BY NICK MIROFF

MEXICO CITY — The recent changes ordered by new President Enrique Peña Nieto to Mexico’s anti-narcotics partnership with the United States have produced markedly different reactions here and in Washington, underscoring what appear to be diverging perceptions of the drug war’s goals and the costs of fighting it.

Peña Nieto’s decision to limit the ability of American agents to operate in Mexico has been met with dismay by U.S. law enforcement agencies, which left a heavy footprint under the previous administration of Felipe Calderon. They warn that intelligence sharing will suffer if they can no longer choose which Mexican force — the army, navy or federal police — to give sensitive information to; they’ve been instructed to now funnel everything through Mexico’s Interior Ministry instead.

The agents also caution that the personal relationships developed under Calderon will fray if they are no longer welcome to work side by side with trusted partners ... Read More

BY JAIME DAREMBLUM

During his trip to Mexico and Costa Rica last week, President Obama tried to highlight the positive and downplay the negative. Thus, he spoke at length about the growth of trade, commerce, and economic partnerships, arguing that security issues should not be allowed to dominate all discussions of U.S. policy in the region. (Of course, Obama voted against the Central America Free Trade Agreement when he was a senator, and he canceled a U.S.-Mexico pilot trucking program during his first months as president, but never mind.) His remarks were surely welcomed by Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto, who has taken great pains to transform his country’s image abroad. Whereas many Americans and others have come to associate Mexico with drug trafficking and brutal cartel violence, Peña Nieto wants them to learn more about Mexico’s emergence as a manufacturing powerhouse, its increasingly important role in the global economy, and the expansion of its middle class.

His desire to emphasize ... Read More

BY RICHARD FAUSSET

GUADALAJARA, Mexico — Guadalajara police commander Juan Carlos Martinez took Mexico’s national police vetting exam in April 2012. He failed. But no one in government would tell him why.

A few months later, he received a phone call from a man identifying himself as a member of a drug cartel. Why don’t you think about joining us, he said the man on the phone asked. You won’t go hungry.

Martinez, 38, declined the offer and maintains that he had been an honorable cop.

But the phone call was not an anomaly. Here in the state of Jalisco, the cartels have tried to lure ex-cops with online recruitment ads. In the northern state of Coahuila, they put up posters.

It is just one of the challenges Mexico faces as it struggles to deep-clean its troubled police forces, relying on an ambitious control de confianza, or confidence control, test that aims to ensure every officer’s aptitude and ... Read More

BY MICHAEL D. SHEAR & RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD

SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica — In February 2009, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. declared that international drug trafficking posed “a sustained, serious threat” to Americans. Two months later, President Obama, in his first visit as president to Mexico, made it clear that no issue dominated relations between the two countries more, saying drug cartels there were “sowing chaos in our communities.”

Last week, Mr. Obama returned to capitals in Latin America with a vastly different message. Relationships with countries racked by drug violence and organized crime should focus more on economic development and less on the endless battles against drug traffickers and organized crime capos that have left few clear victors. The countries, Mexico in particular, need to set their own course on security, with the United States playing more of a backing role.

That approach runs the risk of being seen as kowtowing to governments more concerned ... Read More

When former Mexican President Felipe Calderón waged his war on drug cartels, the media were guaranteed a crime photo op every few weeks. Alleged gangsters were thrust before the press along with heaps of guns, money and narcotics. These narco-perp walks were often accompanied by videos in which heavy-breathing suspects confessed how they had committed hundreds of murders and smuggled tons of cocaine to American users. And the parades often coincided with top U.S. officials visiting Mexico and trumpeting how the two nations stood shoulder to shoulder in their joint fight against cartel crime.

However, it is unlikely that U.S. President Barack Obama will be shown any such displays when he visits Mexico this Thursday. Since President Enrique Peña Nieto took power in December, the parades have stopped as part of an overhaul in the government’s security strategy. (Human-rights defenders also decried these staged pantomimes of justice.) Peña Nieto has shifted ... Read More

By Dana Priest

For the past seven years, Mexico and the United States have put aside their tension-filled history on security matters to forge an unparalleled alliance against Mexico’s drug cartels, one based on sharing sensitive intelligence, U.S. training and joint operational planning.

But now, much of that hard-earned cooperation may be in jeopardy.

The December inauguration of President Enrique Peña Nieto brought the nationalistic Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) back to power after 13 years, and with it a whiff of resentment over the deep U.S. involvement in Mexico’s fight against narco-traffickers.

The new administration has shifted priorities away from the U.S.-backed strategy of arresting kingpins, which sparked an unprecedented level of violence among the cartels, and toward an emphasis on prevention and keeping Mexico’s streets safe and calm, Mexican authorities said.

Some U.S. officials fear the coming of an unofficial truce with cartel leaders. The Mexicans see it otherwise. “The objective of fighting organized crime ... Read More

BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER

Venezuela’s proclaimed president-elect Nicolás Maduro’s stunning about face after publicly committing to a recount of the April 14 vote is hurting his own chances of serving his term with an aura of legitimacy, and raises growing questions about the entire election process.

Here are some of the questions that Maduro, who was proclaimed president-elect in an “express” ceremony less than 24 hours after the election, has not yet answered:

•  If Maduro is so sure that he won by 51.6 to 49 percent of the vote, as the supposedly neutral National Electoral Council (CNE) announced at the closing of the polls, why doesn’t he accept the recount demanded by opposition leader Henrique Capriles, as Maduro himself had vowed to do in his election night victory speech?

•  If the election results were crystal clear, why did the CNE hold a snap proclamation ceremony to install Maduro the day after the election, ... Read More

BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER

Venezuela’s opposition candidate Henrique Capriles’ impressive show of force in Sunday’s election — despite an unfair election process in which his rival enjoyed all advantages — has turned official winner Nicolas Maduro into a politically weak president-elect.

According to official results announced early Monday by the pro-government head of the National Election Council, acting President Nicolas Maduro — the political heir of late President Hugo Chávez — won with 50.6 percent of the vote, while Capriles received 49 percent.

But even if that result were true — Capriles disavowed it, and is demanding a recount — Maduro was proclaimed the winner with a 1.6 percent victory margin, which was significantly less than Chávez’s 10.8 percent margin of victory in October’s election.

Since Sunday’s turnout was nearly the same as in October, it means that nearly 700,000 Chávez voters switched to Capriles this time, or that Capriles was able to draw voters ... Read More

Small but important indicators suggest that one of the world’s most dangerous cities, Mexico’s Ciudad Juárez, is slowly emerging from a lengthy wave of terror at the hands of major drug gangs. Across the country, drug-related violence has subsided.

It’s tempting to declare that Mexico has turned a corner, but not so fast. Yes, persistent, get-tough policies by former President Felipe Calderón and his successor, Enrique Peña Nieto, are responsible for confronting the drug cartels head-on and making clear that they will not frighten Mexicans into submission. No government can ever cede its sovereign territory to terrorists.

At the same time, the cartels simply might have worn each other out. A killing spree that has left 100,000 dead since 2006 largely involved rival drug cartels murdering each other’s operatives in a massive turf war. One organization, the Sinaloa cartel led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, appears to have prevailed.

A $400 million federal ... Read More

POR ROGER NORIEGA Y FELIPE TRIGOS

Las elecciones celebradas el pasado domingo en Venezuela demostraron lo que ya se esperaba: Un gobierno incapaz de adoptar la democracia como forma de gobierno y decidido a convertir a Venezuela en un régimen totalitario.

Comentaristas y analistas políticos han comparado la elección de Mexico en el 2006 con la del pasado domingo en Venezuela. La diferencia entre México y Venezuela en términos de solidez institucional, separación de poderes y respeto a la libertad de prensa es abismal. México, a diferencia de Venezuela, no es una autocracia y no está gobernada por la influencia directa de otro país (Cuba).

México ha ido consolidado su democracia desde el 2000 con la victoria de Vicente Fox del partido Acción Nacional (PAN) al derrotar al Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), que había gobernado México por más de setenta años.

En el caso de Venezuela, desde 1999 a la fecha, la tendencia ha ... Read More

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ

A Mexican judge on Monday acquitted a former drug czar who was charged with organized crime after he allegedly accepted $450,000 to leak details of police operations against members of the Pacific cartel, an alliance once led by the Sinaloa drug cartel.

Noe Ramirez was Mexico’s top anti-drug prosecutor and the highest-ranking law enforcement official detained in 2008 as part of then President Felipe Calderon’s sweeping effort to weed out corrupt officials with ties to organized crime.

A federal judge in western Nayarit state, where Ramirez has been held at a maximum security prison, ordered his release after determining that the main witness in the case lied and prosecutors might have fabricated evidence, the country’s Federal Judiciary Council said in a statement.

“Regarding the main witness, an informant codenamed ‘Jennifer,’ it was shown that he acted with dishonesty, as it became clear that he lied when he gave his ... Read More

Mexico’s government says drug-related killings from December through March dropped by 14 percent compared to the same period a year earlier.

The Interior Department says 4,249 people were killed during the first four months of President Enrique Pena Nieto’s administration. It says 4,934 were killed between December 2011 and March 2012.

But Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said Wednesday that “it’s too early to assume victorious attitudes.”

The government of President Felipe Calderon stopped releasing figures of drug killings in September 2011.

Osorio Chong said the federal government continued to keep a count.

Bloody clashes are still common in Mexico and there are times when it’s impossible to know how many people died because drug traffickers take their dead away before authorities arrive.

Click here for ... Read More

BY RORY CARROLL

For three years it has chronicled Mexico‘s drug war with graphic images and shocking stories that few others dare show, drawing millions of readers, acclaim, denunciations – and speculation about its author’s identity.

Blog del Narco, an internet sensation dubbed a “front-row seat” to Mexico’s agony over drugs, has become a must-read for authorities, drug gangs and ordinary people because it lays bare, day after day, the horrific violence censored by the mainstream media.

The anonymous author has been a source of mystery, with Mexico wondering who he is and his motivation for such risky reporting.

Now in their first major interview since launching the blog, the author has spoken to the Guardian and the Texas Observer – and has revealed that she is, in fact, a young woman.

“I don’t think people ever imagined it was a woman doing this,” said the blogger, who asked to use pseudonym Lucy to protect her real identity.

“Who am ... Read More

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

After years of intense, cartel-related bloodshed that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and shaken Mexico, new President Enrique Peña Nieto is promising to reduce the murder rate. The security plan he introduced with the backing of the three biggest parties gives Mexico a window of opportunity to build institutions that can produce long-term peace and cut impunity rates. But he faces many challenges. The cartels have thousands of gunmen and have morphed into diversified crime groups that not only traffic drugs, but also conduct mass kidnappings, oversee extortion rackets and steal from the state oil industry. The military still fights them in much of the country on controversial missions too often ending in shooting rather than prosecutions. If Peña Nieto does not build an effective police and justice system, the violence may continue or worsen. But major institutional improvements and more efficient, comprehensive social programs could mean ... Read More

BY JAN-ALBERT HOOTSEN

BADIRAGUATO, Mexico – Neat, freshly painted buildings and a renovated church line the central square. Shiny SUVs rest curbside. Some lack license plates, as if the law doesn’t apply. Mansions crown the surrounding hills.

Badiraguato, a town of 7,000 in Sinaloa state, shouldn’t have such wealth. It’s among the poorest municipalities in Mexico. But you’re better off not asking questions here.

This is a secretive place, hot and quiet in the Sierra Madre foothills. There’s an army barracks, but soldiers mostly stay inside.

It’s the heart of drug country, home to Mexico’s most powerful criminal syndicate: the Sinaloa cartel, led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

For well over a century, local farmers have harvested marijuana and opium in the rugged mountains surrounding Badiraguato. Since the 1980s, the Sinaloa cartel has acted as their Wal-Mart, transporting the mind-bending cargo north with quasi-corporate efficiency, and distributing it to a narcotics-craving United States market.

Ever since former President ... Read More

RESPLENDENT in high-heels and handbags from the world’s priciest designers, Elba Esther Gordillo (pictured), the leader of Mexico’s powerful teachers’ union, has never made any secret of her wealth. Mexicans have long wondered how she is able to maintain her lavish lifestyle on a public servant’s salary. On February 26th federal prosecutors announced what they think is the explanation: the alleged embezzlement of 2 billion pesos ($159m) of union funds. Ms Gordillo, who likes to be known as “la Maestra” (“the Teacher”), was arrested at an airport outside Mexico City.

Jesús Murillo Karam, the attorney general, said Ms Gordillo and two other union officials had spent the money on designer clothes, art, property and cosmetic surgery. Some of the funds were transferred to companies in Switzerland and Lichtenstein registered in Ms Gordillo’s mother’s name, before being used to buy houses in San Diego. This may not be the full extent of ... Read More

BY KEEGAN HAMILTON

The rumor started Thursday afternoon when the newspaper Prensa Libre reported that several narcos were killed during shootout in Guatemala’s remote Petén region. Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez said one of the corpses was “physically very similar” to Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, top boss of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel. Other outlets, including the unfiltered drug war diary Blog del Narco, spread the word on Twitter, piquing the interest of the international press, and sending Mexican and Guatemalan officials scrambling to confirm the powerful drug lord’s purported demise.

The rumor was soon thoroughly debunked. There was no shootout, let alone one that claimed the life of the modern day Pablo Escobar. (Lopez, the Interior Minister, later apologized for the “misunderstanding” and blamed contradictory reports for the confusion.) Not only is El Chapo still very much alive, his legend has grown larger than ever. Already a billionaire according to Forbes, the Sinaloa capo has supplanted Osama bin Laden as ... Read More

BY RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD

MEXICO CITY — The new Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto, campaigned on a promise to reduce the violence spawned by the drug trade and organized crime, and to shift the talk about his nation away from cartels and killings.

But even as he rolled out a crime prevention program last week and declared it the government’s new priority, a rash of high-profile mayhem threatened to undercut his message and raise the pressure to more forcefully confront the lawlessness that bedeviled his predecessor.

The southwestern state of Guerrero, long prone to periodic eruptions of violence, has proved a challenge once again. Gang rapes of several women have occurred in and around the faded resort town of Acapulco, including an attack this month on a group from Spain that garnered worldwide headlines, and an ambush killed nine state police officers in a mountainous no-man’s land. Out of frustration that the state was ... Read More

LAST summer Enrique Peña Nieto’s determined face stared down from election posters, promising Mexicans: “You know I will deliver.” Just over 38% of voters were convinced, enough to hand him the presidency. Since his inauguration on December 1st he has indeed delivered several new policies and reforms—just not the ones voters and pundits expected.

During the campaign Mr Peña’s aides in the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) said that before Christmas of 2012 there would be a fiscal reform to increase the government’s meagre tax revenues. That would be swiftly followed by a shake-up of the energy industry to give a competitive nudge to Pemex, the state-run oil and gas monopoly, at whose headquarters a suspected gas explosion killed 38 people on January 31st. Mr Peña’s critics retorted that he was a puppet of special interests, such as the teachers’ union and powerful broadcasters.

Today the situation seems to have reversed. The promised ... Read More

U.S. companies see “huge” opportunities in Mexico, where the government has pledged to open the state-owned energy industry to more private investment, upgrade transportation and spur telecommunications competition, according to a top official at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Exxon Mobil Corp. is among a group of U.S. companies in Mexico City this week to identify investment opportunities and strengthen ties with Latin America’s second-biggest economy, said Myron Brilliant, senior vice president for international affairs at the largest U.S. business lobbying group. The delegation is meeting with lawmakers and officials from the energy, transportation and economy ministries, Brilliant said.

Mexico has the third-largest proven oil reserves in Latin America after Venezuela and Brazil, according to state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, known as Pemex. President Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office Dec. 1, said during the campaign he would make opening Pemex to more private investment his “signature issue” as he looks to ... Read More