MEXICO'S DRUG FIGHT

Government's New Tack Merits Support

No institutional casualty of Colombia's drug war deserves more tears than
the country's judicial system. Sometimes victimized by bribes, it has also
been neutralized by threats of violent retribution. A classic example of
the carrot or the stick. But the basic corruption of the judiciary is
especially serious because it can sacrifice the legal framework upon which
social harmony, democracy and capitalism must rest.

Anything less than a fair and reliable judicial system can promote
disaster. The social, economic and political life of a nation can hang in
the balance. Fortunately, after years of paying lip service to the issue,
Mexico's justice department struck the right note this week in announcing
that it will initiate legal action against three of seven judges and
magistrates whose kidgloved treatment of known drug traffickers has come
into question.

Popularly known as the "Cartel of Judges," the group under investigation is
made up of judicial officials from the states of Mexico, Jalisco, Veracruz,
Oaxaca and Morelos. Mexican Attorney General Jorge Madrazo is particularly
concerned that some of these judges may have abused a Mexican legal tool
known as the right of amparo as a means of protecting and freeing dangerous
drug traffickers.

For their part, highlevel officials in business and state government in
Mexican states such as Nuevo León know the country has a problem with drug
trafficking and its handmaiden, money laundering. They also know that a
failure to address the general problem could yield a climate hospitable to
democracy and market capitalism in general, and foreign investment in
particular.

Mexico's new initiative against corrupt judges is not a panacea, but it
gives hope for the future.

While Washington has the duty and the right to monitor the developments
closely and even voice criticism when warranted, another obligation is
equally important: the need to support and encourage Mexico City when it
acts responsibly, as it appears to have done in this case.