeared to be taking stock, driving from crime scene to crime scene and taking notes, but not mounting a forensic investigation. At the site of the double murder in the morning, one officer dabbed at a pool of blood and body fluid on the driveway with a stick; another picked up a piece of flesh and playfully tossed it at a companion. Ms. Gándara may not have investigated much deeper. Local police officers in small towns usually play a mostly preventive role, refereeing minor disputes, handling the town drunk and quieting rowdy teenagers, city managers said. Many are not armed. Mr. Archuleta would say little else about his niece, Ms. Gándara, citing an investigation by the state prosecutor’s office, which would not comment on a motive. But he noted that he had turned to her when nobody else would take the job. She had experience as a security guard and appeared not to be involved in any criminal activity, he said. “Who knows what people do in their private lives,” he said, “but I did not think she was involved in anything.”
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Horse (#0)
I lay the blame for much of this on our hedonistic fixation on recreational euphoria. It's in our culture, our music, our fiction & drama. It's a large part of the lives of too many people. We'll not be rid of it until we decide to make some uncomfortable changes in the way we think. And we won't change the way we think without a general moral renewal.
The first step to freeing Mexico from the hands of the drug cartels, is to first decriminalize drug possession here in the states, and tax the shit out of it as a source of revenues. The second step, is to militarize our border with a massive buildup of troops. The third step, is outright invasion of Mexico, killing every drug runner, coyote, and government official in Mexico. Wipe the slate clean so that the little people who have been literally oppressed by their own kind can take back their country. There are good people in Mexico. A lot of them flee to the United States for a better life, without the criminal element. Unfortunately there are plenty of criminals who desperately want to extend their influence here in the states. We must wipe them out to the last, so that the Mexican People, the DECENT, MORAL Mexican people can stand up.
It is better to be hated for what you are, than loved for what you are not. - Tommy The Mad Artist. I went to Chernobyl, and all I got was this glow in the dark T-shirt. - Tommy The Mad Artist.
Are they bragging or complaining?
Bring us your poor, tired, huddled masses; we've got room to spare and plenty of social services for your family. "America, America, God Shed His Grace On Theeeeeeee......"
__________________________________________________________ I have a lot of sympathy with your "clean out the rat's nest" attitude. Let's lead by example first. Americans should stop smoking dope and snorting cocaine. And quit believing that there is a lot of good for most folks in practicing such things as a habit. That's not the way this nation grew up. I know that George Washington grew hemp and all that. The mystique of altering the mind and mood with mood altering substances and all the cultural & social baggage that comes with it is part of a large scale operation conducted by you know who. Fill in the blanks. Alcohol is a qualitatively different matter for many many reasons. As far as Mexico goes, I believe that we've proved to everyone's satisfaction that you cannot have a revolution for someone else. I am certain that if we stopped buying product, there would be a collapse of the cartels and the money and power that keeps the Mexican people enslaved and in terror. They might well find the starch to have their very own and very overdue revolt. Yes, and I agree that decriminalization is part of the picture here. Oddly, it is also part of the program of Soros-funded groups that I do not trust one iota. I believe that their efforts are part of the program that wants us to continue to believe that getting high is a good thing, that it's part of out culture. I say it is not. We need to get our noses out of this shit. Party's over. Things are going to get real serious from here on in. Charity, and a whole lot of other important things, begins at home.
That same thing could happen here because of so many of those illegal critters( over 20 million) who are spread out through out the U.S. They might just take a lot of the people out too as the masses are too cowardly to strike back.
#2. To: randge (#1)
#3. To: Horse, christine, Jethro Tull, Lod, all (#0)
Bit by Bit, a Mexican Police Force Is Eradicated
Mike Flaherty: Yeah, it's been there a long time. I wish I knew which corner.
My Man Godfrey (1936)
#4. To: Horse (#0)
“There is no police, no fire department, no social services, nothing here,” said the middle-aged matriarch
"This man is Jesus,” shouted one man, spilling his Guinness as Barack Obama began his inaugural address. “When will he come to Kenya to save us?"
-Schweizerische Schuetzenzeitung (Swiss Shooting Federation) April, 1941
#5. To: TommyTheMadArtist (#2)
#6. To: Esso, All (#3)
Bit by Bit, a Mexican Police Force Is Eradicated
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
