MEXICO'S WEAK RULE OF LAW

Over the last two weeks, Mexican authorities in the northern state of
Tamaulipas have unearthed more than 140 bodies. Many are believed to
be the remains of passengers kidnapped from long-distance buses.
President Felipe Calderon has responded by dispatching troops to the
area to patrol the highways where migrants are often targeted by
criminal gangs, and last week, authorities arrested 16 local police
officers believed to have shielded drug cartel members tied to the
killings. But that's not enough in a country where 34,000 people have
been killed since 2006 - 15,000 in the last year alone, according to
Amnesty International.

There is no simple fix to Mexico's bloody drug war. Poverty,
corruption and weak rule of law are all part of the problem. But
judicial reforms are a good place to start.

The president recently appointed Marisela Morales, the former head of
the federal organized crime unit, as the third attorney general in
four years. Although her tenure will be short - because Calderon's
term ends in a little over a year - she can make real and lasting
changes in the office.

Constitutional reforms of the judicial system adopted in 2008 have
yet to be acted on. Morales should push to implement some of the
changes, such as moving from an inquisitorial system - in which
prosecutors build paper files that are presented to judges - to a
system that relies on oral arguments in open court. This would help
eliminate corruption by allowing victims and defendants to challenge
evidence, while also promoting transparency.

And her office can move to strengthen programs that protect victims'
family members and witnesses. Currently, only 20% of crimes are
reported to authorities, and just 5% of those are ever brought before
a judge, according to a report by ICESI, a Mexican University
research group. Morales must also investigate judges and prosecutors
who turn a blind eye or rely on tainted evidence.

Morales alone can't fix Mexico's judicial system, but she can help
restore confidence in it so that crimes are reported and prosecuted.