PUERTO RICO GOVERNOR CONSIDERS PUTTING NATIONAL GUARD ON CRIME PATROLS

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The governor sent buses with guards to ferry
children to school in violence-wracked neighborhoods Tuesday and was
considering calling on National Guard troops to back police in
response to a surge in drug-related violence in this U.S. Caribbean territory.

Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila was expected to announce later in the day
whether he will call up National Guard troops to help police patrol
housing projects in the Rio Piedras suburb of the capital and
elsewhere where drug traffickers are battling each other for control.

Police say the rivalries have contributed to violence elsewhere in
the San Juan metropolitan area.

There have been 46 homicides in Puerto Rico during the first 15 days
of 2007, almost double the number of killings during the same period
last year, according to police.

Two schools in Rio Piedras remained closed a week longer than
scheduled following the Christmas break because of ongoing gunbattles
between drug traffickers. Although children live close enough to walk
to school, parents requested the bus service.

Guards were posted inside the schools and on the buses.

"Parents had told me there was a lot of fear, and they didn't dare to
send their children out to walk alone," Acevedo said.