CRIME FEARS FUEL DEMAND FOR SECURITY IN MEXICO

Cameras, Alarms Sprouting Amid Drug Wars, Abductions

MEXICO CITY -- The layout of high-tech gadgets was enough to make
James Bond jealous.

At a recent security-themed trade fair here, merchants were selling
smoke-screen generators and security cameras hidden in pencil
sharpeners. There were also portable bomb sniffers, bulletproof doors
and tiny tracking devices meant to foil kidnappers.

The targeted consumers were not British secret agents, but Mexicans
looking for new ways to protect themselves from crime. The security
business is booming in Mexico, as a war between drug cartels and a
wave of kidnappings terrify the public.

"Fear is growing," said Niv Yarimi, sales director for Guibor Private
Security, an Israeli guard company whose business tripled in Mexico
in 2006. "There's a sense that organized crime is three steps ahead
of the security services and the police."

Mexico's murder rate has actually dropped by a third in the past
decade, according to the Citizens' Institute for Studies on
Insecurity, a crime watchdog group. However, carnage from the drug
war -- with a rise in beheadings, grenade attacks and shootouts with
high-powered guns -- has convinced many Mexicans they cannot rely on
the police for help.

A jump in housing construction and a drop in the price of security
cameras have also helped drive sales of security-related products as
more middle-class Mexicans are able to arm their homes with alarm
systems, security companies say.

"People are taking the initiative and doing what they can," said
Guillermo Palma, Mexican sales director for the U.S. video security
systems maker Pelco. "The culture of the Mexican has changed. (They
now say:) 'Why should I wait for something bad to happen?' "

Feeding the sense of insecurity is a 2-year-old turf war between the
Sinaloa Cartel of western Mexico and the Gulf Cartel of eastern
Mexico. Shootouts with assault rifles and grenade launchers have
become common in Nuevo Laredo, Acapulco, Monterrey and other points
along cocaine smuggling corridors.

President Felipe Calderon has vowed to crack down on the drug gangs.
Soon after his inauguration in December, he began sending thousands
of troops and federal agents to quell the violence in western and
northern Mexico.

"Mexico must not and will not fall into the hands of criminals,"
Calderon said last month. "We must employ all of the strength of the
state to rescue our streets, our parks, our cities, our schools."

Many Mexicans worry Calderon's strong stand will just make matters
worse, at least in the short term. About 85% of Mexicans believe the
offensive against drug cartels will increase violence, and half
believe it will never be controlled, according to a national
door-to-door survey of 1,200 people in March by the Parametria
polling company. The poll had a margin of error of +/-2.8 percentage points.

"We live in a state of panic over what could happen to us," said
Karina Rios Hernandez, 22, a barista at a Starbucks in Mexico City.
"Everyone blames the government. They can't even guarantee our safety."

Meanwhile, top law-enforcement officials have been assassinated in
Tijuana, Nuevo Laredo, Agua Prieta and other cities. Mexican
officials have blamed most of the killings on drug cartels.

At the Expo-Seguridad trade fair last month, at least four companies
offered tracking devices meant to counter kidnappers and carjackers.
One company, Enlace de Vida, was marketing a wristwatch-style "panic
button" that executives can use to summon private security.

Mexico's federal government has tried to respond to crime by
installing "urban security systems" -- networks of outdoor cameras
monitored by computers -- in 16 of the country's 31 states.

In Tijuana, the city government has installed over the last two years
320 cameras and 70 microphones tuned to detect gunfire. The
violence-riddled state of Tamaulipas, which borders Texas, announced
plans in November for a statewide camera system it calls the Northern
Border Program.

Soon, even the watchdogs will be watched. In January, Mexico City
Mayor Marcelo Ebrard announced the city will install cameras in 70
prosecutors' and detective offices to cut down on police corruption.