Police chief, 21, is fired after failing to return from leave

FACED with threats of kidnapping and execution from drug cartel members, a 21-year-old Mexican woman who was the only person in her town willing to become police chief has been fired after apparently fleeing to the United States.

Marisol Valles Garcia made international headlines when she accepted the post in the dangerous Valley of Jurez town of Praxedis Gilberto Guerrero in October last year.

The town had been without a police chief since the last one was shot to death in July 2009. The incumbent before that was beheaded.

The week Ms Valles Garcia took the job, a local politician and his son in a neighbouring small town were ambushed and killed.

Drug violence has transformed the town of about 8,500 people, located about 60 miles from Ciudad Juarez, from a string of quiet farming communities into a lawless no man's land.

Two rival gangs - the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels - are battling over control of its single highway, a lucrative drug-trafficking route along the border with Texas.

Ms Valles Garcia - who is a criminal justice student and mother of one - was granted a leave of absence from 2-7 March to travel to the United States for personal matters, but failed to return to Praxedis as had been agreed, officials said in a statement.

"In the absence of (Ms Valles Garcia's] presence on the agreed-upon day, and since there was no notification of a need to extend the period of her absence, the mayor has decided to remove her from office," the statement read.

A local official accompanied the police chief last week to the international bridge connecting nearby El Porvenir to Fort Hancock, Texas, said Human Rights Commission official Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson.

Local news media have since reported that Ms Valles Garcia was seeking asylum in the US, but there has been no confirmation of that and her precise whereabouts remain unclear.

Over the weekend, as speculation increased that she was seeking refuge, officials tried to contact Ms Valles Garcia but were unable to reach her.

Mr De la Rosa Hickerson said yesterday that he still had not been able to reach her and did not know where she was. He added that he would ask officials to reconsider their dismissal of the young chief.

"I have the impression that this position by the mayor is a bit hasty," he said. "Because right now Marisol needs support, and one way to be supportive is to leave her in office."

He added that residents of Praxedis told him Ms Valles Garcia had received threats against her life, and there may even have been an attempt to kidnap her.

"To fire her is to leave her completely alone," he said.In an interview earlier this year, Ms Valles Garcia said that her task was not to take on drug traffickers - she said that was the job of the better equipped federal police and the army - but instead to focus on preventive measures and petty crimes in the area such as public drunkenness and bicycle theft, and domestic violence.

She did not carry a gun, or even wear a uniform, preferring jeans and a sweatshirt. Still, she was aware of the danger around her: the sole remaining police officer in the neighbouring town of Guadalupe Distrito Bravos, also a young woman, had recently been kidnapped and was still missing.

"Yes, it's worrisome," Ms Valles Garcia said. "But at the same time I always see hope in what we're doing."

With about 8,000 killings in and around Ciudad Juarez over the past three years, the region has become one of the world's deadliest places and is gripped by lawlessness as gangs fight over smuggling routes.