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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Felipe Calderon is launching a global public relations campaign to try to improve his country's image and neutralize coverage of the violent drug war scaring away tourists and foreign investors.Calderon declared all-out war on drug cartels on taking office in late 2006, sending thousands of troops and federal police across Mexico to take on the heavily armed gangs running a multibillion dollar business.The strategy has so far failed to curb violence and more than 23,000 people have died in drug violence over the past 3-1/2 years. Daily images of gruesome decapitations, charred and tortured bodies hung from bridges and brazen daytime shootouts are commonplace on the front pages of newspapers and evening news broadcasts."Yes, we will explain the problems we have, but also how we are facing them. Above all we want to show what our country has to offer, which is a lot," Calderon said. (maybe he should borrow O's teleprompter)Analysts say a media campaign is not going to convince serious investors that Mexico is safe for doing business if the country fails to strengthen its institutions."The president is convinced that foreign investment is dropping off because of the security situation ... he wants to show a safer Mexico, a more advanced Mexico," Edgardo Buscaglia, a drug trade expert at Mexico City's private ITAM University, told Reuters."But the reality is, businessmen are still seeing people decapitated every day, ambushes ... that can't be solved by an advertising campaign," Buscaglia said.
