DRUG WAR: MEXICO'S DILIGENCE AT ISSUE

WASHINGTON - Members of Congress vowed yesterday to overturn President
Clinton's certification of Mexico as a partner in the war on drugs,
but border-state lawmakers will fight to support the president and
avoid what they say would be a grave insult to America's southern neighbor.

Drug smuggling increased and the amount of narcotics seized by Mexico
was greatly diminished in 1998, Reps. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., and Clay
Shaw, R-Fla., said as they introduced a resolution to overturn
Clinton's certification of Mexico last week as a partner in the drug
war. Loss of certification could cost Mexico funding for anti-drug
efforts - and would be a stinging diplomatic defeat for the U.S. ally.

"To say the Mexican government is fully cooperating defies reality. By
certifying Mexico, President Clinton has chosen to turn a blind eye to
the Mexican government's dismal record," Bachus said.

But border lawmakers such as Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, and Sen.
Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, started working months ago to ensure
their colleagues had plenty of information on what Mexico has done to
fight drugs.

"We talk regularly with the Mexican Embassy, and we have already sent
out probably a half-dozen letters to inform our colleagues of the
successes they have had, of the efforts they have made," said Reyes,
who fought to preserve certification almost single-handedly two years
ago. "Yes, the amount of drugs interdicted has dropped, but we've made
people aware of the hard work the government of Mexico has been doing
to stop the flow."

Although they have fallen short in past years, opponents of
certification believe they have a chance to overturn it this year,
especially because new House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., has been
vocal critic of Mexican anti-drug efforts. Also, Senate Majority
Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., has said he may support the
decertification in the Senate.

Drug Enforcement Agency Director Thomas Constantine provided
ammunition for criticism of Mexico last week when he said in a
congressional hearing that Mexican cartels have supplanted Colombian
drug lords and are now "the most dangerous organized-crime ring in the
United States since the heyday of the Mafia."

Sixty percent of the cocaine and 30 percent of the heroin smuggled
into the United States now comes from Mexico, Constantine said. The
drug war has made the border a more dangerous place; 141 incidents of
drug-related violence have been recorded along the Southwest border
since 1996, including the shooting death last year of a Border Patrol
agent near Nogales, Ariz., during an arrest of an alleged marijuana
smuggler.

The inability to bring drug-cartel leaders to justice has led to
opposition to certification from House Minority Leader Richard
Gephardt, D-Mo. "Mexico has not done enough to meet the requirements
of our law," he said.

However, two of last year's most vocal critics of Mexico said
yesterday that they believe the rancorous debate does little to solve
the problem and causes unnecessary anger in Mexico. Sens. Dianne
Feinstein, D-Calif., and Paul Coverdell, R-Ga., said they hope instead
to give the federal government more tools to attack the drug operations.

Feinstein and Coverdell introduced legislation that would allow the
Treasury Department to forbid any company from doing business with the
cartels, with sanctions of $500,000 for corporations and $250,000 plus
up to 10 years in prison for individuals. The legislation would codify
an executive order already in place to battle the Colombian drug cartels.

Hutchison, who was able last year to defuse the debate on
decertification in the Senate, vowed to introduce legislation to
replace the certification process with something less politically charged.

"The current certification process has become a finger-pointing
exercise in mutual deception, while too little progress is being made
in the drug war," Hutchison said. "Finger-pointing won't solve this
problem."