Another Police Officer Killed in Nuevo Laredo

(Nuevo Laredo, Mexico) In the battle for supremacy between the Gulf Coast drug smugglers and those of the Pacific Coast, regular citizens and police officers are regularly targeted. Such was the case yesterday when two "very young" gunmen pulled alongside Maria de la Paz Rangel's car and opened fire. Rangel was wounded while her passenger, policewoman Adriana de Leon Martinez, was killed.

Of 110 murders in Nuevo Laredo this year, 15 have been police officers, and almost all the killings have been gangland style. Last Friday, City Councilman Leopoldo Ramos, was killed by three gunmen wielding automatic rifles only blocks away from City Hall. As a result, hundreds of additional federal police were sent to Nuevo Laredo over the weekend. Nevertheless, nobody is optimistic that the violence will end soon.