IS A LIFE TERM TOO MUCH FOR TRAFFICKING?

Is it cruel and unusual punishment for a Mexican to face a life sentence in
a U.S. prison?

That is the latest issue impeding the extradition of drug trafficking
suspects to the United States.

The State Department's Narcotics Control report, issued last week,
expresses satisfaction that the Mexican Supreme Court earlier this year
approved the concept of extraditing Mexican drug-trafficking suspects to
the United States.

But it worries about another roadblock.

"The issue of life imprisonment . . . was the basis for the 2000 release of
narcotics trafficker Jaime Ladino Avila after a court ruled that his
potential sentence of life imprisonment in the United States violated the
Mexican Constitution's prohibition against cruel or unusual punishment,"
the report says. "The issue remains to be resolved by the Mexican Supreme
Court."

The annual report again certified Mexico as a cooperative partner in the
fight against drug trafficking, while also noting that 55 percent of the
cocaine sold in the United States transits Mexico.

The United States is encouraged by the election of President Vicente Fox of
the National Action Party. But while Fox has vowed an all-out fight against
crime and corruption, the report says he will have difficulty succeeding
because of drug money's corrosion of "an already weak culture of law
enforcement."

Still, the report found other encouraging trends in Mexico, including:

The reduction of acreage devoted to opium poppies as a result of
eradication programs and drought. The crop dropped to 4,700 acres, "the
lowest level recorded in Mexico since accurate surveys were implemented in
1986."

Mexico's development of a national fingerprint database and acquisition of
24 Bell helicopters for eradication efforts.

Only one suspect flight originating outside Mexico was detected in 2000,
although there were "hundreds of internal flights moving drugs, primarily
marijuana from South/Central Mexico to the border." The late trafficker
Amado "Lord of the Skies" Carrillo Fuentes was known for flying jumbo jets
full of drugs into Mexico from Colombia.

Last year's arrest of two key figures in Tijuana's Arellano Felix
organization, Jesus "Chuy" Labra and Ismael Higuera.

But three Mexican anti-drug agents were intercepted after crossing the
border from San Diego into Tijuana, tortured, killed, and then pushed off a
mountainous highway in their car. They had been heading to the Mexican
anti-drug agency, FEADS. The report says the chief suspect in their
slayings, FEADS commander Cesar Jimenez, is still a fugitive.

This is almost like a scene out of the movie "Traffic," which is helping
bring about a wider debate on drug policy, particularly on the value of
treatment and cutting U.S. demand for drugs.

The United States is spending $18.8 billion annually on international drug
control. The report says this about its efforts last year: "The year's most
noteworthy accomplishment was to keep the total Andean coca crop from
expanding significantly."

But the report says growers have developed a higher-yielding coca plant. It
also says Mexican marijuana plants are becoming more robust. Mexican
agronomists say the plant "has higher levels of THC and, because of
resin-coated foliage, is more resistant to herbicides."

Mexico resents being judged, or certified, on its drug-fighting efforts,
and there are signs U.S. officials will develop a less-disparaging way to
measure cooperation.

Yesterday, FBI Director Louis Freeh met in Mexico City with new Attorney
General Rafael Macedo. The Associated Press quoted Freeh as saying, "Our
inability to control the use of drugs has inflicted a terrible burden on
Mexico."