Zedillo Vows to Fight for Dignity in War on Drugs

Stung by congressional efforts in Washington to revoke its certification as an ally in the U.S. war on drugs, a frustrated Mexican government fought back with words and deeds Friday.

President Ernesto Zedillo, speaking out on the issue for the first time since the Clinton administration gave the stamp of approval to his government’s counter-narcotics efforts a week ago, warned Washington that the bipartisan move to decertify his country could affect Mexican cooperation in battling the cross-border drug trade.

Zedillo praised President Clinton as “a friend of Mexico” who has stood by his government and its counter-narcotics efforts. But, in a speech delivered just hours after a House subcommittee voted Thursday to decertify Mexico, Zedillo said his administration “will act with all its energy to defend [Mexico’s] dignity and sovereignty.”

He did not specify what steps he would take if Congress decertifies Mexico, but his ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, closed ranks around him Friday, and top party officials said Mexico should indeed scale back its cooperation on the drug front if Congress votes to overturn certification.

A senior Clinton administration official, asked whether congressional action to revoke certification would hurt joint efforts in the war on drugs, responded: “Of course.”

“Anything that is going to set that back is not in our interests--or the interest of Mexico. Decertification is going to set us back,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“This is the case we’re making on the Hill,” the official added, referring to a major effort by the administration to persuade Congress to abandon its decertification effort.

Zedillo, who characterized the U.S. certification debate as an “internal affair” between the U.S. executive and legislative branches, stressed that he hopes joint anti-drug efforts will continue. And, even as he issued his warning in a speech to Latin American officials in Cancun that aired just after midnight Thursday, Mexico’s counter-narcotics forces were mobilizing elsewhere in the country.

In an apparently stepped-up search for alleged drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes, more than 100 troops backed by light tanks commandeered a luxury hotel in Guadalajara late Thursday night.

U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials allege that Carrillo runs Mexico’s largest drug cartel, based in the border town of Ciudad Juarez.

Carlton Hotel manager Carlos Hodria said Friday that about 150 soldiers arrived unannounced in trucks and tanks and that the operation lasted about 40 minutes, jarring most of the hotel’s personnel and 296 guests. He quoted military officers as saying they were “searching for a person.”

Although Hodria said the officers never mentioned Carrillo by name, and no arrests were made, he and local officials said the reputed drug lord appeared to be the target. Sources in Guadalajara said the search continued in other locations Friday.

Known here by the nickname “Lord of the Skies,” for his alleged extensive air-smuggling routes, Carrillo has been indicted on drug-trafficking charges by federal grand juries in Miami and Dallas. He has eluded capture here for years.

In the days before the U.S. certification deadline, Carrillo’s name surfaced at the center of a drug-corruption scandal that brought down Mexico’s top counter-narcotics official and continues to fuel the U.S. certification debate.

Mexico’s now-jailed former anti-drug chief, Gen. Jose de Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, is accused of taking bribes to protect Carrillo.

Clinton justified his decision to certify Mexico in part by citing Zedillo’s bold move to charge and jail his anti-drug chief.

But U.S. congressional leaders, asserting that Gutierrez had compromised the United States’ anti-drug efforts, charge that the scandal involving the general is emblematic of how deeply drug corruption has penetrated all levels of Mexico’s law enforcement machinery.

The heated rhetoric in the House this week has met with an equal reaction here in the Mexican capital.

Mexico City’s airwaves have been filled with U.S. and Mexican analysts blaming the drug problem not on Mexico but on the United States, which consistently is portrayed as the world’s largest market for illegal narcotics.

Mixed with that criticism has been a clear voice of frustration from the Mexican administration.

Senior officials here said Zedillo, who declared narcotics trafficking Mexico’s No. 1 national security threat more than two years ago, believes that he has done everything in his power to combat the multibillion-dollar drug trade--enlisting the full force of the Mexican army and even punishing top police and army officers who are accused of drug ties.

In addition, senior government officials at the Cancun conference said Friday that Mexico will unveil tough new regulations to better police drug-money laundering, an issue that has been high on the agenda of the joint drug battle.

“Mexico has acted without hesitation to take up the war on drugs,” Zedillo declared in his speech. “We have reiterated our desire to continue having the broadest cooperation with the executive branch of the United States in continuing to fight the battle against the destructive phenomenon of drug trafficking.

“However, we must stress with total clarity that the moment the United States, due to the differences between the executive and legislative branches, takes legal steps . . . that have consequences for Mexicans’ sovereignty and dignity . . . the Mexican government will act with all its energy to defend our dignity and sovereignty.”

Times staff writer Elizabeth Shogren in Washington contributed to this report.