Pubdate: Sun, 30 Apr 2006
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Page: A12
Copyright: 2006 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Manuel Roig-Franzia, Washington Post Foreign Service
Cited: Drug Policy Alliance http://www.drugpolicy.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Mexico (Mexico)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Nuevo+Laredo (Nuevo Laredo)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Acapulco (Acapulco)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

IN MEXICAN DRUG WAR, A DESPERATE MEASURE

Limited Legalization Sharpens Focus on Traffickers Rather Than Users

MEXICO CITY -- Sixteen months after President Vicente Fox declared 
"the mother of all battles" against drug trafficking, Mexico is 
increasingly awash in drug violence and is now turning to a new, and 
controversial, approach: decriminalization.

Fox is expected to sign a bill passed by the Mexican legislature last 
week that decriminalizes possession of small amounts of some of the 
most popular illegal drugs.

Under the law, penalties would be erased for possessing 500 
milligrams of cocaine, 5 grams of marijuana, 5 grams of raw opium and 
25 milligrams of heroin, among other drugs. The measure, which has 
surprised and angered anti-drug groups in the United States, is 
intended to further shift the focus of Mexico's sputtering drug 
battle from users to traffickers.

In an interview Saturday, Mayor Jerry Sanders of San Diego, the 
largest U.S. border city, said the timing of the measure could 
imperil efforts to reform immigration law in the United States: "This 
really stirs things up," he said. Sanders, a former San Diego Police 
chief, called the law "appallingly stupid, reckless and incredibly 
dangerous" and predicted that it would lead to a flood of teenagers 
trying to sneak into his city from Mexico with illegal drugs.

U.S. government reaction was more measured, with State Department 
spokesman Janelle Hironimus citing cooperation between the two 
nations in the battle against drugs.

"Preliminary information from Mexican legislative sources indicates 
that the intent of the draft legislation is to clarify the meaning of 
'small amounts' of drugs for personal use as stated in current 
Mexican law," Hironimus said.

Some advocates of drug law reform in the United States applauded 
Mexico's decision.

"Mexico is trying to make the right choices. . . . The Mexican 
legislation will go a long way toward reducing opportunities for 
police corruption and harassment in their interactions with ordinary 
citizens," Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy 
Alliance, said in a statement. The group advocates ending the war on drugs.

Fox's anti-drug efforts, undertaken with the enthusiastic support of 
the United States, have led to a series of highly publicized arrests. 
But the drug cartels have responded brazenly.

Almost every week another assault by drug gangs, each more audacious 
than the last, generates headlines. Grenades have been launched at 
law-enforcement offices. Four undercover drug agents were shot to 
death last month in Nuevo Laredo. Two police officers were 
decapitated 10 days ago in the resort city of Acapulco, not long 
after they took part in an operation against a drug gang. Their heads 
were dumped beneath a sign that warned: "So that you learn to respect."

The escalating conflict has claimed more than 1,500 lives -- 
including police, rival drug traffickers and civilians -- in the past 
year, more than double the number in the previous year, according to 
Mexican researchers. The death toll has risen despite increased 
enforcement efforts in Mexico and by U.S. authorities across the 
border. The police killings, in particular, are believed to be 
retribution for a crackdown on cartels in Mexico undertaken at the 
urging of U.S. officials, said Jorge Chabat, an expert in Mexican 
criminal justice.

The violence also coincides with the remarkable growth of Mexican 
cartels, which have seized a greater share of the drug market as some 
of Colombia's drug kingpins have been arrested.

"Mexico is becoming the second Colombia," said Rep. Henry Cuellar 
(D-Tex.), whose district includes Laredo, across the border from 
Nuevo Laredo. "This is a serious and a ruthless situation."

Mexico's drug cartels have grown bolder as their profits have grown 
larger, Chabat said. Mexican drug traffickers generate as much as $10 
billion a year by funneling South American cocaine into the United 
States, as well as by producing methamphetamines, heroin and 
marijuana, he said.

Mexico has had some successes in combating cartels. In the past five 
years, the leaders of the powerful Sinaloa and Gulf cartels have been 
arrested. But those victories have been muted by the failings of the 
Mexican justice system, Chabat said. The leader of the Sinaloa 
cartel, Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman, escaped from prison in 2001, and the 
leader of the Gulf cartel, Osiel Cardenas, is suspected of running 
his criminal organization from the prison cell he has occupied since 
his arrest in 2003.

"The Mexican government has been very effective in making arrests, 
but the rest of the criminal justice system -- the prisons and the 
judiciary -- is very inefficient and very corrupt," Chabat said.

The imprisonment of Cardenas set off a struggle between the Gulf and 
Sinaloa cartels for " la plaza " -- Mexican slang for drug turf. Each 
cartel is suspected of co-opting law enforcement officials -- and 
killing or intimidating those who don't go along -- to achieve their 
goal of controlling lucrative smuggling routes. But with Cardenas in 
prison, the Gulf cartel is at a disadvantage.

"The arrest provoked an imbalance, and now they are trying to reach 
an equilibrium," Chabat said. "There is clearly a war for control -- 
it's been a complicated war because after 1 1/2 years there has been 
no winner."

Cuellar applauds Mexico for responding with forceful measures, such 
as sending troops last year to quell drug violence in Nuevo Laredo. 
But with the violence persisting, he accuses Mexico of not being 
receptive enough to recent U.S. offers to help train police and prosecutors.

"They've started to work with us -- the question is: Can we get them 
to work with us more?" said Cuellar, who has pushed through 
legislation to boost border drug enforcement.

There have been signs that the two nations are collaborating more 
closely. Last month, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff 
flew to Brownsville, Tex., on the Mexican border, to announce a plan 
to increase cooperation with Mexican drug authorities.

Just two weeks later, the four undercover drug agents in Nuevo Laredo 
were killed. The killings were seen here as a setback for Mexican 
drug authorities. But they were soon eclipsed by the shock of the 
beheadings in Acapulco.

The heads were discovered April 20 outside a government building not 
far from the beaches that draw tens of thousands of U.S. tourists 
each year. The killings, coupled with grenade attacks on police 
stations in neighboring cities, were graphic reminders that 
drug-related violence has spread beyond the border and into the port 
and beach towns where drugs enter the country before being funneled north.

"We can't believe this is happening," said Mario Nunez Magana, 
spokesman for the Acapulco police. "This used to happen just up at 
the border. Here, we were only about tourism."

The slain officers, whose bodies were found wrapped in plastic miles 
away from their heads, had participated several months earlier in a 
shootout that left four suspected drug gang members dead. On Tuesday, 
less than a week after the gruesome discoveries, the Mexico City 
newspaper Excelsior posted a video on its Web site that it said 
showed one of the officers killing a gang member execution-style 
during that shootout.

The newspaper's scoop was a big deal for a few hours. But soon there 
was more suspected drug violence to talk about: another police 
officer gunned down in Nuevo Laredo.

There was no comment from Nuevo Laredo's police chief because there 
is no Nuevo Laredo police chief. The interim chief, named after his 
predecessor was assassinated last year, quit a month ago. No one else 
wants the job.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake