Archive - Oct 28, 2010

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Valles Garcia, who is the mother of a baby boy, said she took the job to change her community. "We're all afraid in Mexico now. We can't let fear beat us," she said after being sworn in. The district has 9,148 inhabitants, and a police force of nineteen. Valles Garcia says she intends to hire more women, and focus on community outreach and prevention. In the near city of Juarez, she's called by locals "La Adelita", a suitable nickname since it was the iconic figure of courageous women in times of the 1910 Mexican Revolution.

CNN: 20-year-old woman becomes top cop in violent Mexican municipality. Valles Garcia, a criminology student, became the police chief this week of Praxedis G. Guerrero, one of the most violent municipalities in the border state of Chihuahua. She was the only person who accepted the top job in a police force whose officers have been abducted and even killed.

"Yes, there is fear," Valles Garcia said Wednesday in an interview with CNN en Español. "It's like all human beings. There will always be fear, but what we want to achieve in our municipality is tranquility and security."

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