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Security chief resigns amid Mexicans' anger over crime
Houston Chronicle ^ | 8/13/2004 | Adriana Valdes

Posted on 08/15/2004 3:16:28 PM PDT by 4.1O dana super trac pak

MEXICO CITY - Mexican Public Security Minister Alejandro Gertz resigned Friday amid growing public anger at the governments failure to rein in violent crime.

President Vicente Fox, saying Gertz had stepped down to pursue academic studies, vowed to crack down on crime and named a logtime political ally to replace him.

"We are going to redouble our efforts," Fox said in a televised address. "Crime has to end."

In the biggest demonstration in Mexico in more than 10 years, about 250,000 people dressed in white marched through the capital on June 27 to protest the failure of authorities to control soaring rates of kidnapping and other violent crime.

Fox named deputy interior minister Ramon Martin Huerta to succeed Gertz.

Martin took over the governorship of the central state of Guanajuato in 1999 when Fox stepped down from that post to run for president in 2000.

Even crime-hardened Mexicans have been shocked by a recent wave of kidnappings.

In one case in May, two brothers were abducted, shot dead and their bodies dumped in a garbage bin even though their parents had paid a $600,000 ransom.

A group of businessmen hired New York's crime-busting mayor Rudolph Giuliani last year for $4.3 million to tackle Mexico City's crime.

City Hall police say tough new "zero tolerance" measures in the capital are working. But kidnappings, killing and assaults are still widespread, especially in and around the capital.

In mid-June, federal police arrested a group of elite policemen in Mexico City who used fake arrest warrants to kidnap businessman.

The June march was directed as much at Fox, of the conservative National Action Party, as his leftist political rival Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the mayor of Mexico City and a leading presidential candidate in 2006.

Gertz's resignation comes a month after Fox's spokesman quit his job because he disliked the presidential ambitions of first lady Marta Sahagun, who days later publicly denied she would run a campaign to succeed her husband.

Fox's energy minister Felipe Calderon stepped aside in June after the president criticized him for saying he wanted to run the country when Fox's tenure ends.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Mexico
KEYWORDS: mexico; suxico; vicentefox

1 posted on 08/15/2004 3:16:30 PM PDT by 4.1O dana super trac pak
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To: FITZ

'ping'


2 posted on 08/15/2004 3:17:32 PM PDT by 4.1O dana super trac pak (Let them eat amnesty)
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To: 4.1O dana super trac pak
How could we ever let this culture cross the border?

Kidnapping, bribery and no respect for the law........that is what the illegal aliens bring here.

3 posted on 08/15/2004 3:23:28 PM PDT by Tripleplay
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To: 4.1O dana super trac pak

Mexico's answer to crime & criminals is to ahuttle them north accross the border into the US along with the Muslime terorrist perps.

I am getting damnable sick of this Mexican bull/shiite combo of criminals and islamNazi trash defiling the US of A.


4 posted on 08/15/2004 4:18:44 PM PDT by Ursus arctos horribilis ("It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!" Emiliano Zapata 1879-1919)
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To: 4.1O dana super trac pak

Yep --- a couple protests --- some Mexicans not dying in the desert to get to the USA but standing up for their rights and their country --- and the elites start packing their bags and fleeing like rats.

The Mexican elite are very frightened by the thought of immigration to the USA slowing in any way for this very reason. They have reason to be scared.


5 posted on 08/16/2004 4:20:53 PM PDT by FITZ
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To: Tripleplay
How could we ever let this culture cross the border?

That's exactly why people like Fox and Gertz --- aren't those a couple of real Mexican sounding names --- so eager to get rid of these people. Mexico has created itself a real mess and they want to dump it onto the USA. Crime is exploding in Mexico --- and they want to export it to us.

6 posted on 08/16/2004 4:23:43 PM PDT by FITZ
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