Mexican army marches to drug war J Ken Elling Ellingwood Los Angeles Times While the Mexican army has been able to quiet drug rug violence in some hotspots political observers observer say the deployment of thousands of soldiers could undermine c civilian vilian institutions and jeopardize Mexico's evolving democracy Critics say the military lacks the training and sensibilities for such work and they fear it will trample the rights of ordinary Mexicans The army with low salaries and a high desertion rate also could prove as as vulnerable to corruption as the Mexican police who often have acted as hired guns for smugglers Five Mexican soldiers including a major were we're were indicted in hi January on charges of leaking information on their units unit's movements to members of the Sinaloa drug cartel The amount of money is huge said Luis Garfias a retired three-star three general who said he fended off entreaties while stationed on the border in Mexicali in inthe inthe inthe the early You like women You like alcohol Its It's free for you Completely free and dangerous During the the army's primary job was to find and destroy opium poppy and marijuana crops in western and northern Mexico During the then-President then Ernesto ordered the air force to chase drug flights and named an army general as the nations nation's drug anti-drug czar That general Jose de Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo was vas later arrested on charges that he helped Amado Carrillo Fuentes head of the Juarez cartel successor Vicente Fox maintained an army presence in the drug fight by naming a general federal attorney general But Calderon a conservative elected in 2006 has ratcheted up the military's role to new levels The m military for the first time is being used in a very blatant way to substitute for the incompetence and corruption of civilian agencies said Roderic Camp an expert on the Mexican military who teaches government at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont Calif The Texas-Mexico Texas border city of Nuevo Laredo where public gun battles and kidnappings chased business owners out and kept tourists away has quieted since the army arrived Many residents wonder whether the quiet will last some believe it is ismore ismore ismore more likely the result of an arrangement among former drug rivals But any respite is welcome There haven't been clashes be between armed men There haven't been violent deaths said police chief Alfonso Olvera whose officers were disarmed in January while the military ran criminal checks A big part of this is the work that the army is doing Jewelry shop owner Rogelio Armenta who doubles as the city's point man on tourism hopes to lure visitors back after seeing third one-third of Nuevo Laredo's tourist businesses shut in recent years Some activists say the army long accused of heavy-handedness heavy in dealing with domestic dissenters has shown the same tendencies in the drug fight But polls show that ordinary Mexicans favor using the army In a surprising turnabout Jose Luis the nations nation's rights human-rights ombudsman said in May that it would be suicide to pull the m military from the streets previously had called for an end to the army deployment Many Mexicans agree that there are few good alternatives to the army unless the government can improve the professionalism of the police Past efforts have given way to more corruption and more promises of reform Analysts say the pattern will repeat itself as long as the US U.S. offers a lucrative market for illegal drugs What officials lack according to critics is isan isan isan an exit strategy for the military The biggest question we weare weare weare are going to face is how howare howare howare are we going to pull the soldiers off the streets said Tirado a national security expert at the Ibero-American Ibero University in Mexico City We Ve are i contaminating the military politically speaking r 1