MEXICAN ARMY INVADES POT PLANTATIONS

Troops Raze Drug Fields in President's War on Traffickers

LAZARO CARDENAS, Mexico -- Thirty-five soldiers jump off two
helicopters and fan out across a marijuana field tucked deep into the
mountains of Mexico's western state of Michoacan.

The choppers secure the perimeter as soldiers yank out plants growing
in neat lines. Two hours later, most of the marijuana smolders in a
bonfire.

This is one of 38 marijuana fields identified in a remote area, 25
miles from Aguililla, the nearest town. Rooting out -- literally --
marijuana plantations is a major component in Mexico's latest war on
drugs, announced last week by President Felipe Caldero'n.

Mexico has long been under pressure from the United States to crack
down on the drug trade and end violence between drug gangs. According
to the U.S. State Department, 70%-90% of drugs coming to the USA from
Latin America enter through Mexico. Mexico is one of the main
producers of marijuana and heroin destined for the USA.

U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza has repeatedly expressed concern about the
rising violence, most of it drug-related.

The week-old Operation Michoacan, Caldero'n's first major initiative
since he took office Dec. 1, is the biggest anti-drug effort taken on
by the Mexican government, says Army Gen. Manuel Garcia Ruiz, who
heads the operation.

The purpose is to "end the impunity of the criminals that puts at risk
the tranquility of all Mexicans, especially our families," Interior
Secretary Francisco Javier Ramirez Acuna said at a news conference in
Mexico City on Monday.

It also is a high-profile effort by the new president to follow
through on his campaign vow to improve security in Mexico.

"Caldero'n came in as a law-and-order president and wants to show he
is capable of reasserting state authority to convince the Mexican
people, as well as the U.S., that he is, in fact, in charge," says
Bruce Bagley, a drug specialist at the University of Miami.

Mexico's drug wars claimed about 2,000 lives in 2006, according to the
Associated Press, and have been marked by increasing violence as drug
lords battle for control of what the State Department says is a
multibillion-dollar industry. In September, gunmen stormed a nightclub
and hurled five heads onto a dance floor in Uruapan in Michoacan, the
president's home state. Juan Antonio Magana, the state's attorney
general, told the AP more than 200 homicides here this year were
drug-related.

Last week, Caldero'n sent 7,000 military and federal officers into
Michoacan to burn drug fields and arrest suspects. "This is a very
difficult battle," Garcia Ruiz says. "It will last as long as it is
necessary."

About 50 people suspected of drug trafficking, including suspected
drug lord Elias Valencia, have been arrested. The soldiers and federal
officers have seized about 100 firearms, bulletproof vests, antennas
and telephones, officials announced at Monday's news conference. They
estimated the raids could cost the cartels as much as $626 million,
which includes future profits from the plants and opium seeds.

The first goal, Garcia Ruiz says, is to disrupt the drug gangs' source
of income and their ability to communicate. Over the past week,
military and police have identified 1,795 marijuana fields covering
585 acres throughout the state.

Attorney General Eduardo Medina says the government will expand the
new offensive by sending soldiers and police to several states
simultaneously to prevent traffickers from fleeing between regions.
The idea is to wrest income and turf from drug traffickers. "The focus
is on territory, recovering geographical space for the public," Medina
says.

Tuesday, journalists witnessed a raid on a marijuana plantation in
Michoacan. The field where the two helicopters landed was ringed with
lime trees and an irrigation system: thousands of yards of tubing fed
by a nearby rushing creek. Footpaths led to at least two other fields,
a 15-minute trek away, and a recently abandoned shack. Half-eaten
tamales, corncobs and crushed pepper littered wooden benches.

The type of marijuana growing here illustrates how hard the battle
against drugs has become. It's a genetically modified variety
resistant to pesticides; it can be killed only if it's pulled out with
the roots. It also grows year-round, Garcia Ruiz says.

He says the plants, which mature in two months, are primarily exported
to the USA.

Residents in Michoacan hope the operation will tamp down the violence.
Rosalba Sanchez, 32, and her mother, Nicolasa Diez, 65, live in
Patzcuaro, west of the state capital Morelia. They say that even
though the main targets are people who produce and distribute drugs,
the violence has affected their quality of life.

A drug-gang-related shootout two weeks ago in the city killed a store
owner, they say. "When you leave your house, anything could happen,"
Sanchez says. "Hopefully with more security, they will be more afraid."