| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | October 2009 
U.S. Training Bolsters Mexico's War on Drugs
 Chris Hawley - USA Today
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October 29, 2009
| | The program focuses on teaching investigative skills such as interviewing witnesses, collecting evidence and performing surveillance to Mexico's newly created Federal Police. | |
San Luis Potosi, Mexico — U.S. Marshal Israel Barajas was going "rabbit" hunting.
Standing in a park in central Mexico, he and other trainers were teaching Mexican police cadets to tail a suspect – a "rabbit" in police slang – as part of an unprecedented effort to help Mexico in its crackdown on drug cartels. "Remember, I don't want you going out all in a big group," said Barajas, who is from Houston. He reminded the cadets they needed to watch out for their partners – and would be pulled from the exercise if they failed.
Since July, a total of 81 U.S. law enforcement officers have come here on three-week shifts to teach such basic police skills to their Mexican counterparts. The program, part of a $1.4 billion U.S. aid package for Mexico, marks a major escalation in American involvement in the drug war here.
It's also a first for Mexico, where the government has historically been reluctant to allow U.S. agents or troops on its soil because of animosity that dates to the 1846-48 Mexican-American War.
"This is really historic," said Noe Sánchez, academic director at the academy. "We've never had this kind of international cooperation before."
The program focuses on teaching investigative skills such as interviewing witnesses, collecting evidence and performing surveillance to Mexico's newly created Federal Police. The federal force and the Mexican military have played a greater role in anti-drug efforts than local police forces, which are often plagued by corruption and insufficient training.
All of the U.S. instructors speak Spanish, and they come from an array of agencies including the FBI, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and the Drug Enforcement Administration, as well as city police departments across the USA.
The Mexican police "are excited; they want to learn," said Barajas, the U.S. marshal. "You can tell they really want to be here. They want to be part of the change."
On a recent morning, Dante Servin, a detective from the Chicago Police Department, was quizzing cadets on a tricky case study in Methodology Class. A routine investigation into a shoe store robbery, a state crime, had turned up a counterfeiting operation, a federal offense.
"First of all, let's decide: Can we legally enter the store?" Servin asked. The students decided they needed a search warrant.
In another class, Paul Lewenthal, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent from San Diego, was teaching cadets how to plan an investigation. Down the hall, students in Surveillance Class were learning to operate digital cameras donated by the U.S. government.
Every two weeks, the program flies in U.S. federal prosecutors who run a mock trial exercise. The cadets are put on the witness stand and cross-examined about a case they have studied, a jewelry store robbery.
The trainers are trying to get Mexican police ready for U.S.-style oral trials, which the Mexican government plans to phase in over the next eight years. Mexico's current legal system relies mostly on the exchange of written documents.
So far, 2,052 Federal Police have graduated from the training program, and an additional 1,051 are taking classes now, program administrator Rafael López said.
The $4.5 million program is funded by the U.S. State Department's Narcotics Affairs Section and run by Kaseman LLC, a Virginia-based contractor. It also brings in police from Colombia, El Salvador, Spain, Canada, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands. The U.S. government is also providing aid in the form of helicopters, X-ray trucks and computer systems.
More than 10,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico since President Felipe Calderón launched the anti-drug crackdown in 2006.
Colombians make up the bulk of the other foreign instructors. Many are graduates of similar U.S. training efforts in Colombia, where Plan Colombia – a U.S.-backed program – has helped the government beat back leftist rebels and drug traffickers.
Ariel Lozano of the Colombian National Police says he went through basic training with a U.S. instructor four years ago. Now he's a teacher here.
"We're hoping these students can learn from what we've gone through," he said.
Hawley is Latin America correspondent for USA TODAY and The Arizona Republic
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