GOP TO SEEK CHANGE ON MEXICO

Lawmakers Will Try To Alter Certification

Leading House Republicans, citing new allegations that senior Mexican
military and political officials are involved in drug trafficking,
announced yesterday they will seek to overturn President Clinton's
decision to certify Mexico as a full partner in the fight against
illicit drugs.

The allegations were laid out yesterday by William F. Gately, a
retired senior Customs Service official, who, under oath before the
House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human
Resources, said undercover investigations last year found evidence
that Mexican Defense Minister Gen. Enrique Cervantes was trying to
launder $150 million. Senior members of Mexican president's office
were also trying to launder undetermined amounts, he added.

Despite a history of widespread corruption in Mexico's law enforcement
agencies and its military, Clinton certified on March 1 that Mexico
was "fully cooperating" in fighting drug trafficking. Congress can
overturn the certification decision if both houses approve doing so
within 30 days of the announcement.

Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the subcommittee, and Rep.
Benjamin A. Gilman (R-N.Y.), chairman of the International Relations
Committee, co-sponsored a bill that would decertify Mexico but allow
the president to waive the economic penalties accompanying such a
decision. Congressional staffers said the resolution was receiving
broad bipartisan support in the House, but the Senate was cooler to
the idea.

"The president's decision to certify Mexico as fully cooperating
cannot and ought not stand unchallenged," Gilman said.

Gately, whose allegations were reported last week in the New York
Times, said a large money-laundering investigation known as Casablanca
was shut down last year under political pressure. The shutdown came
despite 15 audio and video cassettes from the investigation that
showed drug traffickers wanted to launder an additional $1.15 billion,
he charged.

"It is indisputable that the secretary of defense of Mexico was
identified as one of the owners of the money on several occasions"
during the investigation, Gately said in his testimony, explaining
that Cervantes was identified as the owner of $150 million of the
total amount. Two other drug traffickers, he said, each owned $500
million of the total.

Under questioning, Gately said the tapes also contained a reference to
the office of the presidency, but he did not elaborate. He
acknowledged that while the tapes contained references to the
secretary of defense, they did not mention Cervantes by name.

Gately's assertions about the closing of the Casablanca operation,
which resulted in the seizure of $100 million, and the indictment of
three Mexican financial institutions and 112 individuals, have been
challenged by others involved in the investigation, including Customs
Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly.

The Mexican government has expressed outrage at the allegations, which
they have denied.

But Rep. Robert L. Barr Jr. (R-Ga.), said that, in a series of
classified briefings of the subcommittee by U.S. intelligence
agencies, "the information points to corruption at the very highest
level of the Mexican government."

Gately said that, after the Casablanca operation was shut down, no one
"reviewed or evaluated these tapes and transcripts for their
evidentiary value," despite the briefing he said he gave to his
superiors. He said he believed the operation was shut down prematurely
and the allegations were not investigated because of "political
considerations."

In a letter to Mica, Kelly said any allegations that the operation was
shut down "so that U.S. officials could keep high-ranking Mexican
government officials from being investigated as part of the case, is
grossly untrue and irresponsible. . . . At no time was any evidence
developed that could substantiate these allegations."