MEXICO FULL PARTNER IN DRUG WAR

Cooperation: High Marks Given By State Department For Helping The U.S. Cut
Down Unwanted Imports.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration Thursday certified 20 countries,
including Mexico and Colombia, as partners in the war against drug
trafficking, while a chorus of legislators called for a temporary halt to
the annual report card they say is more of an embarrassment for its allies
than a tool for reducing the supply of illegal drugs.

Calling Mexico's military cooperation and drug fighting efforts
"extraordinary," the annual report issued by the State Department also said
its new democratic transformation may lead to even closer ties and efforts
in fighting off powerful drug lords.

But the report also warned: "Pervasive corruption in Mexican government
institutions remains the greatest challenge facing Mexico in its efforts to
fight drug trafficking and organized crime."

Overall, Rand Beers, the State Department's top narcotics official, said of
Mexico's efforts: "Their seizure levels were extraordinary last year. The
prospect of even increased cooperation in the drug policy area is also
strengthened, I think, by the political events in Mexico and in our own
country."

The certification process has at best been considered an irritant and
counterproductive with other countries embarrassed by their grades and
annoyed that the world's biggest drug consumer has the gall to tell anyone
else what to do.

Of the 24 countries under the eye of the United States, only two nations -
Burma and Afghanistan - were denied certification. Nigeria and Paraguay,
which in the past have received partial approval, were upgraded to full
certification. Moreover, the report lauded Colombia's eradication efforts,
praising a U.S-backed aerial eradication program that showed a dramatic
drop in cocoa cultivation growth rates from an average of 22 percent per
year from 1997 through 1999, to 11 percent last year, the report said.

Still, citing the ongoing guerrilla conflict in the Andean nation that
accounts for an estimated 5,000 deaths annually, the road ahead is
perilous, the report said.

At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, some lawmakers called for
an overhaul of the thorny process.

"The existing certification process has antagonized too many of our
partners in the war on drugs, particularly in Latin America," said Sen. Kay
Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. "We must develop a new process based on mutual
accountability, cooperation and respect."

Recently introduced legislation calls for a two-year suspension of the
certification process to give President Bush time to work with other
countries on developing new drug-fighting strategies.

In Mexico, news of the country's passing grade didn't make much of a dent
on newscasts or in street chatter. That doesn't mean the issue is over.
"Ultimately for the United States, and for law enforcement in the U.S. the
litmus test is going to be whether they catch and prosecute the major
kingpins in Mexico," said Ana Maria Salazar, a scholar on U.S.-Mexico
relations at the Mexican Autonomous Technological Institute.

"Without certification I don't think we would have put in as much resources."