Mexico Drug War: Police Purge Leaves Monterrey Unguarded, as Cartel Battle Rages

InSight Crime: "Letras Libras reports from the streets of Monterrey, a north Mexican city bloodied by disputes between the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, where police are in desperately short supply after a purge of officers in the pay of drug gangs. ... Journalist Ricardo Cayuela Gally took a detailed look at the city’s recent decline in Letras Libres, a noted Mexican magazine. The following is InSight Crime’s translation of selected extracts from his report:

'Between the Mariano Escobedo Airport, in the industrial municipality of Apodaca, and my hotel in San Pedro Garza Garcia, a bit past 11 at night and after crossing the entire city of Monterrey, I don’t see a single soldier or policeman, ... The explanation for this lack of control was given to me by Jorge Tello Peon, unsalaried cabinet coordinator for security in the Nuevo Leon government ... and maybe the man who best understands what goes behind the scenes in Mexico’s security agencies, Tello is emphatic ...: “Nuevo Leon is facing an alarming deficit of police officers.” The systematic clean-ups of officers who are corrupt, if not on the payroll of organized criminal groups, has left the state agencies, and the majority of the municipalities, with negligible numbers." read more