In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s most violent city, Robert Orduna, the city’s chief of police, has stepped down amid ongoing threats and shortly after a policeman and a prison guard were assassinated in the city that has been whacked by drug-related violence.

According to the BBC News, “criminal gangs had threatened to kill at least one police officer every two days until Mr. Orduna quit. Murders are frequent in Ciudad Juarez, which sits on the US border and is a key staging post on the drug route.

Mayor Jose Reyes had earlier insisted that the city would not falter in its war against criminal gangs. Yet speaking after the two murders, he admitted that Mr. Orduna’s departure was the only solution by the authorities to protect police.

Mayor Reyes said, “the events took place despite the measures that we took to protect the municipal policemen. That is the reason the decision was taken.”

Mr. Orduna confessed he did not want to endanger any more lives after a spate of shootings this week.

Chief Orduna is quoted by the BBC as saying, “we can’t allow men who work defending our citizens to continue to lose their lives. That is why I’m presenting my permanent resignation.”

Mr. Orduna had only been serving in his post since May; he took charge after his predecessor was forced to escape across the border to Texas following death threats.

The city’s authorities claim his replacement would be found in the next few weeks.

The resignation was the most recent evidence that drug gangs exercise extensive control over parts of northern Mexico, says Stephen Gibbs, the BBC correspondent in Mexico City.

In the region, recent widespread anti-army protests seem to have been largely orchestrated by the cartels. Almost a third of the 6,000 people murdered in drug-related violence last year died in Ciudad Juarez.

On Wednesday, police were placed on high-alert after messages were posted in the city warning Chief Orduna that one of his officers would be killed every two days until he resigned.

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