FOX DECLARES WAR ON DRUG TRADE

Mexico's President Vicente Fox has warned that drugs traffickers
could launch a violent backlash against the crackdown planned by his
new government on crime.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Fox pledged to "totally
reinvent" the police units used to fight the drugs trade in Mexico.

He also proposed that Mexican drug offenders should be sent to the US
to serve their jail sentences. American officials have estimated that
70 per cent of the cocaine entering the US passes through Mexico.

Mr Fox admitted it would be a bitter struggle because of the
pernicious influence of drug money in the police and penal systems.
According to law enforcement agencies, Mexican drug cartels work
closely with their Colombian counterparts.

Co-operation in the war on drugs has improved between Mexico and
Washington in recent years, but US officials remain concerned by the
levels of corruption in Mexico. Besides cocaine smuggling, Mexico
produces marijuana, amphetamines and poppy flowers used in heroin.

Mr Fox said Mexican drug criminals "should go and face their
punishment in the US where they will be well locked up". But he
warned that increased drug seizures and arrests may lead to "times of
grief and grinding of teeth".

"This could provoke a violent response by organised crime and drug
traffickers," he said. "This is really serious. We are going to put
our country in order."

Mr Fox's comments followed the escape late on Friday of one of
Mexico's most notorious drug barons from a fortress-like prison in
the western state of Jalisco. The disappearance of Joaquin Guzman
Loera, who officials suspect may have hidden in a laundry van, was
the first escape by a prisoner from one of Mexico's two
maximum-security jails. It was a bitter blow to Mr Fox's government,
which took office on December 1 pledging to root out corruption.

Mr Fox said Mr Guzman's escape underlined the importance of a Mexican
Supreme Court decision last week paving the way for the extradition
of drugs traffickers to the US. Under the previous regime, which
ruled for 70 years, some lower courts had blocked extraditions as
anti-constitutional, seriously irking Washington.

Mr Fox said he had stepped up security in the prison system this
weekend after Mr Guzman's escape. The druglord apparently fled hours
after a visit to the Puente Grande prison, in which he was
incarcerated, by members of Mr Fox's government urging the director,
Leonardo Beltran, to step up vigilance.

Officials said Mr Beltran had been stripped of his post and held for
police interrogation, as were 33 guards. "We'll have to punish many
people. He couldn't have escaped alone," Mr Fox said.

Mr Guzman had served seven years of a long sentence for bribery and
criminal association. Drugs charges were not proven. He leapt to
notoriety in 1993 when officials said he was involved in a gun battle
at Guadalajara airport, in which a Mexican cardinal was slain.