Young mother becomes Mexican town’s police chief
October 22, 2010
PRAXEDIS GUADALUPE GUERRERO, Mexico: Marisol Valles is just 20 years old, mother of a baby son and still a student, but she is also the newest chief of police in a drug-plagued region of northern Mexico.
“She was the only person to accept the position,” said the mayor’s office in Praxedis Guadalupe Guerrero, amid the daily threat of violence here which has claimed the lives of police officers and a former mayor.
But Valles, who is enrolled in university in nearby Ciudad Juarez — Mexico’s most violent city — said she was determined not to be intimidated.
“We’re all afraid in Mexico now,” Valles told AFP, wearing glasses and holding an exercise book after her swearing in on Wednesday. “We can’t let fear beat us.”
But it has deterred many. The unassuming criminology student took up the post of police chief in a municipality of some 10,000 near the US border because no one else wanted it. Chihuahua state has borne the brunt of Mexico’s spiraling drug-related violence that has left more than 28,000 dead in the last four years.
“She was the only person to accept the position,” said the mayor’s office in Praxedis Guadalupe Guerrero, amid the daily threat of violence here which has claimed the lives of police officers and a former mayor.
But Valles, who is enrolled in university in nearby Ciudad Juarez — Mexico’s most violent city — said she was determined not to be intimidated.
“We’re all afraid in Mexico now,” Valles told AFP, wearing glasses and holding an exercise book after her swearing in on Wednesday. “We can’t let fear beat us.”
But it has deterred many. The unassuming criminology student took up the post of police chief in a municipality of some 10,000 near the US border because no one else wanted it. Chihuahua state has borne the brunt of Mexico’s spiraling drug-related violence that has left more than 28,000 dead in the last four years.
