Mexico, News Briefs
Ciudad Juárez Needs College Grads To Clean Up Police Force, Chihuahua Governor Says
May 11, 2011 By Andrew OReilly
Mexican Federal Police in Ciudad Juárez. Photo by Jesús Villaseca Pérez
The governor of the Mexican state of Chihuahua put out a call Monday to young professionals and college graduates to join the police forces of Ciudad Juárez and other towns in the state that have been riddled with corruption and drug cartel influence in the past few years.
Chihuahua governor César Duarte, along with Federal Public Safety Secretary Genaro García Luna, established a strategy to draw more young professionals into the law enforcement and criminal investigation ranks. One part of the strategy is upping the pay grade for university students from 12,000 to 15,000 pesos.
Police work open to the new recruits encompasses everything from “preventative police, investigative, public ministers or forensic specialists, “ Duarte said.
The new strategy hopes to draw in 2,100 college students into Ciudad Juárez’s police force alone, according to García Luna.
Monday’s announcement coincided with a statement by Duarte denying that there was friction between federal and local governments. He said that during Monday’s meetings the state and federal governments agreed on plans to help the Juárez’s administration and would supply 100 patrol cars for police use.
It was also agreed to in the meetings that the federal government would take over control of Chihuahua’s state run rehab center in Ciudad Juárez.
Drug violence continues to plague Juárez, which lays directly across the border from El Paso, Texas where U.S. President Barack Obama spoke on Tuesday. Between 2007 and 2010 the Juárez and Sinaloa Cartels battled for control of the city, with the Associated Press reporting that in April of 2010 the Sinaloa Cartel took control of the city.
However, the continuing violence in the city and testimony’s from from local residents – who claim to pay monthly extortion fees to the Juárez Cartel – suggest that the war is still on.
Gunmen killed seven people in Juárez on Tuesday in separate incidents.
Photo: Jesús Villaseca Pérez @ Flickr.
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[…] Governor Cesar]Duarte also announced last month a call for young professionals and college graduates to join the police forces of Ciudad Juárez and other cities in Chihuahua that have been riddled with corruption and drug cartel influence. The […]
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