The New York Daily news
written by Ginger Adams Otis
Monday April 8, 2013
'So Go the Ghosts of Mexico,' by Matthew Paul Olmos, is based on the daring life of the Praxedis, Mexico top cop after no man stepped up. The play premieres Thursday at La MaMa at 74 E. Fourth St.
The “bravest woman in Mexico” is coming to the mean streets of New York.
Marisol Valles Garcia — the baby-faced former police chief of a violent, drug-riddled Mexican border town — will celebrate the opening of a biographical play about her life when it opens this weekend in the East Village.
And the NYPD is ready to protect the 23-year-old, who made headlines worldwide in 2010 when she agreed to become the police chief of tiny Praxedis, Mexico, after no man in her town had the guts to step up.
“If she needs some sort of protection, we’ll provide it,” said NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly about Valles, who remains a target of murderous Mexican drug cartels.
Valles’ daring one-woman battle against corruption and violence is the centerpiece of the play, “So Go the Ghosts of Mexico ,” by Matthew Paul Olmos, that premieres Thursday at La MaMa at 74 E. Fourth St.
Valles will attend a Sunday matinee of the play, which was inspired by her global impact, Olmos said.
“The significance of her ideas — that we could solve these conflicts by community improvements instead of armed conflict — are still being felt,” said the California playwright.
The soft-spoken young mother, now a criminal justice student at a Texas university, took the top cop job after out-of-control cartels had beheaded the last police chief of Praxedis — a common occurrence in the drug-torn country.
“I want my son to live in a different community to the one we have today. I want people to be able to go out without fear, as it was before,” Valles told reporters after pinning on her badge.
She stood up to the cartels with the barest of resources — one patrol car, four guns and 13 officers, nine of whom were women.
Valles opted not to carry a weapon and didn’t even have a security detail. She earned $640 a month for putting her life on the line.
She was forced to flee Praxedis mere months after becoming police chief — taking her toddler son and husband with her — because of harassment from the drug lords.
After one particularly threatening phone call from the Chapo Guzman cartel — demanding Valles drive to Ciudad Juarez to meet with the narcos or her husband and son would suffer — she and her family jumped into a friend’s pickup truck and made the 15-minute journey across the border into America with only the clothes on their backs.
She’s now living in El Paso, Texas, and seeking asylum, according to her lawyer, Carlos Spector.
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The New York Daily news
written by Nina Mandell
Monday March 7, 2011
A brave college student who became the police chief of one of the most violent towns in Mexico was fired Monday for not showing up for work after she received death threats .
Marisol Valles Garcia, 20, took over as the town's police chief in November 2010, more than a year after the last police chief was shot to death.
"I'm doing this for my people," she said at the time. "This is not for me. I'm tired of all the drug violence."
On Monday, city officials said she had been granted a leave of absence for a few days to travel to the U.S. but had failed to return on time.
Her whereabouts are unknown, and some officials are worried that she may be in harm's way.
"Right now Marisol needs support and one way to be supportive is to leave her in the office," Human Rights Commission official Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson said. "To fire her is to leave her completely alone."
De la Rosa Hickerson said the young police chief had been repeatedly threatened and there may have been an attempt to kidnap her, as is sadly the fate of many local officials when they try to cross the drug gangs that have held the country hostage.
The news of Garcia's firing came on the same day that police in Acapulco, Mexico said they found three severed heads in plastic bags. A note left at the scene said the killings were revenge for the death of another man.
Acapulco, a town once synonymous with American spring break, has become increasingly dangerous - something authorities blame on the warring drug gangs.
Nearly 35,000 people have been killed since President Felipe Calderon began cracking down on the cartels in December 2006.
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