evaluate the honesty and reliability of police force members.
As Patiño spoke at the podium before the cityâs business, civic, and religious leaders, it would have been difficult to miss the fact that he was putting pressure on the mayor. The two men did not know one another; Reyes Ferriz had not participated in the Chihuahua City meetings. The situation suggested that the federal authorities were not exactly sure where Reyes Ferriz stood, a circumstance that may have been further accentuated because Reyes Ferriz belonged to the PRI, whereas president Calderónâs party was the PAN. There was no ambiguity, however, regarding the audienceâs response to Patiñoâs remarks about cleaning up the Juárez police: a thunderous applause erupted from those in attendance. The people of Juárez were fed up with the status quo, and Patiño had touched on something deeply pent-up and charged. Everyone in Juárez knew what was going on within the police force. It was at that precise moment that Patiño chose to invoke the already-infamous Saulo Reyes affair: âWe all lived, at a national level, the case of the exâdirector of operations who was detained across the river,â Patiño said. âAnd how is it that we werenât aware? No? So, thatâs what itâs about,â he concluded, referencing the proposal to clean up the police once and for all.
When Patiño returned to the proscenium, he and mayor Reyes Ferriz exchanged some brief words. âI happened to be seated next to Patiño,â the mayor later recalled, making the encounter appear serendipitous. âI asked Patiño to send me some support and he said, âIâm going to send you two hundred federal police.ââ The promised reinforcements were nearly a threefold increase over the number of federal police presently in the troubled city, and to Reyes Ferriz the promise of two hundred crack federal police seemed like an entire army.
Patricio Patiño made many astute observations during his speech in Juárez, and he was effective in outlining the challenges the Mexican state faced in relation to the drug war, but one thing that Patiño did not do publicly, either in his address or in the subsequent press conference, was promise a massive infusion of federal forces. On the contrary, during the press conference following his Cibeles talk, Patiño said that at present he saw no need to increase the current force level of five hundred federal police deployed throughout the state, noting that these forces were primarily engaged in intelligence work to support the state ministerial police and underscoring the strong spirit of collaboration that existed between the federal and the state police forces. While Patiño did indicate that there was a contingency force of two hundred federal police available for mobilization, especially to Ciudad Juárez, for reasons that are unclear he chose not to share with the press the commitment heâd made minutes earlier in his private conversation with the mayor.
While Patiñoâs speech drew ovations inside the Cibeles hall, outside the apparent reluctance on the part of the federal government to send a meaningful force drew an angry response from the press. One
El Diario
editorial headlined the question: âWho are they trying to hoodwink?â The piece chastised the federal Secretariat for Public Security, and, by implication, its director, Genaro GarcÃa Luna, for coming into Chihuahua (by sending his emissary, Patricio Patiño) intent on convincing the stateâs citizens that the appeal for federal help was due to overblown concerns. The editorial also took the federal authorities to task given that, by their own admission, the police forces in the state of Chihuahua were under-equipped, poorly trained, and underpaid, making them vulnerable to corruption. âItâs more than established that organized crime has infiltrated
As Patiño spoke at the podium before the cityâs business, civic, and religious leaders, it would have been difficult to miss the fact that he was putting pressure on the mayor. The two men did not know one another; Reyes Ferriz had not participated in the Chihuahua City meetings. The situation suggested that the federal authorities were not exactly sure where Reyes Ferriz stood, a circumstance that may have been further accentuated because Reyes Ferriz belonged to the PRI, whereas president Calderónâs party was the PAN. There was no ambiguity, however, regarding the audienceâs response to Patiñoâs remarks about cleaning up the Juárez police: a thunderous applause erupted from those in attendance. The people of Juárez were fed up with the status quo, and Patiño had touched on something deeply pent-up and charged. Everyone in Juárez knew what was going on within the police force. It was at that precise moment that Patiño chose to invoke the already-infamous Saulo Reyes affair: âWe all lived, at a national level, the case of the exâdirector of operations who was detained across the river,â Patiño said. âAnd how is it that we werenât aware? No? So, thatâs what itâs about,â he concluded, referencing the proposal to clean up the police once and for all.
When Patiño returned to the proscenium, he and mayor Reyes Ferriz exchanged some brief words. âI happened to be seated next to Patiño,â the mayor later recalled, making the encounter appear serendipitous. âI asked Patiño to send me some support and he said, âIâm going to send you two hundred federal police.ââ The promised reinforcements were nearly a threefold increase over the number of federal police presently in the troubled city, and to Reyes Ferriz the promise of two hundred crack federal police seemed like an entire army.
Patricio Patiño made many astute observations during his speech in Juárez, and he was effective in outlining the challenges the Mexican state faced in relation to the drug war, but one thing that Patiño did not do publicly, either in his address or in the subsequent press conference, was promise a massive infusion of federal forces. On the contrary, during the press conference following his Cibeles talk, Patiño said that at present he saw no need to increase the current force level of five hundred federal police deployed throughout the state, noting that these forces were primarily engaged in intelligence work to support the state ministerial police and underscoring the strong spirit of collaboration that existed between the federal and the state police forces. While Patiño did indicate that there was a contingency force of two hundred federal police available for mobilization, especially to Ciudad Juárez, for reasons that are unclear he chose not to share with the press the commitment heâd made minutes earlier in his private conversation with the mayor.
While Patiñoâs speech drew ovations inside the Cibeles hall, outside the apparent reluctance on the part of the federal government to send a meaningful force drew an angry response from the press. One
El Diario
editorial headlined the question: âWho are they trying to hoodwink?â The piece chastised the federal Secretariat for Public Security, and, by implication, its director, Genaro GarcÃa Luna, for coming into Chihuahua (by sending his emissary, Patricio Patiño) intent on convincing the stateâs citizens that the appeal for federal help was due to overblown concerns. The editorial also took the federal authorities to task given that, by their own admission, the police forces in the state of Chihuahua were under-equipped, poorly trained, and underpaid, making them vulnerable to corruption. âItâs more than established that organized crime has infiltrated
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