FIGHT TO END CORRUPTION MEETS UP WITH REALITY

Juarez -- Battling Crime On The Street

Photos by Gregory Bull / Associated Press Agents of the Mexican federal
police who did not give their names wait for traffic at a checkpoint known
as Precos, outside Juarez. Faced with escalating violence and widespread
corruption in Mexico's border state of Chihuahua, Mexican President Vicente
Fox has removed nearly all of the state's federal police force and replaced
them with the army to patrol city streets.

Mexican soldiers patrol the streets of Juarez in a show of force. Having
vowed to combat corruption, Mexican President Vicente Fox seems to have
taken drastic measures, including sending in the army to patrol.

JUAREZ -- Cruising through this seedy border city, police Lt. Jesus
Benavides snickered at the mention of President Vicente Fox's promise to
combat corruption.

"We're realists. Corruption is never going to end. It's a culture going
back generations," Benavides said. "If you have someone in the back of your
patrol car and he says to you, 'Take the money or I'll kill your family,'
which one would you pick?"

Mexico's new Attorney General Rafael Macedo met with top U.S.
law-enforcement officials in Washington this week to strengthen the fight
against drug trafficking and corruption. But this drug-corridor city shows
it's not a simple battle.

"The majority of the federal police commanders here are either dead or
detained," said Alfredo Quijano Hernandez, an editor and former police
reporter at the Juarez newspaper El Norte. "Many have been executed after
working for drug rings."

At least two former federal police commanders from Chihuahua state, where
Juarez is situated, are being sought by the Mexican government and are
believed to be in the United States.

Meanwhile, Gov. Patricio Martinez is still recovering after a former state
policewoman with a history of mental illness shot him in the head Jan. 17.

Emboldened by his toppling of seven decades of single-party rule, Fox
launched a nationwide campaign against corruption after taking office Dec.
1, vowing to spare no one. Last month, Fox removed 67 of Chihuahua's 80
federal police agents after uncovering a scheme to sell a police position
for nearly $500,000. The money was believed to come from drug smugglers who
wanted a connection inside the department.

Jose Manuel Diaz, one of Chihuahua's top police officials, was placed under
house arrest in the scandal. But he escaped weeks later from under the
noses of 11 federal agents, embarrassing the attorney general's office,
which had promised zero tolerance for crooked employees.

The attorney general's organized-crime unit, in charge of monitoring the
officer, was the same division investigating the January escape of reputed
top drug trafficker Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman from a maximum-security
prison with the help of allegedly corrupt prison authorities.

"Fox appears to have the political will, but on the other side he doesn't
have many tools," said John Bailey, a Mexican specialist at Georgetown
University. "He doesn't have a lot of elements to work with, his
anti-organized-crime unit has not been working, his anti-money-laundering
unit is not operating. He can put administrative reforms into play, but
that takes a long time."

Efforts by past administrations have left the country with the lowest
number of federal officers in six years -- from 4,500 officers in 1995 to
1,800 today, according to the attorney general's office. In response, the
required yearlong training classes are now three months, which critics say
is not enough preparation.

In Juarez, even veteran police officers have their work cut out for them.
Drug trafficking has touched nearly every aspect of life, a fact driven
home as Benavides patrolled the city.

His car passed a nightclub, the site of one of many "narco-executions" that
have happened since the death of drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes
intensified a struggle for control of the drug trade four years ago.

Not far from a busy supermarket, a TV anchorwoman, her mother-in-law and a
family friend were gunned down by federal police officers who mistook their
car for one belonging to drug smugglers.

Despite the obstacles, analysts say, the recent purge in Chihuahua -- the
strongest federal action taken against police in the state -- shows Fox is
serious.

Tuesday, the new attorney general discussed with officials from the FBI and
the Drug Enforcement Agency ways to improve training for agents.

Benavides said he welcomes the measures if it returns dignity to the job.
"I'm out here because I want to do something for my community," said the
Juarez officer.