MEXICO REPLACES ATTORNEY GENERAL AS DRUG VIOLENCE SOARS

MEXICO CITY -- President Felipe Calderon on Monday replaced his
longtime attorney general, one of the key figures in his government's
effort to bring Mexico's powerful drug cartels to heel, as the
country's drug violence continues to spiral.

In a short speech, Mr. Calderon said Arturo Chavez, a former attorney
general of northern Chihuahua state, was replacing Attorney General
Eduardo Medina Mora. Chihuahua's largest city, Ciudad Juarez, has
become the epicenter of Mexico's drug violence. Just last week,
gunmen took over a drug rehabilitation center there and executed 18
patients, marking a new and grisly milestone in the country's drug violence.

Mr. Calderon also announced changes at the agriculture ministry and
at state oil company Pemex. Mr. Calderon named former Pemex Chief
Financial Officer Juan Jose Suarez Coppel as the company's new chief
executive, taking over from Jesus Reyes Heroles, a former energy
minister. Mr. Suarez Coppel takes the reins at a tough time for the
oil giant: Output has fallen to 2.5 million barrels a day from a peak
of 3.4 million in 2004 amid a dramatic decline in output from
Mexico's main oil field, Cantarell.

The changes come as Mr. Calderon tries to regain political traction
following July midterm legislative elections in which his
center-right National Action Party suffered a major defeat to the
opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, which now has the most
seats in the lower house of Congress.

Since coming to power in 2006, Mr. Calderon has made the fight
against Mexico's warring cartels the centerpiece of his policy. He
has deployed an estimated 40,000 soldiers to cities like Ciudad
Juarez to take on the drug gangs, using soldiers instead of
often-corrupt local police.

More than 13,000 people have died since Mr. Calderon took office,
according to newspaper estimates, most victims of internecine warfare
between drug cartels fighting over drug routes to the U.S. and
increasingly lucrative Mexican drug markets.

Mr. Medina Mora's departure is a boost for Public Security Minister
Genaro Garcia Luna: The two men had clashed over Mr. Garcia Luna's
plans to create a single national police force under his command.
Mexico's Congress killed that plan, but Mr. Garcia Luna has begun
creating a de facto national police, his new Federal Police force.

"This shows beyond any doubt that Mr. Garcia Luna is the one driving
the drug-war policy and is closest to Mr. Calderon's beliefs and
ideas," said Guillermo Zepeda, a criminal justice specialist at
Mexico's Center for Development Studies, a think tank.

Mr. Medina Mora, a corporate lawyer, had been attorney general for
the last three years. During the previous administration, he served
as head of the CISEN, Mexico's equivalent of the U.S.'s Central
Intelligence Agency. Mr. Calderon said Mr. Medina Mora will continue
to serve Mexico in a diplomatic post. Mr. Medina Mora is expected to
be named Mexico's ambassador to the U.K., people familiar with the
situation say.

Mr. Medina Mora posted some victories, such as the capture of an
alleged methamphetamine dealer together with a record stash of $207
million in cash. Mr. Medina Mora also extradited a record number of
alleged drug traffickers to the U.S.

But a year ago, his office was shaken by scandal when it was revealed
that several top members of the attorney general's office's antidrug
unit had been on the payroll of one of Mexico's most powerful drug
gangs. Neither Mr. Medina Mora nor Mr. Garcia Luna have been to
recapture an alleged top drug dealer, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Mr. Chavez, a member of Mr. Calderon's center-right National Action
Party, was Chihuahua's attorney general from 1996 to 1998. Jorge
Montano, a former ambassador to the U.S. and a native of Chihuahua,
said Mr. Chavez did a good job, but lamented that the president
hadn't reached out beyond the ranks of the PAN. "It's all the same
gang," he said.