MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS THREATEN ELECTIONS

MEXICO CITY -- Drug cartels are trying to influence the outcomes of
major elections in Mexico by kidnapping and threatening candidates,
according to Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora.

The remarks by Medina Mora, released by his office Friday,
underscored the Mexican government's growing willingness in recent
months to acknowledge the threat drug cartels pose to the nation's
fragile democracy. The problem is most severe, Medina Mora said, in
the border states of Baja California and Tamaulipas, and in
Michoacan, the home state of Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

"We have evidence, complaints from candidates who were kidnapped or
intimidated, or who received threats intended to influence the
results of an election and the behavior of candidates," Medina Mora
told the Spanish newspaper El Pais, according to a transcript of the interview.

Medina Mora did not disclose the names of candidates who have been kidnapped.

Mexico's drug cartels have been involved in a major turf war over the
past two years, sparked in part by the arrests of several top drug
lords, whose rivals have tried to seize control of vulnerable
trafficking routes. Medina Mora said drug killings rose from 2,350 in
2006 to 2,500 in 2007.

Medina Mora's assessment of the problem is one of the most alarming
to date by a member of Calderon's administration. Besides trying to
influence state elections, drug cartels have penetrated deeply at the
municipal level, he said.

"There are municipal police forces that have collapsed, that function
more as an aid to organized crime than as protection for the public,"
Medina Mora said.

Rumors of drug cartels trying to influence elections are rampant
almost every time Mexican citizens cast ballots. But such rumors are
seldom acknowledged by public officials.

"I've heard politicians deny that the narcos are involved in
elections, but it's what most people who follow Mexican politics
believe is happening," George W. Grayson, a Mexico expert at the
College of William and Mary, said in a telephone interview.

Grayson, who traveled with a group of students to observe the
November governor's election in Michoacan, said Medina Mora's remarks
could be interpreted as an effort by the attorney general to position
himself as the public face of Mexico's battle against drug cartels.
Medina Mora and other public officials, such as top military generals
and Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna, have been
increasingly vocal about the drug fight since President Bush proposed
an aid package for Mexico known as the Merida Initiative.

"There is a lot of jostling going on regarding who is going to be in
charge of Mexico's so-called war on drugs," Grayson said. "The Merida
Initiative is like this big pinata. Different agencies are trying to
position themselves to get fixed-wing airplanes and helicopters once
it's struck."