Marisol Valles Garcia is the New Police Chief

Twenty-year-old Marisol Valles Garcia was sworn in as the new police chief of the border town of Praxedis G. Guerrero, near Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2010. She hasn’t yet finished her criminology degree.

Praxedis G. Guerrero was once a quiet farming town until two rival gangs, the Juarez and the Sinaloa drug cartels, began battling for the control of its single highway.

[report] Local residents say the drug gangs take over at night, riding through the towns in convoys of SUVs and pickups, assault rifles and even .50 calibre sniper rifles at the ready. The assistant mayor of nearby El Porvenir and the mayor of Distrito Bravos were killed recently even after they took refuge in nearby Ciudad Juarez.

Drug cartels in many drug-plagued parts of Mexico have killed or threatened police chiefs and their departments, buying off some officers and prompting some others to quit en masse.

While the bullet holes that pockmarked police headquarters in Praxedis have been painted over, police buildings in other towns in the valley remain empty, with broken windows and few sign of life.

Two bodyguards have been assigned to protect Valles Garcia. While the cartels have been more than able to penetrate much tighter security details — killing mayors and police chiefs throughout northern Mexico —she says she isn’t afraid.

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