MEXICO'S EXTRADITION OF DRUG SUSPECTS RAISES FEARS

MEXICO CITY - Analysts who study the Mexican drug trade are warning that
the first extradition of a high-level drug suspect to the United States - a
move celebrated by American officials - could spark nationalist resentment
and perhaps even violence in Mexico.

Arturo "Kitty" Paez, 34, who appeared in federal court in San Diego last
week to face charges of conspiring to smuggle and distribute tons of
cocaine into the United States, was the first in an expected wave of
suspects headed north, part of a new policy based on a Jan. 18 Supreme
Court ruling that some Mexicans call shameful.

American officials called it proof of Mexico's willingness to cooperate on
the crackdown on drugs. Mexico has promised to try to extradite seven more
alleged drug capos, including men prosecutors describe as the "kings" of
methamphetamines.

But the example of Colombia, where "extraditables" - drug lords wanted in
the United States - waged a campaign of bombings and assassinations to
resist capture and extradition, worries many Mexicans.

"Extradition is a very powerful weapon in the hands of a weak government,"
said Jorge Chabat, a drug expert at Mexico City's Center for Economic
Development Research. "It's like putting an AK-47 in the hands of a child;
he could kill himself. This could just provoke the rage of the narcos."

The late drug lord Pablo Escobar played on Colombians' patriotic
sentiments, claiming that he was fighting for "family, liberty, life, the
rights of nationality and country."

That kind of appeal may not hold as much sway today, Chabat said.

"Their nationalist arguments got a certain amount of response in the
1980s," he said. "Now, with globalization, integration, such demands don't
have a lot of potential to draw support."

But the unanimous court ruling, which applies only to the United States,
has angered some. It reinterpreted a law that had required Mexican citizens
to be tried in the nation's own courts, saying the government has
discretionary power to send its citizens to the United States for trial
provided that they are sentenced under Mexican guidelines. Since Mexico
does not apply the death penalty, the ruling apparently means that no
extradited defendant could be executed in the United States.

"The court enlisted itself, improperly, as an ally in the war against
drugs," said Ignacio Burgoa, one of Mexico's foremost experts on
constitutional law. "The court is not a diplomatic institution, nor should
it carry out foreign policy."