As Cartels Maintain Stronghold, Mexican Police Chief Taken Near Christmas Still Missing

[Jeff Dunsavage]

Erika Gandara, police chief of Guadalupe, Mexico, has not been seen or heard from since being abducted two days before Christmas. Her predecessor was murdered and decapitated, his head was found in an ice chest. Gandara, 28, a single woman with no children, was the only applicant for the job and its salary of $580 per month.

 

"We have no police, no security, no electricity, no water, nothing," said one 25-year-old woman who was afraid to give her name. She stood outside her stone house making a small fire from roof tarp just one mile from Texas -- but the scene seemed more like the Stone Age.

 

Guadalupe is not the only town in Mexico without a police force. In a small town near Monterrey, the entire force quit after two officers were found beheaded. And this week, the police chief of Nuevo Laredo, just across the border from Laredo, Texas, was gunned down along with two of his bodyguards. Many of those who live in the towns without police protection have fled to other areas, or across the border to the U.S. But many are unable to leave. Read full article.