POLICE CADETS DEMAND ACTION AFTER 5 GUNNED DOWN

MEXICO CITY - Suspected drug trafficking groups are killing Mexico's
future police commanders before they can even emerge from the
much-touted academy that is supposed to transform them into
world-class officers.

In the past two weeks, five officers-in-training have been gunned down
while traveling to and from the Public Security Superior Academy in
the central state of San Luis Potosi.

Analysts said the attacks were both a warning to the cadets and to the
government, which is waging an unprecedented fight against drug
cartels. "These groups no longer have any fear that by attacking
police there will be some type of retribution," said Mexico City
police instructor Arturo Yanez, a former federal police adviser.
"Their only limit is their imagination."

The attacks have sparked a partial strike by the nearly 1,000 academy
students, who are demanding the right to carry guns and are calling
for police roadblocks to intercept drug gunmen.

In an open letter to Public Security Minister Genaro Garcia Luna, the
cadet strike leaders complained that students have been left
defenseless in the face of drug hit squads that operate in and around
the state capital, also called San Luis Potosi.

"We are commissioned to San Luis Potosi to be trained, when in reality
they put us at the disposition of organized crime," according to the
letter, which was also sent by cadets to journalists. "Five of our
colleagues have been executed in a cowardly and criminal act, unable
to defend themselves since our superiors force us to leave our weapons
behind when we travel."

The letter said the cadets are both first-time students training to be
Federal Police and current officers from different law enforcement
groups around the country. They are taking part in a one-year program
designed to elevate the commander corps of Mexico's often-criticized
police forces. Graduation is in six weeks.

Local media estimated that 200 students skipped morning clases in
protest.

Cadets have said that FBI agents have given four-week classes at the
school, although Mexican and U.S. authorities could not say
immediately if there were any American trainers there now.

Security analyst Carols Antonio Flores Perez said the brazen attacks
"are very serious because they are directed at high-level police
officers" taking specialized training to make them more effective
agianst organized crime.

Still, Mr. Flores cautioned that in the murky world of drug
trafficking, it's hard to discern the motives of the killers. Police
in Mexico are sometimes killed for helping rival cartels or for
fariling to provide protection to drug gangs.

Of the record 2,200 drug-related slayings this year, 320 were police
officers--also a record.

At the San Luis Potosi academy, he striking cadets changed out of
their uniforms while skipping classes, both as an act of protest and
so as not to be identified when they left the academy, they said.

Still, they complained that they were easily recognizable in the
capital city "because of the haircut that is required."

Mr. Garcia Luna, the police minister, has said the academy is the core
of his program to root out corruption and create a new class of police
officer using best practices found in law enforcement throughout the
world.

"What we want," he said in a September 2007 interview with The Dallas
Morning News, "is that in a year we would have a thousand police
commanders who will go all over the country to start the entire new
police model that we need."

The ministry declined to comment on the student strike, but officials
from Mexico City visited the facility Wednesday, promising security
for the students, who attended classes normally today while waiting
for their demands to be met. They include guns, roadblocks and a
special investigator into the five killings.

Four of the officers were killed while returning to their hometown -
Morelia, Mexico - to visit their families over the weekend. The fifth
officer was intercepted in his car and killed while traveling back to
the academy after a visit to his hometown in the central state of
Mexico near Mexico City.