House Votes to Overturn Drug Certification of Mexico

The Republican-controlled House voted Thursday to overturn President Clinton’s certification of Mexico as a cooperative ally in the war on drugs but delayed implementation of the resolution for 90 days to give the Mexican government a chance to prove that it is reforming.

The delay is considered unlikely to make the resolution any more palatable to either Mexico or Clinton. Traveling in Florida, Clinton said he would “continue to work with Congress to ensure that legislation that would undermine progress we have made with Mexico does not become law.”

In fact, the Senate on Thursday appeared headed in a different direction from the House. Bipartisan sentiment was building there for a resolution that would chastise Mexico for failing to stop the flow of drugs across its borders but would not attempt to remove its certification.

Decertification would cost Mexico foreign aid from the U.S. not related to anti-drug efforts.

In the House, there appeared at first to be wide support in both parties for decertification. But the bipartisan mood dissipated with the introduction of a GOP-sponsored amendment that included both the delay in implementation and a harsh denunciation of Clinton administration drug policy as weak and ineffective.

The GOP language said Clinton had “dramatically shifted precious anti-drug resources away from United States priorities set in the 1980s,” had diverted money to “unproven drug treatment techniques” and had failed to make proper use of the military and intelligence services in the war on drugs. The amendment was approved, largely along party lines, 212 to 205.

While the provision for delay was intended to attract legislators who did not want to seem too rough on Mexico, the administration-bashing turned a majority of Democrats against the decertification resolution. It passed, 251 to 175, more than 30 votes short of the two-thirds majority necessary to overturn a presidential veto.

Gov. Pete Wilson, who was in Washington, hailed the decertification resolution as “constructive legislation that substitutes action for rhetoric in our federal drug policies” and urged the Senate to follow the House’s lead.

Clinton called the House move “the wrong way to protect the interests of the American people.” He said Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo “deserves our support--not a vote of no confidence that will only make it more difficult for him to work with us and defeat the scourge of drugs.”

Under existing law, the president must certify to Congress every year that countries where drugs are produced or transported are cooperating fully with the United States in the battle against drugs. In late February, Clinton certified Mexico and 22 other countries--even though Zedillo had recently fired his top anti-narcotics official for allegedly consorting with drug dealers for years.

To do otherwise could have provoked fury in Mexico, where Clinton is planning a state visit next month.

Congress has 30 days to reverse a certification, with the reversal then subject to a presidential veto.

Clinton’s certification of Mexico angered many members of Congress, including such prominent Democrats as House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and Lee H. Hamilton of Indiana, the ranking Democrat on the House International Affairs Committee.

Hamilton adamantly opposed Thursday’s Republican amendment, for both its partisanship and requirements that Hamilton said put Zedillo “in a real box.” The amendment would require that in the next 90 days the Mexican president make a series of concessions as evidence that Mexico is fully cooperating with the U.S.

With a series of critical elections set to begin soon in Mexico, Zedillo “simply cannot be seen . . . as capitulating to a long list of American demands,” Hamilton said.

The resolution would ask Mexico to allow additional U.S. agents there and permit them to carry firearms for self-defense; pledge “concrete measures to find and eliminate law enforcement corruption”; promise to extradite Mexicans wanted in the United States for drug offenses; install radar to monitor and detect aircraft entering Mexico; and work out authorization for U.S. Coast Guard vessels to pursue and arrest drug traffickers in Mexican waters.

The House resolution also would create a high-level commission to evaluate the certification process.

In the Senate, John McCain (R-Ariz.), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) said they would jointly introduce a resolution that would skirt the certification controversy.

Their resolution would call on Mexico to dismantle its major drug cartels, implement new money-laundering legislation, extradite Mexicans wanted in the United States, root out corruption and cooperate in the drug war. But it would contain no provision to punish Mexico for any failure.

Times staff writer Elizabeth Shogren contributed to this story from Bal Harbour, Fla.