Weekly Report -18 January 2005

President Vicente Fox has ordered the army to provide the muscle for a multi-agency contingent charged with running the country's premier high-security prison, La Palma, after an undercover operation revealed that it had virtually fallen under the control of imprisoned drug barons, acting through a tight network of inmates and guards. The move may be the first step towards a broader purge of the prison system, apparently as infiltrated by the drug gangs as the other law enforcement agencies.