Didn’t Undercut State Dept., Meese Says : Shultz, Other Leaders Share His Views on Mexico, He Asserts

Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III said Sunday that he “did not undercut the State Department at all” when he assured his Mexican counterpart that charges by some U.S. officials of corruption and drug trafficking by high-placed Mexicans did not represent Reagan Administration policy.

Meese said he told Mexican Atty. Gen. Sergio Garcia Ramirez in a telephone talk Thursday that implications by some U.S. officials that Mexico’s leaders are “somehow supporting or condoning” trade in drugs “is not our opinion.”

The comments came on ABC-TV’s “This Week With David Brinkley” interview program in response to questions about a May 13 hearing before a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee, at which officials of the State and Justice departments and the U.S. Customs Service criticized Mexican drug law enforcement.

The sharpest criticism came from Customs Service Commissioner William von Raab, who said he assumes that Mexican officials are dishonest unless it is proven otherwise. A State Department spokesman later endorsed his “candid and balanced view.”

While Meese conceded that there is “tremendous corruption” in Mexican drug enforcement, he insisted that “the attorney general of Mexico and the leaders of that country are trying to root it out.”

In words that suggested a conscious effort to soothe Mexican feelings, Meese went on to report that more Mexican police chiefs have been fired, arrested and jailed “in the last two or three years than we’ve had in the last 10 or 12 years.” The attorney general said his views were “shared directly by (Secretary of State) George Shultz and by all other Cabinet heads that are knowledgeable about this matter.”

‘That Simply Isn’t So’

“One of the things that particularly disturbed me about the reckless charges that were made by some people in Congress and by one of the unfortunate people in the Customs Service was that they implied that the whole government of Mexico was in league with drug traffickers, and that simply isn’t so,” Meese said.

Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid “has personally assured President Reagan of his efforts against drug trafficking,” Meese said. “I can tell you from personal knowledge that the attorney general of Mexico is absolutely determined to root out both drug trafficking and the corruption it spawns.”

Meese declared that “there’s not one country . . . in the Free World that isn’t cooperating with the United States in some way in trying to eradicate the drug crops and go against the drug traffickers.”

Asked if cooperation could not be heightened by withholding foreign aid funds from laggard nations, Meese replied that this approach is “not the way to do it.”

The attorney general agreed with Education Secretary William J. Bennett, who appeared with him, that tough measures are justified to bring drug use in schools under control. Bennett endorsed limited drug testing in schools, observing: “If you have reason to believe that a lot of students are pushers, or some teachers are pushers, you should test. If that’s what the principal wants to do, you bet.” Meese said he thought such an approach “probably would be” found legal.