U.S. ANTI-DRUG PLAN WOULD RECAST LEGAL SYSTEM IN MEXICO

MEXICO CITY -- The Bush administration's proposed counternarcotics
aid package for Mexico would set in motion a vast reengineering of
the country's justice system, revamping the legal education process,
creating a network of court clerks and helping to write new laws,
according to two summaries obtained by The Washington Post.

The $500 million plan would also fund anti-drug and human rights
campaigns and new citizen complaint centers. It would provide money
for efforts to develop "centers of moral authority" and for media
campaigns to create "a culture of lawfulness."

Under the plan, which has drawn criticism from some on Capitol Hill,
officials from the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Marshals
Service and the Federal Bureau of Prisons would conduct training
sessions and military officers would provide instruction related to aircraft.

Nearly every sector of Mexico's federal justice system would receive
a slice of the proposed aid, with millions being doled out for
equipment and training for prosecutors, federal police, prison
managers and customs inspectors. It would also give birth to new
institutions: Money has been set aside, for instance, to help
establish a training academy for drug-sniffing dogs and their handlers.

Bush proposed the package Oct. 22, announcing its inclusion in a
supplementary war spending bill. The aid was requested by the Mexican
government, which has been struggling to contain a war among drug
cartels that are blamed for more than 4,000 killings in the past 18
months. If approved by the U.S. Congress, the package would represent
a landmark in relations between the two countries, which often have
failed to coordinate counternarcotics efforts.

About 40 percent of the aid package would go to the Mexican military,
which would receive helicopters, planes and ion scanners, which
detect traces of drugs. The military, which President Felipe Calderon
is deploying in anti-drug offensives, has been accused of human
rights violations by several international organizations,
complicating its inclusion in the deal.

The U.S. effort to sell the plan in Mexico, where there is an ongoing
debate about whether the military should be involved in drug
campaigns, has been hampered by inaccurate reports in Mexican media
that 60 percent of the package would go to the Mexican army and navy.

The Mexican attorney general's office would receive more than $70
million for an array of projects, including forensics labs and
anti-corruption training, as well as for armored vehicles for 30
prosecutors and 13 investigators. Much of that money would also go to
upgrade computer systems and provide training. An existing program
that allows Mexican and U.S. prosecutors working in parts of the
border area to share information would be extended along the full
length of the border.

The Mexican federal police force -- which stands to receive more than
$39 million -- would get $2 million to establish or upgrade
investigative units that would specialize in gangs, organized crime
or money laundering. It would also get millions for polygraph
machines that would be used in vetting officers and for training
programs as it tries to meet a goal of adding 8,000 investigators in
the next two years.

The plan proposes helping to "develop appropriate legislation," which
some analysts believe could be perceived as an attempt by the United
States to dictate Mexican laws. It also calls for U.S. officials to
help develop "substantive legislation on forfeiting assets that have
been used to commit crimes or which are the proceeds of crime." Asset
forfeiture is a controversial topic in Mexico, where a complex
formula determines how drug money is spread among government
agencies. Recently, a $200 million drug forfeiture in Mexico City
devolved into bickering between Mexican agencies and accusations that
the federal government did not provide a full accounting of the seizure.

Beyond detailing the multi-pronged plan, the documents present the
fullest explanation to date of its goals and give insights about
which institutions the U.S. government sees as best able to attack
the drug problem.

In one instance, the document states that Mexico's military, known by
its Spanish-language initials SEDENA, is better suited to interdict
drug shipments, especially those in remote areas, than the Mexican
federal police or the customs agency.

"SEDENA's role in interdiction fills a gap that no other agency can
match," one of the documents says.

The plan endorses some shifts in strategy, including conducting
inspections in the country's interior to prevent arms trafficking. As
many as 2,000 weapons are smuggled from the United States into Mexico
each day, according to a Mexican government estimate. Currently,
Mexican inspectors primarily focus on land borders and seaports.

Arms trafficking has long been a sensitive subject. U.S. officials
appear reluctant to draw attention to the flow of guns into Mexico
because of concerns that the United States, already blamed for
creating the drug market that makes Mexican cartels rich, will also
be blamed for arming them. But talks on the aid package have brought
more attention to the problem.

In a Capitol Hill hearing last week, Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.),
ranking minority member on the Foreign Relations Committee, urged
lawmakers to ensure that the U.S. aid includes provisions to stop the
flow of guns into Mexico. "We do not want to create a self-defeating
situation in which a critical foreign assistance program meant to
assist a neighbor and enhance U.S. security is being undercut by an
illegal flow of weapons originating from within our own borders," Lugar said.

The documents include unusually blunt criticisms of Mexico, with one
declaring that "there is widespread popular distrust within Mexico
for its law enforcement institutions."

In justifying $15 million for training prosecutors and developing a
system of court clerks, the document states that "the current court
management system is inefficient and ripe for corruption."

Corruption is a theme that runs throughout the plan. Nearly $29
million would be spent on hardware and software to support an ongoing
attorney general's office reform project intended to "help eliminate
impunity, delays and injustices of the current system." An additional
$2 million would be set aside for the training of attorney general's
office internal affairs units to "help reduce corruption."

Federal Bureau of Prisons officials would be sent to Mexico for
training aimed at helping Mexican officials "assert control over the
prisons," where some drug kingpins are said to live in luxurious
cells and run their crime empires from behind bars.

"The Mexican federal prison system," one of the documents says, "is
plagued by overcrowding, limited alternatives to incarceration, and
is facing challenges created by prisoners involved in narco-trafficking."

While the documents provide a trove of details about the drug plan,
some areas are not fully fleshed out. Half a million dollars would be
set aside for media campaigns designed to create a "culture of
lawfulness" and for helping nongovernmental organizations develop
"centers of moral authority." But the document does not define a
center of moral authority.