Fire me if I can't reduce crime - Mexico City mayor
By Jason Lange
MEXICO CITY, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said on Thursday he should be fired if he does not rein in kidnappings, shootings and other violent crime in the capital of 20 million people.
Public anger is growing over an ineffective police response to rampant crime in one of the largest cities in the world.
The recent kidnapping and murder of Fernando Marti, 14, the son of a well-known Mexico City businessman, sparked an outcry in a country already hardened to shootings, muggings and widespread violence by drug cartels. Several police officers have been arrested over the kidnapping.
At a meeting of politicians to discuss security problems, the boy's father challenged Ebrard and others to step down if they cannot make streets safer. Ebrard, a leftist considered a possible candidate for the 2012 presidential contest, said he accepted the challenge.
"We must improve security in our city and if we don't there are established procedures in the capital for revoking a mandate, which is what should happen," said Ebrard, who is mayor of about half of the greater Mexico City area.
High crime rates are not exclusive to the capital.
Kidnappings jumped almost 40 percent nationwide between 2004 and 2007, official statistics show. Mexico ranks with Iraq and Colombia among the worst countries for abductions.
President Felipe Calderon, also under heavy pressure to stamp out violent crime, hosted the meeting of state governors, lawmakers and security chiefs. He pledged to build two high security prisons with special wings for kidnappers.
Calderon, an ally to the United States, has called in the army to help police battling powerful and well-armed drug gangs. More than 2,000 people have died this year in Mexico's drug war, mostly between rival gangs, in a fight for control of smuggling corridors into the United States. (Editing by John O'Callaghan)
