U.S. AMBASSADOR CRITICIZES STRATEGY

Strengthened Local Forces Should Replace Military, Diplomat Says

EL PASO -- The Mexican government should de-emphasize using the
military in its deadly fight against drug cartels and instead rely
more on local law enforcement to win the battle, the U.S. ambassador
to Mexico said Friday.

In what may be the first time a U.S. diplomat has been publicly
critical of the strategy used by Mexican President Felipe Calderon to
combat organized crime, Carlos Pascual told an audience at the
University of Texas at El Paso that once the government strengthened
civilian forces, they could take the place of soldiers.

The Mexican government previously sent about 7,000 soldiers to Juarez
to crack down on violence there. The drug cartel war has killed more
than 1,800 people this year in Juarez.

Pascual said Calderon has made it a point to stress that assigning
soldiers to cities plagued by waves of cartel crime is not a long-term
solution. The military corps are not trained to police local
operations, he said.

"In Mexico, there's been an extraordinary situation that obviously has
been confronting the country," Pascual said.

But the ambassador also praised the improvements Mexican authorities
have undertaken to make government actions, such as accusations of the
military human rights abuses, more transparent.

"Mexican government has been willing to engage in answering questions
from the press," he said. "The most important thing that can be done
is to try to take the steps to ensure observance of human rights."

Pascual said Mexico and the U.S. are evaluating plans to change
security procedures and improve the judicial system, which sometimes
fails to indict criminals.

The system of apprehension and prosecution of people allegedly engaged
in drug trafficking in Juarez has flaws, Pascual said. Military forces
often arrest alleged criminals who are processed into the federal
court system. They often are sent back to the state level because of
lack of evidence and can quickly return to the streets.

"There is a problem found in the procedures," he said.

Pascual highlighted Tijuana, Mexico, as a potential
model.

That city fired one-third of its police force and hired new police
officers.

"There are lessons here to be learned," he said.

He said that while a strong military presence combats drug-trafficking
organizations in cities such as Tijuana and Juarez, other law
enforcement agencies can strengthen their units, get trained and
improve their infrastructure to be better equipped to fight organized
crime.

Among other measures Mexico could adopt to crack down on drug cartels,
Pascual said, is a law similar to the United States' Racketeer
Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, which was enacted
in 1970. Instead of working individual cases to indict a person,
authorities can apprehend and penalize people involved in organized
crime under this anti-corruption law.

"If we can work with Mexico in introducing similar kinds of
legislative capabilities, it radically changes the situation," he said.

Mexico's law system, Pascual said, affects the confidence people have
in authorities, which in the long term makes it more difficult for the
public to cooperate with the government.

"A key factor has been to build enough confidence in those communities
so that those communities are the ones taking the lead in denouncing
narco-traffickers and those involved in organized crime," Pascual said.

Among the problems Mexico faces in addition to the increasing
drug-related violence are the contracting economy, the threat of the
H1N1 virus, the effects of a drought and the loss of jobs in the
maquiladora industry.

Pascual also said Mexico's youth is deeply affected by what goes on in
the streets.

"What struck me most at the short time that I was in Juarez was not
the threat of violence," he said, "it was the threat of what occurs if
you lose a whole generation."