Student is new police chief in cartel war zone
PRAXEDIS G. GUERRERO, Mexico - There’s a new police chief in this violent borderland where drug gangs have killed public officials and terrified many citizens into fleeing: a 20-year-old woman who hasn’t yet finished her criminology degree.
Marisol Valles Garcia was sworn in Wednesday to bring law and order to a township of about 8,500 that has been transformed from a string of quiet farming communities into a lawless no man’s land. Two rival gangs - the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels - have been battling for control of its single highway, a lucrative drug trafficking route along the Texas border.
The tiny but energetic Valles Garcia, whose only police experience was a stint as a police department secretary, says she wants her 12 officers to practice a special brand of community policing. In fact her plan is to hire more women - she currently has three - and assign each to a neighborhood to talk with families, promote civic values and detect potential crimes before they happen.
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Marisol Valles Garcia, 20, will lead a 12-officer police force in a township near Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. RAYMUNDO RUIZ / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS