HEAD OF U.S. DRUG POLICY SEES END OF CERTIFICATION

MEXICO CITY, Aug. 8 - The top American anti-drug official predicted today
that one of the most emotional issues in U.S.-Latin American relations -
the annual U.S. judgment on other countries' efforts at fighting drug
trafficking - will disappear during the next administration.

"I firmly believe the certification process is slowly disappearing," U.S.
drug policy director Barry R. McCaffrey said on a visit here, during a week
when Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox has been vigorously attacking the
U.S. process on a trip through South America.

Fox, riding a wave of popularity following his election last month, has
vowed to raise the issue - which Latin Americans see as a humiliating
example of American arrogance - during an Aug. 24 meeting with President
Clinton at the White House. Fox has repeatedly called for a multilateral
approach to fighting drug trafficking.

McCaffrey said the countries in the hemisphere have developed a "very
different mind-set" from that of a few years ago. The countries that are
major producers of illegal drugs and those that are major consumers feel a
common urgency to work together to stamp out a problem, instead of pointing
fingers, he said.

Since the 1980s, the United States has tied its foreign aid to an annual
scorecard on other nations' anti-drug efforts. Mexicans, Colombians and
others in Latin America call that procedure hypocritical. They say the
United States' heavy consumer demand - which has made it the world's
largest market for illegal drugs - is largely responsible for creating the
problem.

McCaffrey said new multilateral initiatives - and a new effort in
Washington to blame specific criminal enterprises instead of entire
countries - have fostered a new regional emphasis on cooperation.

The certification process will lose its significance even if Congress -
which has been reluctant to heed Latin American complaints - does not
change it, McCaffrey said. In any event, he said, "It won't be a huge
choking struggle over who hates Mexico the most."

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, said in a telephone interview that "there is a
possibility that McCaffrey might be right."

"Times have changed and cooperation seems to be much more forthcoming
because these nations [in Latin America] are drowning under drugs and
organized crime," Biden said.

Biden said Fox and Colombian President Andres Pastrana have shown new
willingness to fight drugs. With that, as well as a promising multinational
effort sponsored by the Organization of American States (OAS), Biden said,
the United States could end - or at least suspend - its policy of linking
economic sanctions to drug certification.

"I personally am prepared to listen to and support a meaningful alternative
to unilateral sanctions," Biden said. "And there is a growing sentiment in
Congress that unilateral sanctions don't work."

A Senate Republican aide involved in foreign policy matters, who asked not
to be identified, said McCaffrey is "out of touch" with sentiments in
Congress. "I don't think there are too many members of the U.S. Congress
who will say it doesn't matter if 'X' country isn't fighting drugs, they're
entitled to our foreign aid," the Republican official said.

Biden and McCaffrey said a new mechanism at the OAS is proving pivotal in
reassessing U.S. policy. The organization last year agreed to a
standardized system to evaluate anti-drug efforts of all 34 member nations,
including the United States. In April the OAS heads of state are scheduled
to meet in Quebec and to receive the first country-by-country report cards.

Biden said that if the OAS program is carried out honestly and seriously it
could be an acceptable alternative to U.S. certification. The Senate
Republican aide said the program would simply be a complement to
certification; he said Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) have
introduced legislation to make participation in the OAS program one
criterion in the U.S. certification process.

Many people in Mexico believe Fox will have more credibility on the issue
than any of his predecessors, whose Institutional Revolutionary Party has
suffered deep corruption, notably in law enforcement and anti-drug efforts.
And the Republican Senate aide agreed that Fox will bring new credibility
in Washington.

Mexicans have been delighted by Fox's criticisms of U.S. certification,
saying it is offensive for America's second-largest trading partner to have
to jump the same congressional hurdles each year as perennial U.S.
adversaries such as Libya, Syria, Iran and Afghanistan.

"It is insulting and it does hamper the close friendship that exists
between us, and it does not help in the fight against drugs, to which we
are fully committed," said Alfredo Phillips Olmedo, chairman of the Foreign
Relations Commission in the lower house of the Mexican Congress.