Pubdate: Tue, 26 Dec 2006 Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL) Copyright: 2006 Sun-Sentinel Company Contact: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159 Author: David McLemore, The Dallas Morning News MEXICO'S NEW LEADER VOWS CRIME CRACKDOWN Texas Leaders Hope Cartels Will Be Targets DALLAS Mexican President Felipe Calderon talks tough on law and order, and he acted tough in arresting the leaders of a violent protest in the southern state of Oaxaca. Texas leaders hope that the tough-on-crime policies extend to lawlessness along Mexico's northern border, where warring drug cartels battling for trafficking routes into the United States -- through Texas -- have killed hundreds. In his inaugural speech this month, Calderon promised to strictly enforce the rule of law in Mexico, with no tolerance for violence, whether the result of feuding drug cartels or political opposition. "Laws must protect citizens, not criminals," Calderon said. "It won't be easy or quick. It will take time and a lot of money. But rest assured: This is a battle that I will lead." Calderon promised to make law enforcement one of three top priorities, along with creating jobs and fighting poverty. A budget proposal he has presented includes a 12.4 percent increase in spending on crime fighting, and he promised a raise for the armed forces, which he deemed crucial to fighting drug traffickers. He gave his Cabinet 90 days to come up with an anti-crime plan. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who attended the inauguration, "takes President Calderon at his word," said spokesman Robert Black. The cartel war, centered on the border city of Nuevo Laredo, has occasionally spilled into Texas, where border sheriffs say they'd be grateful for some help from Mexican officials. "If he's going to increase the effort to attack the cartels, it will be a tremendous help," said Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez, co-chairman of the Southwest Border Sheriff's Coalition. So far, Calderon seems to be backing up his words. In early December, he ordered the arrests of the main leaders of the political group that effectively shut down tourism in the southern capital of Oaxaca state. The bloody protest there has led to more than a dozen deaths. The president used federal police to remove the last of the barricades that had blocked streets in the downtown area for six months and killed the critical tourism industry. President Vicente Fox had been criticized for allowing protesters to take over the city, burn buses, rob governmental buildings and attack local police, who could not control the demonstrators. Police have been similarly impotent to stop the violence in northern Mexico. One police chief was slain hours after taking office, and another vowed to leave drug traffickers alone. Just this year, according to reports, there have been about 200 drug-related killings in Nuevo Laredo. And Americans have been drawn into the violence. The FBI said 60 U.S. citizens have been kidnapped in the Nuevo Laredo region; 21 of those cases remain unsolved. Some security experts question how much the new Mexican president can change the situation. "At this point, there really isn't a lot that President Calderon can do," said Andrew Teekell, an analyst at STRATFOR, a private security consulting firm in Austin. "The drug cartels are deeply entrenched and very powerful." Teekell noted that last summer, Fox ordered the Mexican army into Nuevo Laredo, where it disbanded the entire police force and patrolled the streets until a new one could be hired. "For a while, the violence slowed, but the flow of drugs did not," he said. "And after the army left, the violence escalated as the cartels continued wrestling for control of distribution networks in Nuevo Laredo. Frankly, I don't see what President Calderon can do that Vicente Fox couldn't." - --- MAP posted-by: Elaine