Ambushing new police chief in Garcia, Mexico

Houston Chronicle:

Retired Gen. Juan Esparza lasted just five days in his new job as police chief of a Monterrey suburb before he was gunned down along with four bodyguards by suspected gangsters.

Esparza, 58, a four-decade army veteran who had served as security chief for several former Mexican presidents, was ambushed Wednesday night as he and his men rushed to aid the mayor of Garcia, a city about 130 miles south of the Rio Grande.

Mayor Jaime Rodriguez, who took office along with Esparza on Saturday, had called for help after 10 carloads of heavily armed men pulled up in front of his house about sunset, asked to speak with him, and told his security guards to pass along a death threat.

Esparza never made it. He and his aides, who included an active duty army lieutenant and a major, were attacked about 15 blocks from the mayor's home. The pickup truck in which they were riding was hit from all sides by several hundred bullets, authorities said.

Five police officers and five other suspects were arrested Thursday in the investigation.

The police chief fell dead in the street a few yards from the truck, his men inside its cab and cargo bed.

...

Monterrey was once considered a peaceful city where narcotics trafficking gangsters lived but seldom warred with one another or the government. But the city in recent years has become a primary battleground in President Felipe Calderon's crackdown on organized crime.

Several police chiefs and scores of lower level officers, many suspected of colluding with the criminals, have been assassinated or arrested. Gunmen belonging to the Zetas, assassins allied with the region's Gulf Cartel smuggling gang, have battled with soldiers and police in the streets.

“We have lost our quality of life in the state. We've never seen this level of violence,” said Enrique Alvarez, who heads a Monterrey citizens group focused on public safety issues. “Among the gravest problems is the infiltration of the police.”

Reflecting widespread distrust in the police, the governor ordered the detention of all 140 officers on Garcia's force for questioning about Esparza's killing.

Investigators were looking into why an alarm wasn't raised by the presence of a convoy of armed men travelling in the city or why state and federal help apparently wasn't summoned by local police, the governor said.

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Monterrey was recently named on of the 10 least expensive places in the world, but corruption and murder certainly make it a place that few would want to visit.

This sounds like a sophisticated ambush operation where the show of force at the mayor's was a pretext to lure the new chief into a spot where he could be murdered. It will be interesting to see whether the arrest really solves the murder.

The Mexican criminal insurgency shows no signs of abating.