NARCOTICS : Friendly Fire in Front Lines of Drug War

Efforts by the United States and Mexico to fight narcotics trafficking have been strained by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing U.S. agents to kidnap suspects abroad and the Bush Administration’s refusal to amend its extradition treaty with Mexico to ban such abductions.

Angry over U.S. meddling in Mexico, Mexican Atty. Gen. Ignacio Morales Lechuga announced last week that his government will reject the more than $20 million a year in U.S. aid to maintain a helicopter fleet to eradicate marijuana and heroin-poppy crops.

The decision, Morales Lechuga said, reflects “President Carlos Salinas de Gortari’s interest that Mexico be economically self-sufficient in this area and, with dignity, continue along the lines established in the National Program for Drug Control.”

Deputy Atty. Gen. Jorge Carillo Olea added that Mexico would turn down the aid “as an act to ratify sovereignty, independence and self-management.”

Morales Lechuga insisted that Mexico would continue an aggressive campaign against drug trafficking. But U.S. officials fear that the Mexican helicopter fleet will deteriorate without U.S. aid and vigilance.

Also, although U.S. and Mexican drug agents continue to work closely to intercept shipments of South American cocaine bound for the United States, U.S. officials worry that cooperation could be interrupted too.

In turn, some U.S. officials are irked over the public bashing that U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents have received from the Mexican government since the recent Supreme Court decision.

The Supreme Court ruled that the DEA-arranged abduction of Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain from Guadalajara in 1990 was legal because it was not explicitly prohibited by the extradition treaty. The gynecologist was taken to the United States to stand trial in connection with the 1985 murder of DEA agent Enrique S. Camarena.

After the decision, the Mexican government suspended DEA activities in Mexico for a day and demanded a treaty amendment and Alvarez Machain’s return. President Bush promised that the U.S. government would not kidnap any more Mexicans but refused to amend the treaty or return the doctor.

U.S. and Mexican officials met Wednesday to negotiate further cooperation in the drug war. “We will respect the wishes of the Mexican government,” a U.S. official said afterward. But he added that “any transition to lower levels of material support should be carried out in such a way as to not undermine our cooperation, which continues to be excellent.”

In fact, Salinas has worked more closely with the U.S. government to fight drug trafficking than any previous Mexican leader.

Despite the Alvarez Machain kidnaping, the Mexican government in 1990 established a special Northern Border Response Force to coordinate with the United States to intercept drug flights from South America.

Mexico has seized a record 159 metric tons of cocaine in the last three years, most of it by the response force, according to a U.S. official.

So far, the Mexican government has not indicated a desire to interrupt this program, a U.S. official said. Rather, the Mexican government is halting the aid it received to maintain another fleet of about 105 helicopters used to spray drug crops.

Mexico once produced 85% of the heroin consumed in the United States. That has been reduced to about 30%, in part because of eradication efforts.