Jailed Mexican drug lord throws huge kids party

MEXICO CITY - Masked wrestlers, dancing clowns and trailer-loads of presents greeted more than 10,000 children and their mothers gathered in a baseball stadium in northern Mexico for "Children's Day" this weekend.

And according to newspapers in the region, the apparent sponsor was Osiel Cardenas, the jailed head of the powerful and bloody Gulf cartel.

Cardenas' name was on cards handed out with thousands of gifts at the stadium on Friday in the town of Reynosa, wishing the attendees a happy Children's Day, and urging them to study hard, reported local paper La Tarde.

Mexicans call April 30 Children's Day and usually celebrate with parties and gifts.

Photographs taken at the event and printed in La Tarde and other newspapers show a packed stadium and children riding around on new bicycles. They were entertained by Mexican masked wrestlers, a pop band and group of dancing clowns.

Local authorities told newspaper La Cronica the stadium was loaned to a local restaurant owner for a charitable event.

Drug lords often revel in acts of largess, bestowing gifts on poor residents or funding public works in their home regions. Pablo Escobar, the infamous Colombian leader of the Medellin cartel who was killed in 1993, enjoyed a Robin Hood-like status in Medellin city for building soccer stadiums and distributing money among the poor.

Cardenas, one of Mexico's most feared drug lords, was arrested in 2003 and is accused of multiple crimes, including murder and kidnapping.

Along the border with the United State and in the beach resort Acapulco, the Gulf Cartel is locked in a vicious territorial battle with a rival group based in Sinaloa state.

Earlier this month two police were beheaded in Acapulco in reprisal for a crackdown.

The gangs are held responsible for more than 1,500 assassinations since President Vicente Fox declared an all-out war on drug traffickers in January 2005.

- REUTERS