Pubdate: Tue, 24 Mar 2009
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: Jose De Cordoba

MEXICO RISES ON THE U.S. AGENDA

Rewards Offered for Capture of Drug Traffickers Ahead of Clinton 
Visit This Week

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico on Monday offered rewards in the millions of 
dollars for information leading to the capture of 37 drug lords, 
ahead of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to the country 
Wednesday. Cranking up the pressure on the drug cartels, Mexico said 
it would give out rewards of $2 million each for information leading 
to the capture of 24 top traffickers -- including fugitive Joaquin 
"El Chapo" Guzman, whom Forbes Magazine recently ranked as one of the 
world's richest men -- and $1 each million for 13 of their main operators.

Mexico has in the past posted rewards for capturing drug lords, but 
not on this sweeping scale. Two of the 37 were arrested in the past 
few days, before the reward offer was published.

Mrs. Clinton's trip, announced last week, is the latest sign that 
Mexico's spiraling drug violence has powerfully focused Washington's 
attention. Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Homeland 
Security Janet Napolitano are due in Mexico next week. President 
Barack Obama plans to visit Mexico City in April on his way to the 
Summit of the Americas in Trinidad. U.S. officials said Mrs. Clinton 
plans to address a wide range of issues with her Mexican 
counterparts, including the environment, the global economic crisis, 
democracy promotion and the war on drugs.

She'll also discuss ways the Obama administration can assist 
President Felipe Calderon in combating rising violence along the 
U.S.-Mexican border. Mrs. Clinton will have to navigate a difficult 
political terrain on her visit. Top Mexican officials acknowledge an 
urgent need for more U.S. support in fighting drug traffickers, but 
they are resentful of the picture that has emerged in Washington of 
Mexico as a corruption-ridden country on the verge of becoming a failed state.

Analysts say the Mexican government expects the U.S. will come with a 
package of measures, including proposals to help stop the flow of 
guns and cartel money from the U.S. to Mexico, which Mexican 
officials say are major factors contributing to the violence.

President Obama is expected to announce new measures as early as 
Tuesday. Officials have said they will direct more resources to the 
border, including additional agents and equipment for screening 
vehicles headed to Mexico. Since assuming power more than two years 
ago, Mr. Calderon has sent thousands of soldiers to confront the 
country's drug cartels, which have been fighting an internecine war 
over domestic markets and drug routes to the U.S. Some 10,000 people, 
most of them members of the drug gangs, have been killed since then.

The cartels also operate in about 230 U.S. cities.

A flurry of congressional hearings in Washington have praised Mr. 
Calderon's crackdown on the drug cartels. But some officials have 
also offended Mexican sensibilities by saying that Mexico is not in 
full control of its territory. Mexican officials say drug demand in 
the U.S. and U.S. sales of firearms that wind up in the hands of 
Mexican drug dealers are a big part of the problem. U.S. law 
enforcement and military officials have been working on how best to 
increase intelligence sharing and training with their Mexican 
counterparts. It's a tough proposition. Because of widespread 
corruption among Mexican municipal, state and federal police forces, 
the Mexican army has been at the forefront of the government's 
anti-narcotics efforts.

While the army is widely held in high esteem by Mexicans, accusations 
of human rights violations against soldiers have increased as the 
military has become immersed in police functions for which it is not trained.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake