Ciudad Juarez - A female police chief in northern Mexico - one of just a handful of women to take on the dangerous job amid the country's raging drug wars - was gunned down on Monday, officials here said.
Hermila Garcia Baeza, a trained attorney who had been police chief for only about a month in Meoqui, a town of 21 000 inhabitants, was shot to death on Monday by unknown gunmen, local prosecutors said.
Garcia “was killed when gunmen ambushed her on a highway” near the rural town in the northern state of Chihuahua, officials said.
Mexico's northern border with the United States is being rocked by violent crime and clashes among groups battling for control of lucrative drug-running routes to the nearby US.
More than 28 000 people have died in spiralling drug violence in Mexico since 2006, when the government launched a military crackdown on organised crime. - Sapa-AFP