EX-DRUG CZAR GETS POST IN CHIAPAS

TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico (AP) -- The governor-elect of Mexico's troubled
southern Chiapas state named the country's former drug czar as his attorney
general yesterday.

Mariano Herran Salvatti, Mexico's top anti-drug prosecutor until the
presidential transfer of power last week, "confronted this enormous effort
that is the fight against drug trafficking, and he didn't get corrupted,"
said Gov.-elect Pablo Salazar.

Herran's appointment was one of 21 Salazar announced yesterday, two days
before his swearing-in as governor of a state plagued by poverty and seven
years of rebel conflicts.

Salazar became the first candidate to unseat the long-ruling Institutional
Revolutionary Party from Chiapas in a close August election in which he was
backed by an eight-party coalition.