Juárez police hindered by shortage of weapons
By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 07/21/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT


JUAREZ -- A lack of weapons remains a problem for law enforcement officers in Juárez even while they continue to be targets of warring drug cartels.
Last week, a police lieutenant was gunned down inside his own police station.

A mixture of anger, fear and mourning flared up Tuesday when transit police protested, demanding weapons, bulletproof vests and their boss's resignation after a transit officer was killed and another critically wounded when they were shot while patrolling unarmed.

Transit officers had empty holsters because Mexican federal authorities at the start of the Joint Operation Chihuahua anti-organized crime offensive disarmed them because their guns weren't authorized in the city's collective firearms license, Juárez city officials said.

Juárez administrators said they have been talking with national defense officials and that more weapons are on the way.

Authorities are trying to get a grip on a rocketing crime wave that is responsible for more than 600 homicides so far this year and is believed to be fueled by a war among feuding drug cartels.

In an interview with the El Paso Times last month, Juárez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said the lack of firepower is one of the reasons that law enforcement at the local level in Mexico is unable to successfully combat well-armed narco-trafficking gangs.

Bulletproof vehicles, assault rifles, grenades and even anti-tank rocket launchers have been among arsenals recently seized by the military from drug

traffickers.
"Up until a short time ago, it was illegal for a municipal police officer to have more than a revolver, (then) it was authorized they could have 9 mm (handguns), and (then) municipal police could have R-15 (equivalent to the AR-15 in the U.S.) rifles," Reyes Ferriz said.

"The only one we can buy weapons from is the federal government and it doesn't sell us enough," the mayor said. "We struggle for them to sell to us. We have 200 rifles and with this situation, we asked for more. We asked for 1,000. They sold us 300 (a shipment that has not arrived)."

The attacks on police have become so brazen that early Friday morning assassins stormed the Cuahtémoc police station and killed Lt. Javier Alarcon Ruiz, the shift commander for a special police unit. Security was increased at city police stations afterward.

In a temporary move, the unarmed transit officers will be receiving handguns, but they will come from other police in a sharing arrangement.

"I gave instructions to (retired Mexican army) Major Roberto Orduña Cruz, the head of the municipal public safety department, to take the weapons of police who do administrative work and turn them over to transit officers for their protection while they are doing their duties," Reyes Ferriz said in a statement.

After the police protest, which included shouting matches aired on television, the transit police director was removed and transferred to head the city parking department. Internal affairs was ordered to identify the protesting officers, who face being suspended without pay for 30 days.

Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com;546-6102.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_9943857