U.S. EXPECTED TO OK MEXICO, COLOMBIA DRUG EFFORTS

WASHINGTON, - The Clinton
administration is expected to give its blessing on Friday to anti-drug
efforts by Mexico and Colombia as part of an annual policy that
critics claim has become a political tool and an irritation to other
nations.

Critics say the United States has little to show for its policy, in
place since 1986, of "certifying" to Congress by each March 1 that
major drug-producing and drug-transit countries are doing all they
can to fight trafficking. Countries that are not certified are
punished with certain economic and trade sanctions.

Seizures of cocaine and heroin declined last year in Mexico, the major
route for drugs flowing from South America into the United States.

U.S. narcotics officials complain that pervasive corruption in Mexico,
even inside police units specially created to fight drug traffickers,
was a major setback in 1998.

Yet President Bill Clinton indicated during a recent visit to the
second-largest U.S. trading partner that he will renew Mexico's
status as an ally in the drug war, as Washington has done every year
since 1986.

Despite an explosive rise in coca leaf and opium poppy plantations in
Colombia, the White House is expected to fully certify the world's
largest cocaine producer as an ally in the war against drugs so as not
to embarrass its new president Andres Pastrana.

"Drug certification is a bust," said Larry Birns, director of the
Council on Hemispheric Affairs, an independent policy centre in Washington.

"After all these years and billions of dollars that have been spent
fighting drugs, there has not been a dent in staying drug
trafficking," Birns said.

Clinton is expected to deny certification this year to Paraguay, a
notorious smuggling centre for drugs and chemicals used to make them.
Paraguay's government has fallen out of favour with Washington over
its release of a former coup leader.

"This does expose the absurdity of the policy, which has fundamentally
become a political tool and used selectively," said Michael Shifter of
Inter- American Dialogue, an independent policy group.

"When we did not like the government of Colombia, we did not certify
Colombia. Now that we have a relationship with the new president, we
certify Colombia regardless of its performance in cooperating in
fighting drugs," Shifter said.

Colombia was blacklisted in 1996 and 1997 because then-president
Ernesto Samper fell out of favour with Washington over charges that he
accepted $6 million in campaign funds from drug lords.

Birns said Colombia now has a better anti-drug record and a
significantly better anti-drug performance than Mexico, whose
government was certified in 1997 despite the arrest of its top
anti-drug law enforcement officer, Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, for
being on the payroll of a drug cartel.

The only other country to be blacklisted for drugs in Latin America
was Panama in 1988 and 1989.

The United States blacklisted Panama just before invading to remove a
former ally, dictator Manuel Noriega, on the grounds that he was
involved in drug trafficking.

Shifter said drug certification does little to advance the war on
drugs and, in fact, undermines cooperation with other governments by
subjecting them to an annoying test once a year.

"We go through this madness every year. It increases tensions. It is
not a constructive way to improve ties," Shifter said.

Most members of Congress say certification is needed to account for
the taxpayers' dollars that are given to other countries to fight the
drug trade and the process allows them to take a hard look at the
issue once a year. But even the harshest critics of Mexico's anti-drug
performance say the tool may be flawed.

"It has become a political process," California Democratic Sen. Dianne
Feinstein, who faults Mexico for not extraditing a single drug
trafficker wanted in the United States, told a Senate hearing on
Wednesday. "A criminal matter has become politicized."

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, whose agents put their lives
on the line working in Mexico, consistently objects to corruption in
the Mexican government.