College student named police chief in Mexico; no one else applied

[cbdo2007]

College student named police chief in Mexico; no one else applied

By Liz Goodwin

A town near drug cartel capital Juarez, Mexico, had just one applicant for police chief after a spate of killings of public officials in drug-related violence.

So now the new chief in Guadalupe, a town of 10,000 residents near the Texas border, is 20-year-old college criminology major Marisol Valles García.

Public officials have increasingly become the targets of assassination as Mexican cartels try to tighten their grasp on the country. Just this year, 11 Mexican mayors have been slain, including the former mayor of Guadalupe, who was killed in June. In the small town, "police officers and security agents have been killed, some of them beheaded," according to the AFP.

Valles tells a local paper that she took the job to help the town's people become less fearful. "Afraid? Everyone is afraid and it's very natural. What motivates me here is that the project is very good and can do a lot for my town. I know that we are going to change and remove this," she said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20101020/wl_yblog_upshot/college-student-named-police-chief-in-violence-plagued-mexican-town-after-no-one-else-would-apply

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Good luck Chief

You will need it

[Uncle Joe]

2. I hope she doesn't get killed.

Thanks for the thread, cbdo.

[barbtries]

3. wow

that is brave; i hope she survives to do the good she signed up to do.

[cbdo2007]

7. Yep, me too. You really gotta respect her for this but geez.....

this is some scary sh*t. I could never do it.

[lumberjack_jeff]

4. Anarchy sucks. n/t

[loudsue]

12. You couldn't be more correct. I feel for the people of Mexico and

feel partly responsible since most of this is the fault of the U.S. drug war.

What a wrong-headed fiasco the drug war has been.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. She has more balls than most men...

I hope she survives to make this work.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. I hope she does too!

[Starbucks Anarchist]

8. In future news, Marisol Garcia is dead.

[thereismore]

9. Afraid so. nt

[Xithras]

10. Yep, I'll be shocked if she makes it 6 months.

In nothern Mexico, only government officials who steer clear of the cartels are allowed to live. She's taking office with a defiant attitude, and they'll kill her for it.

[Renew Deal]

11. I wonder if killing a female college student would turn the tide against the baddies.

Have "the people" really gotten involved in this yet?

[Bobbieo]

13. They are afraid to - anyone who gets involved is killed, These guys make the

Russian Mafia look like pussycats. Legalize pot and cut down the profits. It can be done.

[KillCapitalism]

14. Nothing will happen unless the Mexican military steps up.

The Cartels should be hunted down in Mexico the same way our military hunts down Al Qaeda and the Taliban. I'd venture to say that the Mexican drug cartels are far more dangerous than those two groups put together.

[marmar]

15. And our military hunt of al-Qaeda and the Taliban has worked out so well......

nt

[DavidDvorkin]

16. Speaking as a parent

I feel for her parents, who must be terrified right now.