MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican marines have slain four gunmen who apparently were trying to steal the body of a Zetas cartel chieftain killed by the military a day before in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz.

The state government said the gunmen evidently wanted to take the body of Angel Enrique Uscanga, nicknamed "The Pokemon," identified as the leader of the brutal gang in that region.

The gunmen shot at marines from a vehicle after they arrived late Friday in the city of Cordoba at the building, where authorities were keeping the bodies of Uscanga and four others who had died in a firefight with the military. The marines shot back and killed the four armed men, said a government statement. Authorities confiscated a grenade and other weapons.

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MEXICO CITY - Newly elected President Enrique Pena Nieto says he will continue fighting illegal drug production and trafficking in Mexico, including marijuana, despite its legalization in two U.S. states and liberalized use for medical purposes in others.

In an interview late Monday on goals for his new administration, Pena Nieto was asked if votes to legalize recreational use of marijuana in Washington state and Colorado would make him rethink Mexico's drug-war policy.

"The short answer is no," said Pena Nieto, who added that he remains personally opposed to legalization. "My government will continue mounting a real fight against the trafficking of marijuana and all other drugs."

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An environmental activist who attempted to protect Mexican forests from drug traffickers has been slain along with her 10-year-old son, even though they were under police protection, her associates said Thursday. Juventina Villa Mojica was killed Wednesday when about 30 gunmen intercepted her police convoy in the mineral-rich hills of southern Guerrero state, colleagues said. Her son, Rey, was also killed. Her death follows the recent slayings of at least 15 other local activists, including Villa's husband last year. Drug traffickers in the state covet the many virgin forests both for the profitable lumber and the space to plant marijuana.

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MEXICO CITY - Mexico's outgoing president, Felipe Calderon, was never much loved. His election in 2006 was overshadowed by claims of fraud by a leftist challenger. He then struggled with a deep recession brought on by the global financial crisis. And throughout his term he sponsored an army-led "war on drugs," which has left a death toll variously estimated at between 65,000 and 100,000. Little wonder that most Mexicans are eager to see him leave office on Saturday.

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Violence Overshadows Neighbor's Economic Growth, Other Assets

More Americans have a negative opinion of Mexico than of Russia, and drug violence is the main reason, according to a U.S. national poll.

The poll, conducted by Texas-based Vianovo consultants and GSD&M advertising, found that 50 percent of Americans see Mexico unfavorably. In comparison, Russia, a longtime U.S. adversary, is viewed negatively by 39 percent.

In addition, the poll found that only 17 percent of Americans view Mexico's economy as modern, and 7 in 10 say Mexico is unsafe for travel.

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Officials Rethink Their Anti-Drug Strategy After Colorado, Washington Legalize Marijuana.

Mexico City - The decision by voters in Colorado and Washington state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana has left President-elect Enrique Pea Nieto and his team scrambling to reformulate their antidrug strategies in light of what one senior aide said was a referendum that "changes the rules of the game."

It is too early to know what Mexico's response to the ballot measures will be, but Pena Nieto's top aide said the incoming administration will discuss the issue when he heads toWashington this month for meetings with President Barack Obama and congressional leaders. The decision, however, is expected to spark a broad debate in Mexico about the direction and costs of the U.S.-backed drug war here.

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Legalization Alters 'Rules of the Game'

Review of Washington-Backed Drug War Is Likely

MEXICO CITY - The decision by voters in Colorado and Washington state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana has left Mexican President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto and his team scrambling to reformulate their antidrug strategies in light of what one senior aide said was a referendum that "changes the rules of the game."

It is too early to know what Mexico's response to the successful ballot measures will be, but a top aide said Pena Nieto and members of his incoming administration will discuss the issue with President Obama and congressional leaders in Washington this month. The legalization votes, however, are expected to spark a broad debate in Mexico about the direction and costs of the U.S.-backed drug war here.

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MEXICO CITY - The main adviser to Mexico's president-elect said Wednesday that votes legalizing recreational marijuana in the U.S. states of Washington and Colorado will force Mexico and the United States to rethink their efforts to halt marijuana smuggling across the border.

Luis Videgaray, head of incoming President Enrique Pena Nieto's transition team, told Radio Formula that the Mexican administration taking power in three weeks remains opposed to drug legalization. But he said the votes in the two states complicate his country's commitment to quashing the growing and smuggling of a plant now seen by many as legal in part of the United States.

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Countries Moving Toward Legalization

Will Have to Reconcile to Global-Treaty Laws

MEXICO CITY - Voters in Colorado and Washington state who approved the recreational use of marijuana Tuesday sent a salvo from the ballot box that will ricochet around Latin America, a region that's faced decades of bloodshed from the U.S.-led war on drugs.

Experts said the moves were likely to give momentum to countries such as Uruguay that are marching toward legalization, to undercut Mexican criminal gangs and to embolden those who demand greater debate about how to combat illegal substances.

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MEXICO CITY (AP) - A study released Wednesday by a respected Mexican think tank contends that proposals to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in Colorado, Oregon, and Washington could cut Mexican drug cartels' earnings from traffic to the United States by as much as 30 percent.

Opponents questioned some of the study's assumptions, saying the proposals could also offer new opportunities for cartels to operate inside the United States.

The ballot measures to be decided Nov. 6 would allow adults to possess small amounts of marijuana under a regimen of state regulation and taxation. Polls have shown tight races in Washington and Colorado, with Washington's measure appearing to have the best chance of passing. Oregon's measure, which would impose the fewest regulations, does not appear likely to pass.

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WHENEVER I've interviewed Mexican cartel killers, the aspect that I've found most disturbing about them is that they appear to be sane.

Even though they have described to me such unfathomable actions as hacking off the heads of still-living victims, it is something other than mental illness that drives their violence. Their sanity is disconcerting because, if they were simply mad, it would be easier to accept horrific actions like leaving piles of headless corpses in town squares.

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Washington Ballot Measure

Report Says States Could Grow and Sell Marijuana More Cheaply Than International Smugglers

MEXICO CITY A study released Wednesday by a respected Mexican think tank asserts that proposals to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in Colorado, Oregon and Washington could cut Mexican drug cartels' earnings from traffic to the U.S. by as much as 30 percent.

Opponents questioned some of the study's assumptions, saying the proposals could offer new opportunities for cartels to operate inside the United States and replace any profit lost to a drop in international smuggling.

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UNITED NATIONS -- Latin American leaders at ground zero of the war on drugs called for a new approach Wednesday, saying the current drive to crush powerful cartels has failed to reduce consumption. The presidents of Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia all spoke at the U.N. General Assembly of the need to find a new approach to the global war drugs.

"The premise of our fight against drugs has proven to have serious flaws," said President Otto Perez of Guatemala, who in the past has advocated legalizing drugs to wipe out the profit motive for traffickers.

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Mexico Has Chosen the Design and Site, but Conflict Remains Over Who Should Be Honored and How.

MEXICO CITY - It must have seemed like a good idea at the time: a memorial to the thousands of victims of the drug violence that has convulsed Mexico for most of the last decade.

Washington, after all, has its Vietnam War memorial. New York has its monument at the site of the World Trade Center.

But even as the winning design was being announced, Mexico's tribute was stricken by the conflicting visions and bitter disputes that have driven wedges into Mexican society.

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Karina Gidi stars in "Estado de Gracia," the series about drug legalization, seen in the U.S. exclusively on Cinelatino. (Adrian Ibanez, (c)Once TV Mexico 2012 / August 5, 2012) Related photos)

By Reed Johnson, Los Angeles Times August 5, 2012, 8:00 a.m. Mexican federal legislator Julieta Toscano isn't afraid to say what some Mexicans have long been thinking: After six years of turmoil and 55,000 people killed in narcotics-related violence, it's time to stem the bloodshed by legalizing drugs.

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Mexico's incoming president said he's in favor of a debate over the legalization of drugs as the current U.S.-led crackdown fuels violence in his country without stemming the flow of narcotics across the border.

Enrique Pena Nieto, in an interview with the PBS "Newshour" program broadcast Tuesday, insisted he's not personally in favor of legalizing drugs. Still, he joined a growing chorus of leaders in Latin America who have called on the U.S. to rethink its strategy.

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After 6 Years, 10,000 'Disappearances', 50,000 Deaths and 1.6m Displaced... an Exhausted Nation Is Set to Elect a Leader Willing to Deal With the Cartels and the US Isn't Happy. David Usborne Reports From Mexico City

Julia Fuertes digs into her handbag to retrieve a pair of earrings she has made at home. Simple circles of coloured card, they are adorned with photographs of a dashing man cut from celebrity magazines. He looks like an Mexican soap star, except that one day soon he might be running this country.

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The Country Chooses a President Next Week, but Candidates Aim Only to Limit Violence.

MEXICO CITY - Six years into a ghastly drug war, none of the top candidates in next Sunday's presidential election has offered a significant new strategy to win a conflict that has claimed more than 50,000 lives and terrorized Mexican society.

Instead, the politicians emphasize reducing the increasingly brutal violence, as they seek to address the concern that weighs heavily on the minds of outraged Mexican voters.

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One afternoon last August, at a hospital on the outskirts of Los Angeles, a former beauty queen named Emma Coronel gave birth to a pair of heiresses.

The twins, who were delivered at 3:50 and 3:51, respectively, stand to inherit some share of a fortune that Forbes estimates is worth a billion dollars.

Coronel's husband, who was not present for the birth, is a legendary tycoon who overcame a penurious rural childhood to establish a wildly successful multinational business. If Coronel elected to leave the entry for "Father" on the birth certificates blank, it was not because of any dispute over patrimony. More likely, she was just skittish about the fact that her husband, Joaquin Guzman, is the C.E.O. of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, a man the Treasury Department recently described as the world's most powerful drug trafficker. Guzman's organization is responsible for as much as half of the illegal narcotics imported into the United States from Mexico each year; he may well be the most-wanted criminal in this post-Bin Laden world.

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As Mexicans prepare to choose a new president one month from today, the election has turned into a referendum of sorts on President Felipe Calderon's war on the drug cartels, an effort that some Mexicans applaud as long overdue and others blame for escalating violence in the country.

The primary question for the three leading candidates seeking to succeed Calderon is whether they would continue to use the military to confront the cartels, as Calderon has since he launched a U.S.-backed crackdown on the drug-trafficking networks in 2006, or pursue a different strategy, experts say.

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