The mayor of Nogales, Sonora was scheduled to be in Hermosillo on Tuesday, where he and the state’s federal legislators planned to call on the Mexican government to dispatch reinforcements to the border city after its deputy police chief was gunned down last week. Mayor Jose Angel Hernandez Barajas said at a news conference Friday that he and legislators from all political parties would form a “common front” to demand that the Federal Preventative Police (PFP) and Attorney General’s Office (PGR) send more manpower and materiel to help fight organized crime in Nogales.Hernandez Barajas called the murder last Thursday of Deputy Police Chief Adalberto Padilla Molina and his bodyguard Ivan Sepulveda Espino a “direct attack against the municipal government.” He said the city’s officials would have to be more vigilant, that the municipal government needed more security equipment such as armored cars, and that local police patrols should be reinforced by the Army. “Operation Padlock,” an effort that saw federal, state and local police patrolling Nogales with military support in early February, showed positive results, Hernandez Barajas said. But the rapid reassignment of federal forces to other violence-ravaged cities “has opened new breaches for organized crime,” he said. At the same time that Hernandez Barajas was calling for federal aid on Friday, he also called on the people of Nogales to avoid panic and continue with their daily lives. On Saturday afternoon, the city’s downtown bustled with activity. Park benches were filled, food vendors did a brisk business, and several busloads of teenagers led a religious procession down a main avenue.
“In Juarez, everyone is so afraid that they don’t leave their homes,” said Jose Angel Villalobos Rico, 39, who runs the El Idolo handicrafts shop with his father Jose Angel Villalobos Coronado. “If the majority of people here were afraid, the streets would be empty. We haven’t got to that point.”
By Jonathan Clark
Published Tuesday, March 30, 2010 9:59 AM MDT
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