MEXICO SENDING 2,500 AGENTS INTO TROUBLED BORDER TOWN

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- The government of President Felipe Calderon
on Thursday began a military surge of more than 2,500 soldiers and
federal agents into this besieged border community in an attempt to
tamp down a bloody drug war that has authorities jittery on both
sides of the border.

The crackdown comes as a senior U.S. law enforcement official
cautioned that Juarez faces a prolonged drug war -- much like Nuevo
Laredo in recent years -- that's gradually spilling over into the
Texas side of the border.

"Operation Chihuahua" -- named after Mexico's biggest state, nestled
against New Mexico and Texas -- is aimed at restoring law and order
in a region that many say has grown lawless. Nearly 200 people have
been killed since Jan. 1 in this city of 1.2 million, as the Sinaloa
cartel tries to run out the long-entrenched Juarez cartel out of power.

"In this fight, Chihuahua is not alone," said Mexico's Interior
Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino, who was accompanied by the nation's
secretary of defense, attorney general, Chihuahua's governor and the
mayor of Ciudad Juarez. "In this battle, no group will be able to
withstand the government's force."

The buildup of soldiers began Wednesday evening and will continue
through Saturday.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry's office applauded the stepped-up Mexican law
enforcement Thursday. "President Calderon has been operating his own
version of surge operations up and down the border as he continues to
take on the gangs and drug cartels," said the governor's press
secretary, Robert Black. "... He has his hands full, but these are
the most aggressive efforts to date to clean up that side of the
border, and it is very welcome."

The state Legislature last year allocated an additional $55 million
annually to beef up Texas law enforcement along the border and help
handle the incursions and violence spilling over from Mexico.

"We already have an increased presence on Texas side, up and down
from El Paso to Brownsville," Black said. "On this side, we are happy
to operate as the anvil to President Calderon's hammer."

Operation Chihuahua involves 2,026 soldiers and 425 federal agents,
plus intelligence experts, investigators and forensic specialists.
The goal is to control all access points in and out of the city, said
Mexico's Defense Minister Guillermo Galvan Galvan.

Within hours of beginning the operation, soldiers took over the
police department's communications operations, and Mayor Jose Reyes
Ferriz said a clean-up of the police department is underway. Starting
Monday, soldiers will set up 46 checkpoints throughout the city,
including international crossing points leading into and out of Texas
and New Mexico. And soldiers will be checking for unregistered
weapons and searching police cars for any possible links to drug cartels.

Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora stressed that the chaos in
Ciudad Juarez and elsewhere in Mexico -- more than 5,000 killings
across Mexico in the last two years have been linked to drug violence
- -- is not a sign of cartel strength, but "a sign of their weakness,
decomposition and deterioration. It will take time to eradicate them."

Across the border in El Paso, special agent-in-charge John "Jack"
Riley, of the Drug Enforcement Administration's El Paso office echoed
those comments. In an interview before the crackdown was announced,
Riley lauded cooperation with his Mexican counterparts, calling
relations and "levels of trust, the best I've ever seen."

Riley cautioned that the battle in Juarez is a "protracted one. There
won't be any winners, or losers anytime soon."

"They're not sharing the pie," he said. "Rather these thugs, driven
by greed, are cutting the pie up. In the process they're weeding each
other out. Unfortunately, this will go on for a while and we're
likely to get a spillover."

The Texas Border Sheriffs' Association hailed the move by the Mexican
government, but wondered about its effectiveness.

"We see any increased enforcement presence there as an advantage to
lowering the level of violence in Juarez since the first of the
year," said spokesman Donald Rhey of El Paso. "But our biggest fear
is that increased pressure could result in a spillover of violence
onto the U.S. side. All our officers are being extremely vigilant to
ensure that doesn't happen."

David Cuthbertson, the FBI's special agent-in-charge in El Paso, said
the agency is watching closely for a possible spillover.

"If there is a change of the guard in Juarez, will that lead to gang
warfare on the El Paso side?" he asked. "That's something we're
keeping an eye on."

In a city long accustomed to murders, drawing worldwide condemnation
over the killings of hundreds of women, the current violence is still
shocking to many.

Chihuahua Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza described the government's action as
"extraordinary," saying the strategy fits "situation that we in
Chihuahua and Ciudad Juarez are facing."

On Thursday, the sight of dozens of federal agents and special-forces
soldiers toting AR-15 assault rifles left many residents elated,
others dubious.

Armando Alvarez, 40, an electrician, stared as the array of black
SUVs carrying top officials to the airport passed him by.

"Thank God they finally get it," he said. "It was about time."

But Alfredo Quijano, editor of Norte de Ciudad Juarez newspaper, said
the operation comes too late.

"These operations work as long as soldiers turn out en masse," he
said, "but once they leave the narcos return, even though they never
stop operating quietly."

Speaking in the central state of Morelos on Thursday, Calderon also
touted the recent arrest of two alleged top cartel leaders as
evidence of his government's resolve to fight the gangs.

More than 3,000 people, including more than 300 police officers and
some 40 soldiers, have died since Calderon took office in December
2006 and began the crackdown, according to the Mexico City newspaper Reforma.

The Defense Department said Thursday in a statement that two soldiers
and four civilians were killed during a confrontation in the Pacific
coast state of Sinaloa.

It said it was investigating the Wednesday "incident" but gave no
further details.