Whack-a-mole Drug War: Mexico's Ombudsman says I don't expect change in Mexico's security policy - Fox News Latino

Ombudsman: I don't expect change in Mexico's security policy - Fox News Latino: "The strategy of fighting Mexico's drug cartels implemented by President Felipe Calderon in 2006 will 'surely continue' until the end of his term in November 2012, Mexican ombudsman Raul Plascencia told Efe.

'When his administration ends, there will have to be an analysis, a review, of the costs, benefits, achievements, or, in some cases, failures, and the new president of the republic will certainly have to make a decision about whether to continue, change or end' the security strategy, in which the armed forces play a key role, Plascencia said.

Calderon 'decided to adopt and execute' the policy of militarizing the drug war shortly after taking office on Dec. 1, 2006, Plascencia, who serves as president of the National Human Rights Commission, or CNDH, Mexico's equivalent of an ombudsman's office, said.

The president's decision was influenced by "the power that members of organized crime groups have acquired," making it impossible for local police in many parts of Mexico to deal with them because of the infiltration of municipal and state law enforcement agencies, Plascencia said.

"This explains, although I cannot justify, the cooperation and support the armed forces have received in carrying out this concrete case of fighting organized crime," the ombudsman said.

"It is desirable and it would be helpful if a larger number of police officers had already been trained" both at the municipal and state levels to let them do their work so the soldiers can return to their barracks, Plascencia said.

"However, day by day, this is not the reality, so a review will have to be made, a detailed study to determine whether it is worth it, it makes sense, and is acceptable to let the army continue exercising a power that belongs to civil authorities ... or whether it belongs to and should continue to be exercised by civil authorities," the Mexican ombudsman said.