Mexico seeks tighter lockdown in drug war city

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, April 16 (Reuters) - Mexico's government is hiring more police and sending federal agents to the bloody border city of Ciudad Juarez, where it already has thousands of troops trying to quell drug violence.

President Felipe Calderon, who has made crushing drug gangs a central goal of his government, sent 10,000 soldiers and federal police into Ciudad Juarez in March.

His government says drug murders in the city have since dropped by 80 percent. But police corruption and complaints of rights abuses threaten to undermine early gains and the federal attorney general's office is sending more agents, recruiting more police and appointing a general as an aide to the city's mayor, the army said on Thursday.

"People are asking what will happen if the army leaves Ciudad Juarez. Well, the army's presence here is permanent, but we are also strengthening all areas of security," army spokesman Enrique Torres said.

The U.S. government is deeply worried about the cartel war spilling over into the United States and U.S. President Barack Obama visited Mexico on Thursday to discuss the violence.

Washington has also warned tourists to stay away from dangerous Mexican cities such as Ciudad Juarez on the border with Texas and Tijuana near California.

Calderon's security cabinet has agreed to hire and train 3,000 police officers in Ciudad Juarez, and increase funding for military and police operations in the city.

The army took over policing in Ciudad Juarez in March to restore order after a turf war between Mexico's most-wanted man, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and the local Juarez cartel killed 1,600 people here last year.

Some 6,300 people died in drug violence across Mexico last year and the feuds over smuggling routes into the United States are hurting investor confidence in Mexico.

Sixteen people died in a shootout in Mexico between soldiers and suspected drug traffickers on a remote mountain road in the southern state of Guerrero on Wednesday.

Mexico's army has taken over police operations corrupted by drug gangs along the border but human rights groups complain of abuses by troops, which the army denies.

Calderon has pledged to cleanse corrupt police forces and gradually take soldiers off the streets, although security analysts warn it could take years to modernize Mexico's police. (Reporting by Julian Cardona; Editing by Kieran Murray)

Mexico

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