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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | January 2007 
'Anti-Drug Czar' to Battle Cartels Championed
 El Universal
| | The federal police fight against drugs in Mexico. |
Several legislators on Saturday voiced support for the creation of a post for a national "anti-drug czar" who would be charged with coordinating the government´s intelligence and combat operations against drug-traffickers, kidnappers and other criminals.
Sen. Felipe González González of the ruling National Action Party (PAN) said on Formato 21 radio that the fight against organized crime is a "subject of national interest," which in his view justifies the creation of an "anti-drug czar."
González - the former governor of Aguascalientes - also urged legislators of all parties to "responsibly analyze the feasibility" of having such an official and to support the legal reform that will allow the creation of an administration post for the leader of the war on drugs.
For his part, Sen. Graco Ramírez of the leftist opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), said on Formato 21 that he agrees with establishing an "anti-drug czar," given the growing menace of organized crime in Mexico.
Ramírez said that leading the new anti-narcotics office should be a military man, not a civilian, in order to "avoid the temptation of being corrupted" by the drug trade.
The national media has said the Calderón administration is studying the creation of an anti- drug czar, as part of its national security strategy and in coordination with the military high command as well as U.S. authorities.
According to reports in the media, the office of "czar" would have an advisory council made up of high-ranking officials from the secretariats of defense, Navy, finance and public security, as well as the federal Attorney General´s Office.
MAJOR OFFENSIVE
President Felipe Calderón, who took power last Dec. 1, has ordered a military and police offensive against the drug traffickers, kidnappers and other criminals in his home state of Michoacán as well as in the city of Tijuana on the U.S. border.
In 2006, Michoacán and Tijuana were the scene of more than half the 2,000 murders attributed to organized crime nationwide, authorities say.
Administration officials have told reporters the anti-narcotics operation will be extended to the states of Sinaloa and Guerrero, among other regions.
But Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora on Thursday ruled out that federal forces will be deployed in the near future in Mexico City, where ordinary street crime is a more pressing problem than the activity of drug cartels. |
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