MEXICO RISES ON THE U.S. AGENDA

Rewards Offered for Capture of Drug Traffickers Ahead of Clinton
Visit This Week

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico on Monday offered rewards in the millions of
dollars for information leading to the capture of 37 drug lords,
ahead of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to the country
Wednesday. Cranking up the pressure on the drug cartels, Mexico said
it would give out rewards of $2 million each for information leading
to the capture of 24 top traffickers -- including fugitive Joaquin
"El Chapo" Guzman, whom Forbes Magazine recently ranked as one of the
world's richest men -- and $1 each million for 13 of their main operators.

Mexico has in the past posted rewards for capturing drug lords, but
not on this sweeping scale. Two of the 37 were arrested in the past
few days, before the reward offer was published.

Mrs. Clinton's trip, announced last week, is the latest sign that
Mexico's spiraling drug violence has powerfully focused Washington's
attention. Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Homeland
Security Janet Napolitano are due in Mexico next week. President
Barack Obama plans to visit Mexico City in April on his way to the
Summit of the Americas in Trinidad. U.S. officials said Mrs. Clinton
plans to address a wide range of issues with her Mexican
counterparts, including the environment, the global economic crisis,
democracy promotion and the war on drugs.

She'll also discuss ways the Obama administration can assist
President Felipe Calderon in combating rising violence along the
U.S.-Mexican border. Mrs. Clinton will have to navigate a difficult
political terrain on her visit. Top Mexican officials acknowledge an
urgent need for more U.S. support in fighting drug traffickers, but
they are resentful of the picture that has emerged in Washington of
Mexico as a corruption-ridden country on the verge of becoming a failed state.

Analysts say the Mexican government expects the U.S. will come with a
package of measures, including proposals to help stop the flow of
guns and cartel money from the U.S. to Mexico, which Mexican
officials say are major factors contributing to the violence.

President Obama is expected to announce new measures as early as
Tuesday. Officials have said they will direct more resources to the
border, including additional agents and equipment for screening
vehicles headed to Mexico. Since assuming power more than two years
ago, Mr. Calderon has sent thousands of soldiers to confront the
country's drug cartels, which have been fighting an internecine war
over domestic markets and drug routes to the U.S. Some 10,000 people,
most of them members of the drug gangs, have been killed since then.

The cartels also operate in about 230 U.S. cities.

A flurry of congressional hearings in Washington have praised Mr.
Calderon's crackdown on the drug cartels. But some officials have
also offended Mexican sensibilities by saying that Mexico is not in
full control of its territory. Mexican officials say drug demand in
the U.S. and U.S. sales of firearms that wind up in the hands of
Mexican drug dealers are a big part of the problem. U.S. law
enforcement and military officials have been working on how best to
increase intelligence sharing and training with their Mexican
counterparts. It's a tough proposition. Because of widespread
corruption among Mexican municipal, state and federal police forces,
the Mexican army has been at the forefront of the government's
anti-narcotics efforts.

While the army is widely held in high esteem by Mexicans, accusations
of human rights violations against soldiers have increased as the
military has become immersed in police functions for which it is not trained.