JUAREZ MAYOR ASKS FOR MORE SOLDIERS

Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz has asked the Mexican army to keep
patrolling his city until mid-March as the unrelenting violence
continues with several murders a day.

City officials, in a statement asking for more soldiers, said that the
"presence of organized crime groups is still too strong" to allow
military operations to end.

Reyes had a closed-door meeting in Mexico City on Thursday with some
of the nation's top officials: Interior Minister Fernando Gomez Mont,
Attorney General Arturo Chavez Chavez and Genaro Garcia Luna, the
federal public-safety secretary.

Also on Thursday, convoys of Mexican army vehicles and soldiers rolled
into Juarez as part of the regular rotation of soldiers done every 60
days.

A spokesman for the federal government's Joint Operation Chihuahua
said that about 6,000 soldiers and 1,000 federal police officers are
deployed in Juarez, and that 1,200 soldiers patrol alongside city police.

There were plans for the combined soldier-police patrols to be phased
out by the end of September as new police recruits hit the streets.
But city officials said this week the patrols would continue until the
end of the year and Reyes was asking that they be extended until March
15.

The cost of the combined patrols for November and December alone will
be 17.2 million pesos (about $1.3 million) from a municipal safety
fund, Juarez city officials said.

Mexican federal forces have been in Juarez since spring 2008 in
response to the crime crisis.

Despite the presence of thousands of soldiers and federal police, a
war among drug traffickers continues to claim several lives daily.
More than 2,000 homicides have occurred in Juarez this year,
surpassing the 1,600 a year ago.

Guillermo Dowell Delgado, the Juarez equivalent of a city manager,
said the army has made progress.

Dowell said in a statement that the military has made 2,150 arrests,
including 45 suspects since late August who allegedly confessed to at
least 700 cartel-related murders. The army has also seized 2,532
firearms, plus 100 hand grenades, he said.

"These are impressive quantities," Dowell said, "even if only
referring to the weapons, which would be enough to arm 21 companies or
more than four infantry battalions."