FOX SEEKS ALLIES AGAINST CRIME

Mexican Leader Asks Citizens To Enlist In War On Drugs, Corruption

TIJUANA -- Bringing his anti-crime crusade to one of Mexico's most violent
cities, President Vicente Fox yesterday urged citizens to become watchdogs
who turn in criminals and denounce corruption.

As he pleaded for help from the public, Fox said his government will offer
unprecedented access to government files, allowing ordinary Mexicans to
scrutinize police and prosecutors as never before.

"We need to build a new relationship between authorities and society," the
president said in an address to hundreds of business and civic leaders at
the city's Hotel Camino Real. "The idea is to involve everyone."

Fox's call for a united front against crime echoed many of the themes he
had emphasized Tuesday in Mexico City when he formed a commission to combat
corruption. Part of that effort involves the creation of an oversight
committee made up of private citizens.

Corruption and lack of resources mean crimes in Mexico often go unsolved
and unpunished, leaving people reluctant to file complaints.

Arrest warrants will now be made public, Fox promised. But citizens must
also do their part, he said, by not sheltering criminals and drug traffickers.

"We have to accept that the legal culture has become eroded, and that in
many instances personal interests have prevailed over the collective good,"
Fox said.

This was Fox's second visit to Tijuana since he assumed office Dec. 1. He
has said that fighting crime in Tijuana, known as home base for the violent
Arellano Felix drug cartel, is a priority for his administration.

"Within a six-month period, we can clean up Tijuana, establish peace," he
said in December, according to a transcript from his press office.

But yesterday, top aides said there are no time limits.

"Nobody can eradicate the problem of corruption or violence within six
months," said Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, Mexico's national security adviser,
one of several top officials who accompanied Fox. "We are going to come
back every three, six months, and constantly be in touch with the
population and see where we are having success and where we are having
problems."

Last week in the Pacific Coast state of Sinaloa, known as the birthplace of
drug trafficking in Mexico, Fox declared an all-out war against organized
crime. He warned that drug traffickers might well respond with violence.

In Tijuana yesterday, he steered clear of such talk, saying the purpose of
this visit was to draw citizens into the fight against crime.

Fox won the support of Ignacio Calderon, director of the Tijuana branch of
the business group Coparmex.

"This gives us new hope," Calderon said. "If authorities work alone, and we
cannot review their actions, there is no certainty that things are being
done right."

But Gabriela Gaxiola Gomez, a law student at the Autonomous University of
Baja California, won a standing ovation when she called for action, not
just words.

"Good intentions are not enough to solve the problems that affect our
communities," she said. "Promises come and promises go."

Last month, the federal government stepped up its anti-crime efforts in
Tijuana by sending in 700 members of the Federal Preventive Police. Since
then, the police have been patrolling the city, stopping cars and searching
passers-by.

But the efforts have met with criticism from civic leaders, who say they
are happy for the extra police but have seen few positive results.

"We need more specific actions," said Arturo Gonzalez Cruz, head of the
Chamber of Commerce. "They've sent them out to patrol different zones, but
they don't have any concrete plans to lower crime."

Mobbed by well-wishers as he made his way through the Hotel Camino Real,
Fox called on the United States to play a role in Mexico's battle against
crime by reducing U.S. demand for illicit drugs.

"The huge market of consumption in the United States is what brings in all
this . . . money, billions of dollars that come to Mexico to corrupt
Mexican policemen and public functionaries," he said.

Despite all the forces thwarting his government's battle against crime, Fox
emphasized that Mexico has a powerful weapon at its disposal. During a stop
to inaugurate a state-run center for abused and neglected children and
spouses, he called the country's traditionally strong family ties "our
strategic resource" that will "give us the strength to confront the
corruption and the impunity."

Staff writer Anna Cearley contributed to this report.