MEXICO: Drug Ties Don't Seem To Hinder Candidates; What Can You Do For Us Is More Important.

LAT/    The front-runners in Sinaloa state and Ciudad Juarez have been linked to drug gangs but voters seem to care only about what services they'll provide as narco gangs continue their steady penetration into Mexican political power. "Narco-politics is the greatest threat to Mexico's incipient democracy," said federal congressman Manuel Clouthier Carrillo, who represents Sinaloa for the National Action Party, or PAN. "If federal authorities don't fight it now, the damage will be irreversible."
   "People don't look at the ethical or moral origins [of a candidate] but at the services they can receive," said pharmacy owner Lauro Melendrez, and Vizcarra supporter. "We don't have the luxury to demand pie-in-the-sky ethical values. A society in crisis is less demanding."  (Foto of Jesus Vizcarra Calderon)

MEXICO: Sinaloa Drug Lord Gives Rare Interview; Insists Drug War Is Unwinnable.

AP/MIAMI HERALD/   There's a $2 million USD bounty for the capture of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, co-leader of the notorious Sinaloa cartel. But in an interview with the weekly El Proceso, Zambada says he lives "in panic" of being arrested but insists there would be little impact on the drug trade if he were. "I don't know if I would have the guts to kill myself" if captured, says Zambado. "I want to think that yes, I would kill myself."