Pubdate: Wed, 13 Dec 2006
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2006 The Miami Herald
Contact:  http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262
Author: Ioan Grillo, Associated Press

MEXICO CRACKING DOWN ON DRUG STRONGHOLD

Mexican Troops And Police Officers Spread Out In An Area Of Western 
Mexico Controlled By Drug Gangs With The Goal Of 'Rconquering Territory.'

APATZINGAN, Mexico - Helicopters clattered over remote mountaintops 
while soldiers set up checkpoints Tuesday in western Mexico, a region 
President Felipe Calderon has vowed to take back from smugglers 
challenging authorities with beheadings and large-scale drug production.

Soldiers were ordered to set fire to marijuana and opium fields and 
round up traffickers in Michoacan -- Calderon's home state. Navy 
ships also were patrolling the state's Lazaro Cardenas port, a hub 
for drugs arriving from Central America and Colombia on their way to 
the United States.

Cornelio Casio, one of several generals overseeing the operation 
begun Monday, said 6,500 soldiers and federal police were fanning out 
across the state.

"We aren't going to lose any time," he said. "We are completely 
focused on this war."

The campaign follows earlier crackdowns by Mexican presidents who 
ordered mass firings of corrupt police, revamped courts, sent 
thousands of troops to battle traffickers and accelerated drug 
seizures -- without making much of a dent on the quantity of 
narcotics crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

In an interview Tuesday with the Televisa television network, 
Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said the operation was aimed at 
"reconquering territory" controlled by drug gangs. "It's not just a 
war against drug lords," he said. "It's a war against the entire 
criminal structure."

Medina Mora acknowledged that drug lords will likely just find 
another stronghold, saying: "It's a complicated war, but it is a war 
we can win."

Calderon brushed aside concerns the crackdown could lead to human 
rights violations and claim innocent victims. "It's about recovering 
the calm, day-to-day life of Mexicans who live in the state," 
Calderon said at an event early Tuesday.

He took office on Dec. 1 promising to fight the execution-style 
killings, corrupt police and openly defiant gangs that plagued former 
President Vicente Fox's six years in office. Calderon has budgeted 
more funds for law enforcement and appointed a hard-line interior 
secretary, in charge of domestic security, Francisco Ramirez Acuna.

On Tuesday, Calderon met with federal lawmakers and urged them to 
support his program. U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza has repeatedly 
expressed concern about the rising violence, some of which has 
spilled over into the United States, and the U.S. State Department 
has warned U.S. citizens about travel to Mexico.

Warring cartels have killed at least 2,000 people this year and 
forced Fox to send troops into the bloody border city of Nuevo 
Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas, and the beach resort of Acapulco.

But those efforts failed to deter traffickers, who have left human 
heads outside government offices accompanied by written warnings. One 
recent message in Michoacan read: "See. Hear. Shut Up. If you want to 
stay alive."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman