U.S. travel alert creates friction with Mexico for new Bush team

MEXICO CITY - A U.S. alert about violence along the border in Mexico created unexpected friction with a crucial neighbor Thursday, just as new Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other new members of President Bush's team are starting to take office.

The public announcement was issued because of an upswing of killings and kidnappings linked to battles between drug gangs in towns along the Mexican side of the border, but Mexico's top Cabinet officer, Interior Secretary Santiago Creel, insisted that the U.S. statement "went too far."

"Why didn't they say anything a week ago when I was in that meeting with the secretary of homeland security?" Creel said in a nationally televised interview, referring to a meeting with Tom Ridge on Jan. 17 in Calexico, Calif. "He didn't express any concern to me. On the contrary," Ridge praised Mexico's actions, Creel added.

The outburst of Mexican irritation came on the day that Rice took over and as the Bush Administration is preparing to change leadership at the Homeland Security and Justice Departments, which deal with issues of drug trafficking, immigration and security along the long Mexican border.

Mexican officials seemed especially irritated by the emphatic manner of the U.S. alert: A formal announcement by the State Department was accompanied by the public release of a letter to Mexican officials by U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza - who is considered here to be a relatively close friend of Bush.

Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez called the statement "exaggerated and outside the scope of reality" and said Mexican leaders are demanding meetings to discuss the issue.

Both Creel and U.S. officials said much of the violence has resulted from Mexico's success in arresting drug chieftains, forcing destabilized networks of gangsters to fight for control of drug routes.

"We are giving battle and this is creating the conflicts we are seeing," Creel said.

Officials also are in the midst of a heavy-handed cleanup of the country's three top-security prisons and last week sent troops and federal police to patrol several border cities.

Wednesday's State Department announcement noted that "the overwhelming majority of victims of violent crime have been Mexican citizens" but said some U.S. citizens have been targets and said all should be aware of "the deteriorating security situation."

"Mexico's police forces suffer from lack of funds and training and the judicial system is weak, overworked and inefficient," the State Department said. It noted that "some elements of the police might be involved" in the violence.

Garza's letter referred to "the incapacity of the local public forces of order to confront the battle" between drug gangs, which he said could chill tourism.

He offered U.S. cooperation, but Creel expressed irritation with his call for Mexican officials to continue to take action.

"Sure, we have a relation of neighbors, of friendship. We are partners in a free trade treaty," Creel said. "But up to there, eh? From the Rio Grande below to the south, just us."

Derbez complained of "an erroneous evaluation on the part of our colleagues" in the United States.

Derbez was stung Thursday by a formal announcement that the United States would not support his candidacy for leadership of the Organization of American States. Washington threw its backing to former Salvadoran President Francisco Flores.

Creel, meanwhile, is the leading contender for the 2006 presidential nomination of President Vicente Fox's National Action Party and the spat gives him a chance to answer critics who often accuse him of being too willing to bow to U.S. interests.

Creel said the U.S. concern was legitimate and compared it to Mexican complaints - which are often criticized in the United States - about the treatment of Mexican migrants by U.S. authorities and anti-immigration groups.

He also returned fire over the two countries' records in fighting drugs.

"The capos are in Mexican prisons," Creel said. "I wish there were more capos in U.S. prisons. And above all, that they do something about the problem of consumption: of course it's what drives drug trafficking."