MEXICO LEADER: NO RETREAT ON DRUGS

In Interview Before 1st U.S. Visit As President, Felipe Calderon
Calls for Approval of Aid to Fight Traffickers

MEXICO CITY - In his first year in office, Mexican President Felipe
Calderon has gone beyond his predecessors in declaring war against
drug traffickers and organized crime, dispatching tens of thousands
of troops to lead the charge.

But the enemy isn't going down without a fight. After months of
improvement in security, January saw a surge in drug-related
violence, including bloody battles with Mexican forces along the U.S.
border. Law-enforcement officials call it a counterattack against
Calderon's offensive.

In an interview Wednesday ahead of his first presidential visit to
the U.S., Calderon appealed for approval of a $1.4 billion U.S. aid
package proposed by President Bush to give Mexico's anti-drug battle
a boost with aircraft, surveillance equipment and police training.
The package has stalled in Congress.

With an eye on the festering violence back home, Calderon will visit
Chicago on Tuesday where he will discuss immigration reform and other
issues with Mexican community leaders. He also will visit New York,
Massachusetts and California next week.

While Calderon tries to strengthen Mexico's ties with its citizens in
the U.S., the leaders of both nations want to integrate their efforts
at combating drug trafficking, the gravest crisis facing Calderon's
young presidency.

Drug War's Toll

In a wide-ranging discussion at the Los Pinos presidential compound
with the Tribune and Hoy, a daily, Spanish-language newspaper owned
by Tribune Co., Calderon said Mexican police and military have felt
the brunt of the drug war's casualties.

But his diplomats are stressing to U.S. lawmakers that it "is
affecting Americans, that it is affecting the children of those
congressmen ... and requires the cooperation of everyone to resolve
it," he said. "It is a problem that we share as neighbors."

The Calderon administration has claimed its share of successes,
including the detention of about 20,000 people linked to organized
crime and an operation in October that netted 23.5 tons of cocaine,
which the government trumpets as a world record.

One key element of Calderon's strategy has been deploying the
military to conduct raids and staff checkpoints in hot spots, such as
the state of Michoacan. After a spate of killings near the Texas
border around New Year's, he dispatched about 6,000 troops to the
state of Tamaulipas and even had navy ships patrolling the Gulf of Mexico.

But U.S. law-enforcement officials and security analysts say the
successes have come with a price. Mexico suffered 235 drug-related
murders in January, up more than 50 percent from January 2007,
according to El Universal newspaper

Reforma newspaper, which also tracks crime data, put the number of
drug-related murders in 2007 at 2,275, a 15-percent jump from 2006.

Experts speculate that drug traffickers are violently angling for
power as Mexico targets and captures the leaders of cartels. Also,
Mexican officials say they think organized crime is trying to shake
the will of the Mexican people through horrific attacks.

U.S. Atty. Gen. Michael Mukasey said he regrets the resurgence in
violence but also views it as a sign that Calderon's approach is working.

"In a perverse kind of way, the level of violence suggests a level of
success. [The drug cartels] may very well be so constricted that they
feel the necessity to hit back," Mukasey told a gathering of foreign
journalists in Mexico.

In Wednesday's interview, Calderon said he was concerned but not
surprised by the violence.

"Naturally, this was not going to be an exchange of flowers," he
said. "Confronting crime means applying the force of the state. And
we are applying it. We are giving it to them with everything."

Mexico is a producer, consumer and transit point for illicit drugs
from methamphetamine to marijuana. For example, the U.S. General
Accounting Office estimated in October that the percentage of cocaine
flowing from South America to the U.S. that goes through Mexico
increased from about 65 percent in 2000 to about 90 percent in 2006.

Because of the global nature of the problem, Bush and Calderon
crafted the "Merida Initiative" during a 2007 meeting in that eastern
Mexican city. Spread out over three years, the funding would provide
for helicopters and other technology but also integrate U.S and
Mexican law-enforcement efforts.

Calderon said a key element would be a greater exchange of
intelligence. U.S. officials said they hoped to get involved directly
in efforts to weed out corrupt Mexican police, which would increase
their confidence in sharing sensitive information.

Complaints in Congress

But after complaining that they were shut out of formulating the
Merida Initiative, U.S. lawmakers have put the money on hold as they
press for more details. "It is obviously not a good way to kick off
such an important bilateral effort," complained U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel
(D-N.Y.) at an October hearing on the plan.

Although the initiative does not involve deploying U.S. troops, some
lawmakers and activists on both sides of the border have expressed
fears of an escalation or open-ended commitment, like the one they
say occurred with U.S. assistance to Colombia.

Joy Olson, executive director of the Washington Office on Latin
America, a think tank, said she thinks lawmakers will eventually
approve the plan but will not give the Bush administration a blank
check. She recently testified before Congress on the plan.

Calderon said he already has seen positive signs, including the U.S.
giving Mexican officials access to a program called eTrace, which can
track the origin of weapons used to commit crimes.

But Calderon said he also expects the U.S. to address the problem of
reducing American demand for illicit drugs.

"If I wanted to fix the problem of organized crime in Nuevo Laredo, I
need to address the consumption and purchases in Laredo [in Texas].
If I wanted to fix that of Tijuana, I need to fix the matters in San
Diego," he said.

[sidebar]

IN CALDERON'S WORDS

On the U.S. presidential campaign: "What we want is that whoever
becomes the president of the United States be someone who has a wider
vision and a peaceful, objective analysis, less emotional and more
rational about the phenomenon of immigration ... and that they allow
for the opening of bridges of cooperation and understanding instead
of building walls that, in my opinion, don't solve any problem."

On demands in the U.S. for stricter enforcement of immigration laws:
"It is a subject that has been manipulated emotionally in American
public opinion, generating a feeling that is not only anti-immigrant
but anti-Mexican that we need to reduce in a determined way."

On negative effects on Mexico caused by the U.S. economic downturn:
"It is very regrettable that, while the world in general is growing
at significant rates, our neighboring economy isn't just at a
standstill but is putting the brakes on us."

On his vision for Latin America, where leftists have spread their
influence: "One critical decision should be whether Latin America is
of the past or of the future. The past could be represented by a
return to authoritarianism or a return to closed economies,
expropriations or state intervention in the economy. We think that
the future of Latin America is defined by democracy, by respect for
human rights, by market economies and by a strong intervention by the
state to correct social inequalities."

On the Mexican national soccer team under superstar-turned-coach Hugo
Sanchez: "I know he is a very controversial figure, but it appears to
me that if Hugo Sanchez knows how to join his leadership ... with the
great talent that exists in Mexican players, they can surely do great things."