AG URGES PATIENCE IN MEXICO DRUG WAR

LAREDO -- Despite the Mexican government's inability to crack down on
drug cartels responsible for thousands of deaths and kidnappings --
some Americans included among the victims -- the U.S. government is
reserving judgment, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said
Wednesday during a border tour here.

Mexico's new president, Felipe Calderon, who already has sent troops
to aid in the drug war, needs time to show his country's commitment,
Gonzales said in brief remarks to reporters at the World Trade Bridge.

Gonzales met with local, state and federal law enforcement officials,
some who brought up the issue of trustworthiness of their Mexican
counterparts, said Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, who participated in
the briefing via phone.

More than 170 homicides were reported in Nuevo Laredo in 2006, but
only a handful of arrests were made, much to the frustration of local
U.S. agencies whose own investigations into crimes on this side of the
border often lead them to the cartels operating in Mexico.

"Let's give them the benefit of the doubt," Gonzales said of his
confidence in Mexico's cooperation. "Let's just wait and see how it
goes."

Gonzales also announced $300,000 in additional funds to federal
crime-fighting units in Laredo and McAllen. The so-called Strike Force
brings federal and state officers together to share
information.

The goal is to target "not just the cartels themselves, but the
transporters, money launders and smugglers," Gonzales said.

Though the grant isn't a huge amount, Laredo Port Director Gene Garza
of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, called the $300,000 a "first
step and definitely an important step."

Cuellar, who had invited Gonzales to tour Laredo, said, "Do we need to
do more? Yes, and that's where the U.S. Congress needs to play a role."

Gonzales, who was born in San Antonio, also responded to media reports
that Middle Eastern terrorists were training to cross the southern
border illegally into the United States. The possibility of terrorists
sneaking through the Mexican border is a concern, but there's no
specific or credible intelligence to say it is happening, he said.

The attorney general flew to Mexico City after his border tour to meet
with officials there.

A local group of advocates for Americans kidnapped in Mexico, Laredo's
Missing, held posters of their loved ones as his motorcade drove by.

Families of the kidnap victims were upset that the nation's top law
official didn't meet with them.

"It was a spit in the face that he would come down to Laredo and not
even talk to the victims who can really express the need for action,"
said William Slemaker, whose stepdaughter Yvette Martinez has been
missing since 2004.

Twenty-seven Americans kidnapped in Nuevo Laredo are unaccounted for,
Slemaker said, expressing his own frustration with Mexican
authorities.

Not a single arrest has been made in any of the cases, he said,
asking: "How much time should we give them?"