| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico 
Mexico Kills Top Capos but Drug Trade Still Thrives
 Mica Rosenberg - Reuters
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December 14, 2010
Mexico City - By killing or capturing at least seven top drug cartel leaders in the past year, the Mexican government is sending a message: "Kingpins, beware."
But without confronting deeper problems of corruption, money laundering, weak police and courts, and overcrowded prisons, taking down capos will have little effect on the lucrative drug trade, instead risking more of the violence that is scaring off some investors, security experts say.
Late last week, Mexican marines killed Nazario Moreno, or "The Craziest One," a top leader of the brutal La Familia (The Family) drug cartel in President Felipe Calderon's home state of Michoacan in western Mexico. [ID:nN10114408]
Clashes caused war-like scenes of burned-out and bullet-riddled cars around Michoacan's colonial capital of Morelia as marines and federal police clashed with La Familia's gunmen.
Moreno's death was the latest in a string of victories for Calderon who has poured billions of dollars into the country's security forces since deploying the army across Mexico to fight cartels four years ago.
The most wanted traffickers are being successfully targeted thanks to improved police and military operations and intelligence sharing with the United States.
Last month, Gulf cartel boss Ezequiel "Tony Tormenta" Cardenas was killed by marines in Matamoros across the U.S. border from Brownsville, Texas and in August police arrested a frontman for the Beltran Leyva drug gang in central Mexico.
The head of that cartel, Arturo Beltran Leyva, was killed last December by a Mexican navy unit trained by the United States and acting on information from the U.S. embassy, said a State Department cable recently released by WikiLeaks.
The government is eager to laud the successes from fallen drug lords as it faces criticism for a rising drug war death toll, now above 33,000 since late 2006.
"The Federal Police now has superior capabilities that allow us to be in every corner of Mexico with computer technology and security professionals," Public Security Minister Genaro Garcia Luna said on Saturday at the funeral for five policemen killed in the battles in Michoacan. "Now more than ever, it is clear the criminals feel cornered."
But drug trade experts say that as narcotics consumption remains strong in the United States and billions of dollars of profits continue to roll south, Mexico is a long way from mirroring Colombia's successful efforts of improving security after years of narco violence in the 1980s and 1990s.
"Taking out the major capos ... is important but if you think about a comprehensive strategy to fight organized crime, that might be 25 percent, you still have 75 percent to go," said analyst Tony Payan at the University of Texas in El Paso, across from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's deadliest drug war city.
The bulk of the battle should focus on reforming Mexico's notoriously corrupt local police forces and creating jobs to stop poor youths from being lured into crime, Payan said.
FIGHT TO THE TOP
The rising drug violence -- worrying Washington and businesses near the U.S.-Mexico border -- is also becoming a political liability for Calderon and his conservative National Action Party, or PAN, facing presidential elections in 2012.
Going after the top cartel brass sparks both internal battles for power and attacks from other gangs muscling in on turf, and many Mexicans have the sense the government is losing the battle for security, a recent poll showed.
"Eliminating top level organized crime members generates more violence since there is more competition to reach the top," said Eduardo Buscaglia, a drug expert at ITAM University in Mexico City.
Bomb scares cleared out schools and hospitals in Matamoros in the days after Tony Tormenta was killed.
Violence also escalated in the once quiet state of Jalisco, that borders Michoacan, after security forces killed Sinaloa cartel kingpin Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel in July. Suspected drug hitmen killed 11 people during religious celebrations on Friday night in the town of Tecalitlan in Jalisco. [ID: nN11120998]
Calderon, faced with legislative deadlock in the congress, has failed to pass meaningful police reform and laws to tighten controls on money laundering [ID:nN19195872] and the judicial system is still unable to prosecute cases properly.
A case last year accusing 35 mayors and other government officials in Michoacan of ties to La Familia collapsed in court on faulty evidence. Most of the suspects were freed.
"The government does not have the capacity to prosecute criminals," said independent political analyst Alberto Islas. "We have the ability to identify them and assassinate them, but we do not have the ability to put them behind bars."
(Editing by Robin Emmott and Cynthia Osterman)
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