In a separate incident, the Baja California state human-rights commission found that officers under Leyzaola’s command fired indiscriminately on inmates and visiting family members during a 2008 prison riot in Tijuana in which at least 19 people were killed.
“Leyzaola’s leadership sends the message that sometimes you need to abuse human rights to make public security gains,” Steinberg said. “No one would dispute that security forces in Mexico are dealing with incredibly violent and ruthless criminal organizations, but the idea that the only way to fight them effectively is by throwing out the rule of law is deeply flawed.”
Leyzaola rejects the torture accusations, saying that it is a matter of dirty cops trying to strike back at him. Murguia, the Juarez mayor, noted that none of the allegations have led to formal charges against Leyzaola.
In March, less than two weeks after Leyzaola took charge, four young men disappeared in Juarez after witnesses saw them arguing in a park with members of the city’s elite Delta Force police unit. The men’s bodies turned up in the desert a few weeks later, their hands tied and throats slit.
Leyzaola ordered an internal investigation of the incident, which found no wrongdoing by his men. But a subsequent state police probe led to the arrest of three of the officers, now charged with forced disappearance and other crimes.
Rosa Maria Vazquez, mother of two of the victims, said Leyzaola met with her family and pledged to investigate, but that she believes he is protecting as many as a dozen other officers who witnesses saw at the scene.
“I don’t know if it was Leyzaola, but somebody had to give the order to kill my sons,” she said tearfully. She’s seeking asylum for her family in the United States.
So rotten for so long
Juarez’s police department has been so rotten for so long that the central government has sent thousands of Mexican soldiers and federal police to provide security. They rarely bother with petty crime and quality-of-life issues, riding around the city in the backs of pickup trucks with body armor and automatic weapons, looking to engage mafia gunmen.
In contrast, Leyzaola says his officers will work Juarez like beat cops, building trust with residents and business owners, many of whom are accustomed to being shaken down by police, or worse.
Leyzaola has said he will use his officers to take back Juarez one section at a time, in a clear-and-hold strategy that will eventually allow the 5,000 federal police officers here to stand down. In the past several months, the city’s homicide rate has declined, with about 1,200 killings this year, still sky-high but on pace for a 25 percent decline over last year, when car bombs rocked downtown and several massacres scarred the city.
Juarez’s confidence peaked earlier this month, when the city hosted its first international athletic competition in years, the Pan-American women’s volleyball cup, drawing sell-out crowds and teams from all over the region.
“We’ve felt safe,” the U.S. women’s coach, Hugh McCutcheon, said in an interview at his hotel, “but we’re also taking precautions.” The team traveled to and from its games with armed escorts.
Two days after the tournament ended, 21 people were killed in the city, the worst one-day toll this year.
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