CLINTON VOICES U.S. SUPPORT OF MEXICO IN TRIP

GUANAJUATO, Mexico - More than a month after the disclosure of cables
in which American diplomats questioned progress in Mexico's drug war,
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton came here on Monday to
deliver a message of solidarity with President Felipe Calderon and to
rebut public doubts about persistent violence.

After a private meeting with the Mexican foreign secretary, Patricia
Espinosa, in this historic, pastel-splashed colonial city, Mrs.
Clinton declined during a news conference to directly address the
cables, published by several news organization after they were
revealed by WikiLeaks.

The cables, written by American diplomats in Mexico, said that the
country suffered from squabbling and mistrust among agencies,
intelligence missteps, and a less than complete dedication to the
rule of law. Among the results, according to the cables, is that
criminals are not prosecuted or prosecutions are delayed. In one of
the cables, a Mexican government official raised the fear that some
territory was falling under the control of organized crime groups.

But Mrs. Clinton said that the United States supported Mr. Calderon's
resolve to dismantle major organized crime groups, even if "it is not easy."

The grisly nature of the violence, including the beheading of
drug-gang rivals, shocks and worries the public on both sides of the
border, she said.

The Mexican government's crackdown, begun in December 2006, along
with fighting among the gangs for control of smuggling and other
criminal enterprises, has killed 34,600 people in the past four
years, the government said this month, including 15,273 people last year alone.

"Drug traffickers are not going to give up without a terrible fight,
and when they do barbaric things like behead people, it is meant to
intimidate," Mrs. Clinton said, before touring a historic theater and
meeting with Mr. Calderon in Mexico City. "It is meant to have the
public say just leave them alone, but a president cannot do that."

Mrs. Clinton, nodding to sensitivities here, took pains to concede
the United States' role in providing guns and money to Mexico's
gangs, calling them transnational.

In her first visit since she compared Mexico's battle to an
insurgency, in remarks in September that drew the ire of Mr.
Calderon, Mrs. Clinton made a friendlier comparison this time.

"There was a time 20, 30 years ago people thought New York was going
to be lost to gangs and drugs and crime, and innocent people couldn't
walk down the street," she said. "They couldn't take their children
to a park. And through hard work by law enforcement and a lot of
support and a lot of reforms we've seen a lot of change."

Aides to both secretaries said the visit, to a city that has
experienced little drug war violence, originated with an invitation
from Ms. Espinosa for a catching-up session over a number of issues.

Ms. Espinosa told reporters that she hoped Mrs. Clinton's visit, her
first since last March, would also help show another, quieter face of Mexico.

Mrs. Clinton spoke in a museum that commemorates a bloody revolt
against Spanish loyalists at the beginning of Mexico's war of
independence in 1810.

It shares something with today's headlines. The heads of four
insurgents were hung here during the war of independence.