MANY MEXICANS SEE LITTLE USE FOR CERTIFICATION

MEXICO CITY, - The United States' annual ritual of "certifying" countries
who pass muster in their
anti-drug efforts is considered by many Mexicans an indignity that
serves little useful purpose.

Mexico cleared this year's certification hurdle on Friday when the
Clinton administration approved it as an ally in the drug war despite
falling seizures of cocaine, increased opium poppy cultivation and
corruption in the judicial system.

While the news, although widely expected, was greeted with relief in
Mexico, there is growing realization that "decertification" --
blacklisting countries that do not do their best to fight illegal
drugs -- is not a viable policy for the United States to pursue with
its neighbour Mexico.

The two countries cooperate closely in fighting drug traffickers,
raising doubts as to what the United States could gain from
decertifying Mexico.

Countries that fail to make the certification grade can be punished
with economic and trade sanctions.

Decertification would have meant a suspension of all U.S. aid except
for counter-narcotics work and U.S. opposition to lending to Mexico by
multilateral institutions.

"The level of cooperation (between the United States and Mexico) is so
high, with such an intense set of activities in this area of law
enforcement, that decertification makes no difference," said Federico
Estevez, a political science professor at Mexico City's ITAM university.

Mexico's chief public prosecutor, Jorge Madrazo, said the annual
review by the United States did nothing to help the fight against
drug-trafficking.

"So long as the anti-drug policy is based on looking out for which
country is guilty, collaboration will not be what it should be,"
Madrazo told reporters at a conference on corruption.

Mexican politicians were quick to react to the announcement from
Washington.

"It's a farce. Certification is not going to fundamentally resolve the
problems of drug-trafficking and corruption which, regrettably,
predominate in Mexico," said Samuel Maldonado, a parliamentary deputy
with the leftist Revolutionary Democrat Party (PRD).

The Foreign Ministry also slammed the certification ritual. "The
Mexican Foreign Ministry rejects these unilateral procedures of
certification," a source at the ministry told Reuters.

What rankles with many Mexicans is that the annual certification saga
is a painful reminder of their country's subordinate position with the
United States. "We can't tell them to take a running jump. We know
that the government has to bend to the desires of the United States.
There is a widely held view that this is unjust," said Jose Antonio
Crespo.

One thing is for sure. Next year's certification exercise, which will
coincide with the start of a presidential election campaign in Mexico,
is set to be far more stormy.

If the United States were to take the plunge and decertify Mexico it
could play straight into the hands of Mexican politicians with a
nationalist agenda, analysts said.

"There will be a hullabaloo," said Estevez. "All the Mexican
presidential candidates will accuse the gringos (Americans) of
sniffing too much cocaine and will insist that Mexico has its
prerogatives."

But Estevez said he believed that without certification, introduced in
1986 after the murder of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency operative in
Mexico, cooperation between the two countries in fighting
drug-trafficking might not have been so close.

"It (certification) makes more visible the level of unease that one

side or the other is feeling. It ended up serving a purpose, but not
the one that was intended," he said.