Pubdate: Sat, 02 Apr 2005 Source: San Antonio Express-News (TX) Copyright: 2005 San Antonio Express-News Contact: http://www.mysanantonio.com/expressnews/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/384 Author: Dane Schiller, and Jesse Bogan, Staff Writers Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/mexico DOPE WAR MAKES IT A BAD TIME TO BE A GOOD GUY IN MEXICO NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico - They're tortured and dumped along highways, killed in helicopter crashes and cut down in shootouts. They're the "good guys" - the city police, soldiers and federal agents on the front line of Mexico's war on drugs. Last week, a state police officer here was shot execution style, his flak jacket beside him. He was the third officer to die locally in a month. As the death toll mounts nationwide, there's concern that the United States - this nation's often-critical partner - doesn't fully appreciate how police and anti-narcotic agents are dying while battling wealthy, powerful and merciless drug cartels hell-bent on reaching the U.S. marketplace. From the streets of Tijuana to Matamoros, the war on drugs looks like a war. In this city, 14 municipal police officers were killed since 2002, with the majority of the deaths likely tied to drug traffickers vying for control of the busiest commercial crossing point on the U.S.-Mexico border. That compares to San Antonio losing 14 officers since 1979 in a variety of incidents. "They have killed us, and investigators have not been successful," in solving the cases said Guillermo Landa, an administrator for the 700-member Nuevo Laredo Police Department. Nobody has been convicted of the murders, Landa said, speaking on behalf of Chief Jose Guadalupe Valdez Gonzalez, the department's eighth leader in four years. "They should not die from shootouts," Landa said of officers. "They should die from sickness or old age because they are not bad people." The department seems so desensitized to fallen officers that the wall of honor - a list of officers killed on duty - hasn't been updated since 2002. Major police departments, as well as the federal attorney general's office and Defense Ministry declined to provide death totals for this report. It's difficult to determine exactly who is dying and why because no entity tracks law-enforcement deaths. The Mexico City daily newspaper Reforma publishes a scoreboard-type graphic with a running, nationwide tally of the deaths — police, civilian and gangsters — chalked up to organized crime. The latest score: 252 so far this year. President Vicente Fox had harsh words recently when Tony Garza, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, said this country wasn't doing enough to combat cartels and as a result, border tourists were in danger. Fox said no country could question this nation's commitment to the drug war. "Fighting drug traffickers is a national priority, society demands it and therefore my government is committed to this fight," he said. During her first official visit to Mexico recently, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried to smooth things over, praising Mexico's efforts to battle cartels. She said the Bush administration and the Fox administration have "been absolutely committed to dealing with what is a very difficult and indeed a tragic situation for both our countries - narcotics and the narcotics trade." She added, "We understand and appreciate that, within the context of Mexico's own laws, Mexico has been a very good partner on matters concerning the counternarcotics trade." As Fox claims success at disrupting cartel smuggling routes and arresting capos, the death toll climbs. In the past month, three officers were fatally shot in Nuevo Laredo, two others were killed in Ciudad Juarez and nine soldiers and two pilots died outside Mexico City after their helicopter crashed while on an anti-drug patrol. Traffickers are known to shoot down helicopters and use hefty cables to cause crashes. And there seems no limit to how people die and disappear. Four men, believed to be hit men in Tijuana, are under investigation for using acid to dispose of bodies, according to news reports. While some officers make noble fights or refuse to join cartels' ranks, authorities concede others die because they were corrupted, making them further despised by rival cartels. There's a chilling saying in Mexico, plata o plomo —silver or lead, as in take a payoff or lose your life. "Now they kill police officers right outside precincts," said Mike Vigil, a recently retired Drug Enforcement Administration agent who served as chief of international operations. "They are not afraid to go out and do wholesale slaughter of families," he said, referring to the 1998 massacre of 19 people, including eight children, from trafficking families in the coastal state of Baja California. Vigil said cartels know they need to intimidate police to stay in business. "A lot of people point fingers at Mexico, but the fact of the matter is Mexico loses more agents in the war on drugs than we do in the United States, by far," he said. "A lot of people do not understand that; these guys are engaged in trench warfare against the cartels." Mexican Congressman Arturo Nale Garcma, said Mexican officers are outgunned, out-organized, and outspent by cartels. "The United States definitely does not understand what is happening," said Nale of the public-safety committee. "It can not be forgotten that Mexico is not the chief producer of drugs and not the world's greatest consumer, which is the United States." Back in Nuevo Laredo, when a police commander was asked how many friends had been killed during his 16 years on the force, he wasn't sure. "I've already lost count, maybe 20," he said dryly. He seemed to take death in stride. "Like being a police officer anywhere, there are risks," he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin