Pubdate: Fri, 22 Aug 2008
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Page: A7
Copyright: 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Authors: Jose De Cordoba and David Luhnow
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Mexico (Mexico)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Felipe+Calderon

CALDERON PROPOSES STEPS TO FIGHT MEXICO'S CRIME

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon met with the 
nation's governors and security officials and proposed steps to 
counter a wave of violent crime that has angered citizens and 
threatens the president's popularity.

Among the steps Mr. Calderon announced late Thursday are separate 
prisons for kidnappers, a reward system for tips that lead to the 
capture of criminals and a national database for cellphones to track 
which ones are used in crimes.

Politicians were forced to confront the issue after a series of 
high-profile crimes, including the recent kidnap and murder of the 
son of a prominent businessman. Civic, business and victims' groups 
are planning a march in Mexico City at the end of the month to 
protest the government's efforts at fighting the wave of kidnappings 
and drug-related violent crime.

The crime wave is a setback for Mr. Calderon, who made law and order 
his priority after taking power in December 2006, proposing tougher 
sentencing for criminals and sending as many as 40,000 army troops to 
confront drug traffickers.

An estimated 4,900 Mexicans have died in crimes related to the drug 
trade since Mr. Calderon took power. Most of the dead are members of 
feuding drug gangs, but the list also includes top law-enforcement 
officials, scores of police officers, and judges, journalists and 
bystanders. The number of kidnappings also has risen, from 276 in 
2005 to 432 last year, according to Mexico United Against Crime, a 
citizens group. Since Mr. Calderon took office, crime has risen to 
1,454 crimes per 100,000 people from 1,330, according to federal statistics.

The public's anger was stoked earlier this month when the body of 
Fernando Marti, 14 years old, the son of a wealthy entrepreneur, was 
found stuffed in the trunk of a car. The young Marti had been 
kidnapped months earlier and was killed despite his parents having 
paid a ransom. Two of the three suspects arrested were Mexico City 
police detectives. Every week brings grim news. This week, gunmen 
from a suspected drug cartel burst into a party in northern Mexico 
and gunned down 14 people, including a 1-year-old.

A recent poll showed 80% of Mexicans believe the country's crime 
problem is "very serious," said Jorge Buendia, head of polling firm 
Ipsos-Bimsa. Some 42% think the government is losing the war against 
drug traffickers. The crime problem could do political damage to Mr. 
Calderon and his conservative National Action Party, or PAN, which 
faces midterm elections next year. "There will be a stiff political 
price to pay in the 2009 legislative elections," said Bruce Bagley, a 
Latin American expert at the University of Miami. Analysts said the 
big winner could be the country's former ruling party, the 
Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which governed Mexico for 
seven decades until it was unseated by the PAN in 2000. Sensing Mr. 
Calderon's weakness, PRI leaders are taking Mr. Calderon to task for 
what they said are his "failed" security policies.

A weak president will do little to help the country break out of its 
drift. Mexico has been a laggard among big emerging markets in areas 
such as economic growth for years. But Mr. Calderon has accomplished 
little in pushing through reforms needed to face such problems as 
declining oil production and the virtual monopoly that a handful of 
companies hold on many business activities.

Basic to tackling Mexico's crime problem is cleaning up deep-rooted 
corruption of the country's police forces, which consist of some 
420,000 local and state police and only 20,000 federal police. 
"Traditionally, the central government is less corrupt than municipal 
or state governments," said political analyst Jorge Castaneda, a 
former foreign minister. He said Mexico should get rid of its local 
and state police forces, replacing them with a national police force.

At the very least, said Alberto Islas, a security consultant for 
Mexican security agencies, Mexico must enact basic reforms, such as 
using a comprehensive computer database that would prevent crooked 
cops fired in one state from getting jobs in the police force of a 
different state, a situation that isn't uncommon. 
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