Pubdate: Wed, 16 May 2007
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Hector Tobar
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

OFFICIAL'S SLAYING PROMPTS CALLS FOR TROOPS IN MEXICO CITY

Party Officials Say The Capital Was Unprepared For A Backlash From 
The War On Drug Traffickers

MEXICO CITY -- The leaders of two political parties called Tuesday 
for army troops to be dispatched to this capital city and its suburbs 
to fight drug traffickers in the wake of the assassination of a 
high-ranking official in the attorney general's office.

President Felipe Calderon promised an "unprecedented battle" against 
the traffickers, who have killed as many as 1,000 people this year as 
they fight Mexican authorities while battling one another for control 
of a lucrative trade in cocaine, methamphetamines, heroin and other 
illicit drugs. Most of the drugs are shipped to the United States.

The shooting in the political, cultural and media capital of Mexico 
raised troubling questions about Calderon's declared war on 
traffickers, which has included troop deployments to several states 
and cities, where violence has since spiraled. Newspaper editorials 
Tuesday accused the president of being unprepared for the backlash.

Jorge Chabat, an author and drug trade expert here, said the public 
would probably continue to back Calderon's efforts against the 
traffickers, despite the recent setbacks.

"It could be argued that Calderon's offensive has made the violence 
worse, and that he was not fully prepared for the escalation of 
violence that followed," Chabat said. "But the only other alternative 
was to do nothing. Or to make a deal with the drug traffickers. And 
that just isn't possible in a democratic state under the rule of law."

Police said they had few leads in the shooting of Jose Nemesio Lugo 
Felix, who had been appointed just weeks ago to head a drug 
intelligence unit in the federal attorney general's office. Lugo 
Felix was killed in a rush-hour ambush Monday a few yards from his 
office in the southern district of Coyoacan.

"We are witnessing a head-on, unprecedented struggle in the history 
of our country against organized crime," said Jorge Triana, a leader 
of Calderon's conservative National Action Party in Mexico City's 
Legislative Assembly. "We believe that Mexico City has become one of 
the most dangerous hot spots in the country and that [the 
authorities] have not acted appropriately."

Leaders of the Institutional Revolutionary Party in Mexico City and 
surrounding Mexico state joined the call for troops and federal 
police to deploy in the Mexico City metropolitan area, home to about 
20 million people.

Until recently, the country's widespread drug violence has been a 
mostly provincial phenomenon centered on border areas and port cities.

But this year has seen several violent incidents in and around Mexico 
City that were apparently related to drug trafficking, including the 
deaths of two federal police officers shot April 26 on the highway 
linking Mexico City with Toluca.

On Tuesday, observers said Lugo Felix's death could mark a turning 
point in the nation's drug war.

"The killing is proof of the enormous power and impunity of organized 
crime," said an editorial in the left-leaning La Jornada, which 
accused the Calderon government of launching its anti-drug offensive 
without adequate preparation or protection for even the highest 
officials involved in the operation.

Speaking to hundreds of young people at the National Youth Olympiad 
in Veracruz, Calderon promised to win the drug war. "We will recover 
our Mexico, its plazas, parks and streets, which do not belong to 
criminals, but rather to the children, the youth and the free men of 
our country," he said.

The border city of Tijuana and the southern states of Guerrero and 
Michoacan have been among the places to which army troops and federal 
police units have been dispatched by Calderon to fight drug 
traffickers since he took power in December.

Leaders of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, which 
controls Mexico City's government, called any such deployment in the 
capital premature.

"The army is the last card we should play," said Victor Hugo Cirigo, 
a PRD city lawmaker and the leader of the capital's Legislative Assembly.

On Tuesday, the head of Mexico's National Human Rights Commission, 
Jose Luis Soberanes, said the army was unprepared for policing 
duties. The commission, an official government agency, has received 
52 complaints of abuse related to the army presence in Michoacan, 
Soberanes said.

"What we should do is strengthen the local police -- give them 
training, equipment -- and substitute the army with police so [the 
soldiers] return to their barracks," Soberanes said.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman