Mexican interior secretary named

MEXICO CITY - An attorney who has defended bankers and businessmen in some of Mexico's highest-profile cases rose to the powerful post of interior secretary yesterday after a mysterious plane crash killed the government's leader.

President Felipe Calderon said he chose Fernando Gomez-Mont because the former lawmaker can build support in Congress for security reforms fortifying his fight against the nation's powerful drug cartels.

Mexico's interior secretary is the most powerful figure after the president, the equivalent of a vice president and domestic security chief combined.

Gomez-Mont pledged to oversee an efficient and strong security Cabinet to confront increasingly violent drug cartels.

In his first news conference as interior secretary, Gomez-Mont brushed off repeated questions about his past.

As a defense lawyer, his clients included Carlos Cabal Peniche, a prominent banker who was charged with defrauding his banks of $700 million, money laundering, and tax evasion, and Rogelio Montemayor, the former head of Mexico's state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos who was accused of diverting millions to a presidential campaign.

Gomez-Mont said yesterday he has cut all ties to his professional life and sees no conflict of interest as interior secretary.

"I am not a man with ulterior motives," Gomez-Mont said.

Calderon asked Gomez-Mont to work with political leaders on ways to prevent organized crime from influencing next year's midterm congressional elections. Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora has said that drug gangs have been kidnapping, intimidating, and threatening candidates in several states.

ASSOCIATED PRESS