Mexican Army and Federal Police Take Charge in Eight Cities

http://www.mexidata.info/id516.html

By José Luis Ruiz and correspondents
June 14, 2005

Special forces troops of the Mexican Army and Federal Preventative Police agents have taken over control of public safety/security in eight cities in the states of Tamaulipas, Sinaloa and Baja California, all affected by violence from (narcotics related) organized crime.

As part of Operation Mexico Secure, more than 1,000 soldiers and police are carrying out patrols and manning military roadblocks in the cities of Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros, Reynosa, Culiacán, Navolato, Mazatlán, Tijuana and Mexicali.

According to the Office of the Presidency of the Republic, they are also conducting searches and they have installed mobile and fixed surveillance equipment.

Watch has also been intensified in neighborhoods and plazas, and on streets and highways, plus inspections (of patrons) are being made in restaurants, bars, discotheques and nightclubs.

Furthermore, people are being asked for identification documents at “key locations,” where there have been high incidents of crime.

Presidential spokesman Rubén Aguilar said that this is not a state of exception or a suspension of individual guarantees as guaranteed by the Constitution, nor is it a militarizing of the region.  “It is only an effort to strengthen security and stop the commission of all types of crimes.”