IN MEXICO, ANTI-DRUG LEADER IS KILLED

MEXICO CITY - A top police intelligence official was found dead in his
burning armored car in Monterrey, dealing a serious setback to
Mexico's attempt to regain control of the country's most prosperous
city from warring drug cartels.

The body of Homero Salcido, the coordinator of the so-called C-5
center, which houses federal police, naval, army, and state and
municipal anticrime intelligence officials, was found Monday in his
burning Grand Cherokee car in the center of Monterrey, the capital of
embattled Nuevo Leon state, officials said.

Mr. Salcido's killing is a major blow to the federal and state
governments' efforts to re-establish control over Monterrey, Mexico's
business capital, which has been racked by increasing drug violence
over the past year.

"We are investigating," said Javier Trevino, Nuevo Leon's lieutenant
governor. Mr. Trevino said it was too early to tell whether the
killing of Mr. Salcido was the work of the drug cartels which have
transformed Monterrey, once a peaceful and bustling city proud of its
business prowess and close U.S. ties.

Alberto Islas, a Mexico City-based security consultant, said Mr.
Salcido's death was a serious setback due to his crucial job. "The C-5
center is the eyes and ears of the authorities," he said. "It's where
all the tips from citizens come in, where the information from cameras
goes to, and where ambulances and police assistance is dispatched from."

The government said firemen had responded to reports of a burning car
at about 10 p.m. Sunday. A body, found in the car, wasn't identified
as Mr. Salcido until Monday morning. He had been shot five times, and
the car doused in gasoline and set afire.

Nuevo Leon Governor Rodrigo Medina condemned what he called a
"cowardly" deed, and vowed to bring the killers to justice.

The state of Nuevo Leon and the city of Monterrey have been engulfed
in a wave of killings as a result of a turf war between the Gulf
Cartel and their former enforcers, known as the Zetas, for the past
year. Many police officers and prison guards have been gunned down,
while cartel gunmen have routinely thrown grenades at police stations,
police checkpoints, a local prison and a local newspaper office.
Cartel gunmen have frequently commandeered trucks and buses and used
them to block traffic in major avenues to stop the military and police
from pursuing them.

Kidnappings and extortions in the city have soared, and many
businessmen have moved their families to nearby Texas. Last year,
after a shootout in front of one of the city's elite schools left two
security guards dead, the U.S. pulled out children of embassy
officials from the city.

In response, the Mexican government has beefed up its military
presence in the state and increased security cooperation with local
authorities. A top Nuevo Leon official said that despite the increased
violence, authorities were making progress against the criminal groups.

He pointed to the capture earlier this month of Yohir Perez, a leader
of the Gulf Cartel, who later confessed to 21 murders and seven
grenade attacks. "We have a new head of state security who has
strengthened our ties with the military," the official said. "The
Zetas and the Gulf Cartel have been significantly weakened."

But U.S. analysts see no evidence the government has succeeded in
weakening the drug cartels, in particular the Zetas, a particularly
brutal and violent group. "The Zetas are all over Nuevo Leon," said
George Grayson, an expert on Mexico and organized crime at the College
of William and Mary. "They want to intimidate the business community
there in order to enhance their ability to raise funds through
kidnapping and extortion."

Bruce Bagley, an expert on Latin America and drug trafficking at the
University of Miami said Monterrey continues to be a city under siege.
"The claims of progress ring hollow," he said.

Mr. Salcido's killing comes after a particularly bloody weekend. Seven
presumed cartel gunmen and an innocent bystander were killed in a
shootout with soldiers in Monterrey Saturday. The same day, armed men
threw a grenade into a crowded nightclub early Saturday in
Guadalajara, Mexico's second largest city, which has until now largely
escaped drug violence. Six people were killed and 37 were wounded.

On Sunday, seven people were gunned down in a working class
neighborhood of the metropolitan Mexico City, raising fears that the
drug violence which afflicts most border cities in the north is
beginning to reach the country's capital which has so far been peaceful.

And on Monday, 18 people were killed in shootouts by drug gangs around
the town of Padilla, in the state of Tamaulipas, next to Nuevo Leon,
according to a statement issued by the government of Tamaulipas.

Since December of 2006, when President Felipe Calderon sent out
thousands of soldiers and federal police to reclaim areas of Mexico
controlled by powerful drug cartels, more than 34,000 people have been
killed, most of them in turf wars between rival cartels fighting over
lucrative routes and growing local drug markets. Last year, 15,273
people were killed.