MEXICAN CANDIDATE SAYS OFFICIALS TIED TO CARTELS

Drug-Related Violence Spurs Allegations

MEXICO CITY -- The leading challenger in the upcoming presidential election
has injected the drug issue into the campaign amid a wave of violence,
accusing the ruling party of being in league with Mexico's narcotics
cartels.

Vicente Fox, the presidential candidate of the right-of-center National
Action Party, made the charges at a news conference and a later interview
with a wire service.

"It's very naive to think that a president of the republic belonging to the
Institutional Revolutionary Party will sort out drug trafficking," Fox told
Reuters in the interview.

"This has not happened for 70 years (the party has held the presidency), and
it is not going to happen. Therefore, we need a new government and new
leadership."

He said that members of the ruling party have been part of the problem.

"They have negotiated with the narcos, and many PRI members have been jailed
for being narcos," he said.

Fox's latest statements were made in an interview Wednesday and released
Thursday. Fox, who in some polls is closing on ruling-party candidate
Francisco Labastida, made similar comments at a news conference on Feb. 29.

"We've had enough of government that makes pacts with the narcos," he said
at that time. "This is a matter of national security, and we need to change
the authorities before we lose the country."

Javier Trevino, a PRI spokesman, dismissed the challenger's charges. "Fox's
comments are not only irresponsible, they are frivolous," he said Thursday.

So far, though, the drug issue has failed to catch on with many voters, some
polls say. Instead, most Mexicans are said to be more concerned about street
crime than drug-related killings.

"The problem of drug trafficking does not figure in the themes that people
consider most important," said Serigo Sarmiento, a political analyst in
Mexico City. "They are worried about violence in the street, robberies of
buses or at their workplaces. That's what concerns them."

But ruling-party officials in the government of President Ernesto Zedillo
appear concerned about the potential for political damage if the
drug-related killings continue. Mexico elects a new president on July 2.

The killing last month of Tijuana's police chief, Alfredo de la Torre, at
the hands of suspected traffickers was seen here as a rebuff to Zedillo, who
days before had called for a crackdown on the traffickers.

Zedillo sent his highest ranking law-enforcement officials to the U.S.
border region after the slaying to reassure local officials that the federal
government would commit new resources to pursue the cartels. The results
were quick. Authorities announced Wednesday the arrest of six people in de
la Torre's killing.

But the authorities also suggested that the country could be in store for
more violence. They said the police chief's killers were acting on orders of
a competing gang that was trying to take over the territory of the Tijuana
drug cartel.

Together with a series of killings in the northern states of Chihuahua,
Sinaloa and Tamaulipas, some U.S. observers said the stepped-up violence
appeared to something more than a routine settling of accounts.

"It looks to me like there is a war going on," said one U.S. university
analyst familiar with the actions of U.S. and Mexican law enforcement
agencies and the drug cartels.

The drug-related violence occurred in cities and towns in central and
northern Mexico:

*· In the Pacific coast resort of Mazatlan, two men were killed on a street
only blocks from crowds of tourists enjoying the city's carnival
celebration. An hour and a half later, two couples and their bodyguard were
slain in a restaurant. The mayor of Mazatlan said both killings were related
to drug trafficking. In all, 111 people have been slain since the beginning
of the year in the central state of Sinaloa, where Mazatlan is located, most
in drug-related incidents.

*· In Tijuana, the daughter of the state's highest-ranking law enforcement
official was kidnapped and released hours later near the spot where the
police chief had been killed. Some observers interpreted the abduction as a
warning to police to back away from the investigation. The arrests of the
six suspects were made days later.

*· In Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, a Texas lawyer was shot to death
execution-style by four men riding in what authorities said appeared to be a
police vehicle early Tuesday. Although no motive has been established for
the Texas man's killing, 11 such execution-style killings have occurred in
the city of 1 million since the beginning of the year. Only one was recorded
in the same period last year.

*· In Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, a father and son whom authorities
suspected of involvement in drug trafficking were shot and killed Monday.
And in nearby Matamoros, five people were arrested after a gun fight earlier
this week between drug traffickers.

Fox's efforts to turn the issues of narcotics trafficking and drug-related
violence into campaign themes could backfire, some analysts said.

But the timing of his remarks may be significant in the United States, they
said, because the Clinton administration's decision to certify Mexico as a
cooperating ally in the drug war is now before the U.S. Congress, which can
vote it down.

One of reasons that drug-related violence hasn't developed into a political
issue in Mexico, said Sarmiento and other analysts, is that government
officials from all parties seem powerless to solve the problem.