NUEVO LAREDO CHIEF 'NOT HERE TO FIGHT'

Mexico's Unenviable Lawman Says Drug Crimes Not His Job

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico - After seeing eight officers murdered during his first
15 days on the job, Police Chief Omar Pimentel has adopted a Gandhi-like
approach to law enforcement.

"My message is very clear: I am not here to confront anyone," he said
from his well-cocooned office at police headquarters. "I am not here
to fight." And who could blame him? Nuevo Laredo is one of the most
dangerous towns for police in the Western Hemisphere, and he is the
top lawman. Gunmen in the crime-ridden border town have slain 17
current and former police officers since Jan. 1.

Chief Pimentel's predecessor, Alejandro Dominguez, 52, who had vowed
to clamp down on organized crime, was gunned down less than seven
hours after becoming police chief on June 8.

Also Online U.S. closing consulate after criminals' clash Hoping to
avoid a similar fate, Mr. Pimentel, 37, is taking a more conciliatory
approach, telling his officers to ignore the drug trade and
concentrate instead on safeguarding life and property.

"My priority is to prevent assaults, burglaries and auto theft," said
Mr. Pimentel, lighting a purple candle on his desk as soft music
played. "Drug crimes are for the federal forces to handle. They'll
know what to do about that." By law, city police in Mexico aren't
responsible for investigating drug crimes, but many officers along the
border find themselves drawn to the lucrative smuggling business.

A few days after unknown assailants killed Mr. Dominguez, municipal
police shot at federal agents who came to investigate, federal police
said. Backed by the military, federal police then suspended the entire
city police department and took their guns.

Mr. Pimentel, a former pharmaceuticals salesman and ex-state trooper,
took charge on July 6 and has the unenviable task of trying to rebuild
the department.

A much-reduced force of 120 returned to the streets this week, down
from more than 700 officers before the housecleaning. Plans are to
rebuild to a force of about 460.

Internet bloggers have been guessing how long Mr. Pimentel will last.
"I'll give him 3 weeks," said a blogger named cripplecreek. "Las Vegas
odds give him 1:9 of surviving the week," said another. Wrote another,
"I hope he doesn't have to wait 30 days for his health insurance to
kick in."

Taking such remarks in stride, Mr. Pimentel declared that the
municipal police were back in business Tuesdayin this city of 400,000.
At a media event that day, officers climbed into shiny new patrol cars
and turned on their sirens, drowning out an upbeat promotional jingle
about the city. Mr. Pimentel and Mayor Daniel Pena Trevino waved white
flags as the police cruisers hit the streets.

Mr. Pena, 50, said the flags symbolized purity, but residents joked
that the event looked like a surrender, a plea for the bad guys to
stop targeting police. So far this year, assailants have slain 14
municipal police employees: Chief Dominguez, seven commanders, one
supervisor, one coordinator and four officers. One ex-city cop and two
state officers have also been slain, and three municipal officers have
gone missing this year, colleagues said. A U.S. agent who investigates
Mexican organized crime said he found it telling that eight of the
officers were killed in July despite the presence of more than 300
federal police reinforcements. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he
said he couldn't help but suspect that Mexican federal agents had
something to do with the killings.

"This campaign isn't so much about eliminating drug trafficking or
drug distribution routes," he said. "It's about ending or reducing the
violence. And to do that, you weed out" the traffickers "who give you
the biggest headache." Mexican agents scoff at such theories and deny
involvement in the murders. Whatever the case, graffiti touting a
Sinaloa state trafficker named Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman have begun to
appear in Nuevo Laredo. Some U.S. investigators said it could be a
sign that Mr. Guzman may be gaining the upper hand over the town's
violent hometown smugglers, led by the jailed Osiel Cardenas.

Nuevo Laredo officials wouldn't discuss the question, saying that such
speculation could be dangerous.

Mayor Pena conceded that city police face nearly impossible
challenges. "If a police officer refuses to help the drug traffickers,
he can be killed. But if he agrees to help, he can be killed by a
rival gang," the mayor said. On the U.S. side of the border, Juan
Rivera, a spokesman for the Laredo Police Department, said he couldn't
comment on the chief's decision to steer clear of drug crimes.

"If they feel local law enforcement shouldn't handle those issues,
that's their call," Mr. Rivera said. "Mexico's another country. They
have their own laws and procedures. There's nothing much we can say."
Mr. Pimentel said he's counting on financial incentives to keep his
officers loyal. He wants to increase monthly salaries from $660 to
about $850. He also plans to offer scholarships to the children of
police officers, and homemaking and mechanics classes to spouses. And
he said his department will help officers arrange financing so they
can buy homes and cars. He said he knows that drug gangs have more
money than City Hall, but he believes that giving officers' families a
stake in the department will help ward off corruption. And he said
he's confident his anti-crime philosophy will spread as citizens get
more involved.

Roy Godson, a Georgetown University professor who has been working
with Mexican education leaders to develop anti-crime programs, said
it's too early to say whether Mr. Pimentel will succeed.

"You need local heroes," he said. "But unless they are supported by
other members of the community, it's going to be difficult for them.
And if they're completely alone, it's dangerous."

Meanwhile, Nuevo Laredo officers complain that drug traffickers have
them outgunned and outmanned.

In the police department parking lot, officers drink their morning
coffee just a few steps from the battered vehicles of their slain
colleagues. The remnants include an Oldsmobile Alero, a Grand Cherokee
Laredo, a red Mustang GT, a Ford F150 Lariat and a 1995 Ford Windstar.

All bear the telltale signs of a horrific execution: splattered blood,
shattered glass, sometimes a tooth or a bone fragment, and a cluster
of bullet holes, usually arranged in a tight pattern over the spot
where the driver once sat.

One of the newest cars on the lot is a Nissan Maxima GXE. Unknown
assailants sprayed it with gunfire at 7:40 a.m. on July 20. Hit more
than a dozen times, Police Cmdr. Ricardo Uvalle got out and tried to
run, police said. But he quickly collapsed to the pavement, mortally
wounded. And now his Nissan sits abandoned, a pair of sunglasses and
some diapers on the back seat. "I've been a police officer in Nuevo
Laredo for 16 years," said Fernando Quiroz, surveying 63 bullet holes
on the car's front end. "A lot of officers have died or gone missing.
People have been killing police officers since I was a boy. But the
same thing happens in the United States, Japan and Russia. It's not
just here."

Nearby, vendors hawked afternoon newspapers detailing the city's 104th
murder this year, the throat slashing of an unidentified man. "People
die every day," said Officer Quiroz, 53, whose life insurance pays
$11,320 in the event of his death. "There's a lot of suffering, hunger
and violence in this world. But I'm not afraid to die. When God wants
you, he calls you. It must be beautiful up there in heaven." Back
inside police headquarters, Mr. Pimentel signed a stack of credentials
that his newly screened officers will carry. He said he leaves his
desk only to make trips to City Hall and has assigned all day-to-day
police operations to his second-in-command, 36-year veteran Mario
Enrique Moreno. "My life has definitely changed," said Mr. Pimentel,
who directed the city's police academy before taking the chief's job.
"I don't have the same freedoms I used to have."

Just then his cellphone rang. He flipped open the device and glanced
at a photo of his young son on the phone's tiny screen.

"I can't go outside and play with my son anymore," he said after the
call. "But what I'm doing is good for the people. It's good for
family, too, because I know that I'm bringing security to this city.
My family will be safer in the future, and so will I."

Mr. Pimentel, who moves around town with six armed bodyguards, has two
other children besides his son, and his wife is expecting a baby. He
said well wishers living as far away as New York and Florida have sent
him letters telling him they are praying he will not be harmed.

But he said he's at peace with his perilous mission. "At the start of
each day, I feel the tremendous energy that God gives me. God is
giving me the intelligence to make the right decisions. He's the one
who is protecting me and my family. I know things will work out."
Staff writer Alfredo Corchado in Nuevo Laredo contributed to this
report.

TWO MONTHS OF TUMULT

June 8: Alejandro Dominguez is gunned down less than seven hours after being
sworn in as police chief.

June 11: The Mexican government launches Operation Safe Mexico,
sending hundreds of federal police and troops to four cities,
including eight along the U.S.-Mexico border.

June 13: Mexican federal police and troops take control of the Nuevo
Laredo Police Department, suspending more than 700 officers. June 26:
Mexican authorities rescue 43 people being held captive by criminal
gangs at two homes in Nuevo Laredo.

July 6: Omar Pimentel becomes police chief of Nuevo Laredo. July 26:
City police officers return to duty.

July 29: The United States closes its consulate in Nuevo Laredo to
assess security.