Mexico sends military to guard Juárez roads

Louie Gilot / El Paso Times

Photo by Victor Calzada / El Paso Times

Article Launched: 01/23/2008 12:00:00 AM MST

JUAREZ -- The Mexican government cracked down on drug cartels along the Texas-Mexico border Tuesday and sent soldiers to Juárez, Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros and Reynosa.

In Juárez, soldiers drove around in Humvees equipped with gun turrets to help local police after two days of relentless attacks on high-ranking police officials.

But in Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros and Reynosa, soldiers in armored cars surrounded police stations to check whether the police officers' weapons, radios and phones were connected to crimes. No arrests were reported.

Soldiers blocked streets and checked cars Tuesday in Central Juárez, and they stood guard in front of the Centro Medico de Especialidades, a hospital on Americas Avenue where Fernando Lozano Sandoval, the commander of the Chihuahua state bureau of investigation, was being treated for severe gunshot wounds. Lozano was ambushed by several men in two vehicles Monday night.

Lozano was the third high-ranking police official to be attacked in two days and the only one to survive, although he is critical condition.