MEXICO: President Felipe Calderon removes Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora who spearheaded drug war

Record ID: 306160

  • Title: MEXICO: President Felipe Calderon removes Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora who spearheaded drug war
  • Date: 9th September 2009
  • Summary: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (SEPTEMBER 07, 2009) (REUTERS) MEXICAN PRESIDENT FELIPE CALDERON AND CABINET MINISTERS WALKING INTO NEWS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 24th September 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVADWZ7P51AHTGGAP4VDSM9TK44
  • Story Text: Mexico's Calderon removes his attorney general who had spearheaded the government's anti-drug campaign that has so far failed to defeat powerful cartels. Caldron also removes Pemex boss Reyes Heroles.
    Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Monday (September 7) removed his attorney general who had spearheaded the government's anti-drug campaign that has so far failed to defeat powerful cartels.
    Calderon told reporters that Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora had resigned and would be replaced by a little-known former law enforcement official. Calderon gave no details about the motive for the move.
    "Today, I have accepted the resignation of Mr. Eduardo Medina Mora Icaza as Attorney General of the Republic. I would like to thank him for the leading role he played. For his professionalism, commitment and loyalty towards Mexico which have been crucial to propel the modernization and purging of justice and attacking organized crime with strength, as we have done," Calderon told a news conference.
    A crackdown by thousands of troops and federal police has been unable to curb turf wars between rival cartels. More than 13,000 people have died in drug violence since Calderon took office in late 2006.
    Calderon has staked his presidency on the war against drugs and the United States has backed him by promising $1.4 billion in aid such as training and equipment for Mexican security forces.
    But cartels are killing about 20 people a day in Mexico -- often after torturing them -- and traffickers have infiltrated many state and municipal police forces.
    "Work carried out by Mr. Medina Mora has been of great value in terms of achieving historic seizures and to bring to justice many leaders of main criminal organizations in our country. His dedication was fundamental to purge police institutions, particularly ministerial, through Operation "Clean," said Calderon.
    Calderon also removed the head of state energy company Pemex, Jesus Reyes Heroles, and Agriculture Minister Alberto Cardenas on Monday in a Cabinet shake-up.
    "Finally, today I have also decided to accept the resignation of Doctor Jesus Reyes Heroles as head of state energy company Pemex. I thank Doctor Reyes Heroles for his important job heading our state company in these, the first three years of my office. His professionalism and high sense of duty were crucial to achieving a historic reform to Mexican oil, the most important one in decades in terms of petroleum," Calderon said adding he would be replaced by Juan Jose Suarez, a former banker and beer executive.
    The outgoing attorney general admitted "successes and errors like in all human endeavors" but defended Calderon's campaign against Mexican drug gangs like the rival Sinaloa and Gulf cartels.
    "After six years in charge firstly of intelligence work to achieve national security and then public security, you, Mr. President, put forward my name at Congress as lawyer to the nation and head of the Attorney General's office. I can't think of such an honorary position. I feel proud of having accompanied you in the battle for public security and justice, the most important duties in a state. I recognize your determination and statistic vision to recover the rights of citizens to live in peace, which must not be deferred. Thank you for this opportunity Mr. President," Medina Mora said.
    He will be replaced by Arturo Chavez, a former official in the attorney general's office, Calderon said.
    A large deployment of troops in the city of Ciudad Juarez, on the border with Texas, has not slowed a wave of drug killings there.
    About a dozen hooded gunmen burst into a drug rehabilitation clinic in Ciudad Juarez last week, lined up patients and shot to death 17 of them.
    Despite making big drug seizures and capturing some cartel leaders, security forces have been unable to catch Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, the head of the powerful Sinaloa cartel.
    Mexico's most-wanted man, Guzman escaped from jail in a laundry van in 2001 and remains at large, probably hiding out in the Sierra Madre mountains of western Mexico.
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