A college student who recently became the youngest female police chief in Mexico received death threats and is currently in United States to seek for asylum, an advocate for human rights reported on Friday.

Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson, an official of the Human Rights Commission in the state of Chihuahua, said that Marisol Valles Garcia had received phone call threats last weekend.

According to a family member, the death threats came from a criminal group that forced her to work for them.

Valles, a 20-year-old single mother, took over the police chief position in the small town of Praxedis in October when two other candidates turned down the offer after the death of the town’s mayor and his son.

The rights activist said Valles was accompanied by a local official when she went to the international bridge between El Porvenir and Fort Hancock in Texas.

However, other media sources said the female chief of police went to United States with two relatives to seek asylum. But, officials in Praxedis G. Guerrero denied the speculations.

Meanwhile, Jose Flores, spokesperson of the city council, said Valles Garcia asked for a leave of absence, but she planned to come back to work on Monday.

Both de la Rosa Hickerson and Flores said they have attempted to contact Valles Garcia since Thursday, but she was not picking up her phone.

Pradexis G. Guerrero is a town with about 8,500 people. It is located southeast of Ciudad Juarez. Drug violence has turned it from a quiet farming community to a violent land.

Valles Garcia’s departure camejust a few months after Erika Gandara, the 28-year-old sole police officer of Pradexis’ nearby town Guadalupe, was kidnapped in December. Her whereabouts is still unknown.