U.S. DRUG CZAR EXPECTS CHANGE

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- The U.S. drug czar says he is confident the next
administration would change the way drug fighting efforts are measured in
the Americas.

The U.S. anti-drug certification program" will probably get modified in
the next administration," Barry McCaffrey said Tuesday on a visit with
officials of Mexico's incoming and outgoing administrations.

He predicted the certification program will be supplanted by a measurement
of the drug-fighting efforts of all countries in the Americas -- including
the United States -- to be conducted by the Organization of American
States.

The State Department annually evaluates the drug fighting performance of
other countries according to a congressional mandate.

In theory, economic sanctions could be imposed if Mexico's performance is
deemed inadequate. But officials acknowledge that the possibility of a
"decertification" is unrealistic even though critics in Congress argue that
Mexico isn't doing enough.

Mexico and other countries resent the process, saying it is unfair for the
United States alone to decide.

McCaffrey said that while Mexico has to do more to stop cocaine and heroin
entering the United States, the United States gets "about a C minus" grade
on stopping guns and drug money entering Mexico from the United States.

McCaffrey said he was confident Mexico's newly elected government of
Vicente Fox would continue the battle. He said the United States already
has shared some classified drug intelligence documents with Fox's
transition team, which he called "pragmatic."

"They're looking for creative new solutions," McCaffrey said.

But he said Colombia, where McCaffrey will accompany President Clinton on
an Aug. 20 visit, faces a huge challenge with "a peace process that is
going nowhere, and a drug production problem that's skyrocketing."

He said leftist rebels there "are trying to roll up Colombian police
presence, and they're doing pretty good at it."

Still, McCaffrey praised increased cooperation in the region that has
forced some traffickers to carry their drugs as far as 800 miles out into
the eastern Pacific, in order to reach the Mexican or U.S. coasts.

"If it's very difficult to get into Mexico, they will go to Haiti, and
that's already happening," McCaffrey said.