Mexico To Dismiss 400 Corrupt Police After Drug Violence
 Agence France-Presse
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| | Violence has escalated throughout Mexico since President Felipe Calderon, who took office at the end of 2006, began a military crackdown on drug trafficking. | | |
Ciudad Juarez - About 400 corrupt police officers will be laid off in the violent northern Mexico border city of Ciudad Juarez, officials said Monday, in a police purge to tackle escalating crime.
Several hundred thousand Mexicans protested rising insecurity this weekend, amid a string of murders, beheadings and kidnappings, and after their leaders promised to clamp down on violence in a national security pact, including a police purge.
Mexico's police are notoriously corrupt and often involved in kidnappings and organized crime.
"Just over 400 police officers who failed a reliability test will be dismissed," said Jose Reyes, mayor of the city across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, that has registered almost 1,000 murders so far this year, out of about 3,000 nationwide.
Another 10 police commanders also would be laid off, for failing to pass reliability tests, said an official for the Chihuahua state government.
The 400 police officers, representing one quarter of Ciudad Juarez's 1,600- strong force, underwent tests including for drugs, lying and previous offenses.
Reyes said some had committed offenses in other states, some had accepted bribes and others had links to organized crime.
He said that authorities would offer them work in maquiladoras - low-cost assembly factories along the border - in an apparent effort to prevent them from committing further criminal acts.
Drug cartels are fighting a turf war in Ciudad Juarez for control of key routes to the U.S.
Violence has escalated throughout Mexico since President Felipe Calderon, who took office at the end of 2006, began a military crackdown on drug trafficking.
The deployment of 2,500 soldiers in Ciudad Juarez, part of the federal deployment of more than 36,000 across the country, has so far failed to have an impact.
A 35-year-old woman, a police officer and two other men were shot dead in the past 24 hours in the border city, and a 16-year-old boy died after being beaten up, officials said. |
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News Around the Republic of Mexico | September 2008 
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