Pubdate: Sat, 20 Aug 2005
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2005 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Ginger Thompson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Nuevo+Laredo

IN A LAWLESS TOWN, THE TOP LAWMAN AVOIDS TROUBLE

Nuevo Laredo, Mexico

OMAR PIMENTEL'S office seemed more like a secluded getaway than a 
police command post at the center of a drug war. Its walls were 
painted the blue-green color of the Caribbean Sea, and a mix of 
meditation music and New Age rock played on the stereo. There were no 
police scanners, no crime reports, no medals of honor, not a piece of 
clutter anywhere, except for a jar of Hershey's Kisses and a 
dopey-looking doll of a character from the children's movie 
"Monsters, Inc.," with its twiggy limbs and a frightened single eye.

There was fear in Mr. Pimentel's eyes, too, on a recent day. He is 
the new police chief in the new murder capital of the United 
States-Mexico border. The authorities report almost a killing a day 
in this city of 330,000 people, as rival drug gangs fight for control 
of the lucrative routes that run through here into Texas. Many of the 
dead have been police officers, most notably Mr. Pimentel's immediate 
predecessor, Alejandro Dominguez, who was killed in a hail of gunfire 
his first day on duty.

What stood out most about the new police chief, however, was all that 
he is not. Mr. Pimentel is far from a big, tough-talking lion of a 
man here to tame a perilous border town. Instead, people call him a 
"professional policeman," because he has a college degree and seems 
to be led by his head more than his gut.

Mr. Pimentel has never worked a city beat, and he has fired his gun 
in the line of duty only once - an unusual set of qualifications, it 
would seem, for a town besieged by shootouts and corruption. Although 
he has trained cadets as director of the city's police academy, he 
worked mostly desk jobs during his time as a highway patrolman.

But the more Mr. Pimentel flipped through his CD collection, and 
interrupted talk about his plans for reforming the police department 
to sing along with a band called Our Lady of Peace, the more this 
surreal place and person began to shed light on Nuevo Laredo's 
approach to the crisis here.

The last man who occupied this office made loud promises about 
crackdowns and cleanups, and the only thing it seemed to do was color 
his obituaries.

Mr. Pimentel, a 37-year-old father of one son with another child on 
the way, said he was trying a different, deliberately unpolicemanlike 
approach. He was not looking for bad guys to fight, he said. There 
would be no nights on patrol, no raids and no crime scenes for him.

"I have not come here to confront anyone," he said. "I do not want to 
be the hero of the movie."

If it sounds as if Mr. Pimentel is waving a white flag, that is 
probably because, in effect, he is. So is the city, many business 
leaders, officials, officers and ordinary people say.

The prevailing wisdom in Mexico has long been there is almost no hope 
of winning the drug war as long as there is a broken justice system 
here and an insatiable demand for illegal narcotics in the United 
States. And by law, it is not a war that is Mr. Pimentel's to fight.

Drug trafficking, like all organized crime, is a federal offense in 
Mexico. In June, President Vicente Fox sent 800 soldiers and federal 
officers to take over almost all day-to-day law enforcement duties. 
Desperate city authorities gratefully got out of their way.

So far, the operation, called Safe Mexico, has failed to stop the 
killings. The bespectacled, buttoned-down Mr. Pimentel called the 
mounting death toll a "very lamentable situation," but repeated that 
it was not his responsibility.

"Our job is simply preventive," he said, adding, "We don't have any 
capability for investigation, nor do we try to capture or investigate 
people connected with organized crime."

Asked about corrupt policemen who provide cover and muscle for the 
drug gangs, Mr. Pimentel said they were not his responsibility, 
either. As part of Safe Mexico, all 700 city officers were taken off 
the streets and given polygraph and drug tests. About 250 officers 
failed, or did not show up, and were fired, Mr. Pimentel said.

Mr. Pimentel said he would offer the demoralized officers who passed 
incentives like better pay and low-interest mortgages to try to keep 
them from going astray. As for the remaining bad ones, Mr. Pimentel 
said he dealt with them from a safe distance.

I AM simply here as a political figure for the mayor," he said. "The 
mayor told me I was not going to get directly involved in any police 
matters. I am not going to be setting up checkpoints or any of the 
things that police do. I was given distance from all that."

That distance, he said, is the key to his survival. He has hired six 
security guards and spends his days in the relative safety of 
meetings and community events.

Mr. Pimentel, his eyes welling with tears, said he took this job 
against his wife's wishes because no one else would. But he said he 
made it clear to the mayor and the governor that he would stay for 
only a short time, as a stepping stone to another political appointment.

"If I ever get a call, or a threat, I am leaving this job," he said, 
"because my family and my life come first. I am not going to hesitate 
for one minute."

Outside his office, Mr. Pimentel's city would soon be reeling again. 
Another municipal police officer was shot dead on her way home from 
work that afternoon.

Adriana de Leon Martinez, a 28-year-old single mother of two, was the 
15th police officer killed this year. As in most cases, the city 
seemed to soothe itself by saying she was probably involved in the drug trade.

Mr. Pimentel did not go to the scene. He did not go to the funeral 
home to express his condolences. That was one of his deputies' 
responsibilities, he said, adding: "I want to help the police and 
their families. But I cannot put my security at risk."

People here talk about brazen violence like this as if they were hit 
by some freak storm. Though drugs have been flowing through here for 
years, the traffickers had peacefully divided their routes and 
operated quietly on the fringes, with the unspoken blessings of the 
authorities.

That order was broken when a rival gang tried to take over. Now the 
people of Nuevo Laredo sit in the cross-fire.

"People over here say we wish one of the gangs would win so that 
things would go back to normal," said Jack Suneson, who owns a gift 
shop and sits on many of Nuevo Laredo's business boards. "Going back 
to normal means the flow of drugs. The trafficking will not end, it 
will just go back underground."

"It's really sad," he said. "It's like people are ready to surrender."

BACK in his deserted island of an office, Mr. Pimentel objected to 
the word surrender. He preferred to describe himself as someone 
trying to avoid a fight.

"The message I am sending that is so important, is that I have not 
come to confront anyone," he said. "I try to transmit peace everywhere I go."

"People don't believe me," he added. "They say to me, 'You say you 
love tranquillity, but look where you are?' " 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake