COALCOMAN, Mexico - Rafael Garcia slaps the oversize wooden desk where he sits, one of the last mayors still in office in this region of Mexican farm country known as Tierra Caliente - hot land.

Mayors from a couple of the nearest towns fled with their drug-cartel pals, people here say, when locals took up arms against them.

But at Garcia's City Hall, the facade is festooned with hand-lettered signs supporting local gunmen who challenged the cartel, loosely referred to as community "self-defense" guards, comunitarios. Several cities in Tierra Caliente are now patrolled by such groups, whose members, often masked, man checkpoints and pull over passing vehicles for inspection. They have reached a kind of tense coexistence with the army, which moved in a couple of weeks ago in an attempt to bring order.

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MEXICO CITY - A comprehensive report on drug policy in the Americas released Friday by a consortium of nations suggests that the legalization of marijuana, but not other illicit drugs, be considered among a range of ideas to reassess how the drug war is carried out.

The report, released by the Organization of American States walked a careful line in not recommending any single approach to the drug problem and encouraging "flexibility."

Prompted by President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia at the Summit of the Americas last year to answer growing dissatisfaction and calls for new strategies in the drug war, the report's 400 pages mainly summarize and distill previous research and debate on the subject.

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The New President's Decision to Rein in U.S. Agents Spurs Dismay in Washington, Highlighting Divisions Over Goals and Costs

MEXICO CITY - The recent changes ordered by new President Enrique Pena Nieto to Mexico's anti-narcotics partnership with the United States have produced markedly different reactions here and in Washington, underscoring what appear to be diverging perceptions of the drug war's goals and the costs of fighting it.

Pena Nieto's decision to limit the ability of American agents to operate in Mexico has been met with dismay by U.S. law enforcement agencies, which left a heavy footprint under the previous administration of Felipe Calderon. They warn that intelligence sharing will suffer if they can no longer choose which Mexican force - - the army, navy or federal police - to give sensitive information to; they've been instructed to now funnel everything through Mexico's Interior Ministry instead.

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Goal: Better U.S.-Mexican Links

MEXICO CITY - President Barack Obama sought Thursday to tamp down a potential rift with Mexico over a dramatic shift in the crossborder fight against drug trafficking and organized crime, acceding that Mexicans have the right to determine how best to tackle the violence that has plagued their country.

Since taking office in December, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has moved to end the widespread access that U.S. security agencies have had in Mexico to tackle the violence that affects both sides of the border. It's a departure from the strategy employed by his predecessor, Felipe Calderon, which was praised by the U.S. but reviled by many Mexicans.

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WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said Thursday that the U.S. will cooperate with Mexico in fighting drug-trafficking and organized crime in any way Mexico's government deems appropriate. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto emphasized that the security relationship must be expanded to focus on trade and commerce.

Appearing alongside Pena Nieto at a news conference, Obama recommitted the U.S. to fighting the demand for illegal drugs in Mexico and the flow of illegal guns across the border to Mexico, even as the southern neighbor rethinks how much access it gives to American security agencies.

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ACAPULCO, Mexico - Catholic priest Jesus Mendoza ministers to a workingclass neighborhood in the hills of Acapulco that are a world away from the tourist resort destination below.

He says one parishioner had three of his daughters abducted for a $2,500 ransom. Business owners are being forced to pay off extortionists. And 120 parishioners are either missing, kidnapped or have been killed over the past six years.

When President Barack Obama arrives in Mexico on Thursday, he will come to a country that is still suffering from widespread violence against ordinary citizens from organized criminal and drug cartels. But he will also find that Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office Dec. 1, has little interest in talking about crime or getting more help from the United States to combat it.

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ACAPULCO, MEXICO Catholic priest Jesus Mendoza ministers to a working-class neighborhood in the hills of Acapulco that is a world away from the tourist resort destination below.

He says one parishioner had three of his daughters abducted for a $2,500 ransom. Business owners are being forced to pay off extortionists. And 120 parishioners are either missing, kidnapped or have been killed over the past six years.

When President Obama arrives in Mexico on Thursday, he will encounter a country that is still suffering from widespread violence against ordinary citizens from organized criminal and drug cartels - but he will also find that Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office Dec. 1, has little interest in talking about crime or getting more help from the United States to combat it.

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Early on a December morning, Robert Coogan pulled his red Chevy hatchback into the parking lot of the state prison in Saltillo, Mexico. It was frigid outside, the sun had not yet cleared the reddish mountains, and Coogan lingered, staring at the tall black letters on the prison's high walls: "CERESO" - Centro de Reinsercion Social, the place where criminals are supposed to be reformed.

Coogan, who has served as chaplain at the prison for a decade, slowly pulled himself from the warm car. In dark jeans, brown boots and a thick gray sweater, he looked more like a factory foreman than a Brooklyn-born priest.

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MEXICO CITY - Three former heads of state are urging the United States to engage in a serious discussion of drug legalization, saying its counternarcotics policies are becoming untenable in the wake of voter approval last fall of measures that legalized the recreational use of marijuana in Washington state and Colorado.

The three - the former presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Switzerland - - said the inconsistency in U.S. attitudes toward marijuana shows that American public opinion is changing, even as the U.S. continues to press Latin American nations for tough enforcement of antidrug trafficking laws. The result is confusion and anger in Latin American nations embroiled in drug violence while Americans adopt a more lax approach toward marijuana.

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MEXICO CITY - Three former heads of state are urging the United States to engage in a serious discussion of drug legalization, saying its counternarcotics policies are becoming untenable in the wake of voter approval last fall of measures that legalized the recreational use of marijuana in Washington state and Colorado.

The three - the former presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Switzerland - - said the inconsistency in U.S. attitudes toward marijuana shows that American public opinion is changing, even as the United States continues to press Latin American nations for tough enforcement of anti-drug trafficking laws. The result is confusion and anger in Latin American nations embroiled in drug violence while Americans adopt an evermore lax approach toward marijuana.

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OUTSIDE SAN LUIS DE LA LOMA, Mexico - Don Polo's heavily armed convoy wound its way through the hills above the lush coastal plain of Guerrero state, its groves of slender palm trees now far below him.

The two-lane country road twisted eastward, and upward, for miles. But around each bend, there were no campesinos, no burros, no dogs, no cars barreling toward the Pacific. Fields of yellow grass, taller than a man and animated by the wind, covered the landscape.

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New President Opposes Measure

MEXICO CITY - Forgive the Mexicans for trying to get this straight:

So now the United States, which has spent decades battling Mexican marijuana, is on a legalization bender?

The same United States that long viewed cannabis as a menace, funding crop poisoning programs, tearing up auto bodies at the border, and deploying sniffer dogs, fiber-optic scopes and backscatter X-ray machines to detect the lowly weed?

The success of legalization initiatives in Colorado and Washington state in November has sparked a new conversation in a nation that is one of the world's top marijuana growers: Should Mexico, which has suffered mightily in its war against the deadly drug cartels, follow the Western states' lead?

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U.S. Ballots on Legalization Could Have Ripple Effect

MEXICO CITY - Forgive the Mexicans for trying to get this straight:

So now the United States, which has spent decades battling Mexican marijuana, is on a legalization bender?

The same United States that long viewed cannabis as a menace, funding crop poisoning programs, tearing up auto bodies at the border, and deploying sniffer dogs, fiber-optic scopes and backscatter X-ray machines to detect the lowly weed?

The success of legalization initiatives in Colorado and Washington in November has sparked a new conversation in a nation that is one of the world's top marijuana growers: Should Mexico, which has suffered mightily in its war against the deadly drug cartels, follow the two U.S. states' lead?

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Is War on Cartels Worth It As Legalization Grows?

MEXICO CITY - Forgive the Mexicans for trying to get this straight:

So now the United States, which has spent decades battling Mexican marijuana, is on a legalization bender?

The same United States that long viewed cannabis as a menace, funding crop-poisoning programs, tearing up auto bodies at the border, and deploying sniffer dogs, fiber-optic scopes and backscatter X-ray machines to detect the lowly weed?

The success of legalization initiatives in Colorado and Washington in November has sparked a new conversation in a nation that is one of the world's top marijuana growers: Should Mexico, which has suffered mightily in its war against the deadly drug cartels, follow the Western states' lead?

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MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican marines have slain four gunmen who apparently were trying to steal the body of a Zetas cartel chieftain killed by the military a day before in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz.

The state government said the gunmen evidently wanted to take the body of Angel Enrique Uscanga, nicknamed "The Pokemon," identified as the leader of the brutal gang in that region.

The gunmen shot at marines from a vehicle after they arrived late Friday in the city of Cordoba at the building, where authorities were keeping the bodies of Uscanga and four others who had died in a firefight with the military. The marines shot back and killed the four armed men, said a government statement. Authorities confiscated a grenade and other weapons.

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MEXICO CITY - Newly elected President Enrique Pena Nieto says he will continue fighting illegal drug production and trafficking in Mexico, including marijuana, despite its legalization in two U.S. states and liberalized use for medical purposes in others.

In an interview late Monday on goals for his new administration, Pena Nieto was asked if votes to legalize recreational use of marijuana in Washington state and Colorado would make him rethink Mexico's drug-war policy.

"The short answer is no," said Pena Nieto, who added that he remains personally opposed to legalization. "My government will continue mounting a real fight against the trafficking of marijuana and all other drugs."

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An environmental activist who attempted to protect Mexican forests from drug traffickers has been slain along with her 10-year-old son, even though they were under police protection, her associates said Thursday. Juventina Villa Mojica was killed Wednesday when about 30 gunmen intercepted her police convoy in the mineral-rich hills of southern Guerrero state, colleagues said. Her son, Rey, was also killed. Her death follows the recent slayings of at least 15 other local activists, including Villa's husband last year. Drug traffickers in the state covet the many virgin forests both for the profitable lumber and the space to plant marijuana.

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MEXICO CITY - Mexico's outgoing president, Felipe Calderon, was never much loved. His election in 2006 was overshadowed by claims of fraud by a leftist challenger. He then struggled with a deep recession brought on by the global financial crisis. And throughout his term he sponsored an army-led "war on drugs," which has left a death toll variously estimated at between 65,000 and 100,000. Little wonder that most Mexicans are eager to see him leave office on Saturday.

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Violence Overshadows Neighbor's Economic Growth, Other Assets

More Americans have a negative opinion of Mexico than of Russia, and drug violence is the main reason, according to a U.S. national poll.

The poll, conducted by Texas-based Vianovo consultants and GSD&M advertising, found that 50 percent of Americans see Mexico unfavorably. In comparison, Russia, a longtime U.S. adversary, is viewed negatively by 39 percent.

In addition, the poll found that only 17 percent of Americans view Mexico's economy as modern, and 7 in 10 say Mexico is unsafe for travel.

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Officials Rethink Their Anti-Drug Strategy After Colorado, Washington Legalize Marijuana.

Mexico City - The decision by voters in Colorado and Washington state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana has left President-elect Enrique Pea Nieto and his team scrambling to reformulate their antidrug strategies in light of what one senior aide said was a referendum that "changes the rules of the game."

It is too early to know what Mexico's response to the ballot measures will be, but Pena Nieto's top aide said the incoming administration will discuss the issue when he heads toWashington this month for meetings with President Barack Obama and congressional leaders. The decision, however, is expected to spark a broad debate in Mexico about the direction and costs of the U.S.-backed drug war here.

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