MCCAIN WINDS UP LATIN TRIP IN MEXICO

MEXICO CITY -- From the white roses he laid before a likeness of
Mexico's blessed saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe, to the endorsement he
gave for an overhaul of American immigration laws, Senator John McCain
used a visit to Mexico on Thursday to appeal to residents of both
sides of the border: Mexicans and, more urgently, their voting
relatives and other Latinos in the United States.

"We must secure our borders and then we will address the issue of
comprehensive immigration reform," Mr. McCain said at a news
conference in a helicopter hangar that was interrupted by the
deafening sound of a heavy rainstorm that made his remarks
unintelligible.

Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, has faced criticism
from some of his fellow Republicans for spending time in Colombia and
Mexico just as the general election battle heats up, but his campaign
officials feel that the trip could resonate among voters back home by
promoting his support of free trade, while highlighting his
immigration views during his time in Mexico.

At the news conference, Mr. McCain also responded to questions about a
staff shake-up that put Steve Schmidt, a veteran of President Bush's
2004 campaign, in charge of day-to-day operations and sharply
diminished the role of his campaign manager, Rick Davis.

"Our campaign continues to grow and responsibilities are expanded,"
Mr. McCain said. "Mr. Schmidt is taking over some increased
responsibilities, Rick Davis will remain a campaign chairman, a
campaign manager. This is the natural evolution of our campaign as we
become more and more of a nationwide campaign with increased staff and
increased responsibilities."

Mr. McCain spoke in the enormous, gleaming command center for Mexico's
federal police, which opened last month and serves as a symbol of the
country's efforts to crack down on a drug trade that is growing
increasingly bloody and threatening to Mexicans.

Despite Mr. McCain's lauding of the $400 million in anti-narcotics
assistance for Mexico that Congress approved last week, the country
remains in the grip of an armed struggle with drug cartels that has
thrown large parts of it into lawlessness that has more recently
spread to the capital, with the killings of top police commanders.

In a sign of the tight security in the high-crime Ixtapalapa
neighborhood, which Mr. McCain visited, police officers working the
perimeters were not told whom they were protecting.

"There have been various attacks against officials," explained Jorge
Alberto Hernandez Perez, a traffic police officer outside the federal
police station that Mr. McCain visited. "That's why they don't
announce it." He thought it was a Mexican government official who was
arriving, not an American senator running for president.

Mexicans have become inured to reports of daily drug violence, but the
day Senator McCain arrived, Wednesday, was particularly gruesome: Four
decapitated bodies were found near a threatening message against one
of Mexico's top drug lords in the northern city of Culiacan, where the
battle over drugs has centered. The police later killed four gunmen in
a shootout in Culiacan and recovered an arsenal of weapons in a safe
house.

Mr. McCain met privately with President Felipe Calderon of Mexico at
Los Pinos, the presidential residence. Mr. Calderon, even in public,
has become a blunt critic of American policies he sees as counter to
Mexican interests, strongly criticizing the border wall that has gone
up under the Bush administration and the focus on criminalizing migrants.

Mr. McCain's previous emphasis on the need for revamping American
immigration laws is far more in line with Mexican public opinion than
his new emphasis on first cracking down on illegal border crossers.

Mr. McCain, who flew to Phoenix on Thursday afternoon, was in Mexico
on the third and final day of a Latin American tour intended to
promote himself as a seasoned foreign policy hand compared with
Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

The trip also showed Mr. McCain in touch with Latinos and Catholics,
two key voting blocs in the fall election.

During the tour of the Basilica of Guadalupe, Mr. McCain was blessed
by Msgr. Diego Monroy, the rector. For several minutes, the monsignor
had one hand on Mr. McCain's forehead and another on his shoulder as
he offered the blessing.

Later, Monsignor Monroy told Mexican reporters that he was certainly
not picking sides.

"I receive everyone, any color, any ideology," he said. "This is the
home of God."

At Mr. McCain's side at the basilica was Jeb Bush, the president's
brother, who weighed in on Mr. McCain's prospects in the presidential
race.

"I think he's going to win," Mr. Bush, who was in Mexico on business,
told a few reporters who caught up with him at the basilica. "He just
needs to be himself and not let Senator Obama redefine himself."

Mr. Obama has announced no plans to venture south of the border before
Election Day, but his half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, is planning to
headline a private fund-raiser in Mexico City on July 22. Lunch costs
$250 and dinner, $1,000, and only American citizens can contribute.