MEXICO CRITICIZES ANTI-DRUG PROCESS

MEXICO CITY - In what has become a yearly ritual, top Mexican
anti-drug officials denounced the U.S. certification process on
Thursday, even as they trumpeted a last-minute initiative that
appeared intended to ensure a passing grade.

President Clinton has until March 1 to judge Mexico's performance on
drugs, and Mexico would be hit with economic penalties if Clinton gave
it a failing grade. Mexico considers the process an insult and an
attack on its sovereignty.

"The only ones who benefit are our common enemies the drug
smugglers," Deputy Attorney General Eduardo Ibarrola said at a news
conference.

But he added: "Mexico isn't afraid of evaluation processes, as long as
they are objective, transparent and egalitarian."

Even as the officials criticized the process, they defended their
performance and talked up a plan to increase funding for anti-drug
efforts a plan that Clinton administration officials have cited in
their hints that certification is a foregone conclusion.

Clinton himself, during a trip to Mexico this week, said cooperation
in the fight against drug smugglers "has clearly improved" under
President Ernesto Zedillo.

The Mexican anti-drug officials conceded that drug seizures have
fallen, but said the numbers weren't overly important.

Cocaine seizures, for example, fell from 38 U.S. tons in 1997 to 25
tons in 1998 and only 1,730 pounds in January 1999, a trend that
would lead to about 10 tons for the year.

But drug czar Mariano Herran Salvatti said that the drop could mean
that less drugs were passing through Mexico and there would be less
drugs to seize.

"A greater amount intercepted doesn't necessarily mean greater success
in the fight against drug smuggling," Herran Salvatti said. "In the
same way, a decline in (the seizure) of some drugs doesn't mean we're
failing in our fight against drug smuggling."

He and Ibarrola both praised Mexico's new anti-drug plan, announced
less than a month before the certification deadline, to spend $500
million to buy everything from airborne radar to mobile X-ray units.
The plan also includes a greater role for the Mexican army in
anti-drug efforts.

In Washington, Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday cited
the plan as a reason to be optimistic about U.S.-Mexican cooperation
in anti-drug efforts.

He offered qualified praise for Mexico's anti-drug
efforts.

"It has not been, you know, as successful, perhaps, as we would have
wanted it to be, but I don't think that is from a lack of effort, a
lack of concern on the part of our Mexican counterparts," he said.