Plan to Certify Mexico’s Drug Efforts Assailed

As Mexico’s attorney general announced that his office will be overhauled to root out corruption and improve that country’s battle against the narcotics trade, a foreign policy battle erupted here Tuesday over the possibility that the United States will certify Mexico as a nation that cooperates in the war on drugs.

Clinton administration drug officials used unusually harsh language in criticizing corruption in the Mexican government as opposition grew on Capitol Hill to the United States certifying its southern neighbor as part of an 11-year-old, congressionally required scrutiny of several dozen nations around the world.

But it appeared likely that the Clinton administration will still grant Mexico the certification. That is because any move to decertify would fuel tensions between the economic partners, could unnerve foreign investors and would probably derail President Clinton’s plans to visit Mexico this spring.

Until last week--when Mexico announced that its anti-drug czar, Gen. Jose de Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, had been arrested for his alleged links to Mexico’s most notorious drug trafficker--the decision to certify Mexico had appeared to be a certainty. For months, top U.S. anti-narcotics officials had used glowing terms in referring to the cooperation they were receiving from their partners in Mexico.

But the charges against Gutierrez and concerns that he may have compromised much of the U.S.-Mexican counter-narcotics effort changed the picture.

“There clearly is a major corruption problem at all levels” in Mexico, Robert Gelbard, assistant secretary of state for narcotics affairs, told a House subcommittee hearing Tuesday. The news of Gutierrez’s reported ties to traffickers “belied previous assumptions that corruption was largely limited to the police,” Gelbard added.

But when questioned by members of Congress, Gelbard refused to say whether he thought the administration should certify Mexico and not interrupt the flow of the country’s U.S. foreign aid.

And although Gelbard’s criticism was harsh, he also applauded Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo for investigating, arresting and jailing Gutierrez, despite the embarrassment to his government.

A Mexico state judge formally indicted Gutierrez on Tuesday on charges of protecting drug shipments, racketeering and accepting bribes. Bail was denied.

Meantime, members of Congress from both parties started flooding the White House on Tuesday with advice for Clinton on Mexico.

Because the U.S. action regarding Mexico’s drug-fighting efforts might have dire effects on the two countries’ economic partnership--including the North American Free Trade Agreement--many of the lawmakers suggested that Clinton take a middle course: Decertify Mexico but waive the mandated economic sanctions.

“The flow of drugs into the U.S. via Mexico has risen dramatically in recent years,” House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), a leading NAFTA opponent, said in a letter urging the president not to certify Mexico. “We cannot continue to allow our children’s futures to be jeopardized as part of some short-term political calculus.”

Both California senators also urged the president to deny Mexico the narcotics-fighting certification. “It would send a strong signal to Mexico and the world that the United States will not tolerate lack of cooperation in the fight against narcotics, even from our close friends and allies,” Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein said in a letter to Clinton.

Some Republicans were even more blunt at the hearing. “We can’t trust these people--that’s the whole point,” Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) said Tuesday, lambasting the Clinton administration for failing to take harsher action against Mexico on drugs. “We don’t have a generation to wait until they develop their country.”

If the president does decide to certify Mexico, Congress could pass a resolution of disapproval rejecting that move. It is too early to tell whether such a measure could win enough votes to be veto-proof. But the prospect of such congressional action cannot go unnoticed by the White House.

Clinton, who made scant mention of Mexico as he sketched out his drug-fighting plan at the White House on Tuesday, did not reveal his position on the issue. “We are committed to cooperating with our friends in Latin America,” Clinton said. “We want to cooperate with them, but we want them to cooperate with us as well.”

But his anti-drug czar, Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, said of Mexico: “There’s been a tremendous amount of progress in the last year, I would assert, on new laws, extradition, on crop eradication, on confrontation with the issue. . . . But this is a very difficult issue to talk about.”

In a reflection of Mexican anger over the possibility of a qualified certification, Foreign Minister Jose Angel Gurria Trevino said Tuesday in an interview on Mexico’s Radio Formula that the debate in Washington “is introducing an enormous amount of static and the possibility of a reverse in our relations, of a fracturing of our relations.”

Atty. Gen. Jorge Madrazo Cuellar conceded Tuesday that Mexico faces “the worst crisis” in its legal system “in modern Mexican history” and vowed to radically overhaul the institutions that are supposed to combat drug trafficking and organized crime.

“The changes must be radical,” the former human rights activist told a news conference.

But Madrazo spoke only in general terms about planned reforms in his office, which oversees Mexico’s version of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as well as hundreds of police officers involved in anti-drug work.

The reforms, which Madrazo said were ordered by Zedillo, include developing a “truly functional, reliable intelligence system,” adding computers and fighting corruption through better training, screening and salaries, he said.

Shogren reported from Washington and Sheridan from Mexico City. Times staff writer Stanley Meisler contributed to this report.

* A GUTSY PIONEER: Female Tijuana district police chief survives harassment and hostility in a macho world. A3

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Certification Options

In assessing the role of 31 countries known as drug producers or distributers, President Clinton has three choices under the 11-year-old law:

OPTION 1--Certification: A finding that a country is cooperating fully in the U.S. war on narcotics.

OPTION 2--Decertification: A finding that a country is not cooperating. The U.S. halts all foreign assistance except for anti-narcotics programs and votes against loans for the country in the World Bank and other international financial institutions.

OPTION 3--A waiver: A finding that a country is not cooperating but will escape punishment because it is in the U.S. national interest to waive punishment.