Mexico official Francisco Blake Mora dies

MEXICO CITY -- Secretary of the Interior Francisco Blake Mora was the point man in Mexico's deadly war on organized crime, seen by many as the embodiment of the government's determination to battle the narcotics trade despite a soaring death toll.

Blake Mora died at 45 on Friday with seven other officials in a helicopter crash on the way to a prosecutors' meeting.

He made his name cracking down on drug cartel violence in his home state of Baja California by forging close cooperation between military and civilian law-enforcement officials.

He tirelessly promoted the same strategy as President Felipe Calderon's No. 2, the top policy official in Mexico's all-out push against drug traffickers and corruption.

Blake Mora also led the push to clean up Mexico's notoriously corrupt state and local police forces.

"We're trying to establish a justice system that both prevents criminal impunity and responds to the needs of society and its demands for social justice," he said at a meeting of government officials this year.

The man known to friends and colleagues as "Blake" was, "above all, a great Mexican who profoundly loved his homeland until the last moment of his life," a visibly moved Calderon said in an address to the nation, pausing several times to compose himself before continuing.The secretary of the interior is second only to the president in authority and coordinates domestic policy, including security, human rights, migration and the president's relation with the legislature and opposition parties.

Government officials said Calderon met with Blake Mora's widow, Gloria Cosio, and their son, 4, and daughter, 7, on Friday. He is also survived by his mother and two brothers.

-- AP