Modernizing the Police
Goodbye to some Horses

The municipality (see note below) of Lerdo has decided to sell 19 of its 29 police horses. The upkeep for 29 horses amounts to $35,000 pesos per month. Since the horses are only used to access areas where a vehicle cannot go, such as some mountain parks and along the river, the city feels 10 horses will be enough. Since they are not purebreds, the city expects to sell them for about $5,000 each.

The pangs of nostalgia...

Their last parade?

Municipality:  México does not have counties.  Instead the states are divided in municipalities which usually have the same name as the major city in the municipality which acts as the "seat" of government.  Hence the president (mayor) of Lerdo presides over the whole municipality as well as the city of Lerdo.  The police force is divided into city and rural units. It is the rural police who have horses. All the rural police wear cowboy hats as in the picture.  Their uniforms also differ from the city police. 

The city of Lerdo has a population of around 80,000; the municipality has a total of about 120,000. There is frequent (constant?) friction between the outlying villages and the city.  The villages feel (probably correctly) that the city gets more than its fair share of municipal funds for water, sewer, and streets.