TIJUANA SLAYING COULD BE RETALIATION

MEXICO CITY - Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo was defiant as he told
mobsters in his home state of Baja California last week that they deserve
nothing less than jail.

Less than 48 hours later came what some are calling the reply: Gunmen
killed Alfredo de la Torre Marquez, the top lawman in Tijuana, Baja's
largest city.

State investigators vowed Monday to solve the crime, and one candidate for
the Mexican Senate called violence-plagued Baja "a disaster zone."

Mr. de la Torre, 50, Tijuana's director of public safety, was killed in a
hail of gunfire Sunday as he went home from church.

Nearly three dozen suspects were taken into custody for questioning, and
police said they were looking into the possibility that immigrant smugglers
- - not drug traffickers - had killed the police chief.

Mr. Zedillo, who was born in the nearby city of Mexicali, visited Baja
California last week. In a speech Friday, he said, "We have to make those
criminals understand that Baja California can't be their home and that the
only place they deserve is jail."

No one knows for sure if the police chief's killing was a direct response.
Mob-style executions are routine in Tijuana, home to the Arellano-Felix
brothers, Mexico's most violent drug gang, according to U.S. and Mexican
drug agents.

The last Tijuana public security director to be assassinated was Federico
Benitez Lopez, who was gunned down in April 1994.

Tijuana Mayor Francisco Vega de la Madrid said he wasn't aware that the
police chief had received any threats. Mexico City's El Universal newspaper
and other sources reported that he had been threatened by criminals who
wanted to take over "la plaza," Mexican slang for territory.

If Mr. de la Torre had been threatened, he didn't take any precautions
Sunday. He was traveling alone and had given his bodyguards the day off.

The chief went to church in the morning and was going to his office at 9:45
a.m. when three vehicles sped up next to his Chevrolet Suburban and began
firing. Mr. de la Torre lost control of the vehicle, and it hit a palm
tree. His bullet-riddled body was found on the spot, police said.

In a statement Monday, Baja state police said they found 99 bullet casings
at the scene - 47 from 9mm weapons and 52 from AK-47 assault rifles. Three
more AK-47 rounds - and a smattering of bloodstains - were discovered in an
abandoned Jeep Cherokee that had been reported stolen. Police speculated
that one of the shooters may have been wounded by cross fire.

Antonio Meza Estrada, a ruling party candidate for the Mexican Senate, told
the Mexican news agency Notimex that Baja ought to be declared "a disaster
zone." Baja residents should pressure Mr. Zedillo to come up with a plan to
end the current wave of violence, he said.

Mr. Zedillo had no immediate comment on the idea, but while in Baja on
Friday the president said meetings were in the works to talk about how to
counter crime and violence in the state.

Fewer than 100 anti-drug police are assigned to Tijuana, a traditional
transit point for cocaine, heroin and marijuana bound for the United States.