REHIRING OF AGENTS PROTESTED

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican courts have ordered, the attorney general's office
to rehire more than half of the 826 agents it dismissed six months ago
because they failed drug tests or allegedly were involved in corruption.

In a strongly worded statement Tuesday night, Attorney General Jorge
Madrazo criticized the rulings, declaring that his office ``does not agree
with these judicial decisions'' and will appeal them.

The struggle between the court system and Madrazo's office is part of a
long and often futile effort by Mexican authorities to clean up notoriously
corrupt police and prosecuting agencies, many of whose employees are on the
payrolls of drug lords and criminal organizations.

In the past two years, federal and state law enforcement agencies across
Mexico have fired thousands of attorneys and police officers, only to have
judges order that they be rehired. In other cases, individuals dismissed on
corruption charges by one law enforcement agency are hired by another.

Judges argue that the attorney general's office and other agencies
frequently do not build solid cases for dismissal of their employees, who
are protected by strong workers' laws. But Madrazo's office said it found
the latest round of reinstatements particularly egregious because most of
the 826 agents who were fired last December -- about one-fifth of the
attorney general's employees -- had failed newly required drug tests.

Results showed that about half of those dismissed tested positive for
cocaine use, while others were shown to have used marijuana, amphetamines
or other drugs.

Madrazo's statement said the judges who ruled the firings illegal did not
consider drug-test results but based their decisions on ``various other
considerations.''

Last year, in the aftermath of a series of corruption scandals -- including
the prosecution of Mexico's former anti-drug czar on charges that he
protected one of the country's most powerful drug cartels -- Madrazo's
office decided to revamp its drug-fighting agency and require vetting of
all the agents it employs.