Twenty-year-old criminology student, Marisol Valles, attends the press conference during her presentation as chief of policePhotograph: Jesus Alcazar/AFP/Getty ImagesValles was sworn in to bring law and order to a township of 8,500 that has been transformed from a string of quiet farming communities into a lawless, no man's landPhotograph: ReutersThe city hall building of the northern Mexican border town of Praxedis Guadalupe Guerrero, ChihuahuaPhotograph: Jesus Alcazar/AFP/Getty Images
Valles inspects the cells at the police stationPhotograph: Raymundo Ruiz/APValles's only police experience before taking the role was a stint as a department secretaryPhotograph: ReutersHer job covers a violent borderland where drug gangs have killed public officials and terrified many citizens into fleeingPhotograph: Raymundo Ruiz/APValles's predecessor was gunned down in July 2009 and the town had been unable to find a replacement for more than a yearPhotograph: Jesus Alcazar/EPAValles speaks to local high school studentsPhotograph: Jesus Alcazar/AFP/Getty ImagesValles says she took the job because she loves the town where she has lived for 10 years, though she was born in Ciudad JuárezPhotograph: Jesus Alcazar/EPATwo rival gangs the Juárez and Sinaloa drug cartels have been battling for control of its single highway, a lucrative drug trafficking route along the Texas borderPhotograph: Raymundo Ruiz/APSoldiers at a checkpoint in the border town Photograph: Raymundo Ruiz/APSoldiers man a checkpointPhotograph: Raymundo Ruiz/APThe nearby city of Ciudad Juárez where more than 2,000 people have died in drug-related attacks this year alonePhotograph: Jesus Alcazar/AFP/Getty Images
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