ASHCROFT MEETS MEXICAN COUNTERPART, PROMISES COOPERATION

Attorney General John Ashcroft, who has declared a renewed war on drugs
as a top priority, promised his Mexican counterpart to find ways to work
together during a meeting at the Justice Department early Tuesday.

Taking a page from President Bush's visit to Mexico, Ashcroft emphasized
his meeting with Rafael Macedo de la Concha marked the first visit by an
attorney general from another nation.

Relations between the United States and Mexico are crucial to law
enforcement efforts to cope with drug trafficking, money laundering,
illegal immigration, and border safety.

"This is a new era in working together against crime," Macedo told his
host.

"There is so much we can do by cooperating," Ashcroft responded.

Behind the public niceties are long-standing tensions over U.S. tactics
associated with beefed up efforts to gain control over the Southwest
border.

More than 300 Mexicans and Central Americans died last year while trying
to cross the border into the United States. Most of the deaths resulted
from heat exposure or drowning.

"About 90 percent of those trying to enter the U.S. are now turning to
smugglers," said a Justice Department official involved in border safety
issues. "Many times smugglers dump the migrants off and tell them to
walk two hours and they can cross the border. But it may be a two-day
walk, and there are many deaths on the Mexican side of the border too,"
the official said.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has attempted to help spread
the word in Mexico to discourage illegal crossings and warn of the
dangers. The INS's Border Patrol has also increased its rescue training.

New figures for the first fiscal quarter, which ended in January, show
53 more deaths on the U.S. side of the border. Of that number, 19 were
Mexicans while the remainder could not be identified.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department's Drug Enforcement Administration
continues to battle Mexico-based drug cartels responsible for an
increasingly large share of illegal drugs smuggled into the United
States.

The DEA, which has invested heavily in efforts to help train and equip
Mexican anti-drug agents frequently, has been critical of the relative
lack of progress by Mexican law enforcement authorities.

Mexican officials, meanwhile, continue to complain of U.S. law
enforcement's insensitivity to issues of sovereignty as the two
countries struggle for ways to cooperate in the drug war.

Ashcroft has promised to step up anti-drug efforts but has provided no
details on concrete steps the administration plans to take.