Mexico army ops allow crime surge in border city

By Ignacio Alvarado

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexican troops are failing to provide basic security in the violent border city of Ciudad Juarez, residents say, testing support for President Felipe Calderon's army-led assault on drug gangs.

Some 2,500 soldiers and federal police swept into Ciudad Juarez over the U.S. border from El Paso, Texas last month with heavy weaponry and helicopters to quell a surge in drug murders as gangs fight over smuggling routes into the United States.

Soldiers have taken over many security tasks from the often corrupt city police, making dozens of arrests and seizing arms and narcotics but the fight against common crime has apparently suffered.

While crime statistics are hard to come by, many residents say bank robberies, burglaries, vehicle theft, kidnappings and assaults have risen sharply over the past month, as criminal gangs take advantage of a security vacuum.

Dozens of local police have quit, either under pressure from military accusations of corruption or angered by army plans to seize their weapons and purge their ranks.

Ciudad Juarez's city police force says it now has only 200 officers patrolling a city of 1.6 million people at any one time, less than half the normal levels before the troops arrived.

Some police say they are too intimidated by the army to go on the beat, and residents say patrol cars that used to pass their homes nightly have stopped coming.

"The situation has never been this bad. The police have just stopped patrolling the city. There's no point in calling them if you get robbed," said local salesman Luis Marquez who just had his car stolen.