Pubdate: Tue, 25 Jan 2005
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2005 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.mercurynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Susana Hayward

MEXICO BOOSTS CAMPAIGN AGAINST DRUG TRAFFICKERS

MEXICO CITY - The Mexican government deployed at least 600 federal police 
officers, soldiers and special agents Monday to three cities near the U.S. 
border in an ongoing crackdown against drug-cartel violence.

The move came after six prison employees were found dead Thursday outside a 
maximum-security prison at Matamoros. Federal officials already had sent 
reinforcements into the Matamoros facility, but Monday's action went beyond 
the prison, extending to the business and residential areas of Matamoros, 
Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo, all in the northern state of Tamaulipas.

"They are already safeguarding Reynosa, and the army is putting up 
checkpoints around the city," Ramon Martin Huerta, the head of the federal 
Public Security Department, said at a news conference in Reynosa. "Today, 
we're carrying out an operation without precedent to protect citizens." He 
said additional military would continue to arrive and would stay as long as 
necessary.

The decision to deploy the police came after Martin Huerta held a 
late-night meeting Sunday with Tamaulipas Gov. Eugenio Hernandez, mayors 
and police officials about fighting the cartels.

There was little information about the government takeover of Tamaulipas, 
where 2.7 million people live. The agents and officers began patrolling 
streets and checking cars, but there were no other details of where they 
were working and what actions were being taken.

Tamaulipas is the base of the Gulf cartel, which supplies marijuana, 
cocaine and amphetamines to the United States and has been fighting a turf 
war with other traffickers. Last year, officials said, the state had some 
70 drug-related slayings and more than 120 kidnappings.

Many Mexicans welcomed the crackdown.

"This should have been done a long time ago in all cities plagued with drug 
traffickers," a man wrote in an e-mail to the Mexico City newspaper El 
Universal, which put up a Web site for reactions. "Mexico must be a secure 
nation, free of drugs, where our children can grow healthy."

But many of the e-mails criticized President Vicente Fox.

"He's been in office nearly six years, and his term ends in 2006. He's had 
plenty of time to act against crime," said one reader named Miguel.

Hernandez, the governor of Tamaulipas, said Monday that he was purging many 
state police forces because some officers reportedly were paid by drug 
gangs. But critics argue that as long as prison guards are paid minimum 
wage, they're easy targets for bribes by drug traffickers.

Martin Huerta said visitor restrictions would be imposed in Tamaulipas' 
prisons and in Mexico's 400 other jails. In La Palma, for example, a 
maximum-security prison west of Mexico City, prisoners, relatives, lawyers 
and even federal officials were undergoing "extreme" searches, which 
included being strip-searched, photographed and fingerprinted.
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