DRUG CZAR LIKES WHAT HE SEES IN FOX

MEXICO CITY -- U.S. drug policy czar Barry McCaffrey expressed confidence
in Mexico's newly elected government, but said Colombia faces staggering
challenges, just days before President Clinton is to travel there for a
drug strategy session.

McCaffrey expressed such confidence in the transition team of
President-elect Vicente Fox that he's already shared some classified drug
intelligence documents with them.

"(Fox's) transition team is pragmatic. They're looking for creative new
solutions," McCaffrey said after a visit with officials of the outgoing
administration also attended by Fox's advisers.

He expressed confidence that the U.S. anti-drug "certification" program,
widely resented in Mexico, "will probably get modified in the next
administration. . . . There won't be a huge choking struggle over who hates
Mexico the most."

And though Mexico has to do more to stop cocaine and heroin entering the
United States, McCaffrey said his government has to crack down on guns and
drug money entering Mexico from the United States. The United States gets
"about a C minus" grade on stopping gun trafficking, but has done better on
money laundering, he said.

"As we've gotten better at these money laundering tasks, what they're doing
now is they're moving truckloads full of money, containers full of money,
planes full of money," McCaffrey said, referring to repatriated drug profits.

But Colombia -- where McCaffrey will accompany 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."

Fox, currently in South America, will be in Washington beginning Aug. 24.