UNITED STATES SEES RISK OF GROWTH IN HEROIN USE

WASHINGTON, - The United States
on Friday declared that Mexico and Colombia were cooperating in the
war against drugs, averting any sanctions against the two main
narcotics suppliers to the American market.

President Bill Clinton, who has established good relations with the
presidents of the two Latin American states, included both in a list
of "certified" drug countries whose governments are considered to be
doing what they can to stop the trade.

"Mexico has become a real partner in our battle against drugs. The law
enforcement relationship that exists between the United States and
Mexico is strong and growing stronger every day," Attorney General
Janet Reno told a news conference.

"We are very gratified by the early signs of progress demonstrated by
the new government of Colombia... We look forward to working closely
with and supporting our Colombian counterparts," she added.

Only two countries, Burma and Afghanistan, providers of the bulk of
the world's heroin, were "decertified," as they were last year,
triggering U.S. economic sanctions against them.

Four countries -- Nigeria, Paraguay, Cambodia and Haiti -- were
technically judged not to be cooperating, but penalties were waived
because of U.S. national interests.

For Nigeria, where the United States hopes that democratic change
under a new leader will lead to cooperation on drugs, it was a
promotion from the "decertified" category.

"We do have great respect for and look forward to this nation's
transition to democracy. And we anticipate counter-drug progress with
this transition," said Barry McCaffrey, the head of President
Clinton's anti-drug office.

The announcements were part of an annual assessment by the U.S.
administration of the world drugs scene, in which it hailed progress
in fighting Latin America's coca production in 1998 but warned of a
potential surge in heroin use among a new generation of users in
Western countries.

Under U.S. law the White House is required to certify to Congress
annually that major drug-producing and drug-transit countries are
doing everything they can to combat trafficking.

The White House must impose sanctions on those countries whose efforts
are deemed inadequate. These include cutting off all aid except for
counter-narcotics and voting against lending to those countries by
multilateral institutions.

The annual review is deeply resented by the countries under scrutiny,
who argue that the certification process does little to stem the
voracious demand for drugs in the United States, whose narcotics
consumption is the highest in the world.

It is also condemned by some anti-narcotics groups and members of
Congress as ineffective as they say it is driven more by politics than
realities in the drug war.

But in its report on drugs the State Department defended the practice,
saying it is "the legislative equivalent of an international spotlight
that we can focus on corruption".

The report said the most encouraging sign in 1998 had been a continued
cut in coca production in the Andean countries.

The biggest fall was in Peru, once the main coca producer, where
cultivation fell by 26 percent over 1997, and Bolivia saw a 17 percent
reduction. This cut off a potential 150 metric tonnes of cocaine from
the market, the report said.

But eradication efforts in those countries squeezed production over
into Colombia, already the world's biggest cocaine producer, which saw
a 28 percent rise and where the syndicates appear to be building up
coca growth in areas controlled by insurgents.

Although cautioning advances against the billion-dollar trade were
slow and patchy, the report said that "international law enforcement
operations have broken up the most notorious of the Colombian and
Mexican drug cartels and have forced traffickers to seek out more
circuitous transit routes."

"Arrests of corrupt officials have increased significantly, including
high-ranking military officers in critical drug control positions,"
it said.

The report said the United States faces another potentially serious
drug threat from heroin, which it said was "lurking conspicuously in
the wings."

"The drug trade seems to be counting on a new generation's ignorance
of heroin's devastating consequences in order to develop a secure and
lucrative market in the Western hemisphere," it said.

On Mexico, one of the most politically sensitive parts of the report,
the State Department gave a mixed bag of successes and failures by the
government, which is hamstrung in its campaign against the lucrative
drugs trade by budget constraints and institutional weakness.

It said that the number of drug-related arrests and the amounts of
heroin and marijuana seized in 1998 were little changed from 1998,
while the amount of cocaine seized fell to 22.6 tonnes from 34.9 tonnes.

On Colombia, it said: "We are impressed by the new government's
commitment to counternarcotics cooperation."

"The Antinarcotics Directorate of the Colombian National Police has
continued its excellent record of investigations and operations
against narcotrafficking operations," it added.

"We anticipate that effective cooperation to control the flow of
narcotics will continue at all levels as the Pastrana administration
takes charge and integrates counterdrug programmes with its peace
initiative," it said.