Pubdate: Thu, 11 Aug 2005
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2005 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, Hearst Newspaper
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198
Author: Dudley Althaus

NUEVO LAREDO ATTACK CLAIMS POLICEWOMAN

The Law Officer Is 15th Slain In The Border City In '05

NUEVO LAREDO, MEXICO - A Nuevo Laredo policewoman was killed and a former 
one injured Wednesday in the latest of the gangland-style street shootings 
that have racked this border city for many months.

Two gunmen described as "very young" by witnesses reportedly pulled 
alongside the women and opened fire as they were driving along a 
working-class residential street not far from the international bridge 
about 5 p.m.

The dead policewoman, radio operator Adriana de Leon Martinez, had just 
finished her shift and was being given a ride by Maria de la Paz Rangel, 
who was wounded in the shoulder and elbow, investigators said. The ages of 
both women, and how long they had worked on the force, were not immediately 
available.

Rangel was fired from the police force a month ago, city officials said.

Scores of municipal police have been purged from the department since 
federal authorities suspended all its officers in mid-June on suspicion of 
being corrupted by local drug gangs.

De Leon is the 15th local law officer to be killed in Nuevo Laredo so far 
this year, including Police Chief Alejandro Dominguez, who was gunned down 
June 8 just seven hours after taking office.

The city councilman who oversaw the troubled police force, Leopoldo Ramos, 
was killed by three gunmen wielding automatic rifles Friday as he drove 
down the street a few blocks from City Hall.

"We're worried," Mayor Daniel Pena said a few hours after the shooting. 
"It's like they are hunting them down like objects."

Witnesses Tell Of Attack

Witnesses, who declined to give their names, said the women's killers 
pulled alongside them on the right in a late-model car as they drove down 
the quiet street a few blocks from downtown.

The young shooter pulled himself out of the passenger-side widow and fired 
his pistol at the women over the top of his car, witnesses said.

After the shooting, the killers' car turned the corner, perhaps headed 
north toward the border, a witness said.

"They were heading for the bridge," said one witness an hour later. 
"They're probably having dinner in Texas right now."

Gangland violence has been pulsing in Nuevo Laredo for the past several years.

Narcotics smugglers from the so-called Gulf Cartel - whose territory 
stretches along the Mexican side of the border from Laredo to Brownsville - 
are battling others allied with another organization based in the Pacific 
Coast state of Sinaloa.

The border crossing here is the most important along the U.S.-Mexico line, 
accounting for 60 percent of the commercial traffic traded over land 
between the countries. The city also has become a premier crossing point 
for South American cocaine and locally produced heroin, marijuana and 
crystal methamphetamine heading for U.S. consumers.

The latest killing comes just two days after the U.S. Consulate reopened 
after being closed a week in protest of a wave of violence. U.S. Ambassador 
Tony Garza ordered the consulate closed July 29, the day after a gang 
shootout in one of the city's better neighborhoods that involved automatic 
rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

The killing also came as the city's merchants begin a promotion, paid for 
by the state, to bring tourists here free of charge from San Antonio to 
convince them that the city is safe for visitors.

Indeed, almost all of the 110 killings tallied in the city so far this year 
have been linked to organized crime. And even city officials say most of 
the slain police died because of their ties to one smuggling band or the 
other, rather than in the line of duty.

Federal Police Move In

Federal and state authorities say they've launched a second phase of a 
crackdown here, begun in June following the killing of Dominguez. State and 
federal officials said federal intelligence agents are now operating in the 
city, targeting the criminal gangs.

In addition, hundreds more gray-uniformed federal police, many of them 
active-duty soldiers on loan to the force, were sent to Nuevo Laredo over 
the weekend, following Ramos' killing.

"There are 1,200 federal policemen here now," said Pena, the mayor, who 
since Friday has been traveling in a bullet-proof vehicle. "I don't know 
what they're doing."

Most Nuevo Laredo businesses, including its downtown bars and restaurants, 
began a midnight curfew today in what organizers say is an effort to aid in 
the crackdown.

"This is what the government is hoping to end," said Mario Quintanilla, one 
of those who gathered to watch police clean up the scene of Wednesday's 
killing.

"I don't think they'll be able to."
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MAP posted-by: Beth