RICE TOPIC IN MEXICO IS ANTI-DRUG

MEXICO CITY - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to meet
with her Mexican counterpart today amid ongoing drug violence.

The battling in Mexico recently has become so intense recently- with
drug cartel attacks on U.S. facilities and a brazen prison escape
along the Mexico-Texas border - that it has given rise to talk of
legalizing drugs as an alternative.

Near the top of the agenda between Rice and Foreign Minister Patricia
Espinosa will be the Merida Initiative, a $400 million U.S. aid
package signed into law by President Bush in June but hung up in
bureaucratic procedures.

Earlier this month, President Felipe Calderon called for an expedited
release of those resources - mostly helicopters and surveillance
planes - and analysts said that Rice was likely to hear similar words
privately during her talks today and Thursday in Puerto Vallarta.

George W. Grayson, a Mexico expert and professor of government at the
College of William & Mary said the U.S. elections were likely to hold
up the Merida Initiative.

The State Department said this week in a news release that it was
working with Mexico and moving forward with the initiative "as
expeditiously as possible."