DRUG CARTELS IN MEXICO PUT UP 'HELP WANTED' ADS

Fliers, Banners Urge Soldiers to Defect for Good Pay, Free Cars, Better Food

MEXICO CITY -- One of Mexico's biggest drug cartels has launched a
brazen recruiting campaign, putting up fliers and banners promising
good pay, free cars and better food to army soldiers who join the
cartel's elite band of hit men.

"We don't feed you Maruchan soups," said one banner in the border
city of Nuevo Laredo, referring to a brand of ramen noodles.

The recruiting by the Gulf Cartel reflects how Mexico's fight against
traffickers increasingly resembles a real war, nearly 17 months after
President Felipe Calderon ordered the army into drug hot spots.

"Army and police-force conflicts with heavily armed narcotics cartels
have escalated to levels equivalent to military small-unit combat,"
the U.S. Embassy said last week in a travel warning to Americans.

Fliers urging soldiers to defect began appearing earlier this month
in the border city of Reynosa. They were pasted on telephone poles
over government posters that offered rewards to drug informants.

"Former soldiers sought to form armed group; good pay, 500 dollars,"
the fliers read.

And a 10-foot-long banner appeared on a pedestrian bridge over Nuevo
Laredo's Reforma Avenue, coaxing soldiers to join the Zetas, the Gulf
Cartel's hit squad.

"Operative group 'the Zetas' wants you, soldier or ex-soldier," the
banner said. "We offer you a good salary, food and attention for your family. "

It listed a cellphone number, which was disconnected a few days
later. The banner was taken down a few hours after it was spotted.

Last week, another banner in the city of Tampico asked soldiers and
federal agents to defect.

"Join the ranks of the Gulf Cartel," it said. "We offer benefits,
life insurance, a house for your family and children. Stop living in
the slums and riding the bus. A new car or truck, your choice."

Authorities said the signs, rather than a serious recruiting effort,
were probably an attempt to demoralize the soldiers and police.

"They do these things in public places to create confusion among the
authorities themselves," said Ruben Salinas, commander of the Reynosa
police department's second division.

Military analysts said the recruiting campaign, whether genuine or a
ruse to sow discontent, shows increasing sophistication of the cartels.

"This is combat between two forces, one regular and one irregular,"
said Jorge Luis Sierra, a military specialist and author of a book
about the Mexican special forces.

In recent months:

. Federal police discovered a 50-foot-long target range, complete
with soundproofing foam, a ventilation system for gun smoke and
buckets for spent cartridges, hidden under a house in Tijuana in
January. The house also had a machine shop for assembling and
repairing weapons.

. Soldiers seized a Jeep Grand Cherokee in March outfitted with a
smoke-screen generator, bulletproofing and a device for spraying
spikes onto the road. The vehicle was abandoned by gunmen after a
shootout with the army in the northern state of Tamaulipas.

. Federal police arrested 16 men in Oaxaca state last week on charges
of belonging to the Zetas, including three soldiers who deserted in the 1990s.

. Prosecutors last week formally charged five municipal police
officers with being Zetas in the northern state of Coahuila.

. Former Mexican soldier Daniel "Cheeks" Perez Rojas was captured in
Guatemala on April 8 in connection with a shootout there that killed
11 people in March. The Mexican Justice Department said Perez Rojas
is a deserter from the Mexican army's special forces who became a Zetas leader.

The shootout in Guatemala, about 900 miles from the Gulf Cartel's
home turf, showed the international reach of the hit squad, the
Mexican Justice Department said. Much of the cocaine smuggled by the
Mexican cartels moves first through Central America.

Many of the Zetas are former members of the Mexican army's special
forces, the U.S. Justice Department has said.

Some, like Perez Rojas, came from commando units that received U.S.
training and surplus American "Huey" helicopters in the 1990s. Most
of the Vietnam War-era helicopters were eventually returned to the
United States because of chronic mechanical problems, leaving the
commandos frustrated and with slim chances to advance. A few switched
sides, Sierra said.

The Mexican military has long had a problem with desertion. From
January to September last year, 4,956 soldiers deserted, about 2.5%
of the force, according to the National Defense Secretariat.

Soldiers are facing more incentive to switch sides because of
Calderon's decision to use troops against the drug traffickers, said
Arturo Alvarado, a sociologist who studies criminal-justice issues at
the College of Mexico.

Thousands of soldiers have spent months away from their families,
patrolling border cities. An army private earns an average of $533 a
month, the National Defense Secretariat said.

"I don't see why these supposed recruiting (signs) should be a
particular worry to the government because the recruiting occurs in
other ways," Alvarado said.

"But what's true is that there is enormous desertion in the Mexican
army and police force," he said. "They should be worried about that
and take action to offer better working conditions."