Posted on 07/15/2007 7:04:58 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
Nearly four weeks without an organized crime-related killing ended early Saturday with what police described as the third attempted hit this year on a suburban police chief.
Guadalupe Police Chief Candelario Juárez Ríos escaped the attack unscathed, but an officer, who acted as a bodyguard for Juárez, died from multiple high-caliber gunshot wounds.
It was the third attempt on Juárez's life since April.
The shooting came after a monthlong lull in gang-related attacks that have claimed more than 80 lives this year in Monterrey, the embattled industrial metropolis of northeastern Mexico, which is about 120 miles south of Laredo.
More than 20 police and one state lawmaker have been killed in the worst year on record for organized crime violence in Monterrey since drug-related violence flared up in Mexico early in the decade.
The downturn in violence came amid reports of a regional truce between drug cartels, according to U.S. law enforcement officials.
The shooting happened near Juárez's home around 8 a.m. Police offered no explanation for the shooting, but Juárez was being questioned by Nuevo León state investigators Saturday afternoon, said a police spokesperson.
At least four people wearing masks and toting AR-15s and AK-47s ambushed Juárez and his bodyguards, according to local media, which reported that a nearby police squadron did not pursue the shooters.
The assailants escaped, as they appear to have done in every organized crime-related slaying in the Monterrey area this year.
Federal authorities have arrested a number of allegedly prominent cartel figures in the region but no charges related to the killings in Monterrey have been announced.
Across Mexico, some 1,500 people have died in organized crime-related slayings this year.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mattson.sean@gmail.com
“....a nearby police squadron did not pursue the shooters.”
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.