U.S., MEXICO PREPARE MAJOR DRUG OFFENSIVE

Leaders to Discuss Extensive Aid Package

MEXICO CITY -- Not a day goes by in Mexico without a corpse turning
up -- sometimes beheaded -- as a casualty of the drug war. The
government has called out the army to regain control, but officers
complain that drug traffickers have superior firepower.

On the U.S. border, authorities in Arizona and other states are no
longer surprised to discover tunnels where drug smugglers transport
their product northward from Mexico.

Unable to contain a crisis that transcends the border, the U.S. and
Mexico are quietly negotiating an unprecedented anti-drug assistance
package that probably would provide hundreds of millions of dollars
in technology, training and equipment to Mexico, according to U.S.
officials who have met with their Mexican counterparts in recent weeks.

The aid package will be a top item on the agenda when President Bush
meets with Mexican President Felipe Calderon at a North American
summit in Quebec this month, State Department officials said. A few
details have emerged in recent weeks, but negotiations have been
shrouded because of the subject's sensitivity on both sides of the border.

The Bush administration is likely to face tough questions on Capitol
Hill from lawmakers who fear a repeat of Plan Colombia, a
multibillion-dollar aid package aimed at battling cartels in that
South American nation but criticized as ineffective.

Calderon, meanwhile, will have to sell the aid package to Mexican
citizens, who are usually suspicious of U.S. intervention in their
domestic affairs.

But there is a sense that both countries need a new approach as the
flow of cocaine and other drugs keeps heading north. And U.S.
officials say they have gained more trust in the Mexican government,
even as it struggles to confront a wave of drug-related violence that
has already claimed nearly 1,500 lives this year.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), one of the lawmakers working to
craft the package with Mexican officials, said Calderon is at a
critical point in a fight that affects both countries. "If we don't
provide him that help, there is this window of opportunity that is
going to close. Here we are at that window," Cuellar said.

'Pincer' Strategy

The anti-drug package would be the largest since the controversial
Plan Colombia, which has allocated more than $5 billion since 2000 to
eradicate cocaine and heroin crops and to battle armed rebel groups.
Cuellar said the package for Mexico could include a range of
components from surveillance equipment to aircraft.

Luis Astorga, an analyst at the National Autonomous University of
Mexico, said he thinks the U.S. is trying to create a "pincer" action
by establishing a presence in both Colombia and Mexico, the
jumping-off point for 90 percent of cocaine and the largest share of
marijuana that enters the U.S.

State Department officials also traveled to Guatemala last month to
push for creation of a regional center for coordinating
counternarcotics efforts in Central America, a key corridor for
transporting drugs in small planes and speedboats from South America
to the U.S.

Ana Maria Salazar, a security analyst in Mexico and one of the
architects of Plan Colombia in the Clinton administration, said it
isn't fair to compare a Mexico package with Colombia's, where most of
the aid went to a military fighting a decades-old guerrilla movement.

Salazar said she expects most of the Mexico package to center on
training, intelligence sharing and surveillance equipment, not on
expensive vehicles such as helicopters because of the logistical
difficulties of deciding which country should control them.

Despite the differences, Salazar said, the controversy behind Plan
Colombia might hamper efforts to sell the package on Capitol Hill.
"Clearly, Plan Colombia will be popping up a lot in the discussions," she said.

Experts say the plan will almost certainly include cooperation
between the armed forces in both countries. That is because Calderon
has made the military the linchpin of his strategy, dispatching about
25,000 troops nationwide.

Astorga said that makes some comparisons with Plan Colombia valid,
including concerns about the Mexican military violating human rights
that mirror allegations against their Colombian counterparts.

Likewise, Astorga said, the U.S. needs to learn one lesson of Plan
Colombia, that when authorities cracked down there, drug production
spread to other South American nations.

"If you push down in Mexico, it will just go to Central America or
elsewhere," he said. "What is certain is that this problem will not
go away with a Plan Mexico."

No Deal Until It's Final

The U.S. already cooperates closely with Mexico on counternarcotics,
having trained about 4,500 law-enforcement officers in 2006,
including specialized instruction on how to detect clandestine meth
laboratories.

While interested in expanding those efforts, a Calderon
administration official said the government has been adamant that it
would not accept a version of Plan Colombia. But Mexican officials
have declined to comment on exactly what the two countries are considering.

"We have been very careful with this. We know that there is no deal
until there is a final deal," one Mexican administration official
said Wednesday.

Likewise, U.S. officials have kept discussions close to the vest.
Officials have praised Calderon's tough approach, including the
historic extradition to the U.S. of 15 drug lords and other criminals
in one day in January. Previously, U.S. officials hesitated even to
share intelligence with their Mexican counterparts because of
concerns that drug traffickers had infiltrated law enforcement.

"Inasmuch as it is a problem for both countries, the solution lies
both with the United States and Mexico," State Department spokesman
Sean McCormack said Wednesday. "President Calderon has taken a brave
and firm stance in fighting these drug cartels. We want to talk to
him about how we can support that effort."

Alejandro Landero, a congressman from Calderon's National Action
Party who has met with U.S. officials to discuss anti-drug
assistance, said he thinks Calderon's tough stand has created the
confidence to take the next step forward with an aid package.

Landero said the Mexican public should not worry about an infusion of
U.S. soldiers into Mexico. He said Calderon would not accept that,
fearing a backlash from Mexicans who resent U.S. meddling, dating
back to a war fought in the 1840s when the U.S. won Mexican territory.

Still, Landero said nationalism must take a back seat to the need to
restore security.

"We need to educate people that weapons and drugs are a transnational
problem," he said. "It is indispensable that our two countries work
together in the most integrated way possible to defeat this threat to society."