CALDERON PROPOSES STEPS TO FIGHT MEXICO'S CRIME

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon met with the
nation's governors and security officials and proposed steps to
counter a wave of violent crime that has angered citizens and
threatens the president's popularity.

Among the steps Mr. Calderon announced late Thursday are separate
prisons for kidnappers, a reward system for tips that lead to the
capture of criminals and a national database for cellphones to track
which ones are used in crimes.

Politicians were forced to confront the issue after a series of
high-profile crimes, including the recent kidnap and murder of the
son of a prominent businessman. Civic, business and victims' groups
are planning a march in Mexico City at the end of the month to
protest the government's efforts at fighting the wave of kidnappings
and drug-related violent crime.

The crime wave is a setback for Mr. Calderon, who made law and order
his priority after taking power in December 2006, proposing tougher
sentencing for criminals and sending as many as 40,000 army troops to
confront drug traffickers.

An estimated 4,900 Mexicans have died in crimes related to the drug
trade since Mr. Calderon took power. Most of the dead are members of
feuding drug gangs, but the list also includes top law-enforcement
officials, scores of police officers, and judges, journalists and
bystanders. The number of kidnappings also has risen, from 276 in
2005 to 432 last year, according to Mexico United Against Crime, a
citizens group. Since Mr. Calderon took office, crime has risen to
1,454 crimes per 100,000 people from 1,330, according to federal statistics.

The public's anger was stoked earlier this month when the body of
Fernando Marti, 14 years old, the son of a wealthy entrepreneur, was
found stuffed in the trunk of a car. The young Marti had been
kidnapped months earlier and was killed despite his parents having
paid a ransom. Two of the three suspects arrested were Mexico City
police detectives. Every week brings grim news. This week, gunmen
from a suspected drug cartel burst into a party in northern Mexico
and gunned down 14 people, including a 1-year-old.

A recent poll showed 80% of Mexicans believe the country's crime
problem is "very serious," said Jorge Buendia, head of polling firm
Ipsos-Bimsa. Some 42% think the government is losing the war against
drug traffickers. The crime problem could do political damage to Mr.
Calderon and his conservative National Action Party, or PAN, which
faces midterm elections next year. "There will be a stiff political
price to pay in the 2009 legislative elections," said Bruce Bagley, a
Latin American expert at the University of Miami. Analysts said the
big winner could be the country's former ruling party, the
Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which governed Mexico for
seven decades until it was unseated by the PAN in 2000. Sensing Mr.
Calderon's weakness, PRI leaders are taking Mr. Calderon to task for
what they said are his "failed" security policies.

A weak president will do little to help the country break out of its
drift. Mexico has been a laggard among big emerging markets in areas
such as economic growth for years. But Mr. Calderon has accomplished
little in pushing through reforms needed to face such problems as
declining oil production and the virtual monopoly that a handful of
companies hold on many business activities.

Basic to tackling Mexico's crime problem is cleaning up deep-rooted
corruption of the country's police forces, which consist of some
420,000 local and state police and only 20,000 federal police.
"Traditionally, the central government is less corrupt than municipal
or state governments," said political analyst Jorge Castaneda, a
former foreign minister. He said Mexico should get rid of its local
and state police forces, replacing them with a national police force.

At the very least, said Alberto Islas, a security consultant for
Mexican security agencies, Mexico must enact basic reforms, such as
using a comprehensive computer database that would prevent crooked
cops fired in one state from getting jobs in the police force of a
different state, a situation that isn't uncommon.