Pubdate: Sun, 11 Feb 2007
Source: Tampa Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2007 The Tribune Co.
Contact: http://www.tbo.com/news/opinion/submissionform.htm
Website: http://www.tampatrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446
Author: Ioan Grillo, The Associated Press

MEXICO'S PRESIDENT PROMISES NO RESPITE IN WAR ON DRUG GANGS

MEXICO CITY - Mexican President Felipe Calderon said there will be 
"no truce or quarter" in his war on drug gangs after the killing of 
seven law enforcement officials in an apparent attempt to intimidate 
the federal government.

Flanked by the commanders of the army, navy and air force, Calderon 
told troops at a military base on Saturday that the government will 
not be strong-armed by organized crime.

"We are not going to surrender, neither from provocation nor attacks 
on the safety of Mexicans," Calderon said. "We will give no truce or 
quarter to the enemies of Mexico."

Tuesday morning, more than a dozen armed men killed five agents and 
two secretaries in simultaneous attacks on two offices of the state 
attorney general in Acapulco.

The attackers were dressed in military uniforms and pretended to be 
conducting a weapons check, asking the agents to hand over their 
rifles before opening fire.

Police later found a note in a van thought to be used in the attack 
with the defiant message: "We could give a damn about the federal 
government, and this is proof" - an apparent reference to the 
shootings. The vehicle was parked outside a house packed with 
automatic rifles and military uniforms.

Calderon, a career politician in the conservative National Action 
Party, narrowly won election last year on promises to smash drug 
gangs blamed for killing more than 2,000 people in 2006, many in 
execution-style killings and gruesome beheadings.

Since taking power in December, the president has sent more than 
24,000 soldiers and federal police to areas ravaged by drug violence, 
including 7,000 to Acapulco's Pacific state of Guerrero.

He also has extradited four accused drug kingpins to the United 
States, where they could be given life sentences in high-security prisons.

"I instruct you to persevere until victory is achieved," he told the 
troops Saturday. "New pages of glory will be written."

Calderon's position has won him praise from Washington, with U.S. 
Drug Enforcement Administration chief Karen Tandy describing his 
initiative as "an enormous leap forward."

The country's drug gangs are thought to earn more than $10 billion a 
year smuggling Mexican-made heroin, marijuana and amphetamines and 
Colombian cocaine into the United States.

Lawmakers from Mexico's opposition Democratic Revolution Party helped 
draft a bill to legalize possession of small amounts of cocaine, 
heroin and marijuana, which Mexico's Congress approved last year.

However, former President Vicente Fox refused to sign the bill after 
an outcry from U.S. officials.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman