MEXICO REMOVES 284 TOP COPS

Federal Forces To Train, Test New Commanders In Anti-Corruption Bid

MEXICO CITY - The government relieved from duty 284 top police
commanders in its two federal law enforcement agencies Monday in an
attempt to root out corruption that has hampered the fight against
drug trafficking gangs, officials said.

Public Security Minister Genaro Garcia Luna said the relieved
officials in the Federal Preventative Police, which includes the
highway patrol, and the drug-fighting Federal Bureau of Investigation
would be replaced by newly trained officers who will be given regular
anti-corruption tests.

The outgoing commanders had been assigned to posts in all of Mexico's
32 states.

"We are aware that Mexicans demand an honest, clean and trustworthy
police force," Mr. Garcia Luna said, adding that drug cartels depend
on corruption for their activities.

"It's obvious there are mafias who are working to prevent change, to
continue getting rich through corruption and crime," he told
reporters early Monday. "In the fight against corruption, we will not
cede to pressure from these dark forces who attempt to discredit the
application of the law."

Mr. Garcia Luna did not say if authorities had any evidence of
corruption among the outgoing officials that would lead to internal
punishment or criminal charges.

Rather, he said, "they will conserve their rank and will be grouped
together for an integral program of professionalization with
international standards and, I should tell you, rigorous evaluations
for trustworthiness."

President Felipe Calderon, facing record levels of drug violence
after taking office Dec. 1, ordered a review of federal police
agencies earlier this year.

Mexican police at all levels are notoriously corrupt, from traffic
cops who ask for bribes or "bites" all the way up to a former drug
czar and army general who was found to be in the pocket of a drug
cartel nine years ago.

Earlier this month, six federal police assigned to the Mexicali
airport were caught allegedly receiving a bribe in exchange for
allowing the passage of 26 kilograms of cocaine. A dozen federal
police in the Tijuana airport were detained by the army after similar
allegations a week earlier.

Jorge Chabat, a political commentator who specializes in the drug
trade, said regular police purges in Mexico are necessary in order to
break police ties to organized crime and to build law enforcement
agencies that have more honest officers than corrupt ones.

"It's a measure that has good possibilities of success in the fight
against corruption," Mr. Chabat said. "Corruption has always been the
biggest problem in the police. You hear a lot about the lack of
equipment and training, but those problems are easily solved."

Both federal law enforcement agencies, in fact, were the result of purges.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, or AFI for its Spanish-language
initials, was created nearly six years ago after the Federal Judicial
Police was disbanded, Mr. Chabat said. So was the Federal
Preventative Police, which used to be the highway patrol.

The two agencies, with about 17,000 officers between them, represent
fewer than 5 percent of all police nationwide, however.

Also on Monday, the Calderon government reiterated that it would not
negotiate with drug traffickers. The statement was in response to a
Dallas Morning News report on Monday saying that two top cartels were
negotiating with each other - and with some government officials - in
an effort to reduce killings.