MEXICO PREZ HOPES TO QUELL DRUG VIOLENCE BY 2012

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's president says he hopes to quell his country's
rampant drug violence by the end of his term in 2012, and disputes
U.S. fears that his government is losing control of its territory.

In interviews with The Associated Press on Thursday, President Felipe
Calderon and his top prosecutor said the violence that killed 6,290
people last year - and more than 1,000 in the first eight weeks of
2009 - is a sign that the cartels are under pressure from military and
police operations nationwide, as well as turf wars among themselves.

"To say that Mexico is a failed state is absolutely false," Calderon
said. "I have not lost any part - any single part - of Mexican territory."

Calderon, a Harvard-educated conservative, said smuggling cannot be
eliminated as long as Americans continue to use drugs, but hopes he
can beat back the cartels by 2012 to a point that the army and federal
police can withdraw and leave the problem in the hands of local law
enforcement. He declined to give a specific timeline for winning the
war against drug gangs.

Calderon easily switched between English and Spanish in an hourlong
interview at the colonial National Palace. Sitting in a chair
decorated with Mexico's national symbol - an eagle perched on a cactus
devouring a serpent - he was relaxed and jovial.

Mexico had bristled when the U.S. Joint Forces Command put it on par
with Pakistan, saying both were at risk of "rapid and sudden
collapse." That and other reports have put a global spotlight on
Mexico's growing violence and pressured Calderon to change tactics. He
said Thursday that wasn't an option.

"Yes, we will win," he said, "and of course there will be many
problems meanwhile."

Calderon sent the army and federal police out into drug strongholds on
his first day in office in December 2006, promising to turn a tide in
a war that was seeing increasingly brazen tactics such as beheadings,
assassinations and the attempt to control local governments.

Since then, Mexico has spent $6.5 billion on top of its normal public
security budget, but that falls short of the $10 billion Mexican drug
gangs bring in annually, Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said in
another interview Thursday.

But violence has increased, more than doubling in 2008. Medina Mora
said that does not reflect the drug gangs' power; "It is reflecting
how they are melting down."

As proof, he said street prices of cocaine in the United States have
doubled in the last three years, while purity has dropped by 35
percent. He said the government has crippled Mexico's methamphetamine
trade by banning precursor chemicals.

Medina Mora predicted Mexico is "reaching the peak" of the violence,
adding that the government's goal is to make smuggling through Mexico
so difficult that the drug gangs are forced to look elsewhere.

"We want to raise the opportunity cost of our country as a route of
choice," he said.

Even as he spoke, five more suspected drug killings were announced by
authorities in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero. The men were shot
Wednesday night.

Medina Mora said 90 percent of the dead are involved in the drug
trade, while only 4 percent are innocent bystanders. The rest - some
800 to date - are police officers and soldiers.

Both Calderon and Medina Mora called on the United States to do more,
by stopping the flow of powerful U.S. assault weapons and mountains of
drug cash into Mexico. Calderon, whose government has arrested more
than 25 high-level officials for suspicion of taking drug bribes, also
called for the United States to purge its own corrupt officials.

"I'm fighting corruption among Mexican authorities and risking
everything to clean house, but I think a good cleaning is in order on
the other side of the border," he said.

Calderon applauded cross-border efforts that the U.S. said culminated
this week with the arrests of 755 Sinaloa cartel members and seizure
of $59 million in criminal proceeds in the United States. But he
acknowledged that Mexico cannot be the top U.S. priority, saying
President Obama would help Mexico most by fixing his own economic crisis.

He expressed optimism that Obama will improve relations in the region,
saying Latin American leaders have high expectations for his first
trip to the region at the Summit of the Americas in April.

"President Barack Obama has a tremendous opportunity to recover the
leadership of the United States," he said.