MEXICO: Police chief quits job after receiving threats from drug traffickers threatening to go on officer killing spree
Record ID:
303505
MEXICO: Police chief quits job after receiving threats from drug traffickers threatening to go on officer killing spree
- Title: MEXICO: Police chief quits job after receiving threats from drug traffickers threatening to go on officer killing spree
- Date: 21st February 2009
- Summary: CIUDAD JUAREZ, CHIHUAHUA, MEXICO (FEBRUARY 20, 2009) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MURDERED POLICEMEN OUTSIDE HOME GROUPS OF POLICEMEN WEARING BALACLAVAS CORDONED OFF CRIME SCENE COVERED BODY ON STREET POLICE AND ARMY GUARDING AREA MESSAGES ON BODIES OF POLICE WARNING OF MORE DEATHS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) CIUDAD JUAREZ MAYOR, JOSE REYES FERRIZ, SAYING: "It's understandable, the chief (Orduna) worries first about his men before anything else and that is the main reason we are accepting his resignation. This afternoon, I will provisionally name a new police chief, until we know who the new police chief / the chief of municipal police will be." POLICE CHIEF ROBERTO ORDUNA WHO RESIGNED DURING NEWS CONFERENCE VARIOUS OF CRIME SCENE WHERE POLICEMAN WAS KILLED
- Embargoed: 8th March 2009 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Mexico
- Country: Mexico
- Reuters ID: LVA6J1QKBWNQAMW2846D8P8J1KGJ
- Story Text: The police chief of one of the most violent cities on Mexico's northern border quit on Friday (February 20) after drug gangs vowed to kill a police officer every 48 hours until he resigned.
Drug hitmen killed the deputy police chief in Ciudad Juarez on Tuesday and another cop on Friday and left messages on the bodies warning they would murder more officers, police said.
Police chief Roberto Orduna said his decision was based on an intelligent one of life over death.
Orduna, a former soldier, took over the municipal police in Ciudad Juarez last year. The city saw an unprecedented 1,600 people killed in drug violence in 2008 as President Felipe Calderon's army-backed war on drug gangs sparked off fresh turf wars between rival cartels across the country.
"It's understandable, the mayor (Orduna) worries first about his men before anything else and that is the main reason we are accepting his resignation. This afternoon, I will provisionally name a new police chief, until we know who the new police chief / the chief of municipal police will be," Ciudad Juarez Mayor, Jose Reyes Ferriz, said told a news conference in the city, where violence has reached giddy levels.
Calderon has begun putting senior military staff in charge of Mexico's ill-equipped, poorly paid municipal police to try and clean up forces that are deeply infiltrated by drug cartels fighting over smuggling routes to the United States.
Ciudad Juarez is the bloodiest front in Calderon's two-year-old fight against drug cartels. Government officials say Mexico's most-wanted fugitive, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, is battling with the Juarez cartel for control of the city and killing corrupt cops working with rivals.
More than 50 police were murdered in Ciudad Juarez last year.
Calderon has sent some 45,000 troops and federal police across Mexico to fight drug gangs, but the death toll from drug violence soared to 6,000 people last year. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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