OBAMA TAKES AIM AT FINANCES OF THREE MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS

WASHINGTON - The White House said Wednesday that President Obama was
imposing financial penalties on members of three Mexican drug
cartels, designating the cartels as "kingpins" on the eve of a
presidential visit to Mexico, where the issue of drug violence will
be high on the agenda.

Mr. Obama leaves on Thursday for Mexico City; he will be the first
American president to visit that nation's capital since President
Bill Clinton traveled there 12 years ago. In the weeks leading up to
the trip, the Obama administration has said it intends to work
closely with Mexico to stem a rising tide of drug violence that is
fueled, in part, by cross-border weapons trafficking.

Mr. Obama has the right to identify drug traffickers and their
related businesses for penalties under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin
Designation Act, a 1999 law that has been used to focus on several
dozen foreign operations worldwide, including some in Mexico. On
Wednesday, the White House identified three more Mexican drug
operations that will carry the kingpin designation: Sinaloa Cartel,
Los Zetas and La Familia Michoacana.

The act allows the Treasury Department to freeze any assets of the
cartels found in United States jurisdictions and to prosecute
Americans who help the cartels handle their money.

Drug violence has become so prevalent in Mexico that some experts
warn that the country is on the verge of becoming a failed state. In
an interview with ABC News that was being shown Wednesday evening,
Mexico's president, Felipe Calderon, dismissed that assertion.
"Absolutely not," he said, according to a transcript provided by the
network. "Mexico is not a failed state."