MEXICO'S FINAL PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE FOCUSES ON DRUG CRACKDOWN

Poll Shows Calderon, Lopez Obrador Tied With 36% of Voters

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's leading presidential candidates, in the final
debate of their campaigns, promised Tuesday to crack down on drug
trafficking by increasing the use of the military, creating special
courts to fight organized crime, and extraditing drug kingpins to the
U.S.

Conservative candidate Felipe Calderon of the ruling National Action
Party, or PAN, said he would create a "special agency against drug
trafficking" that would be closely monitored to avoid corruption. He
promised "an iron hand," along with extraditions.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the center-left Party of the Democratic
Revolution, or PRD, said he would lift limits on the use of the army
in the drug fight. He also stressed job creation as an anti-crime
measure, saying, "The fundamental solution is combating poverty."

Mr. Calderon, a former senator, and Mr. Lopez Obrador, the former
mayor of Mexico City, each had the support of 36 percent of surveyed
voters going into the debate, according to a Tuesday poll by the
newspaper El Universal.

Roberto Madrazo of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI - the
third-place candidate, with 24 percent in the poll - took both the
leading contenders to task Tuesday for the growth in crime nationwide
and in Mexico City, where their parties rule.

"Only two crimes out of every hundred are punished," said Mr. Madrazo,
citing specifically the explosion in drug peddlers. "That's called
impunity."

Mr. Calderon and Mr. Lopez Obrador differed on how they would deal
with the giant to the north - the U.S.

Mr. Calderon said he wanted to work with Americans and Canadians on
investment projects in Mexico to stem illegal immigration.

"We need the investment to come here, where we have the workers," he
said.

Mr. Lopez Obrador stressed cooperation with Americans if he is elected
July 2 but took a jab at outgoing President Vicente Fox and the PAN
for working closely with the U.S. on matters such as immigration
reform, now pending in the U.S. Congress.

"The next president of Mexico is not going to be a lapdog of any
foreign government," he said. Mr. Lopez Obrador used the same language
against Mr. Fox last month.