Pubdate: Wed, 30 Jun 2010
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Page: A3
Copyright: 2010 Los Angeles Times
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/bc7El3Yo
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Ken Ellingwood, Reporting from Mexico City
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Mexico
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Felipe+Calderon

MEXICO UNDER SIEGE

CALDERON CALLS ON MEXICANS TO UNITE AGAINST CRIME GANGS

Facing widespread dismay over the assassination of a leading 
gubernatorial candidate, President Felipe Calderon on Tuesday urged 
fellow Mexicans to join hands against the forces of organized crime 
that he said were to blame.

The killing of Rodolfo Torre on Monday in northern Mexico has added 
to Calderon's political headaches as voters are to head to the polls 
Sunday in 14 states to pick a dozen governors and hundreds of mayors 
and lawmakers.

"United, Mexicans can and will overcome a common enemy that today 
threatens to destroy not only our tranquillity but our democratic 
institutions," Calderon said in a broadcast message. "It's in the 
divisions between Mexicans where criminals find spaces and 
vulnerabilities to harm Mexico."

Torre was leading polls in the border state of Tamaulipas. His death 
in a highway ambush, which also killed four members of his campaign 
team, was the latest sign of a deteriorating security situation as 
Calderon pursues an offensive against drug traffickers.

Drug-related violence has left more than 23,000 people dead since 
Calderon, of the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, launched 
his anti-crime offensive upon taking office in late 2006. Amid the 
rising carnage, he recently has delivered lengthy messages to 
convince Mexicans that the crackdown is needed to save the nation 
from the grip of criminal gangs.

Calderon appeared to have political concerns in mind Tuesday as he 
urged critics in rival parties to join in a "frank, respectful and 
constructive" discussion aimed at forging a shared crime strategy.

"In the face of the challenge that organized crime poses today, there 
is no margin for seeking political dividends," he said.

As the death toll has risen, Calderon's rivals in the Institutional 
Revolutionary Party, or PRI, and left-leaning Democratic Revolution 
Party have increasingly assailed the government's crackdown as ineffective.

In Tamaulipas, governors and officials with the PRI, Torre's party, 
joined hundreds of other mourners at a memorial service in the state 
capital, Ciudad Victoria.

PRI officials had yet to name a replacement candidate. Some polls had 
shown Torre having a lead of 30 percentage points or more over Jose 
Julian Sacramento Garza of the PAN.

Officials in Tamaulipas said elections in the state - to pick the 
governor, 43 mayors and 36 state legislators - would be held Sunday as planned.

The state is a PRI stronghold with a long history of suspected 
collusion between elected politicians and traffickers. For months, 
Tamaulipas has been the setting for a bloody battle between the Gulf 
cartel and former allies known as the Zetas.

Calderon blamed organized crime gangs for the assassination, but did 
not name a specific group.

The slaying set off shock waves, prompting some commentators to ask 
whether it might stir a largely passive society into concerted action 
against crime. Others saw it as a sign both of how deeply criminal 
groups had infiltrated Mexico's political system through bribery and 
intimidation and of how much they wanted still more influence.

"Organized crime has voted. It imposed its will by means of 
violence," said an unusual editorial in the daily Reforma newspaper, 
run on the front page. "It stole from the people the ability to elect." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake