MEXICO ASKS PROOF OF TRAFFICKING

Officials want more information about alleged CIA document

MEXICO CITY-- Mexico has asked the United States to substantiate
allegations that Mexico's interior minister was involved with drug
traffickers while serving as governor of Sinaloa state, senior Mexican
government officials said Friday.

The Mexican government wants to know more about an alleged CIA document
cited in a newspaper report that supposedly incriminates Francisco
Labastida Ochoa, who just weeks ago was placed in charge of Mexico's
security.

One Mexican Embassy official in Washington said the report, published in
Thursday's editions of the Washington Times, was aimed at discrediting
Mexico in Congress. The Clinton administration must make its annual
announcement by March 1 on which countries are to be certified before
Congress for cooperating in the fight against drugs. Countries that are not
certified face loss of aid and economic sanctions.

"What this Foreign Ministry did was to immediately ask the State Department
for a clarification, that it undertake a serious investigation into this
supposed document," Mexican Foreign Minister Rosario Green said. "We expect
a very quick response."

The newspaper article claimed Labastida had ignored trafficking in his home
state while he was governor between 1987 and 1993.

In Washington, a spokesman for the Central Intelligence Agency declined to
comment on the newspaper report. U.S. anti-drug officials could not
immediately confirm whether the CIA report existed.

The paper claimed Labastida privately had acknowledged dealing with
traffickers but said he had denied taking money. The front- page story
quoted "top secret" CIA documents.

Labastida is the third Mexican governor in a year to be accused by U.S.
newspapers of involvement with drug traffickers. The New York Times last
year accused the governors of Sonora and Morelos states of cooperating with
drug lords operating from havens within their states. Both governors denied
the allegations.

Traffickers operate in all three states, and Sinaloa is particularly
notorious as the cradle of Mexican drug trafficking. Some 20 percent of
Mexico's marijuana and a large portion of its opium is grown in the
northwestern state.

Almost all of the country's drug barons, including such powerful
traffickers as Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo and Amado Carrillo Fuentes, were
born and raised there. Drug-related corruption among security forces is
rife, according to American anti- narcotics officers.

Mexican officials, however, have repeatedly denied corruption is widespread
among senior figures and they rallied behind Labastida.

No record exists of any complaints or investigations into the Sinaloa
politician, Federal Attorney General Jorge Madrazo said.

"I want to say emphatically that the Federal Attorney General's Office has
never been asked to investigate the current interior minister," Madrazo
said. "Neither has any official agency of the United States government
presented information in which the
interior minister is implicated (in drug trafficking). What we have are
multiple examples of cooperation between the then- governor of Sinaloa and
the Federal Attorney General's Office."

Both Green and Madrazo were angry at the accusations, labelling them an
"attack" and seemingly hinting at the veracity of what they called the
"supposed" document.

In Mexico City, both Green and Madrazo lauded the anti-drug efforts carried
out by the two countries and said such controversies went against the
cooperative spirit.

"If the intention is to derail cooperation and the good progress of matters
... it is not going to happen," Green said.

The ranking U.S. diplomat in Mexico insisted the allegations would not
affect the embassy's cooperation with the Interior Ministry or its head.

"I have personally had contact with Minister Labastida and we have no
intention of changing that level of exchange and work with that minister,"
said charge d'affaires Charles Brayshaw.