Thread: Mexican security officials tour North Chicago

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/news ... S10708.htm

Mexican security officials tour North Chicago
• From Guanajuato: Exchange information with area police

By Ralph Zahorik
STAFF WRITER

NORTH CHICAGO — A partnership between law enforcement officers in Mexico and Lake County, especially in communities with large Mexican populations, is growing.

A delegation of security officials from Guanajuato, Mexico, are visiting North Chicago this week, touring police facilities and exchanging information with area police.

The U.S. Census counted 92,787 Latinos in Lake County in 2000 and most were from Mexico or of Mexican descent. The number, counting illegal immigrants, is thought to be substantially higher today.

There were 6,552 Hispanics counted in North Chicago in 2000, about 18 percent of the city's population and a more than 400 percent increase from the 1990 total of 1,564.

At a gathering in City Hall on Friday, Mayor Leon Rockingham and city police were invited to visit Guanajuato by Gabriel Arturo Yanez and Francisco Ramirez of the Guanajuato Department of Public Safety's public safety institute.

"We'd be more than happy to send police officers down for training," Rockingham said. "What you learn here in North Chicago and what we can learn at your institute ... can help both of us."

Mexico's homicide rate is twice the U.S. rate.

Crime, especially robbery, is a serious problem in Guanajuato but not as serious as crime in Mexican border cities like Juarez, said Yanez, a criminologist.

"Guanajuato is in the center of the country," he said, speaking through an interpreter. "The socio-economic structure, the culture, the tradition is completely different from the border."

Law enforcement officers from communities throughout the state of Guanajuato, the Mexican nation and foreign countries train at the academy, called the Instituto La Formacion de Los Cuerpos de Seguridad Publica del Estados.

The institute offers graduate degrees in law enforcement, as well as basic police training.

Starting police officers earn, on average, just $500 a month in Guanajuato, Yanez said.

Accompanying Yanez and Ramirez were Daniel Reyna, a communications representative from the institute, and Patricia Reyna, Yanez's wife.

Helping interpret were Gorette Delarosa, an intern working for the city, and two city police officers, Sgt. Fred Diaz and Detective Cesar Flores.

The delegation presented Rockingham and other officials with black-and-green institute pins, shirts, pens and certificates, Mexican scarves and cardholders made from Guanajuato leather. Rockingham also received a one-liter bottle of Corralejo tequila.

The mayor presented the delegation with a key to the city.

Ramirez, an instructor at the police institute, visited Park City and North Chicago last December and the group was planning another visit to Park City this week. Park City's sister city in Mexico, Apaseo El Alto, is in Guanajuato state.


07/08/06

Mexico's homicide rate is twice the U.S. rate.

Not for LONG!

"We'd be more than happy to send police officers down for training," Rockingham said. "What you learn here in North Chicago and what we can learn at your institute ... can help both of us."

phase 1 - visit and exchange gifts
phase 2 - training missions with American and hispanic trainee
phase 3 - American is laid off or quits or becomes otherwise disengaged
phase 4 - we have "world" police working the streets of the United States.

The mayor presented the delegation with a key to the city.

Wonder if Bush gave Fox a Key to the country

The mayor presented the delegation with a key to the city.

This city is darn corrupt they probably felt like it was home.