MEXICO: Drug Traffickers Buying Local Politicians Says Calderon.

AP/ MIAMI HERALD/
Mexican President Felipe Calderon said "The main and most practiced method used by criminals is to make contact with officials before they are elected, by financing their campaigns. Once an economic link between criminals and the candidate is established, it is very hard, practically impossible, to break it after they are elected, because it becomes a permanent link." He suggested that reforms must be passed to make local officials more accountable. Most corruption, he said, is aimed at local officials, because drug and crime gangs desire to control specific territories for street-level drug sales and need the help of local authorities to do so.