MEXICAN LEADER VOWS TO CONTINUE DRUG WAR

Slayings of attorney general's officials won't deter government from
action against cartels, president pledges

MEXICO CITY - Mexican President Felipe Calderon warned Saturday that
there would be "no truce and no quarter" in his war on drug gangs
following the brazen killing of seven law enforcement officials in
Acapulco in what appeared to be an attempt to intimidate the federal
government.

Flanked by the commanders of the army, navy and air force, Calderon
told troops at a military base that the government would 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."

On Tuesday morning, about 16 armed assailants staged and videotaped
simultaneous attacks against two offices of the state attorney
general in Acapulco, slaying five agents and two secretaries.

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

Police later found a note in a Suburban believed 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 van was parked outside a house packed with
automatic rifles and military uniforms.

Calderon, a career politician in the conservative National Action
Party, narrowly won last year's election with promises to smash the
drug gangs that killed 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 officers to areas ravaged by drug
violence, including 7,000 to Acapulco's Pacific state of Guerrero.

He has extradited four drug kingpin suspects 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 the United States, with
U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency chief Karen Tandy describing his battle
as "an enormous leap forward."

Lawmakers from the leftist Democratic Revolution Party have
criticized Calderon's approach, saying the military solution will not
stop the traffickers when their business is so lucrative.

Mexican drug gangs are believed to make more than $10 billion
annually smuggling Mexican-made heroin, marijuana and amphetamines
and Colombian cocaine into the United States.

Democratic Revolution lawmakers 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.