U.S. CRITICIZES MEXICO FOR CORRUPTION

Photo by Victor Calzada / El Paso Times A U.S. Customs K-9 officer guided a
drug-detection dog around traffic Sunday at the Bridge of the Americas.
Officials on both sides of the border are trying to deal with the ongoing
problem of drug trafficking.

U.S. Customs drug seizure figures

The U.S. Customs Service reported increases in drug seizures at the border
in the El Paso district for the past five fiscal years. The U.S. State
Department certified Mexico as a cooperating country each year.

In fiscal year 2000, there were 308,942 drug seizures.

1999, 268,755.

1998, 214,470.

1997, 161,327.

1996, 110,325.

The U.S. State Department has issued two reports about Mexico that look at
its human-rights record and its anti-drug efforts.

A common thread in the reports, issued this past week, was the need for
Mexico to rid the country of deep-seated corruption.

The U.S. report on human rights was the most pointed, and contained more
details about issues that affect the El Paso-Juarez region.

Among the issues raised were the unsolved disappearances of nearly 200 men;
drug-related, execution-style murders; immigrant smuggling; and last year's
stabbing death of a Juarez journalist.

Jose Garcia, a government professor at New Mexico State University who is
an expert on U.S.-Mexican security issues, said it was evident the drug
certification report "was rushed through, with as little commentary as
possible, probably to help the George W. Bush and Vicente Fox
administrations get off to a good start."

On the human-rights side, "there may be a feeling that the Mexican
government should be mature enough to be evaluated like any other country,"
Garcia said.

Garcia agrees with El Paso's congressman, Democrat Silvestre Reyes, that
the unilateral U.S. drug certification process is counterproductive.

What's needed is "a more honest way of building the bilateral security
strategy," Garcia said.

Institutionalized corruption makes it possible for drug cartels and other
criminal rackets to flourish and for human-rights abuses to continue,
according to the reports.

Liliana Ferrer, a spokeswoman for the Mexican Foreign Ministry, said
Mexico's view is that the U.S. drug certification process is one-sided and
unfair.

Decertification means a country is not cooperative and risks losing
economic and other forms of aid from the United States.

Drugs unrelenting

Mexico, which has never been decertified, continues to be the main transit
point for cocaine from South America, which accounts for about 55 percent
of all cocaine sold in the United States, the State Department reported.
Mexico also produces 2 percent of the world's heroin, most of which ends up
north of the border.

El Paso area law-enforcement officers, including those assigned to the U.S.
Customs Service, say there's been no letup in the amount of drugs from
Mexico seized at the border.

"Drug seizures ... have set records every year," said Roger Maier,
spokesman for the U.S. Customs Service in El Paso.

Thursday, Reyes introduced a bill that would suspend the drug certification
process for Mexico for two years until the United States comes up with an
alternative.

"It's not that we're being nice to Mexico; it's recognizing that we're part
of the problem," Reyes said.

Although the United States is viewed as the world's biggest consumer of
illegal drugs, officials said drug consumption in Mexico is on the rise.

The State Department, which recommends keeping the certification process,
said that "as neighboring states facing a common threat, each country's
anti-drug efforts are directly affected by the policies of the other.
Cooperative initiatives along our common border are a priority for both
nations."

The U.S. drug report also said it was essential to identify and prosecute
corrupt law-enforcement and military officials and political and business
leaders who protect drug traffickers.

The other U.S. report, on human rights, went further. It said that elected
officials in Mexico control law enforcement, implying they can do something
to stop the corruption.

Canada's Consumption

"Canada, like the United States, is primarily a drug-consuming country"
that produces large amounts of marijuana "cultivated in indoor,
increasingly hydroponic operations," according to the U.S. drug report.
Heroin smuggled into Canada comes mostly from Asia, officials said.

Canada, one of the three North American Free Trade Agreement countries, is
the United States' biggest trade partner. Mexico is second.

In its drug-fighting efforts, the Canadian government emphasizes prevention
and treatment, while its law-enforcement plan targets organized crime.

The report said a joint study is under way to get a better handle on how
much drug smuggling goes on between Canada and the United States.

Unlike Mexico, however, the U.S. government doesn't include Canada among
the countries that has to be certified each year for cooperating in the war
on drugs.

The U.S. president decides which countries are to be reviewed for
certification.

Former U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey noted in an interview with Mexican
newspaper Reforma that the U.S. government does not have on its list either
the Netherlands or Belgium, both major producers of such designer drugs as
Ecstacy. Such drugs have made their way to El Paso and Juarez teen spots.

Reyes said that based on his 26 years as a Border Patrol officer and
administrator, "the most important lesson I learned while working on the
border is that to be successful in our fight against drug trafficking, we
must help Mexico reform its police apparatus as well as its legal and
judicial systems.

"The U.S. consumes more than $5 billion a year in illegal drugs. We should
own up to our responsibility and stop trying to blame others. ... I am
encouraged at the direction this debate is heading toward. It is quite a
contrast from the ugliness associated with this debate four years ago, when
legislation was introduced to decertify Mexico."

NMSU's Garcia said providing assistance and training to Mexico's law
enforcement helps, but that ultimately, such cooperation succeeds only when
the two countries genuinely agree on the goals and take steps to get there.

He said President Bush is willing to review the certification process.

Source: U.S. Customs Service.