Calder¿May Reduce Military's Anti-Drug Role 2/7/08 6:19 AM

Calder¿May Reduce Military's

Anti-Drug Role
Mexican Leader's Statement Follows Allegations of Abuse
By Manuel Roig-Franzia
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, February 7, 2008; A18

MEXICO CITY, Feb. 6 -- Faced with growing complaints

about alleged human rights abuses, Mexican President
Felipe Calder¿n said Wednesday he would consider using
the military less to fight drug cartels.

Calder¿n made his remarks during a meeting at the

presidential palace with Louise Arbour, the U.N. high
commissioner for human rights. In a speech, Calder¿n described the Mexican army and navy as playing a
"subsidiary" role in combating organized crime and said he would use them "more sporadically" as Mexico's
corruption-plagued civil institutions became better organized. Calder¿n did not specify when he thought
that might happen.

At the gathering, Arbour urged Mexico to include international human rights standards in "your constitution,
your federal and state laws, and in the daily practices of all government officials."

The day before, Arbour had made headlines here by criticizing the use of the military in Mexico's battle
against drug cartels.

"I understand there are those who say that at times you have to turn to a more powerful force such as the
army, but it seems to me that in the long term it is frankly dangerous," Arbour said on the Mexican
television network Televisa. "The army should not be doing the job of the police."

During his first 14 months in office, Calder¿n has dispatched more than 25,000 troops and federal police
officers to nine Mexican states troubled by drug violence. Calder¿n has credited the deployment with
contributing to more than 20,000 drug arrests and the seizure of more than 50 tons of cocaine.

But the presence of troops has not stemmed the drug violence blamed for more than 4,800 deaths in the past
two years. And numerous international and Mexican human rights organizations, including Mexico's
government-sponsored human rights commission, have called for the troops' removal because of hundreds
of complaints about alleged rapes, beatings and illegal arrests.

Alejandro Ju¿rez Zepeda, a spokesman for the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of
Human Rights, said his group had declined an invitation from the Mexican government to attend forums
scheduled during Arbour's visit.

"We thought our presence would legitimize something that was little more than a photo-op," he said in an
interview Wednesday. "There have been no signs that the Mexican government wants to remove troops from

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Calder¿May Reduce Military's Anti-Drug Role 2/7/08 6:19 AM

this fight against drug cartels. On the contrary, the president's comments appear to be politically motivated
to take advantage of the high commissioner's visit."

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