MEXICAN OFFICIALS DEMAND ACTION AGAINST DRUG TRADE

President Blamed For Violent Backlash

MEXICO CITY - The leaders of two political parties called Tuesday for
army troops to be dispatched to the capital city and its suburbs to
fight drug traffickers in the wake of the assassination of a
high-ranking official in the attorney general's office.

President Felipe Caldero'n promised an "unprecedented battle" against
the traffickers, who have killed as many as 1,000 people as they
fight each other and Mexican authorities over control in a lucrative
trade in cocaine, methamphetamines, heroin and other illicit drugs.
Most of the drugs are shipped to the United States.

The shooting in the political, cultural and media capital of Mexico
raised troubling questions about Caldero'n's declared war on
traffickers, which has included troop deployments to several states
and cities where violence has since spiraled. Newspaper editorials
Tuesday accused the president of being unprepared for the backlash.

Police said they had few leads in the shooting of Jose' Nemesio Lugo
Fe'lix, who had been appointed just weeks ago to head a drug
intelligence unit in the attorney general's office. Lu'go Felix was
killed in a rush-hour ambush Monday just a few yards from his office
in the Coyoaca'n district of the city.

"We are witnessing a head-on, unprecedented struggle in the history
of our country against organized crime," said Jorge Tirana, a leader
of the conservative National Action Party in Mexico City's
Legislative Assembly. "We believe that Mexico City has become one of
the most dangerous hot spots in the country" and that the authorities
"have not acted appropriately."

Leaders of the Institutional Revolutionary Party in Mexico City and
surrounding Mexico state joined the call for troops and federal
police to deploy in the Mexico City metropolitan area, home to about
20 million people.

Until recently, widespread drug violence mostly had been a provincial
phenomenon centered in Mexico's border and port cities.

But this year has seen several violent incidents apparently related
to drug trafficking in and around Mexico City, including the shooting
deaths of two federal police officers April 26 on the highway linking
Mexico City to Toluca.

Tuesday, observers said Lugo Fe'lix's death could mark a turning
point in the nation's drug war.

"The killing is proof of the enormous power and impunity of organized
crime," said an editorial in the left-leaning La Jornada, which
accused the Caldero'n government of launching its anti-drug offensive
without adequate preparation or protection for even the highest
officials involved in the operation.

Speaking to hundreds of people at the National Youth Olympiad in
Veracruz, Caldero'n promised to win the drug war.

"We will recover our Mexico, its plazas, parks and streets, which do
not belong to criminals, but rather to the children, the youth and
the free men of our country," he said.

Since taking power in December, Caldero'n has sent army troops and
federal police units to fight drug traffickers in several regions and
cities of Mexico, including the border city of Tijuana and the
southern states of Guerrero and Michoaca'n.