CARTELS PUSH MEXICAN GOVERNOR TO LIMIT

Official Cites Threat To Country, U.S. In Taking Rare Drug Action

MONTERREY, Mexico It's not hard to imagine, friends and aides say,
what led Gov. Natividad Gonzlez Pars to take on the powerful drug
cartels operating in his northern border state. He had no choice.

"Drug traffickers represent a threat for both Nuevo Len and Texas,
and not just for northern border communities, but for entire
societies, whether Mexico or the United States," Mr. Gonzalez said in
an interview. "It's like a wild plant growing out of hand and [that]
becomes rooted in society."

Crime is affecting trade and tourism with Texas. In the border town
of Nuevo Laredo, Texas tourism has dropped by as much as 60 percent
in the last two years.

But in a country where the federal government not state governors
has jurisdiction over drug crimes, Mr. Gonzlez is a maverick.

Fed up with a crime wave that has claimed the lives of three Nuevo
Len police chiefs and the state's top crime investigator this year,
Mr. Gonzlez took the rare step of pushing states and the federal
government to adopt new anti-crime models, including the use of high
technology, expanded intelligence gathering, and greater cooperation
with the U.S.

"This is no longer a problem of delinquents, but a matter of national
security, a danger and looming threat to the state," he said. "It's
like an octopus with so many deadly arms."

Mr. Gonzlez, a rising star in the sinking Institutional Revolutionary
Party, rallied 12 other governors to press President Vicente Fox and
President-elect Felipe Caldern to recognize the issue as the nation's
most pressing priority. He also announced his own plan, which
includes using technology aimed at tracking down drug lords in the
state, long known for its cement, glass and beer exports.

Nuevo Len, with a reputation among American business leaders as being
one of the richest and safest states, has become one of Mexico's
newest killing fields as drug violence moves south from traditional
border strongholds.

"Impunity, corruption and the spread of organized crime is so fast
that some states like Nuevo Len can no longer sit still and wait for
the federal government to act," said Jos Antonio Yaez, a national
security expert at the National Institute for Criminal Law. "Governor
Gonzlez is the first to come forward and say, 'Hey, enough is enough.' "

A lawyer and former congressmen with a doctorate in political science
from the University of Paris, Mr. Gonzlez hardly fits the profile of
a crime fighter. He's short and stocky, usually impeccably dressed in
conservative attire.

While U.S. law enforcement officials and analysts applaud Mr.
Gonzlez's role in the drug fight, aides concede that the move is a
risky one. His security detail has increased as threats against top
state officials have become routine.

On Thursday, across the border in Laredo, top U.S. and Mexican
officials met to discuss Mexico's crime wave. "The officials all
agreed that immediate, practical and proactive responses to violence
and increasing criminal activity are needed, especially in border
zones like Nuevo Laredo and Tijuana," said a statement released by
the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.

Nuevo Len, which shares a border crossing with Texas, has emerged as
a dumping ground for the neighboring state of Tamaulipas, whose city
of Nuevo Laredo is at the center of an ongoing drug battle. Often,
the bodies of victims of drug violence there are dumped in Nuevo Len,
possibly to complicate investigations.

The number of drug-related killings this year in Nuevo Len stands at
38, compared with 36 for all of 2005. That's still a far lower number
than in states like Guerrero, Michoacn and neighboring Tamaulipas.
But the brazen tactics and the targeting of high-level law
enforcement officials have officials worried.

According to a report Thursday in the Vanguardia newspaper of
Saltillo, Coahuila, enforcers for the Sinaloa cartel announced the
planned assassination of top state crime investigator Marcelo Garza y
Garza in a blog 18 days before it was carried out. Mr. Garza y Garza
had been praised by U.S. authorities for his honesty.

That killing, and the assassination of Police Chief Enrique Barrera
Nevrez in the town of Linares, came after Mr. Gonzlez began
discussing the use of satellite technology against drug traffickers,
the newspaper reported.

Global Positioning System technology, or GPS, would allow state
authorities to monitor the movements of police, for example, and
determine if they were working for the drug lords.

Mr. Gonzlez said the killings "hurt us deeply." And that's why, he
said, the fight must be won.

"We have a saying in Mexico, 'For big problems, you need big solutions.' "

Staff writer Laurence Iliff in Mexico City contributed to this report

Email acorchado@dallasnews.com