U.S.-Mexico Drug Summit OKs Greater Cooperation

Top U.S. and Mexican counter-narcotics officials agreed Wednesday to expand intelligence-sharing, joint operations and the delivery of sophisticated American high technology in the battle against the multibillion-dollar cross-border drug trade.

They made their decisions at a two-day session led by Mexican Foreign Secretary Jose Angel Gurria Trevino and Clinton administration anti-drug czar Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey.

At the end, the two governments announced agreements that include the United States providing advanced law enforcement computer software to help Mexico detect international drug-money laundering and 53 more American military helicopters to help the Mexican army destroy opium and marijuana plantations next year.

For McCaffrey, these were his first meetings with Mexico’s new attorney general, Jorge Madrazo Cuellar, and his newly appointed anti-drug czar.

McCaffrey said he is sure that the top law enforcement officials appointed by President Ernesto Zedillo last week are committed to battling the Mexican drug-trafficking mafias, which U.S. law enforcement agencies say smuggle up to three-fourths of the cocaine sold in the United States.

The chief U.S. narcotics official, for example, called Gen. Jose Gutierrez Rebollo--the tough Mexican army general named his country’s anti-drug czar last week--”a deadly serious guy.”

Speaking to U.S. reporters Wednesday, McCaffrey said he believes that the Mexican general’s military career--including serving as a field commander who led army operations against drug trafficking--will be an asset. The 21,000 soldiers Mexico says it has committed to the drug fight “have been the blowtorch on drug eradication,” he said. “They [the Mexican army] have gone out and destroyed more opium and marijuana fields than any other nation on the face of the Earth this year.”

McCaffrey, confirmed as Clinton’s anti-drug czar in February after retiring as a four-star Army general, also used this week’s conference to try to dispel fears that Zedillo’s sudden replacement of his top law officials would interrupt U.S.-Mexican cooperation.

McCaffrey’s delegation had established strong working relationships with Atty. Gen. Antonio Lozano Gracia and his anti-drug czar, Francisco Molina, who were both dismissed by Zedillo last week.

“I think we’ve institutionalized these things on both sides,” McCaffrey said. “It’s got to go beyond personalities.”

Still, he ranked personal meetings with the new Mexican officials high on a list of the sessions’ accomplishments.

He said officials largely focused on taking stock of their efforts and exploring ways to cooperate even more.

A five-page document issued by the two delegations Wednesday reported that Mexican and U.S. law enforcement agencies are now investigating more than 50 money-laundering cases together, sharing intelligence and evidence in key drug-trafficking cases along major smuggling routes and installing sophisticated computer software to help Mexican agencies trace U.S.-made weapons seized in drug crimes south of the border.

The document also stated that air and sea interdictions led to “significant increases in drug seizures” in 1996, though intensified aerial surveillance “led to the appearance of new sea routes for illicit trafficking, therefore both governments have agreed to place a greater priority on interdiction at sea.”

It said the U.S. military is training “select” Mexican army personnel for interdiction missions and that next year’s shipment of 53 helicopters is in addition to 20 similar aircraft the U.S. military delivered here last month.

The final document made no mention of the sensitive issue of drug corruption, which U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials say has institutionalized the illicit trade on both sides of the border; some U.S. law enforcement officials privately blame official corruption in Mexico for slow progress in U.S.-Mexican cooperation.