MEXICAN CUSTOMS BOSS FIRES AGENCY MANAGERS AT NEARLY ALL BUREAUS

Move Inspired By Fox's War On Crime

MEXICO CITY -- In the latest salvo against widespread government
corruption, Mexico's new customs chief said yesterday he had fired nearly
all of the agency's upper management.

The drastic move is part of President Vicente Fox's nationwide crusade
against corruption, drug smuggling and organized crime -- an effort that
has blown up in the face of previous administrations.

Customs director Jose Guzman, who took over the agency in December, said
yesterday he had fired 45 of the agency's 47 supervisors throughout the
country -- and expected to fire the remaining two as well -- after finding
"complete disorder" in offices in border and port cities.

"We found personnel who were totally disconnected from the agency,
administrators who felt that they were independent," Guzman said. "They
didn't take orders from anyone, they weren't meeting the requirements of
the law, and they weren't properly supervised."

In a clear reflection of Guzman's concerns, authorities conceded this week
that someone smuggled a 3-ton elephant into Mexico from Texas, somehow
getting past customs agents. Benny, the elephant, was detained from the
circus where he was performing and may be moved to a zoo outside Mexico City.

Guzman said at least 30 of the 47 administrators are suspected of being
involved in graft, and all are being investigated by the federal
comptroller's office.

The customs director promised an overhaul of the customs agency, widely
accused of extorting money from people and collaborating with criminals
entering ports and crossing checkpoints.

He said the plans form part of a nationwide battle Fox has launched to
fight corruption and crime. The president fired the first shot last week
against drug traffickers and organized crime in Sinaloa, a Pacific coast
state considered the birthplace of drug smuggling in Mexico.

On Wednesday, Fox visited Tijuana, where he pleaded with citizens to report
criminals, denounce corruption and take an active part in evaluating public
servants.

"I share society's indignation before these acts of public servants who
protect criminals," Fox proclaimed.

Such rhetoric has flown from the mouths of past Mexican presidents -- but
little has come of it.

Jose Lopez Portillo, Mexico's leader from 1976 to 1982, launched an
optimism-drenched campaign against corruption with the motto: "The solution
is all of us."

But shortly after his term ended, the boyhood friend he appointed as Mexico
City's police chief was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison for
racketeering, arms smuggling and extortion.

The police chief, Arturo Durazo, had amassed millions of dollars during
Lopez Portillo's six-year term, building flamboyant residences including a
pink beachside palace known as "The Parthenon" and an estate outside Mexico
City that included racetracks, vintage automobiles and a full-scale
reproduction of New York City's Studio 54.

Durazo's arrest was the result of a "moral renewal" campaign launched by
Lopez Portillo's successor, Miguel de la Madrid, who pledged to eliminate
graft from the government ranks. There was no such renovation.

But Fox has something going for him that his predecessors did not: He is
the first president who does not belong to the Institutional Revolutionary
Party, or PRI, which ruled the country for 71 consecutive years.

John Bailey, a Mexico specialist at Georgetown University, said, "There was
a kind of discipline among PRI members not to push these investigations too
far because of the damage it brought to the party as a whole. Fox won't be
constrained by that."