U.S., Mexico near deal on anti-drug aid package

MEXICO CITY - U.S. and Mexican negotiators have agreed on key areas of
an estimated $1 billion counternarcotics aid package and are immersed
in the delicate stage of negotiating how joint law enforcement
operations and intelligence sharing will be carried out, senior
officials told The Dallas Morning News.

Three senior Mexican officials - Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa,
Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora and Public Security Minister
Genaro Garcia Luna - all stressed in interviews that the anti-drug
plan being negotiated is aimed at the "co-sharing" of responsibilities
in an effort to stop illegal drugs from moving north and to keep
weapons and drug cash from heading south. The News also spoke with
U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza, who echoed the sentiments.

Any agreement must be approved by Congress, however, and passage is
not assured, especially with tensions over immigration.

Ms. Espinosa said the two sides "have finished the technical part of
the conversations" and "have a broad agreement on what the program of
cooperation will look like."

"There have been some very intense consultations at the political
level," she said. "There's a strong political will to make this a
strong cooperative effort. We have found that the U.S. government
understands and has the view that what we're looking for is to create
a partnership to fight against a common enemy."

The counternarcotics plan - under negotiation since March and first
reported by The News in May - is aimed at "significantly" enhancing
U.S. aid to bolster Mexico's telecommunications capability and its
ability to monitor its airspace and especially its coastal waters,
where about 85 percent of all smuggling takes place, Mr. Medina Mora
said.

The assistance is designed to enable Mexican law enforcement to take
on drug traffickers equipped with advanced weapons, electronic
monitoring systems and aircraft, said Mr. Medina Mora and Mr. Garcia
Luna. The aid will also strengthen programs aimed at training Mexico's
police and periodically testing them to weed out corrupt elements.

Both sides, Mr. Garcia Luna said, will be setting "benchmarks to
measure success." A full agreement is expected to be reached by both
governments in the next several weeks, followed by a possible
announcement by Presidents Bush and Felipe Calderon at Mr. Bush's
ranch in Crawford, Texas, a meeting still under negotiation, sources
close to the talks said. The proposal would then be sent to each
country's Congress for final approval. Ms. Espinosa said that thorny
issues of cross-border operations, or, as she put it, "actions within
Mexican territory" and "intelligence sharing ... will be decided by
the Mexican government as well as by the commitments the U.S.
government is willing to make."

Mexico has long been sensitive to perceived U.S. meddling in its
territory. What has changed from previous negotiations, the Mexican
and U.S. officials said, is the level of trust between the two sides
and the seriousness of the threat posed by powerful drug-trafficking
organizations to Mexican political stability. "The level of
cooperation today is not reflected in the shared problem that we
have," said Mr. Medina Mora. "This is something that can be fought
together. Therefore, we believe we are dedicating tremendous numbers
of resources, including military."

Mr. Calderon's government has deployed nearly 30,000 troops in at
least six states in recent months as part of a broad crackdown on
drug-trafficking groups. Mr. Medina Mora said that, contrary to some
published reports, the aid package may not include eavesdropping
equipment to use against drug traffickers. "We need more equipment,"
he said, "but it's not an essential component in our talks with the
United States."

U.S. officials expressed optimism that the aid package would be viewed
in Congress as an issue of border security and not suffer the same
fate as the failed comprehensive immigration reform, which died in the
Senate this summer despite Mr. Bush's backing. Mexico's tenuous
security situation and its impact on U.S. cities seem to be winning
allies in Washington with some members who opposed the immigration
package, officials said. "I'm more optimistic because we're talking
about security, an issue that is of critical importance to both our
governments," said Mr. Garza, the U.S. ambassador. "From the U.S.
perspective, this should be of national interest. A safer Mexico will
go a long ways toward our having a safer and more secure border."
Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, president of the newly formed
Peschard-Sverdrup & Associates, a political consultant firm dedicated
to U.S.-Mexico issues, said the stakes are high for the U.S. government.

"If this plan is viewed as just a counternarcotics effort, then I
think the United States is way too shortsighted and missing the
point," he said. "This is an investment in Mexico's security," which
will help Mexican authorities "better confront the security threats of
the 21st century," he said. Such threats include potential terrorist
cells and transnational criminal organizations such as the
paramilitary cartel enforcers the Zetas and the Central American gang
the Maras, he said.

Meanwhile, a concerted effort is under way by both governments to
influence U.S. and Mexican public opinion. On Thursday, a U.S.
Government Accountability Office report said that Mexican drug cartels
have "expanded their reach to almost every region of the United
States." Proceeds from drug sales ranged from $8 billion to $23
billion in 2005, the report said, money used by kingpins to corrupt
law enforcement officials at all levels, a problem that "persists
within the Mexican government and challenges Mexico's efforts to curb
drug trafficking." The report called for increased cooperation between
the countries and more cross-border operations, including allowing, on
a case-by-case basis, "U.S. law enforcement personnel to board and
search Mexican-flagged vessels on the high seas suspected of
trafficking illicit drugs without asking the government of Mexico for
authority."

Critics of the aid plan have said it is little more than window
dressing. Mexico already spends billions of dollars on law enforcement
and yet police remain corrupt and poorly trained.

Andres Rozental, a former ambassador who now has a consulting firm,
noted that Mexico has a nearly trillion-dollar economy and that the
government is flush with oil money from crude exports to the U.S.

"Not only is it not worth it, it is not necessary," he said of the
plan. The real point of the aid is symbolic, he said, a way for the
U.S. to accept its share of responsibility for the drug problem
because of U.S. consumption.

Nationalistic sentiments, which have sometimes hindered cooperation in
the past, may no longer be the hurdle they once were, especially on
the issue of security, Mr. Rozental said. Heightened public concern
about the threat posed by drug-trafficking organizations means that
people are willing to accept greater U.S. involvement in the drug
fight. Mr. Garcia Luna, the public security minister, said the
agreement represents a new way of doing business between Mexican and
U.S. law enforcement officials. "More than money," Mr. Garcia Luna
said, "this is about shared responsibility."

Maximizing Aid

To "maximize" U.S. assistance to Mexico for reducing drug production
and trafficking, a new report by the U.S. Government Accountability
Office recommends:

. Promoting greater coordination with the Mexican military

. Agreeing to a maritime cooperation pact

. Resuming aerial patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border

. Determining how the U.S. can assist with Mexico's aviation needs
for interdiction purposes