For a map, click here. From a La Jornada report. Nothing in the local Juarez press so far
By Chris Covert
Chihuahua state governor Cesar Duarte will announced the withdrawal from Juarez of some 140 Mexican Polica Federal (PF) effectives, a total of 70 percent of PF forces currently in Juarez, according to the Mexican leftist daily La Jornada.
Juarez has had a large contingent of PF troops in the city since April, 2010 when around 1,500 PF effectives were assigned to Juarez. Those police were deployed to replace Mexican Army troops which left at the request of then Chihuahua governor Jose Reyes Baeza.
The withdrawal of PF forces will be seen as an acquiescence by the Mexican national government to demands constantly made by Juarez's current mayor Hector Murguia Lardizabal, who has been demanding the PF withdraw since at last April, 2011. Murguia Lardizabal even set a deadline of September, 2011.
Murguia Lardizabal has maintained an antagonistic relationship at best with the local PF detachment with several verbal and public confrontations, one of which very nearly went hot. Much of the problems between the major and the PF stems from Murguia Lardizabal's selection as a Juarez police chief last February.
To read the Rantburg report on the confrontation between Murguia Lardizabal and a local PF commander click here (last item)
Julian Leyzaola Perez was formerly the police chief of Tijuana, Baja California with an excellent record of getting crime rate reduced. Some accusations have emerged during his tenure, which have followed him that he made deals with the local cartels in Tijuana to keep violence down in exchange for a free hand in trafficking drugs. Leyzaola Perez was kicked upstairs to a post with the Baja California Secretaria Seguidad Publica or state police briefly before Murguia Lardizabal tagged him to be Juarez's new police chief.
Julian Leyzaola Perez himself was fired on by PF elements during last July's Juarez prison riot when he attempted to run a PF cordon around the Juarez Centro de Readaptacion Social(CERESO) without identifying himself, or so claimed the PF.
Directly following the riot, Governor Duarte and Mexican Minister of the Interior (SEGOB), Francisco Blake Mora, held a press conference stating that federal forces were going nowhere, especially not out of town.
To read the Rantburg exclusive report on the issues with Juarez's mayor and the PF, click here
The press conference had to have stung the abrasive Murguia Lardizabal, who is known locally in Juarez by the nickname "Teto", a reference to a woman's breast.
What a difference a few months make.
With the draw down of federal forces, both PF and Mexican Army, Juarez local municipal police and Chihuahua state police agents are expected to take up the slack.
Whatever slack may be, may not be much. Duarte claimed at a press conference last week that murders and violent crimes in general were down 50 percent. Indeed an outside observer would have to remark that the local Juarez press is not currently filled with constant news about executions and shootings.
According to the La Jornada article more than 5,000 arrests were made by PF forces between July 2010 and now.
A total of 288 of those arrests involved the Juarez cartel, while 69 were linked to the Sinaloa cartel . The other 4,999 arrests were for crimes unrelated to drugs or the cartels.