Mayor: SLRC working to stem violence
Gonzalez notes imminent arrival of national guard as murders spike
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Son. — Amid a rising homicide rate here, the mayor insists his administration is making a “great effort” to crack down on crime and that it will soon have help from Mexico’s newly formed national guard in maintaining order.
But Santos Gonzalez sought in an interview to downplay the spike in violence in his city, saying it has not reached the levels of bloodshed experienced over longer periods elsewhere in Sonora.
His comments came as the number of murders in San Luis Rio Colorado exceeded 40 through the first six months of this year, more than the 12-month totals recorded in prior years. The spike in violence has mired his administration in controversy, prompting public demonstrations and calls for the ouster of the city’s police chief.
“Statistics are statistics,” Gonzalez said. “Numbers are numbers, but what I can say is that we are attacking the problem of insecurity that exists in San Luis. We are making a great effort through the municipal police in prevention effort, which is our obligation.”
He said the city police are working in a coordinated campaign with state and federal police and the Mexican military in efforts to fight violence mainly among rival drug trafficking organizations.
“We are in total coordination and we meet daily with the other powers, with the state and federal (authorities), with the army and the navy. If we didn’t coordinate with them, I wouldn’t want to think where we would be now,” he said.
“Because of the sensitivity of the issue, I can’t give details, but believe it,” Gonzalez said. “And I say with hand on heart that we are working (to resolve the problem), that it concerns us.”
What’s happening in San Luis Rio Colorado, a city of more than 200,000 across the border from Yuma County, is being experienced over a longer period elsewhere in Sonora, he said.
“It’s happening throughout the state, but there are other cities with a greater problem of insecurity, like Obregon, Hermosillo, the highway from Guaymas to Empalma.”
Although guarded in his comments, Gonzalez attributed most of the killings to a “settling of scores” among criminal groups, many of which he said have come only recently to San Luis Rio Colorado from other cities. The mayor said he welcomes the federal government’s announcement earlier this month that it would send more than 400 National Guard police officers to San Luis Rio Colorado and other areas in the northern part of the state to help maintain security.
Mexico’s military traditionally has had a role in fighting drug traffickers, but President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador earlier this year unveiled the National Guard, a force made up largely of former military police and federal police officers, to help restore public safety. In all, Sonora is getting about 1,800 of the guardsmen, whose uniforms, helmets and rifles they carry give them the appearance of soldiers.
“They say that they will arrive in Sonora beginning July 1, but we don’t know the exact date. It’s not that all our hopes are on the national guard, but yes, its arrival is going to be very important, because it brings different tools in the fight against crime.”
Moreover, Gonzalez said its arrival will help bolster what he calls an understaffed municipal police force of 261 officers.