Dozens of officers questioned after Mexican police chief’s killing; state police patrol town

Cops questioned in Mexican police chief’s killing

GARCIA, Mexico — Prosecutors questioned the entire police force of a northern Mexican town Thursday after the assassination of an army general who had been appointed police chief just four days earlier.

Brig. Gen. Juan Arturo Esparza, slain Wednesday, was the latest military officer killed after taking over a Mexican municipal police force plagued with corruption. President Felipe Calderon has acknowledged that police forces throughout Mexico are rife with officers in the pay of cartels, and he has relied heavily on the military to fight drug trafficking.

The Nuevo Leon state government sent state police to temporarily replace the police force in Garcia, a town just outside the northern industrial city of Monterrey. Hundreds of soldiers were also deployed to reinforce security.

Most of Garcia’s 140 police officers were whisked away for questioning.

Authorities said no motive had been established for Esparza’s killing, but the brutal attack bore the hallmarks of Mexico’s drug cartels, which have gunned down hundreds of police and government officials since Calderon launched a nationwide crackdown on drug traffickers after taking office in December 2006.

At the Garcia police headquarters, a sign on the door said all activity had been suspended. Soldiers surrounded the building. Trucks of state police regularly circled the town hall. Two state troopers with machine guns guarded the driveway leading to Mayor Jaime Rodriguez’s home.

“We’re living in an atmosphere of unease and fear,” said Jorge Tamayo, who was strolling the town plaza with his wife and 3-year-old daughter. “We feel that anything can happen to anyone.”

Esparza was gunned down as he drove to the home of the mayor, who had reported that he was threatened by a group of armed men who drove up to the house and warned him to be careful.

Two former soldiers and two municipal police officers escorting the police chief also were killed when more than 30 gunmen attacked Ezparza 15 blocks from the mayor’s house. Rodriguez said he could hear the gunshots from home.

Esparza was appointed police chief Saturday — part of a trend to name active or retired military officers to oversee municipal police forces. His appointment came months after some Garcia police officers were arrested for corruption.

Several of the military officers have been attacked. In April, an army colonel was killed less than three weeks after taking over the local police force in Piedras Negras, across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas. In August, an ex-general serving as chief in the northern city of Monclova survived an assassination attempt that killed three of his bodyguards.

Crackdowns on local police have become a common part of Mexico’s drug war.

In June, nearly 80 police officers suspected of working with drug smugglers were arrested in 18 towns across Nuevo Leon — including some in Garcia — after soldiers found lists of policemen’s names in the possession of traffickers.

Last week, federal Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna proposed disbanding Mexico’s 2,022 municipal police departments and combining them with state law enforcement agencies. He said local police have fewer resources to fight crime and their lower salaries make them more susceptible to corruption.

Nearly 90 percent of Mexico’s municipal police forces have staffs of less than 100 people, according to a government report. More than 60 percent of local police receive monthly salaries of only 4,000 pesos (about $300). Most of them have completed less than 10 years of schooling and are either at basic education levels or illiterate, the report said.