Pubdate: Fri, 3 Dec 2010
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Page: Front Page, top of page, continued on page A9
Copyright: 2010 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Tracy Wilkinson, Reporting from Mexico City
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Mexico

LEAKS REVEAL UNEASE OVER MEXICO

The Secret Cables Give a Much Starker U.S. View of the Pitfalls 
Facing Calderon in Drug Gang Fight.

In contrast to their upbeat public assessments, U.S. officials 
expressed frustration with a "risk averse" Mexican army and rivalries 
among security agencies that have hampered the Mexican government's 
war against drug cartels, according to secret U.S. diplomatic cables 
disclosed Thursday.

The cables quoted Mexican officials expressing fear that the 
government was losing control of parts of its national territory and 
that time was "running out" to rein in drug violence.

The cables gave a much starker view of the pitfalls and obstacles 
facing Mexican President Felipe Calderon, a departure from the public 
statements of unwavering support that have come out of Washington for 
most of the 4-year-old war, which has claimed more than 30,000 lives.

Two cables from U.S. Embassy officials in Mexico, one dated January 
of this year and the other October 2009, praise Calderon for 
persisting in his campaign to tackle "head on" the powerful cartels 
that traffic most of the cocaine, heroin and marijuana that reaches the U.S.

But the Mexican president's struggles with "an unwieldy and 
uncoordinated interagency" law enforcement effort have created the 
perception that he is failing, the cable dated Jan. 29 said. His 
inability to halt the violence or contain the rising death toll has 
become a principal political liability as his public ratings have 
declined, it said.

The U.S. assessment said Calderon's tools are limited: "Mexican 
security institutions are often locked in a zero-sum competition in 
which one agency's success is viewed as another's failure, 
information is closely guarded, and joint operations are all but 
unheard of," said the January cable, which is signed by the No. 2 
official in the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, John D. Feeley, a veteran 
diplomat with extensive experience in Latin America.

"Official corruption is widespread, leading to a compartmentalized 
siege mentality among 'clean' law enforcement leaders and their 
lieutenants," he said. "Prosecution rates for organized crime-related 
offenses are dismal; 2% of those detained are brought" to trial.

The cables are part of a massive release of thousands of classified 
documents by the WikiLeaks website that has turned an uncomfortable 
light on the workings of American diplomacy. The documents involving 
Mexico are said to number 2,836, and the first were made public 
Thursday by the Spanish newspaper El Pais.

In the January cable, Feeley goes on to describe serious tensions 
between the Mexican army -- increasingly dogged by allegations of 
human rights abuse and its inability to stanch violence in Mexico's 
deadliest city, Ciudad Juarez -- and a smaller, more effective navy 
whose special forces have scored some of the more dramatic victories 
in the war, including the killing of kingpin Arturo Beltran Leyva a year ago.

"Below the surface of military professionalism, there is also 
considerable tension between" the army and the navy, the diplomat 
wrote. The army "has come to be seen [as] slow and risk averse even 
where it should succeed: the mission to capture HVTs" -- high-value 
targets, namely, cartel leaders. "The risk is that the more [the 
army] is criticized, the more risk averse it will become."

He said U.S. officials would have to convince a demoralized Mexican 
military that "modernization and not withdrawal" are the way forward 
and that "transparency and accountability are fundamental to modernization."

The cable was apparently intended as a "scene setter," or advance 
briefing paper, for a meeting of the Defense Bilateral Working Group 
that took place Feb. 1 in Washington.

This unvarnished U.S. assessment of the Calderon government's 
political problems is matched by realities in Mexico that that The 
Times has portrayed over years of reporting on the drug war.

The Oct. 5, 2009, cable was signed by U.S. Ambassador to Mexico 
Carlos Pascual. It recounts a meeting with several top Calderon 
security officials, including then-Deputy Interior Minister Geronimo Gutierrez.

Gutierrez is first quoted criticizing delays in the U.S. Merida 
Initiative, a program that is funneling $1.4 billion in aid to the 
drug war and to the revamping of Mexico's police and courts.

Then Pascual quotes Gutierrez as saying it was too late for crucial 
"institution building" to take root in the remainder of the Calderon 
presidency.

"We have 18 months," the cable quotes Gutierrez as saying, "and if we 
do not produce a tangible success that is recognizable to the Mexican 
people, it will be difficult to sustain the confrontation into the 
next administration."

According to Pascual's report, Gutierrez went on to lament the 
"pervasive, debilitating fear" that was gripping so much of Mexican society.

"He expressed a real concern with 'losing' certain regions," Pascual 
wrote. "It is damaging Mexico's international reputation, hurting 
foreign investment and leading to a sense of government impotence, 
Gutierrez said."

As The Times has reported, huge swaths of important states that 
border the United States, such as Tamaulipas and Chihuahua, as well 
as central drug-producing regions, such as Michoacan (Calderon's home 
state) and Sinaloa, are controlled by drug cartels that corrupt 
police forces, dominate city halls, intimidate the public and kill 
anyone who gets in the way.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Mexico City declined to comment on the 
contents of the cables or to confirm their authenticity. He said 
State Department cables in general "reflect the day-to-day analysis 
and candid assessments that any government engages in," may be 
preliminary or incomplete and "should not be seen as having standing 
on their own or as representing U.S. policy." 
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