Point man in Mexico's war on drug cartels resigns

Houston Chronicle/AP ^ | Sept. 7, 2009 | OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ

[SwinneySwitch]

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Felipe Calderon replaced his point man in the drug war Monday, accepting the resignation of the attorney general whose image was tarnished by charges that his top confidant was on the take.

The departure of Attorney General Eduardo Medina-Mora constituted the biggest shakeup in Calderon's offensive against organized crime. The president said it signified the second phase of his six-year presidency, which will reach its halfway mark in December.

Calderon said the changes did not signal a relaxation in the government's assault on vicious drug cartels.

But the president's all-out war has drawn criticism as more than 13,500 people have been killed in unrelenting drug-related violence since he took office in late 2006, and his party lost ground in midterm elections in July. Some experts wondered whether the attorney general switch meant the government was considering new approaches.

Calderon also replaced two other Cabinet positions. Agriculture Secretary Alberto Cardenas and the director of the state oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, Jesus Reyes Heroles, resigned.

The president said he will send the Senate the nomination of Arturo Chavez, a little known lawyer who has worked as both a state and federal prosecutor, to replace Medina-Mora. He "has wide experience in law and specifically in combatting organized crime," Calderon said.

Chavez was the top federal prosecutor and state attorney general in the northern state of Chihuahua, across the border from Texas and home to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's deadliest city. With more than 1,300 killed this year, the state has seen the worst of Mexico's drug violence and police corruption — two of the biggest challenges facing the new attorney general.

[SwinneySwitch]

Medina-Mora has been an outspoken critic of U.S. gun laws. "The Second Amendment was not put there to arm foreign criminal groups," he said.

[SwinneySwitch]

Ping!

If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.

[Don Corleone]

Possible job opening for Van Jones if he is willing to relocate.

[BipolarBob]

accepting the resignation of the attorney general whose image was tarnished by charges that his top confidant was on the take.

Are they all on the take? What do we have here? Why aren't lobbyists outlawed from offering incentives to vote a certain way? Vacations, lucrative job offers in private industry and "accidentally" misplaced money bags of non-consecutive numbering bills . . . .

[SwinneySwitch]

He might be moving to Caracas.