JUAREZ TO GET 2,000 NEW FEDERAL OFFICERS; STRATEGY TO BE CHANGED

JUAREZ -- President Felipe Calderon will use a slightly different approach
in combating the ongoing drug violence that has claimed more than 4,350
lives since the beginning of 2008.

Calderon announced that an additional 2,000 federal police officers would
be deployed to Juarez this month. The officers, he said, will help stop
extortions and kidnappings that continue to victimize people of all
backgrounds.

If the officers concentrate on those types of crimes, it signals a new
tactic for the Mexican government, which has placed its emphasis on
military and police power to limit the violence. But that has had little
effect since the violence began.

The new federal agents, however, do not have a specific role and their
arrival date has not been established, said Enrique Torres, a Chihuahua
Joint Operation spokesman. The joint operation has been in place since
early 2008 and consists of the Mexican army and federal police.

The city of about 1.5 million people is patrolled by 3,000 municipal police
officers, 200 state officers, 1,800 federal officers and 6,200 soldiers.

Soldiers are expected to remain in the city through March 31, and then the
federal police force may slowly start to take over various operations,
Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said in a statement Thursday.

In an interview last month, Ferriz said he would not start withdrawing
soldiers until crime rates decreased in the city. He said the military's
role was to help deter crime.

Rival drug gangs -- reportedly the Juarez and the Si naloa cartels --
continue their savage and unrelenting war for control of the area's drug
trade. More than 120 people have already been killed in 2010.

The victims have included women and children, and the brutality has
escalated. Decapitated bodies, bodies cut into pieces, hands cut off and
placed on the victim's chest and fatal shootings of disabled people have
become recurrent.

The Mexican army, Ferriz said, was initially sent to Juarez to help contain
crime while the police force was rebuilt with trustworthy officers.

Until recently, he said, the military's role was never to stop homicides.

The tactics used by soldiers and federal officers may be modified at a
meeting today among Mexico's National Security Cabinet, Chihuahua state
leaders, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual and other officials,
Torres said.

Public safety will be discussed at the closed-door meeting.

The Mexican army and federal police will continue to intensify their
presence, Torres said.

Convoys of federal police and soldiers armed with assault rifles continue
to patrol the streets of the city. A helicopter carrying several soldiers
also patrols from above.

Torres said soldiers would also no longer focus only on patrolling heavily
trafficked streets throughout the city. He said they would start to go into
small neighborhoods and conduct checkpoints to look for weapons and drugs.