CALDERON TO SEND TROOPS TO BORDER STATES

Efforts to Target Major Routes Used by Drug Traffickers

MEXICO CITY -- Ratcheting up its fight against drug cartels, the
Mexican government announced Sunday that it is deploying about 3,300
troops and police to two besieged states bordering Texas.

Some 2,035 soldiers, 750 sailors and 518 federal police were being
dispatched to the states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, which hug the
Texas border from the Gulf of Mexico to just west of Laredo.

Drug gangs have been fighting for months in the region, especially
around Nuevo Laredo, for control of smuggling routes into the United
States. Recently, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon's capital, has been plagued
by drug violence, including the killings of as many as seven police officers.

The troops being sent to the two border states will focus on key
points in the main trafficking routes, Defense Secretary Guillermo
Galvan said. Soldiers on Sunday set up roadside checkpoints in and
around Monterrey to stop vehicles and search for weapons and drugs.

Since taking office Dec. 1, President Felipe Calderon has ordered
about 24,000 troops and federal police into Tijuana, Acapulco and
Michoacan state to root out growing drug trafficking that is blamed
for more than 2,000 killings last year.

Although the troops and police made dozens of arrests, burned drug
crops, confiscated weapons and inspected tens of thousands of people,
they have not made any major cocaine seizures or arrested major players.

Officials said the latest deployment was in response to requests from
governors of the border states, who have been all but helpless.

The arrival of the troops "is a good thing," said Rosi Gallegos, 44,
a civil servant in Monterrey. "You used to be able to sleep with the
doors unlocked but not anymore. You did not used to see this kind of
crime here before."

Last month, Calderon sent another type of warning to drug gangs by
extraditing some of their imprisoned alleged leaders to the United States.

Among them were Osiel Cardenas Guillen, of the Gulf Cartel, and
Hector "El Guero" Palma, of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Although he had been in a maximum-security prison in Mexico since
2003, Cardenas was believed to still be running his gang. Palma has
been in prison much longer.

Long-Running Battle

The two cartels have been in a bloody and protracted turf war for
several areas, including the Laredo-Nuevo Laredo corridor, which has
seen a dramatic increase in the amount of commercial-truck traffic
under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The State Department has cautioned Americans to be careful traveling
anywhere in Mexico, especially in states such as Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon.

The Mexican government periodically has sent reinforcements to Nuevo
Laredo, with limited success.

Previous Maneuvers

In June 2005, then-President Vicente Fox deployed hundreds of Mexican
soldiers, as well as state and federal police, to the city after a
wave of gangland violence in which more than 100 people were killed,
including the city's chief of police.

In March 2006, the Mexican government sent as many as 800 anti-drug
agents to Nuevo Laredo as part of a new attempt to get the drug
violence under control.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, 500 people marched
Sunday to demand an end to a wave of violent crimes and executions
there, many blamed on turf battles between drug gangs. There have
been at least 250 homicides in Acapulco over the past 14 months.

Mostly dressed in white, families, businesspeople and community
activists marched through Acapulco's hotel zone, 10 days after gunmen
burst into two local police stations and shot to death five police
officers and two secretaries.

The Houston Chronicle and Associated Press contributed to this report.