MEXICAN PRESIDENT DEFENDS WAR ON DRUGS AS VITAL

Mexico City - An explosion of drug violence in Mexico has claimed
hundreds of lives in the past five days and prompted the country's
president to issue a 5,000-word manifesto warning that the fight
against organized crime must continue "or we will always live in fear."

As the latest spasm of killing has spread across the country, cartel
assassins, local thugs and federal troops have died in running
gunbattles, highway ambushes and prison melees. On Tuesday, fresh
shooting broke out in the popular tourist town of Taxco, south of the
Mexican capital. Mexican army troops, acting on a tip, raided a house
and a firefight ensued, leaving 15 gunmen dead.

The string of grisly attacks since Thursday has included the
execution-style slaying of 19 drug addicts in a rehabilitation clinic
and several lethal assaults targeting police, including an ambush
this week that killed 12 federal officers.

In an editorial printed in newspapers across the country Monday,
President Felipe Calderon defended his drug war as vital to the
country's national security. More than 23,000 people have died in
drug-related violence since December 2006, when Calderon first sent
the Mexican military into the streets, according to a government report.

The Mexican president directly blamed the United States.

"The origin of our violence problem begins with the fact that Mexico
is located next to the country that has the highest levels of drug
consumption in the world," Calderon wrote. "It is as if our neighbor
were the biggest drug addict in the world."

The cartels, Calderon said, have grown rich and bold - fed with
billions of dollars from the United States. Experts estimate that
between $10 billion and $25 billion in drug profits flow to Mexico
each year from the north. About 90 percent of the cocaine consumed in
the United States passes through Mexico, which also smuggles at least
half of the marijuana and methamphetamine sold in American cities.
Meanwhile, many of the weapons the cartels use, including grenades
and military-style assault rifles, are smuggled into Mexico from the
United States.

Calderon told his country that Mexico would be in a much worse state
if his administration had not decided to take on the criminal gangs.
It is a battle that is supported by the Obama administration and
Congress, which has dedicated $1.3 billion in aid to train police,
reform the courts and supply drug-sniffing dogs, armored cars,
night-vision goggles and Black Hawk military helicopters.

Several hundred Mexicans, including police officers, have been killed
in armed confrontations in the past week in some of the worst
violence since the U.S.-backed drug war began.