Mexico removes attorney general who spearheaded drug war

Mexico's Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora speaks at the Reuters Summit in Mexico City May 6, 2009.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Monday removed his attorney general who had spearheaded the government's anti-drug campaign that has so far failed to defeat powerful cartels.

Calderon told reporters that Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora had resigned and would be replaced by a little-known former law enforcement official. Calderon gave no details about the motive for the move.

A crackdown by thousands of troops and federal police has been unable to curb turf wars between rival cartels. More than 13,000 people have died in drug violence since Calderon took office in late 2006.

Calderon has staked his presidency on the war against drugs and the United States has backed him by promising $1.4 billion in aid such as training and equipment for Mexican security forces.

But cartels are killing about 20 people a day in Mexico -- often after torturing them -- and traffickers have infiltrated many state and municipal police forces.

The outgoing attorney general admitted "successes and errors like in all human endeavors" but defended Calderon's campaign against Mexican drug gangs like the rival Sinaloa and Gulf cartels.

"The historic decision to limit the power of criminal organizations with all the power of the state was fundamental for our future as a nation," Medina Mora said.

He will be replaced by Arturo Chavez, a former official in the attorney general's office, Calderon said.

A large deployment of troops in the city of Ciudad Juarez, on the border with Texas, has not slowed a wave of drug killings there.

About a dozen hooded gunmen burst into a drug rehabilitation clinic in Ciudad Juarez last week, lined up patients and shot to death 17 of them.

Despite making big drug seizures and capturing some cartel leaders, security forces have been unable to catch Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, the head of the powerful Sinaloa cartel.

Mexico's most-wanted man, Guzman escaped from jail in a laundry van in 2001 and remains at large, probably hiding out in the Sierra Madre mountains of western Mexico.

Calderon also removed the head of state energy company Pemex, Jesus Reyes Heroles, and Agriculture Minister Alberto Cardenas on Monday in a Cabinet shake-up.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)