EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The office of Juarez Mayor Cruz Perez Cuellar has confirmed the arrival of 300 Mexican soldiers and 100 National Guard members to a city experiencing a spike in violence.
The troops will patrol the streets in military vehicles, support the municipal police in crime prevention operations and back up police agencies that come under fire from criminals, city officials said.
The soldiers’ arrival comes as Juarez recorded 124 homicides in January, the highest total in more than a year and a double-digit increase over December, which recorded 96 murders.
Juarez Municipal Police Chief Cesar Omar Muñoz last week attributed the spike to violence among drug gangs for control of crystal meth distribution in the city.
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According to Observatorio Ciudadano, a nonprofit that tracks long-term crime trends in Juarez, the city across the border from El Paso, Texas, homicides declined substantially from 2015 to 2018. One month, November 2015, recorded only 14 murders, while April 2017 experienced 26 events.