Calderon calls gangs the enemy of Mexico

Ioan Grillo

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Felipe Calderon said there will be “no truce and no quarter” in his war on drug gangs following the killing of seven law enforcement officials in an apparent attempt to intimidate the federal government.

Flanked by the commanders of the army, navy and air force, Calderon told troops at a military base that the government will not be strong-armed by organized crime.

“We are not going to surrender, neither from provocation nor attacks on the safety of Mexicans,” Calderon said. “We will give no truce or quarter to the enemies of Mexico.”

Last Tuesday morning, more than a dozen armed assailants killed five agents and two secretaries in simultaneous attacks on two offices of the state attorney general in Acapulco.

The attackers were dressed in military uniforms and pretended to be conducting a weapons check, asking the agents to hand over all their rifles before opening fire.

Police later found a note in a van believed to be used in the attack which stated that the group didn’t care about the federal government and “this is proof” — an apparent reference to the shootings. The vehicle was parked outside a house packed with automatic rifles and military uniforms.

Calderon, a career politician in the conservative National Action Party, narrowly won election last year on promises to smash drug gangs blamed for killing more than 2,000 people in 2006, many in execution-style killings and gruesome beheadings.

Since taking power in December, the president has sent more than 24,000 soldiers and federal police to areas ravaged by drug violence, including 7,000 to Acapulco’s Pacific state of Guerrero.

He has also extradited four alleged drug kingpins to the United States where they could be given life sentences in high-security prisons.

“I instruct you to persevere until victory is achieved,” he told the troops. “New pages of glory will be written.”

Calderon’s position has won him praise from Washington, with U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief Karen Tandy describing his initiative as “an enormous leap forward.”

But lawmakers from Mexico’s opposition Democratic Revolution Party have said the military offensive will not stop the traffickers when their business is so lucrative.

The country’s drug gangs are believed to earn more than $10 billion a year smuggling Mexican-made heroin, marijuana and amphetamines and Colombian cocaine into the United States.

Democratic Revolution lawmakers helped draft a bill to legalize possession of small amounts of cocaine, heroin and marijuana, which Mexico’s Congress approved last year. However, former President Vicente Fox refused to sign the bill after an outcry from U.S. officials.

(Associated Press)