She has no gun, no experience and some say no hope — but Marisol Valles Garcia is ready to lay down the law in one of Mexico’s most dangerous areas.
“We have to reclaim our lives,” Valles told The Post. “And to do that, people have to trust the authorities. We are here to start the painful process of regaining their trust.”
The 20-year-old mom and graduate student — who will make $640 a month — was the only person with the guts to take on the role of police chief in her small, violence-ridden border town.
It’s a job some have called one of the most dangerous in the world, since cops in neighboring Mexican villages have been regularly turning up dead at the hands of traffickers, but Valles dismissed the idea that her career choice is a suicide mission.
“I like to live day to day,” the mom of a baby boy said in a wide-ranging interview in Spanish. “I’m not thinking of the future right now. At this moment, to solve the problems we’re confronting right now, you have to stay focused on the immediate challenge.”
That challenge is trying to lead a bare-bones police squad in rural Praxedis Guadalupe Guerrero, a tiny town of about 9,149 near the US border. It’s set in the heart of the dangerous Juarez Valley of Mexico, where there have already been some 2,500 drug-related killings this year.
“My husband supports me 100 percent — but he did ask me to think it over carefully!” said the baby-faced chief.
She’ll tackle the job with the most limited of resources — one patrol car and four guns for the whole force — but would welcome any outside help.
“We’ll take donations, if anyone wants to send us a patrol car, or some bicycles for the kids to ride in the streets!” she said with a chuckle.
The violence in her country knows no bounds. The cartels have been so bold as to assassinate the mayors of two neighboring towns in recent months, prompting more experienced law officers to turn down the chief job that Valles took.
Valles, who is still studying criminal justice, commands 13 officers, nine of whom are women. The chief has decided not to keep a weapon and doesn’t even have a security detail.
“We don’t have escorts,” she said. “We don’t have security details. We are like any other citizen, and we’re here to work.”
To make matters worse, Valles won’t get paid until November — and that’s only if money from the federal government comes through.
“We don’t have much, but we have the will, the heart and the patience to overcome any material deficiencies,” she said.
The new police chief of Praxedis has no illusions that her small, poorly armed force will be able to take on the two major gangs in the area — the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels — as they battle for control of northern Chihuahua and the lucrative shipments to the US.
“We are working on minor infractions, social issues and crime prevention, and the Mexican army handles drug trafficking,” she said. “Of course, we coordinate and communicate, but they have their strategies, and they don’t share them with me, and we have ours that are for basic crime prevention.”
Valles said she will instead rely on those she is policing for assistance.
“Fundamentally, we need the help of the people, and already we are getting this,” she said. “They come to us and say, ‘Why don’t you fix this problem?’ or ‘Maybe we can have a park here where we can have a soccer game,’ things like that. There is a lot of fear in this town, but we can’t live like that.”
That fear has become more and more warranted as the drug cartels have spread their tentacles to Valles’ village. Praxedis had avoided much of the bloodshed that has claimed 28,000 lives in the past four years in Mexico.
“The violence there [in Praxedis] is recent — like two years old. It started around 2008,” said Juan de Dios Olivas, a reporter in Ciudad Juarez for El Diario. “It’s now definitely part of the drug zone, the battleground where the wars play out.”
Olivas said he doesn’t expect the leaders of the cartels to go easier on Valles because she is a young woman. And even though she talks tough, many people in the town fear for her life.
“Yes, it’s fair to say the townspeople are concerned about her safety,” Olivas said. “You can feel that people are worried for Marisol.”
Jorge Rojas, her former professor and founder of the private college where Marisol is studying criminology, said she knows what she is getting into.
“[She’s] very brave and very intelligent,” he told The Post, fighting back tears as he talked about the trouble she faced. “It was a difficult decision for her. She has said so, but she also said that all of us are afraid of the situation that’s happening now in Mexico.
“She’s in some danger, and she knows it,” he added. “But she’s very prepared and intelligent and going to do her new job in the best way possible.”
Valles is already working on a plan to bring change to the town.
“I started my job Oct. 11,” she said. “We’re working well already. We go out in teams of two, a male police officer and a female officer usually. Only the men are armed.
“The women go knocking on doors to learn the social problems of each neighborhood, of each home. Our focus is prevention of crime and improving public safety.
“It can be as simple as a family saying the street light is out — anything like that, we want to know about it. We want to know what people are missing, what they need, how we can help them.”
Valles hopes to conduct classes in such topics as family violence awareness. She also hopes to soon hire five more officers.
“[The officers] go out every day and report back to me,” she said. “We can’t get lost in the administrative work, though. We have to remember that we’re here to maintain order for the people. I want to be able to put a face on every citizen, from Juanita on the corner to the neighbor next door.”
Her goal is to show a measurable improvement and a lower crime rate by the New Year.
Rojas said he believes that Valles will stay safe.
“Where she is, she has all the support of the people living there. They are so tired; they want a real change,” he said.
“She’s like a hero right now in that part of Juarez Valley, and she’s an example others can follow.”