MEXICO PROPOSES EXPANDING ARMY'S POWER

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- A bill that would let Mexico declare temporary
states of emergency and expand the army's power in a bloody fight
against powerful drug gangs drew immediate fire Thursday from human
rights activists who say soldiers should not be doing the job of police.

President Felipe Calderon's proposal, which centers on the idea of
declaring drug trafficking hotspots "domestic security" zones, would
give the army access to civilian court and police files.

The measure was submitted to Congress late Wednesday.

"The expansion of organized crime poses new challenges for democratic
societies," it reads. "That requires the government to bring to bear
all the force of the state to confront it."

Calderon's government has already dispatched 45,000 troops to
drug-plagued areas -- mostly along the U.S. border -- where cartel
battles have cost more than 10,700 lives since Calderon took office in
December 2006.

On Thursday morning, police found a man's decapitated body in the
middle of a road in Tijuana, a gang-ridden city across the border from
San Diego. The body was wrapped in a sheet, and the head had been
placed on his chest inside a plastic bag.

By law, soldiers are limited to playing a support role for
police.

The proposal would officially place army troops at the head of
anti-crime efforts in some areas -- formalizing the reality that in
some places the military has effectively replaced weak or corrupt
local forces.

But soldiers have been implicated in human rights abuses such as
shooting civilians at checkpoints and conducting illegal searches.
Human rights groups say the bill may be a sign that Calderon is
reversing a promise to get the army off the streets as soon as possible.

In a February interview with The Associated Press, Calderon said he
hoped to 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.

"It is worrisome that they could declare a state of emergency or give
the army more power, given the experiences we have already had," said
Consuelo Morales, director of the Monterrey-based Citizens in Support
of Human Rights.

However, Morales acknowledged that many Mexicans support army
involvement in drug-plagued cities.

"People like the military because they say the police are corrupt,"
she said.

The idea that the military would have access to civilian legal files
angered defense lawyers like Raquenel Villanueva, a Monterrey-based
attorney who has served as defense council in a number of high-profile
drug cases.

"The army doesn't have the training to do that," Villanueva said,
citing a history of due-process violations and illegal detentions that
could make it risky for the military to have access to all police files.

Former federal anti-drug prosecutor Samuel Gonzalez agreed the
proposal introduced gray areas that could lead to abuses.

"The fact that the military has access to civilian legal files isn't
of itself a violation of human rights," said Gonzalez. "Now, what the
military does with that information, that is another problem."