Pubdate: Tue, 23 Jan 2001
Source: Financial Times (UK)
Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 2001
Contact:  1 Southwark Bridge, London, SE1 9HL, UK
Fax: +44 171 873 3922
Website: http://www.ft.com/
Author:  Henry Tricks, Richard Lapper and Andrea Mandel-Campbell

FOX DECLARES WAR ON DRUG TRADE

Mexico's President Vicente Fox has warned that drugs traffickers 
could launch a violent backlash against the crackdown planned by his 
new government on crime.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Fox pledged to "totally 
reinvent" the police units used to fight the drugs trade in Mexico.

He also proposed that Mexican drug offenders should be sent to the US 
to serve their jail sentences. American officials have estimated that 
70 per cent of the cocaine entering the US passes through Mexico.

Mr Fox admitted it would be a bitter struggle because of the 
pernicious influence of drug money in the police and penal systems. 
According to law enforcement agencies, Mexican drug cartels work 
closely with their Colombian counterparts.

Co-operation in the war on drugs has improved between Mexico and 
Washington in recent years, but US officials remain concerned by the 
levels of corruption in Mexico. Besides cocaine smuggling, Mexico 
produces marijuana, amphetamines and poppy flowers used in heroin.

Mr Fox said Mexican drug criminals "should go and face their 
punishment in the US where they will be well locked up". But he 
warned that increased drug seizures and arrests may lead to "times of 
grief and grinding of teeth".

"This could provoke a violent response by organised crime and drug 
traffickers," he said. "This is really serious. We are going to put 
our country in order."

Mr Fox's comments followed the escape late on Friday of one of 
Mexico's most notorious drug barons from a fortress-like prison in 
the western state of Jalisco. The disappearance of Joaquin Guzman 
Loera, who officials suspect may have hidden in a laundry van, was 
the first escape by a prisoner from one of Mexico's two 
maximum-security jails. It was a bitter blow to Mr Fox's government, 
which took office on December 1 pledging to root out corruption.

Mr Fox said Mr Guzman's escape underlined the importance of a Mexican 
Supreme Court decision last week paving the way for the extradition 
of drugs traffickers to the US. Under the previous regime, which 
ruled for 70 years, some lower courts had blocked extraditions as 
anti-constitutional, seriously irking Washington.

Mr Fox said he had stepped up security in the prison system this 
weekend after Mr Guzman's escape. The druglord apparently fled hours 
after a visit to the Puente Grande prison, in which he was 
incarcerated, by members of Mr Fox's government urging the director, 
Leonardo Beltran, to step up vigilance.

Officials said Mr Beltran had been stripped of his post and held for 
police interrogation, as were 33 guards. "We'll have to punish many 
people. He couldn't have escaped alone," Mr Fox said.

Mr Guzman had served seven years of a long sentence for bribery and 
criminal association. Drugs charges were not proven. He leapt to 
notoriety in 1993 when officials said he was involved in a gun battle 
at Guadalajara airport, in which a Mexican cardinal was slain.
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