Saturday, February 21, 2009

Juarez’s police chief quits on orders of drug lords

MEXICO CITY — Ciudad Juarez’s police chief quit on Friday after drug gang hit men made good on their threats to kill more officers unless he resigned. Roberto Orduna stepped down just hours after suspected drug traffickers murdered another police officer — the fifth in a week — and a prison guard in Mexico’s most violent city. The killers attached signs to the bodies saying they were fulfilling their threat to kill police officers every 48 hours until their boss resigned. The slayings and Orduna’s resignation were chilling signs of the traffickers’ determination to seize control of the police force. Ciudad Juarez, an industrial hub of 1.3 million people across the border from El Paso, is a key transit point for South American cocaine headed to the U.S. market, as well as for Mexican marijuana and methamphetamine. Two major drug syndicates are battling each other for the city. “My duty cannot be above the security of my men,” Orduna, the city’s public security secretary, told reporters as he announced his resignation. “Let the enemies of Mexico be clear: The decision I make now is an intelligent one in favor of life over death.” Orduna, a retired army major, took over in May after his predecessor fled to El Paso after the slaying of his operations director, the force’s second-ranking officer. Orduna's operations director, Sacramento Perez, was killed on Wednesday along with two of his bodyguards. Perez was the third operations director killed in the city in the past year. Click title for full story

No comments: