MEXICO ANTI-DRUG HEAD UNDER FIRE OVER HUMAN RIGHTS

MEXICO CITY, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Retired Brig. Gen. Rafael Macedo, the first
Mexican attorney general designate drawn from the ranks of the military, is
under fire from human rights activists who question his ability to
reconcile military loyalties with law enforcement.

Macedo, arguably the most controversial member of President Vicente Fox's
new government, is expected to be ratified by the Senate on Thursday
although the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the country's
leading leftist force, has said it will vote against his nomination.

"The issue of his appointment before the Senate is not really in question,
as much as his legitimacy before human rights groups and the PRD," Joel
Estudillo, a leading analyst at the Mexican Institute for Political
Studies, said on Wednesday.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said in a
visit to Mexico last weekend that she had raised concerns with Fox, on
behalf of human rights groups, "that he was appointing an attorney general
who is from the military."

Since his election last July, Fox of the National Action Party (PAN), has
been under pressure from rights groups to curtail the army's role in the
justice system to improve Mexico's weak human rights record. They allege
the military's involvement in the drugs and crime fight is to blame for
most abuses.

VIGOROUS CRUSADER

A career lawyer and former chief prosecutor in the military, Macedo has
fought for decades to uphold the law in the Mexican armed forces, becoming
known as a vigorous crusader against illicit links between the army and
drug traffickers.

In recent years, at a time when the Mexican military was prodded by
Washington to become more involved in the war on drugs, Macedo spearheaded
a purge of corrupt officers with alleged links to powerful drug trafficking
cartels.

Most recently, Macedo ordered the arrest in August of two Mexican generals
with alleged links to the powerful Juarez Drug Cartel, once run by the
infamous Amado Carrillo Fuentes, known as the "Lord of the Skies."

His record would appear to fit the profile of a crime-fighter for Fox, the
first Mexican president not from the PRI in over 71 years, who pledged a
crackdown against corrupt officials when he was sworn in last Friday.

But left-leaning political parties like the PRD and human rights groups
from Mexico and abroad have opposed Macedo's appointment as attorney
general.

"It's illogical for Fox to put justice into the hands of the military,"
said Demetrio Sodi, the deputy coordinator of the PRD in the Mexican
Senate.