Mexico ‘Report Card’ Raises Tensions

With the annual battle over Mexico’s status as a full partner in the drug war fast approaching, the Clinton administration and the Mexican government are scrambling to head off another acrimonious congressional debate that could further strain relations between the two nations.

U.S. and Mexican officials met in Washington earlier this month to negotiate ways to measure the performance of both countries in fighting drugs. When President Clinton meets with Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo on Monday in Merida, Mexico, they hope to announce an agreement on the performance measures and to highlight Mexican successes in the war on drugs.

Lest the bilateral meetings fail to make the desired point, the Mexican government has hired three top Washington lobbying and public relations firms to help sway members of Congress who are skeptical about its efforts to combat the drug traffickers.

And in Mexico City on Feb. 4, the Mexican government announced new initiatives to fight the drug trade. The $400-million plan appears to be aimed at letting Washington know that, with or without U.S. pressure, Mexico has the resolve to address the drug problem.

“Mexico is very nervous about the upcoming certification review. Once burned, twice shy,” a senior State Department official said. “Last year was very brutal.”

U.S. Looks for Progress

Over the last year, the official noted, Mexico has not shown sufficient progress on some of the benchmarks monitored by members of Congress, such as its number of drug seizures, arrests and extraditions.

Clinton’s annual report card on Mexico and 29 other drug-producing and drug-transiting countries is due March 1 under a law enacted during the Reagan administration. Countries that fail to win approval are subject to reduction in U.S. aid and other sanctions.

Congress, which has 30 days to overturn the ruling, has never rejected a presidential certification. And Mexico, the second-largest U.S. trading partner by dollar amount, has never failed to be certified.

But with cocaine and other narcotics increasingly arriving in the United States via Mexico, and with drug-related violence in that country sharply rising, Mexican certification has become a lightning rod.

Last year, members of both houses introduced resolutions to set aside Clinton’s decision and demote Mexico to the ranks of outcast countries that the United States has “decertified,” such as Myanmar and Nigeria. The Senate measure was defeated by a 54-45 vote. The House never acted on its version.

Congressional aides and administration officials say they expect similar resolutions to be introduced this year. Although it is considered unlikely that either the House or Senate would pass a decertification measure by a wide enough margin to override a veto, the debate could become a politically embarrassing forum for heated denunciations of Zedillo’s government.

“It places a lot of friction on the relationship, because Mexico basically has to come year after year sort of begging to be certified,” one administration official said. “There doesn’t seem to be an end to it. The members who really are against certifying want big wins. They want to take down all the cartels. And Mexico hasn’t been able to deliver on that. There’s just too many people with too much money involved.”

Even the staunchest Mexico advocates say they are dissatisfied with the Zedillo government’s achievements. Despite repeated requests by the United States, Mexico has not extradited a single major drug trafficker to this country. It has refused to allow U.S. officials to search for narcotics on boats in its waters or to allow Drug Enforcement Administration agents to carry sidearms while in its territory.

In addition, congressional foes of certification say they are concerned about corruption among Mexican law enforcement agencies, which Mexican officials acknowledge is a persistent problem.

Certification foes cite the administration’s own statistics on drugs moving through Mexico as worrisome. According to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, headed by retired Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, 59% of the estimated 176 tons of cocaine grown and processed in South America in 1998 was shipped to the U.S. through Mexico.

“We’ve offered them trade. We’ve helped them with the stability of their international finances. We’ve opened our borders to trade with them, and we have the right to demand more from Mexico,” said Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.), who introduced a bill in the House last year to reverse Clinton’s decision. “Now we have to look at closing our borders to trade with them until they develop a will, a pattern in Mexico of really doing something about the drug scourge.”

Certification Debated

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who led the campaign against certification in 1997, and Mica said they are weighing whether to introduce similar bills this year if Clinton certifies Mexico, as expected. Mica said he is exploring other possible sanctions too.

Feinstein said in a statement that before she makes a judgment she wants to see evidence that promises of cooperation by top Mexican officials are “being translated into on-the-ground cooperation between our respective law enforcement organizations.”

On the other side of the issue are legislators who support stronger ties with Mexico, such as Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In a letter to Clinton last month, Dodd urged that the certification process be ended altogether. Mexico and other countries have long bristled at the system, which they call unilateral, insulting and counterproductive.

The debate over certification is considered particularly offensive in Mexico, which says much of the problem lies in the large U.S. market for narcotics. To suggest otherwise leaves Zedillo open to charges of pandering to Uncle Sam.

McCaffrey called the criticism of Mexico’s performance shortsighted. “People down there get murdered and intimidated because they’re struggling against this massive evil,” McCaffrey said. “But I don’t think there’s any question that they’re trying to produce a new kind of Mexico. I think they’ve got 20 years of hard work ahead, but they’re using the tools at hand.”

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Times staff writer Mary Beth Sheridan in Mexico City contributed to this report.