MEXICANS STRUGGLE TO REGROUP AFTER KILLING

President Seeks Unified Support for Drug War After Opposition Party's
Candidate Is Assassinated Days Before Election

MEXICO CITY-Leaders of Mexico's former ruling party gathered Tuesday
to mourn the assassination of a top gubernatorial candidate, pick a
replacement for this weekend's elections, and debate whether the party
wants to get behind President Felipe Calderon's assault on drug gangs
or continue to criticize the war from the sidelines.

Members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, vowed to
press on with Sunday's vote in Tamaulipas state, just across from
Texas, despite the murder of Rodolfo Torre, the front-runner in the
race for governor, who was killed Monday in a daylight ambush by hit
men believed to belong to a drug cartel that killed seven people in
total.

The killing has cast a pall on Sunday's elections for governor in 12
Mexican states, particularly in northern Mexico where drug cartels are
stronger and have already bribed, threatened and killed political
candidates in a violent election season.

Some voters in Mr. Torre's home state of Tamaulipas began tearing down
signs in support of the slain candidate for fear their homes would be
targeted by drug gangs. Others said they wouldn't vote on Sunday.

In an unusual plea, the bishop of Culiacan in western Sinaloa state,
the home of the so-called Sinaloa cartel, asked organized crime to
allow voters to peacefully make their way to the polls.

Others aren't hopeful. "This assassination was meant to send a strong
message of fear to those who were going to vote," says Raymundo Ramos,
president of the Human Rights Committee of Nuevo Laredo, a nonprofit
activist group. "The fact is, voters are scared and that means
abstentions."

Mr. Ramos says Tamaulipas' abstention rate-usually around 60%-will
likely rise significantly.

Mr. Torre's killing marked the latest in a crescendo of violence
against Mexican politicians, including the murder of a mayoral
candidate and his son in May, death threats against politicians from
Mr. Calderon's PAN and the leftist PRD; and bombs thrown into party
campaign offices in Sinaloa.

It may not be just fear that keeps people from the polls. The
inability of politicians to control violence against ordinary
citizens-or themselves-has led this year to a sense of apathy, said
Rev. Oscar Enriquez, a civic activist in Ciudad Juarez.

"There's a sense that nothing can be done," he said. "The lack of
security has led to a complete distrust in our institutions."