CARTELS MAY BE PAYING PROTESTERS

Border Rallies Target Use of Arny in Drug Areas

MEXICO CITY - Drug cartels unleashed a new and potentially powerful
weapon this week in their battle with the government, analysts say -
the use of unarmed civilian protesters to demand the withdrawal of
army soldiers in drug hot spots along the Mexico-Texas border.

Protesters paralyzed nine bridges linking Mexico to Texas on Tuesday,
and local, state and federal authorities allege that the
demonstrators were paid by drug-trafficking groups.

If true, it puts the government in a delicate position. The
protesters have a constitutional right to demonstrate peacefully, and
they face increasingly tough economic conditions, including growing
unemployment and a $5-a-day minimum wage.

"It's an evolution of the strategy of groups fighting the government
to demonstrate and to signal their areas of control," said Arturo
Yanez, a commentator on security issues. "These are people without
AK-47s, without grenades, who can take control of international
bridges, and the government doesn't do anything about it."

Officials in Ciudad Juarez, where all U.S.-Mexico traffic was shut
down Tuesday, said in a statement that they respected the right of
people to protest "when it does not affect third parties." But they
cited opinion polls showing that 80 percent of residents support the
military presence.

President Felipe Calderon has sent tens of thousands of troops to
drug hot spots to contain spreading cartel violence.

Alfredo Quijano, editor of the Norte newspaper in Ciudad Juarez, said
some - but not all - of the taxi drivers and other protesters had
apparently legitimate grievances. Many of them were women and children.

About 150 formal human rights complaints have been lodged against
soldiers in and around Juarez since the army arrived there more than
a year ago.

But, he added, the demonstrators were probably organized, paid and
encouraged by trafficking groups in a coordinated effort not just
along the border, but also in other cities, including Monterrey,
where Calderon will visit this week to celebrate "Army Day."

Given massive border unemployment, he said, recruiting protesters is
not difficult.

Media reports quoted some protesters who anonymously said that they
had been paid to hold anti-army signs. But others said they had
legitimate grievances against the army for illegal detentions of
loved ones, who they say were taken away in military vehicles and
have not been seen or heard from since.

Taxi drivers also said they were demanding the release of a colleague
detained by soldiers.

The government said the detained taxi driver was monitoring army
patrols and had drugs in his vehicle when soldiers searched it.

Quijano said that nearly everyone detained by the military seems to
end up in possession of drugs, which raises the question of whether
the drugs were being planted, a practice human rights investigators
have documented in the past.

The Mexico-Texas international bridges have long been used for
protests and are closely associated with the democracy movement of
the 1980s and 1990s, when blockages were used to denounce vote fraud
and to get the attention of the U.S. government.

What the cartels want, Quijano said, is respect for their traditional
areas of influence and a level playing field when it comes to
government law enforcement.

One of the recurring themes since Calderon declared war on the
cartels more than two years ago is the accusation by some trafficking
groups that the government and the army protect the Sinaloa cartel to
the detriment of others.

Last summer and fall, a dozen top federal law enforcement officials,
including the drug czar, were jailed and accused of helping the
Sinaloa cartel and its allies.

Calderon has said the government fights all the cartels equally and
will not be intimidated by them.

Mexican government officials attributed Tuesday's protests to the
Gulf cartel and its paramilitary enforcement wing, the Zetas.

Those groups operate in the Texas-Mexico border states of Tamaulipas
and Nuevo Leon, but have moved into Chihuahua to help the Juarez
cartel hold off its Sinaloa rivals, analysts say.

Quijano said police are being targeted in Ciudad Juarez because the
"local" Juarez cartel believes that law enforcement and soldiers have
sold out to the "outsiders" - the Sinaloa cartel.

He also said it was noteworthy that all of Tuesday's protests were
held in areas that the Juarez and Gulf cartels consider part of their
traditional drug routes to the U.S.: Chihuahua, Tamaulipas, Nuevo
Leon and Veracruz.

"It's a plan to pressure the government," he said.

On Wednesday, "narco-banners" appeared in Juarez threatening the head
of public security, Roberto Orduna Cruz, and demanding his
resignation. One of his top subordinates, police operational director
Sacramento Perez Serrano, was gunned down Tuesday along with two
other officers.

Quijano said some of the banners were signed by "La Linea," the
enforcement arm of the Juarez cartel.