Tijuana. – Retired Army Lt. Col. Julián Leyzaola was named Thursday the director of public safety of the Mexican city that’s ground zero for drug
trafficking violence, Ciudad Juárez, according to national and local press reports.
Leyzaola, who held a similar post in Tijuana for three years, was appointed to the job by Mayor Héctor Murguía. In his first public comments, Leyzaola
asked the city’s residents not to lose hope and to work together, according to the newspaper El Diario, from Ciudad Juárez.
The city is considered Mexico’s most violent, with 456 murders recorded so far this year. Last year, the toll reached 3,230, most attributed to the
drug cartels.
The appointment signals a change in the way authorities plan to fight crime on that stretch of the border, said in a phone interview Daniel Domínguez,
who covers crime for El Diario.
“What we know about Leyzaola in Ciudad Juárez is what the media has reported, that he’s a man with a tough character who has battled drug
traffickers,” he said, “but he’s also been accused of torture.”
According to Domínguez, Leyzaola will lead a force of more than 2,400 officers working in six districts, all the scene of bloodshed.
Leyzaola was police chief and director of public safety in Tijuana from 2008 to 2010. He directly confronted drug traffickers in the middle of a war
between the locally based Arellano Félix cartel and the Sinaloa organization.
Their fight for control of the city left an official death toll of 2,325, among them 43 police officers, and 390 people disappeared, during those
three years.
The lieutenant coronel also waged an unprecedented campaign against corruption within the ranks of his department. More than 600 agents suspected of
being corrupt resigned or were dismissed, including 84 who were arrested and accused of working for organized crime.
Last year, while he was Tijuana’s director of public safety, the state office of human rights accused him of torture. The case remains open.
Shortly after he ended his term, he was named by Baja California Gov. José Guadalupe Osuna to be the state’s deputy secretary of public safety.
Leyzaola held that job for a little more than two months, resigning in February. He said at the time that he “needed to urgently” deal with matters
away from his work and that required his personal attention.
The rumor immediately began circulating that he was going to work in Ciudad Juárez.
In response, Mayor Murguía said the public safety department would remain in the hands of Col. Laurencio Rodríguez, whom he had appointed when he
assumed office in October.
According to the reporter for El Diario, the mayor delayed Leyzaola’s appointment because it had been leaked by the media.Dave - 3-11-2011 at 12:25 PM
Juarez ain't TJ. Some serious killing over there. If I were making book I'd give him 6 months at even money, max.DENNIS - 3-11-2011 at 12:30 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by Dave
Juarez ain't TJ. Some serious killing over there. If I were making book I'd give him 6 months at even money, max.
He won't see the light of day until he's ready to retire. Offing this guy would be the ultimate message.Woooosh - 3-11-2011 at 02:08 PM
Captain Montero (former Rosarito police Chief) was named head of the new Baja State police, as expected. That's the new force being created to
replace the municipal police- ot at least that was the last plan they announced.
The biggest problem Leyzaola has in Juarez is his boss- a new Mayor of three month that neither PAN or PRI trusts and is allegedly on the take with a
cartel.
Former Tijuana Police Chief Welcomed in Juarez
sanquintinsince73 - 3-12-2011 at 05:36 PM
Less than two days after assuming the position of Public Security Director of Juarez, Julian Leyzaola received his first death threat.
Late Friday night authorities responded to reports of a body dumped next to the San Felipe de Jesus Catholic church in Hidalgo. Upon arriving to the
scene, they found a message for the new police chief alongside a critically injured man who had been tortured, shot, wrapped in a blanket and left for
dead.
The warning, written on a florescent green poster board, read:
Bienvenido a Juárez Julian Leysola este es tu primer regalito y esto va seguir pasando a toda la bola de peynetones atte. - El cartel de Sinaloa.
Welcome to Juarez Julian Leysola (sic), this is your first gift. This will continue happening to all of the snitches.
Signed:
The Sinaloa Cartel
Leyzaola was formerly the police chief in Tijuana, where he survived several plots and fought police corruption. Leyzaola assumed the Juarez post on
Thursday.
Two former Juarez police chiefs have quit their jobs since 2008 after criminals killed police officers and threatened to kill more unless they
resigned.
Sources: El Diario, La Polaka, AP
...And Also
sanquintinsince73 - 3-12-2011 at 05:37 PM
Fox News/NewsCore
Armed men kidnapped an American university professor while she was visiting her mother in the violent Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, the state
prosecutor's office said Saturday.
The American was identified as Veronica Perez Rodriguez, an archeologist at Northern Arizona University.
A source at the Chihuahua state prosecutor's office said she was visiting her mother in Ciudad Juarez Friday afternoon "and the moment she left her
family's house she was intercepted by armed men and deprived of her liberty."
Since 2003, Perez has been an associate professor of anthropology at the university in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Perez attended elementary, junior high, and high school in Ciudad Juarez, according to her resume, posted on the university's website. She is fluent
in Spanish and English.
Perez, on her Northern Arizona University web page, describes herself as an ecological and environmental anthropologist and archeologist.
"My primary focus is the study of social complexity, urbanism, and its environmental impact in the Mixteca Alta region of Oaxaca, Mexico," she wrote.
She earned two degrees from the University of Texas at El Paso and a doctorate in 2003 from the University of Georgia, according to her resume.
At least 39 U.S. citizens were killed in 2010 in Ciudad Juarez, which has 1.3 million people. It is Mexico's most violent city, according to a report
by state prosecutors.
Share it:Woooosh - 3-12-2011 at 05:43 PM
If anyone can save Cuidad Juarez, he can. His boss is no prize and allegedly can't be trusted- which isn't good. Leyzaola is a smart guy who knows
what he is getting himself into. He wasn't expecting a welcome celebration and 365 snitches a year is just a drop in the cesspool Juarez is. Deals
will be made and order will be restored. Mexico needs to end this now, even if the flow of drugs, money and dollars continues. OK, ESPECIALLY If the
flow of drugs, money, guns and dollars continueS.
