IN THIS WAR, FOX IS ACTUALLY WINNING SOME BATTLES

His Anti-Narcotics Drive Is Drawing Applause From Washington

It was the first time in Mexico that television cameras were allowed inside
a military courtroom, and viewers got an eyeful. Newscasts aired clips of
the trial of two army generals accused of using military aircraft to help
drug traffickers move cocaine and marijuana through Mexico to the U.S. On
Nov. 1, General Francisco Quiros and Brigadier General Arturo Acosta were
stripped of their rank and handed 15- and 16-year prison sentences,
respectively.

The televised trial was part of President Vicente Fox's campaign against
widespread collusion by officials in the multibillion-dollar drug trade.
"It's sending a message to society and to the officer corps that this won't
be tolerated," says Roderic Ai Camp, an expert on the Mexican military at
Claremont McKenna College in California.

In the two years since Fox took office, his anti-narcotics effort has
snagged 40 drug lords. The biggest fish: Benjamin Arellano Felix, the
brains behind the ruthless Tijuana cartel, which handled an estimated
one-third of the cocaine entering the U.S. Then in October, a yearlong
undercover operation dismantled a ring of 22 corrupt officials from the
attorney general's office and other agencies who had been funneling
classified information to drug cartels. "This is a war we have to fight on
all fronts," Fox declared on Nov. 3, describing a new drug policy that will
focus on curbing drug use at home as well as quashing trafficking.

The antidrug push is one of the few big successes in Fox's otherwise
beleaguered presidency. That's largely because Fox enjoys complete control
of the federal agencies involved in the drug fight and doesn't need
permission from the opposition-dominated Congress to go after drug
kingpins. As the first opposition President after 71 years of one-party
rule, Fox is not beholden to the political bosses who may have links to the
narcos.

Another factor: The President has no qualms about ruffling nationalist
feathers by cooperating with Washington, which has enthusiastically praised
Fox for his resolve. Mexico's previous Presidents made a show of nabbing a
trafficker or two to please Washington, but U.S. officials were reluctant
to share intelligence because some corrupt Mexican officials leaked the
information to the cartels. "You have to give Fox credit because he's doing
more than all of his predecessors combined," says a U.S. law-enforcement
official who has worked with Mexico for years.

Although Fox's war is driven mainly by Mexican fears of rampant
lawlessness, he is also hoping that the Bush Administration will reward him
by later legalizing the status of millions of Mexicans working in the U.S.
With the White House focused on the war on terrorism, that's unlikely
anytime soon. But some analysts say it could happen in a second Bush term.

For his sweeping crackdown, Fox is relying heavily on the Mexican military.
That may sound odd given the spectacular prosecution of the two army
generals. But the army is still much less tainted by corruption than the
local and federal police. That's why Fox named a general, Rafael Macedo de
la Concha, to head the attorney general's office. He has been instrumental
in rooting out corruption and bolstering the staff's investigative skills.
"The only thing that had been lacking in this country was political
willingness and determination to go after official corruption, which is the
biggest problem," says Jesus Blancornelas, the muckraking editor of the
Tijuana newspaper Zeta, who survived a 1997 shooting by the Arellano Felix
gang.

As impressive as Fox's achievements are, law-enforcement officials say the
flow of drugs into the U.S. has probably been only minimally disrupted, as
smaller gangs pick up the slack from the crippled cartels. Visiting Mexico
City in June, John P. Walters, director of the White House office of
national drug control policy, said U.S. street prices for drugs were
rising, thanks to Mexico's efforts. Yet the $60 billion U.S. market for
illegal drugs remains largely intact. The drug war will never be won. But
at least Fox is fighting harder than any other President ever has.

[SIDEBAR]

(available online)

Fighting Mexico's Drug Kingpins

NEW ENFORCERS

The Fox administration has created carefully vetted military and civilian
investigative teams.

BETTER INTELLIGENCE

Mexico's close cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
has led to an unprecedented two-way sharing of information.

SWEEPING CRACKDOWN

By striking simultaneously at top leaders of main cartels, Mexico has
disrupted the flow of drugs to the U.S.

Data: BusinessWeek

[PHOTO CAPTION AND CREDIT]

ACOSTA: He drew a stiff prison sentence

PHOTOGRAPH BY VICTOR R. CAIVANO/AP/WIDE WORLD