Pubdate: Tue, 27 Dec 2005
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2005 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.mercurynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Alfredo Corchado,Dallas Morning News

CARTEL WOOING MEXICO'S MILITARY

Analysts Finding Signs Of Corruption

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials and analysts say there are new signs that 
drug corruption is spreading within the Mexican military, an 
institution long regarded as more professional and less prone to 
criminality than the country's law enforcement agencies.

In interviews, four senior U.S. officials, a senior Mexican 
intelligence official and three independent analysts all expressed 
concern about the expanding role of the Mexican military in the drug 
war. Some pointed to low pay among the middle and lower ranks as 
making military personnel vulnerable to offers from cartel leaders 
who may double or triple their pay.

"Corruption is more serious in the Mexican military than just about 
any other Latin American military," said a U.S. official, speaking on 
condition of anonymity. "The reason is not that the Mexicans are any 
more venal; it's that we're talking about huge amounts of money . . . 
and that makes them more vulnerable."

Questions Deflected

Spokesmen for the Mexican Embassy in Washington and for Los Pinos, 
the presidential residence, declined to comment, referring questions 
to the military. Military officials requested questions in writing 
but said there would be no reply for now.

The concerns were underscored in a video sent to the Dallas Morning 
News in October and made public earlier this month. The video shows 
four men, bound and bloodied and prodded by an unseen interrogator, 
talking about their work for a drug cartel. Two of the four 
identified themselves as former military men and said that their job 
was to recruit for the cartel from Mexico's special forces.

The emergence of two new paramilitary groups, Los Negros and Los 
Numeros, which may seek to bolster their forces with military 
personnel and federal agents, has added to the concern, U.S. 
officials said. The groups are said to work for the Sinaloa cartel, 
purportedly headed by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. They were recruited 
to battle the rival Gulf cartel and its enforcement arm, the Zetas, 
and to spread the Sinaloa cartel's dominance along the entire 
U.S.-Mexico border, the officials said.

Military's Key Role

The Mexican government's central role in fighting drug trafficking is 
a relatively recent development. In 1996, during the administration 
of President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, the U.S. government 
encouraged the Mexican government to give the military a central role 
in anti-narcotics efforts -- in part because the military was viewed 
as uncorrupted, analysts said.

"We're the ones who pushed the Mexican military into fighting 
narcotics," said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, head of the Mexico Project 
at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. 
"We've pushed them into narco corruption."

In the past five years, President Vicente Fox has dramatically 
increased the military's participation in anti-narcotics efforts by 
including military personnel on the attorney general's payroll.

Since 1996, the U.S. government has spent at least $225 million in 
training and other military assistance for anti-drug aid programs, 
according to a report by the Washington Office of Latin America, a 
non-governmental organization that monitors military cooperation 
between Mexico and the United States.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman