Mexico Under Siege

ARMY'S REPUTATION IS AT RISK IN DRUG WAR

The Public May Be Losing Faith in Forces As Death Toll and Abuse Claims Rise

When Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared war on drug cartels
in 2006, he summoned his military to serve as the tip of the spear.

Since then, nearly 50,000 uniformed Mexican military personnel have
manned roadblocks, patrolled cities haunted by drug killings and
raided houses in search of traffickers and contraband.

But as doubts mount over the effectiveness of Calderon's anti-drug
crusade, with its death toll of 18,000 people, so do the political
risks for Mexico's military, traditionally one of the nation's most
trusted institutions.

Brig. Gen. Benito Medina has indicated that the Mexican military
cannot succeed alone against a powerful foe whose reach spans
national boundaries.

"We need the collaboration of the international community," Medina,
director of military education at the University of the Army and Air
Force, said in remarks published Monday in El Universal newspaper.

The United States, as part of its $1.4-billion multiyear Merida
Initiative, is sending Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Adm.
Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to accompany Secretary
of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Mexico on Tuesday for talks on the
country's drug war.

The Mexican army is increasingly a lightning rod for those who say
the Calderon strategy has failed to curb a skyrocketing death toll.
Human rights advocates accuse soldiers of abusing residents as they
hunt drug traffickers. And there is a growing feeling that, despite
the army's firepower and resources, it has been less than effective
as a police force.

Street demonstrations against runaway violence in the border city of
Ciudad Juarez aimed more vitriol at troops than at drug-trafficking
gangs, and many residents say they would like to see soldiers called
back to the barracks. As the military's presence has grown along the
U.S.-Mexico border, many residents ask whether it will prove as
susceptible to corruption as the police have been.

"If the fundamental institution of any state, the armed forces, can't
prevail in the battle against narco-trafficking, then what is next?"
asked Jose Luis Pineyro, an expert on national security at Mexico
City's Autonomous Metropolitan University. "It is the last recourse."

Mexico's 250,000-strong armed forces -- an army, navy and air force
- -- enjoy high esteem nationwide, despite modest signs of slippage
during the three-plus years of the drug war.

The military ranks third among the most trusted institutions in
Mexico, behind the Roman Catholic Church and higher education,
according to a survey published in January by the Mitofsky polling
firm. A year earlier it was first.

Another poll last year, by Demotecnia, showed that 72% of Mexicans
view the army favorably, though the most recent figure represents an
11% drop since 2007.

Mexico's human rights commission has received more than 3,400
complaints of alleged violations, including torture and unlawful
detention, by military personnel since December 2006, when Calderon
took office. Defense officials say the commission has recommended
disciplinary action in only a small fraction of those cases, but the
military's hermetic legal system makes it difficult to track how they
turned out.

Calderon has acknowledged the military's limitations. In Ciudad
Juarez, where a turf war has killed more than 4,000 people since 2008
despite the presence of 10,000 troops and federal police, the Mexican
president promised fed-up residents to retool his drug war strategy
to aim more of the government's attention at jobs and living conditions.

Most Mexicans support using troops in anti-drug operations, though
the margin has shrunk since two years ago. Given rampant police
graft, especially at the state and local levels, soldiers are seen as
the most reliable force to take on heavily armed drug gangs.

The drug war has boosted the military budget and created an
opportunity for the armed forces to gain clout.

"If they win, they will be stronger politically," said Raul Benitez,
a specialist in national security at the National Autonomous
University in Mexico City. "They think they will win."

Yet the deaths related to drug traffickers and the government's
failure to land a decisive blow against the cartels has many Mexicans
questioning the effectiveness of the military-led strategy. And
military leaders, who have never appeared eager to join the drug war,
are concerned that they could end up bearing the blame, analysts say.

"They have made it really clear that they take orders from the
civilian leadership," said Roderic Ai Camp, an expert on the Mexican
military at Claremont McKenna College.

Napolitano irritated Mexican officials last week when she appeared to
question the military's effectiveness in Ciudad Juarez. Her comments
came after the fatal shootings of three people connected to the U.S.
Consulate there.

"President Calderon of Mexico has been deeply involved, even sending
in the military into Juarez. That hasn't helped," Napolitano said
during an interview on MSNBC.

Fernando Gomez Mont, Mexico's interior secretary, fired back, saying
troops are filling an important law enforcement role while the
government rushes to clean up and rebuild police forces. He said
troops would stay as long as needed.

The military has delivered some of the Calderon government's biggest
blows against drug traffickers.

In December, Mexican marines shot and killed kingpin Arturo Beltran
Leyva during a raid on an apartment complex in the city of
Cuernavaca, south of Mexico City.

A marine died in the operation and, hours after his publicized
burial, four of his family members were killed by gunmen in apparent
retribution for Beltran Leyva's death.

Mexican troops have captured other high-profile figures. In the past,
leaks from crooked police often allowed suspects to escape before
authorities arrived.

Mexico's military has never had such a prominent anti-drug role. Once
mainly limited to hunting and destroying crops of poppy and
marijuana, troops now field tips, sift intelligence, search alleged
safe houses and round up suspects.

Critics of Calderon's anti-drug strategy complain that those are
tasks military forces were never properly trained to perform.

"They are put in a situation they are not prepared for, and they
commit errors that further hurt their image," said Manuel Espino, a
former president of Calderon's National Action Party who charged that
using the military for police work subjects it to "unnecessary risk."

It remains unclear how long military personnel will continue policing
the streets as part of the drug war.

"Nobody wants this fight to go on indefinitely," Gen. Guillermo
Galvan Galvan, the defense secretary, said during an Army Day
ceremony last month. "It is in no one's interest."