Calderon Told: Enough

War on Drugs:

PRESIDENT FINDS RECEPTION IS MIXED AFTER RECENT SLAYINGS

JUAREZ -- Anger, fear and skepticism received Mexican President Felipe
Calderon in Juarez on Thursday.

Testimonials of leaders in the city where more than 4,500 people have
died in the past two years had the same theme: enough with the violence.

Calderon, his wife, Margarita Zavala, and seven members of his Cabinet
were surrounded by hundreds of heavily armed soldiers and police officers.

At the Cibeles convention center, business, religious and education
leaders complained about the brutality of the drug war, human-rights
violations by the military, unemployment and increasing taxes.

The massacre that killed 15 people, mostly teenagers on Jan. 30,
triggered Calderon to visit the deadliest city in Mexico for the
second time in his administration. He sent his condolences to the
families of the victims and mentioned ambiguous changes in the
strategy to fight organized crime. The military presence will continue
in the border city.

"It pains me as the president of the nation what's going on," Calderon
said.

Some relatives of those killed in the massacre showed their backs to
the president during his speech. Angry and upset, four mothers of the
victims killed in the birthday party massacre refused to attend a
private meeting with the president earlier at the community center
Casa Amiga.

At one point, Luz Maria Davila Garcia, who lost her teenage sons in
the mass attack, interrupted a speech by Chihuahua Gov. Jose Reyes
Baeza Terrazas and bypassed security to talk to Calderon face to face.

Davila Garcia, 43, wanted Calderon to retract a remark he made two
days after the massacre, in which he said preliminary investigations
revealed the fight between the Sinaloa and the Juarez cartels gangs
sparked the attack.

"I cannot tell you, you are welcome, because for me, you are not," she
told Calderon. "I want justice, not only for my two sons, but for the
rest of the children."

Calderon did not retract the statement, but he said he understood and
apologized if it offended them.

"They were model kids, athletes, students, good students and good
children, like we would want all our children to be," Calderon said
during his remarks.

The government, including the president, has not done everything it
can to coordinate different corps, he said.

"Mistrust, political differences that exist have been an obstacle to
make an efficient job," Calderon said. "We are all responsible. I also
assume the responsibility that the federal executive carries."

Calderon, flanked by the secretary of state, health, education and
public safety, among others, said four areas need to be revised in the
government's battle against organized crime.

They are a revision of the criminal code, improved daily law
enforcement operations, improved education and health and use of
better technology for police.

Calderon said Mexico's 9-1-1 emergency telephone number is not working
properly, which has caused emergency responses to fail. He also said
keeping an eye on infiltration and corruption among the military and
federal police was part of the new strategy.

Calderon said the federal government has to deal with the growing
problem of extortions and kidnappings, which have plagued Juarez and
other parts of the country.

Before and after Calderon spoke, Juarez mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz
addressed the 500 in attendance.

During his talk, he was met with boos and screaming "miente," which
translates to "he lies."

"The result of this meeting should not be a cry for war," Reyes Ferriz
said.

After Reyes Ferriz said there were Juarenses who have stayed in the
city to confront the battle, people booed him and said he does not
live in Juarez, but in El Paso.

El Paso Mayor John Cook sat at the first row and talked to some Juarez
leaders before the president's visit.

People warmly received Gov. Baeza Terrazas who said political
campaigns in Mexico should not get in the way of the discussion of the
drug war.

Calderon's visit also came less than a week after Baeza Terrazas
proposed to make Juarez temporarily the capital of the state.
Chihuahua City is the capital. The legislators will vote on the move
today.

High-school and college students protested outside the convention
center during the meeting.

One of the protesters was Chihuahua state representative Victor
Quintana Silveyra. Quintana Silveyra accuses the military of many
human-rights violations, such as torture and kicking residents out of
their homes. He is the human-rights commissioner for Chihuahua's Congress.

"This is a visit that arrived 5,000 dead people late," he said. "After
a lot of unheard calls, Calderon comes to Juarez."

Soldiers and federal police sealed off the neighborhood Villas de
Salvarcar, where the birthday party massacre occurred, and prevented
reporters from going inside Thursday morning.

Officials said Calderon visited with some of the families of the
victims around noon at the community center in the area.