Mexican army takes lead fighting crime
Critics bristle at general's talk, tactics against police corruption, drug trade
The Associated Press
updated 7:16 p.m. ET, Fri., Aug. 8, 2008

TIJUANA, Mexico - If you witness a murder or a drug deal in the crime-stricken border city of Tijuana, don't bother calling the police — call the Mexican army.

In a slap at the police, Gen. Sergio Aponte Polito, the army's top officer in northwest Mexico, has publicized a phone number for pleas for help and on Sunday gave the news media his latest 5,700-word bombshell letter complaining of police corruption.

Such public provocations are extremely out of character for military leaders in Mexico, and the general may have gone so far that he might be forced out: A state official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed Mexican newspaper reports that the general will be relieved of his command as early as Friday.

A Defense Secretary spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The general's fate reflects larger questions in Mexico about how to control drug-fueled violence, which has soared in the years since President Felipe Calderon moved to openly confront the cartels that move cocaine into the United States.

Some Mexicans see the police as corrupt and the army as the only hope, but others fear soldiers are overstepping their authority and abusing their power by raiding the homes of suspected criminals.

Aponte leads many of the 20,000 troops Calderon dispatched to retake wide swathes of Mexico that were taken over by drug trafficking. And he has pushed limits by asserting a dominant crime-fighting role for soldiers in a city where police are considered too ineffective or corrupt to call. He named his phone-in campaign "Nosotros, si vamos," or "Yes, we respond."

"What he's doing is completely unprecedented," said Roderic Camp, an expert on the Mexican military at Claremont McKenna College. "Instructing citizens to call the army is really unique."

'A nameless, faceless entity'
The jowly, silver-haired 64-year-old general speaks in severe tones and writes as if he's inscribing his epitaph. In his latest missive, he declared that he was relieved of four previous assignments because he denounced ties between drug traffickers and public officials, and openly challenged the defense ministry to support him this time.

In another indignant tirade four months ago, he accused police of working for drug lords, bank robbers, migrant smugglers and other criminals and even named officials he called crooked.

Analysts expect his successor would differ in style, not substance. The military would continue to exert a high profile, with a leading role in the fight against crime, but without Aponte's knack for confrontation.

"The military is supposed to be a nameless, faceless entity," said David Shirk, director of the University of San Diego's Trans-Border Institute. "It's supposed to be an institution, not about personalities. Aponte's behavior deviates dramatically from the military culture."

Aponte, who declined an interview request from The Associated Press, has claimed many army achievements under his command — 1,388 people arrested, 539 tons of marijuana seized, 211,000 bullet casings recovered — but it's hard to say if he has made Tijuana safer. The city's murder toll hit 285 before the end of July, nearly eclipsing 339 for all of 2007.

Still, his actions are wildly popular in a city worn down by years of escalating violence and failed promises of police overhauls.

"We trust the army because they get the job done," said Maribel Martinez, a hairdresser in a modest neighborhood where the military had an all-night shootout in March to free a kidnapping victim from a home. "People are scared that the police will cause you harm, so no one calls them."

Toast of the town
When Aponte first arrived in 2006, Tijuana was suffering a terrifying wave of kidnappings. Aponte set up vehicle checkpoints to search for arms, and stripped police of their pistols to test for ballistics.

Some officers protested by brandishing slingshots — a striking contrast to drug traffickers armed with AK-47s and grenade launchers. The probe apparently went nowhere; authorities never released results of the ballistics findings.

Aponte shifted course this January, during a gruesome crime spree that included the assassinations of three police commanders, by urging people to report crimes directly to the army. He publicized a phone number and addresses on Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail.

By April, he said the army had taken about 2,000 reports. Aponte went from a virtual unknown to toast of the town.


General's detractors
Some fault him for failing to offer evidence when he names crooked officials. And Francisco Javier Sanchez, Baja California's human rights ombudsman, said it is illegal for the army to lead the fight against crime unless the government declares a state of siege, which it hasn't.

"The fact that (the army) is fielding complaints, that it is investigating, that it's detaining people on its own — all of that is against the law," Sanchez said. "There's a perception that (the army) is our savior. However, I believe it shouldn't be that way. The police should be doing this work."

But few in Tijuana look to the police for answers. Many blame low pay and death threats to any who dare to confront drug traffickers. Tijuana officers earn the equivalent of about $1,400 a month. Six have died on the job since December, each leaving behind a death benefit of about $50,000.

Some call for better coordination among disjointed civilian agencies or even a national police force. Tijuana's 2,400 police officers are the most visible presence, but do not investigate. Detective work falls to the state for murders, kidnappings and robberies and to federal investigators for trafficking in drugs, arms and migrants.

Others recommend a unified national database to prevent corrupt police officers from job-hopping after they are fired.

Alberto Capella, Tijuana's public safety secretary, applauded Aponte's work but said the army alone can't fix the city. He cautions that it will take time for the police to win the public's trust.

"We are fighting two wars," he said. "The first war is inside the police, and the second one is the normal war, outside on the streets, against crime."

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26091269/