MEXICO WINS PRAISE FROM U.S. FOR WORK AGAINST DRUG TRAFFIC

Albright Says Cooperation Improving In Attempts To Halt Smuggling To Cities

OAXACA, Mexico - U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright praised the
Mexican government yesterday for recent efforts to fight illegal drug
trafficking - a strong sign that the Clinton administration will again push
for certification of Mexico as a good ally in the war on drugs, according
to U.S. officials.

Certification would head off potential U.S. economic sanctions against
Mexico but would be sure to anger some U.S. law enforcement officials and
their allies in Congress, who believe that Mexico's anti-drug agencies are
riddled with corruption and largely ineffective.

Calling her meeting with Mexican Foreign Secretary Rosario Green "a turning
point" in U.S.-Mexico relations, Albright lauded Mexican efforts to
strengthen its anti-drug agencies. She and Green said their governments
were cooperating well in the effort to keep drugs from reaching U.S. cities.

Any criticism Albright had was aimed at unnamed people who she said "wish
to undermine" the cooperative drug effort led by President Clinton and
Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo.

Each year, as the president and Congress begin grading countries on their
work against illegal drugs, sources within U.S. law enforcement agencies
and Congress tell reporters of spectacular failures - due to corruption and
ineptness - within Mexico's anti-drug agencies.

This spring may bring more of the same, said U.S. Ambassador to Mexico
Jeffrey Davidow, but it won't obscure improvement in cooperative drug
police work in the last year between the countries.

"The fact that there are 20 tons of cocaine not on our streets [in the past
year] is because of that increased cooperation," Davidow said, referring to
two big cocaine arrests in the Pacific Ocean by the Mexican navy last year
- - operations guided by U.S. counter-narcotics intelligence.

The cocaine seizures were among Mexican law enforcement's largest recent
ones, noted by officials in both countries as evidence that new police
forces and sophisticated intelligence equipment put to work last year by
Mexico are paying off.

Analysts say at least 300 tons of cocaine reaches U.S. users from Mexico
each year, most of it produced in Colombia.

Drugs make their way through Mexico, guided by crime bosses who have grown
rich and who have spread the wealth through bribes to countless Mexican
police, military officials and high-ranking members of the national
government.

Such trafficking and corruption anger some U.S. legislators who want to
block Clinton's drug certification of Mexico.

Albright would not predict Mexico's certification status this year, but
said that Mexico's recognition of the serious drug threat supports its
standing. Countries "de-certified" by Congress can lose U.S. financial aid
and face trade sanctions.

Albright's talks with Green in this colonial city, 280 miles southeast of
Mexico City, wrapped up her three-day swing through Latin America that
started in Colombia and included a daylong meeting with Panamanian
President Mireya Moscoso.