MEXICO ARMY TAKES POLICE ROLE by By Paul de la Garza, Tribune Staff Writer.
Copyright (c) 1997, Chicago Tribune Company

Trying to combat rampant police corruption, President
Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon increasingly has turned to
the military, putting generals in top positions previously
held by civilians and giving soldiers greater
responsibility in the war on drugs. Zedillo's moves have
drawn praise from some quarters, including some civilian
U.S. government officials. But critics, among them military
affairs experts in the U.S., are cognizant of the
oppressive role the army has played throughout history in
Latin America, and fear the shift in policy can only lead
to abuses of power.

"It's easy to bring them (the military) into the
political arena," said Donald Schulz, a professor at the
U.S. Army War College. "It may not be so easy to get them
out."

Beyond that, human rights activists, members of
opposition political parties and even guerrilla groups fear
that with national elections coming, Zedillo is flaunting
the military's presence in public to silence dissent, a
charge that Zedillo's administration dismisses as
"completely unfounded."

Since taking office in late 1994, Zedillo has installed
generals to lead the federal drug agency, the federal
judicial police and the Mexico City police department.
These generals, in turn, have placed their cronies in key
management jobs.

Although the appointments make some people nervous,
officials in Mexico and the U.S. say Zedillo, who promised
during his campaign to battle corruption, really didn't
have a choice, given the unbridled corruption of the local,
state and federal police.

"We understand we have to reform the institutions that
provide security to the citizenry . . . and the military
has proven very reliable," said a government official.
"When it comes to honesty, they are unmatched in Mexico."

Nonetheless, critics are concerned that the allure of
drug money will corrupt the armed forces. In February, the
nation's drug czar, Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, was
arrested on charges of protecting one of Mexico's most
powerful traffickers in exchange for bribes. Gutierrez had
been on the job two months.

Officials acknowledge the potential for corruption in
the armed forces concerns them, considering that the take
from drug trafficking in Mexico is estimated as high as $30
billion a year.

"That is our biggest worry and our biggest risk, that
the prestige of the military will be lost," said Gen.
Enrique Salgado, a 43year military veteran whom Zedillo
named Mexico City police chief last June.

The defense minister, Gen. Enrique Cervantes Aguirre, is
obsessed with maintaining an honest military, officials
say, and the training soldiers receive instills discipline
and the values of honor and patriotism.

These officials also cite the arrest of Gutierrez,
seeing it as a reminder for military personnel that no one
is above the law.

Schulz, a professor at the Army War College's Strategic
Studies Institute in Carlisle, Pa., said that while the
Mexican military generally has a clean image, he sees
danger in the way the Zedillo administration has been
deploying the troops.

In the past, the Mexican military, one of the smallest
in Latin America with 180,000 soldiers, mostly conducted
disasterrelief programs and worked to eradicate drug
crops, including fields of opium poppies and marijuana.
Now, not only is it enforcing national security policy, but
it is defining policy as well, he said.

With their increasing role in law enforcement, military
officials have gained political clout. According to the
weekly magazine Proceso, the military in 1995 saw its
budget jump by 44 percent.

Despite public disclaimers, the budget increase leaves
the military indebted to the ruling party, Schulz said, and
just the fact that soldiers are more visible on the street
intimidates the political opposition.

The president's ruling Institutional Revolutionary
Party, or PRI, has run Mexico for 70 years, but it faces
some of the stiffest competition in its history in national
elections in July.

According to some polls, opposition parties seem poised
to make appreciable gains, including possibly winning the
coveted mayor's office in the capital.

Zedillo's allies say the notion that he is using the
military to scare people is sheer nonsense. As for the
military budget, they say, it was minuscule to begin with.

A top presidential aide emphasized that the military's
role in law enforcement is temporary, and that once the
administration achieves its goal of improving the civilian
police, the military will pull out.

"I see a great darkness and unknown that Mexico is
moving into," Schulz said. "The idea is to return law
enforcement back to the civilians, but first you have to
build strong, confident, honest police and judicial
institutions, and Mexico has never been able to do that."
The signs of militarization are everywhere, from key drug
routes near Tijuana and Chihuahua on the U.S. border, to
the crimeplagued streets of Mexico City and the
guerrillaoccupied states of Chiapas and Guerrero in the
south.

Soldiers are replacing the notoriously corrupt federal
judicial police, who are responsible for drug
investigations, and in Mexico City, soldiers are replacing
civilian police officers while the officers attend police
training. Last month, about 2,500 soldiers moved into the
capital's most dangerous neighborhood, Iztapalapa, on the
southeast side.

Neighborhood residents so far have nothing but praise
for the soldiers.

"I feel safer," said Natalia Fernandez, 36, the mother
of three children. "They are more on top of what's
happening."

Francisco Xochicale, 75, a former police officer and
soldier, said the difference between soldiers and police is
soldiers are disciplined. "In the military," he said, "they
show you how to be a gentleman, not a thief." As the
military moves into civilian posts to help fight
corruption, critics fear new political power and drug money
may be too tempting. GRAPHIC: PHOTOS 2PHOTOS: Police subdue
an assailant during an attempted robbery of a Mexico City
jewelry store last August. But the police have been put
under army command, and soldiers (right) are increasingly
in evidence on the capital streets that police officers
used to patrol. Residents have commented that the soldiers
appear to be more honest and disciplined. Tribune file
photo.