El Plan México podría incrementar la violencia

Pero Calderón dice que es urgente su aplicación. Lo que en realidad urge es proteger a sus socios. La supuesta "guerra" contra el narco no es nada más que el pretexto para militarizar el país y establecer el estado policiaco, sueño húmedo de todo fanático ultraderechista.

After record year of killings, cartels may have violent answer to plan for $500 million in U.S. anti-drug aid

WASHINGTON – Mexico recorded its deadliest year yet of drug-related killings in 2007, and the violence is expected to increase if an initial $500 million U.S. aid package to Mexico is approved by Congress in 2008, U.S. and Mexican officials and analysts say.

Drug-related killings surpassed 2,500 in 2007, eclipsing 2006's figure of more than 2,100, according to the Austin-based Stratfor consulting firm.

The killings underscore the timing of the Merida Initiative, an anti-drug agreement forged by Presidents Bush and Felipe Calderón and representing a new strategy of "shared responsibility," U.S. and Mexican officials said in interviews. Much of the aid would be used for helicopters, technology and information sharing.

But U.S. law enforcement officials and analysts caution that even with the unprecedented level of anti-drug aid to Mexico, violence could actually rise as drug cartels respond forcefully to increased U.S. and Mexican pressure.

One U.S. law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, warned that 2008 "may prove to be even deadlier. We expect drug traffickers to respond aggressively to combined U.S. and Mexican actions and pressure."

Growing U.S.-Mexico cooperation will force "drug cartels to increase the political ante by increasing the level of violence," said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, a political consultant with Washington-based Peschard-Sverdrup & Associates.