JUAREZ MAYOR ASKS ARMY TO STAY 6 MONTHS LONGER

The mayor of Juarez is asking the Mexican army to stay six more months
in the violence-plagued city, where August ended as the deadliest
month ever, with more than 300 homicides.

The request by Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz comes as federal authorities
contemplate the withdrawal later this month of soldiers now patrolling
streets alongside city police and transit officers.

There are 6,000 soldiers and 1,500 federal police in Juarez as part of
Joint Operation Chihuahua, said operation spokes man Enrique Torres.

In an effort to bolster local enforcement, 2,400 of the soldiers are
working in tandem with police and transit patrols.

Mexican national defense and federal police officials are expected to
decide by Sept. 15 about any removal of federal forces. Army units
have been in Juarez on a rotating basis since spring 2008. "There will
be a review how many members of the military can remain in the
operation," Torres said.

For example, military police could be moved from working with transit
and city police but would stay in Juarez to focus on the fight against
drug smugglers.

"The army will determine what the final destination (is) of the
members who leave transit (department), whether they assign them to
fight narco-trafficking or return them to their places of origin,"
Torres said. The military's presence has also been the source of
criticism about the military's efforts being ineffective and involving
civil-rights abuses. The deployment has not diminished violence
thought to be linked to warring drug traffickers.

August ended with an unofficial tally of more than 300 homicides,
surpassing the record of 258 homicides set in July, said a Chihuahua
state police spokesman.

Despite multiple homicides a day, the mayor said the army's presence
has led to decreases in other crimes.

Bank robberies are down from 10 to two a month. Convenience store
robberies have dived from 10 to three a day. Neighborhood store
robberies have dropped from 17 to five a day. And auto thefts have
also decreased, the mayor said in a statement.

The soldiers are necessary, Reyes Ferriz said, to allow the police
department to grow stronger with more officers and better equipment.
The police force is expected to reach 2,700 after an academy
graduation this month.

The military has had some success. Last week, the army announced the
arrests of two hit squads accused of working for La Linea drug
organization, as the Juarez drug cartel is known.

But street shootings, executions and mutilations continue to be common
in the drug cartel war, which has claimed about 3,000 lives in the
Juarez area since it started in January 2008.

Late Tuesday night, the body of a man was found handcuffed to a fence
behind the Seven & Seven bar. State police said the unidentified man,
whose face was covered with gray tape, had been shot several times.

On Aug. 17, eight people were killed inside the Seven & Seven in what
was thought to by a cartel-related shooting.

In other news, soldiers acting on a tip last Friday arrested two
alleged kidnappers and rescued a business owner held for a ransom at a
home, military officials said Tuesday.

Soldiers arrested Antonio Indalecio Lopez Ramos and Adrian Enriquez
Parra. Authorities said Enriquez was a former television kids clown
named Tachuelin. Enriquez, now nicknamed "El Tacha," was not in clown
makeup when arrested.