CLINTON AND ZEDILLO TO TALK ABOUT DRUG WAR

MEXICO CITY - A tense year put behind him with the end of his
impeachment trial, President Clinton is doing what many stressed-out
Americans have done for generations: He's heading for Mexico.

But what had been expected to be a relaxing stopover after a trip to
storm-ravaged Central America has been transformed into a
agenda-filled visit framed by the annual tug-of-war between Clinton's
administration and the U.S. Congress over Mexico's anti-narcotics efforts.

"It's going to be a working trip," said Mike Hammer, a spokesman at
the White House.

Clinton's visit to Central America has been postponed until early next
month. But the president and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton are
scheduled to arrive in the city of Merida, capital of Yucatan state,
tonight for a 24-hour visit with Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo.

"The president is going to Mexico because this is arguably the most
important bilateral relationship that the United States has," Samuel
"Sandy" Berger, Clinton's national security adviser, told reporters in
Washington last week. "The focus of the trip will be on steady,
practical progress across the range of common interests that we have
with Mexico."

Clinton, Zedillo and their wives will dine together tonight in Merida.
Then the two leaders will hold talks, along with members of their
cabinets and staffs, on Monday morning.

After about 2 1/2 hours of meetings with Zedillo, Clinton will give a
40-minute speech to business executives Monday afternoon in Merida
before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington.

Despite the brevity of the visit, White House officials say Clinton
and Zedillo will discuss issues ranging from narcotics and immigration
to the five-year-old North America Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA,
which formally links the economies of Mexico, the United States and
Canada.

"All these (presidential) visits are important because they oblige the
presidents, especially the U.S. president, to focus on the
relationship," said Rafael Fernandez de Castro, an expert on
U.S.-Mexico relations. "You have started seeing some negligence in
Washington in terms of Mexico. The (Clinton) administration has been
distracted."

Both Clinton and Zedillo, who will leave office in 2000, are winding
up presidencies plagued by crises: Clinton's personal and political,
Zedillo's economic.

That has led some analysts to question the importance of this visit,
especially since it is to be so brief.

"This is the last summit for lame ducks," said Federico Estevez, a
Mexico City political scientist. "This is their last hurrah before
they have to hand over (bilateral policy) to their candidate in the
presidential races.

Still, the Merida meeting comes just weeks before Clinton must make
his annual "certification" to Congress that Mexico and other countries
are cooperating fully with the U.S. government's effort to curtail the
international narcotics trade.

Despite years of corruption scandals and evidence of high-level
official involvement with drug smuggling organizations, no U.S.
administration has ever decertified Mexico on the grounds its
government was not making a good-faith effort in the drug war.

Last week, Clinton administration officials once again praised
Mexico's efforts in the drug war.

"There's a difference between cooperation and success," State
Department spokesman James Rubin said.

Two-thirds of Colombian cocaine passes through Mexico on its way to
U.S. consumers, U.S. drug enforcement experts say. Mexican narcotics
gangs also produce and ship large quantities of heroin, marijuana and
methamphetamine to the United States.

The multibillion-dollar narcotics industry has spun a web of
corruption in the Mexican government, from low-level police officers
employed as body guards for smugglers to the highest levels of power.
For example, Mexico's newly appointed drug czar was arrested in
February 1996 for allegedly being employed by the country's most
powerful narcotics smuggler.

The certification issue has become an annual ritual in Washington, as
the White House and Congress tussle over Mexico, and an annual torment
in Mexico, where many resent what they see as U.S. meddling in this
country's internal affairs.

Zedillo sent Mexican Interior Minister Francisco Labastida to
Washington last week to sway the U.S. administration and Congress.
Some members of Congress publicly vowed again to challenge the
president's expected certification of Mexico. But some analysts
believe such challenges will be dampened in a Congress weary from a
year of political scandal and a bruising impeachment process.

"I don't see that Mexico constitutes a cause for battle (in the
Congress)," said political scientist John Bailey, an expert on Mexican
politics at Georgetown University in Washington. "They're not looking
for a fight right away (after the impeachment trial)."

Berger said that despite tensions over drug enforcement, immigration
and other issues, the U.S.-Mexico relations "begins with economics."
He pointed out that Mexico is now the United States' second largest
trading partner, after Canada, and imported $79 billion in U.S. goods
last year, double the total before the trade agreement was signed.

"NAFTA has helped insulate both countries from the impact of the
global financial crisis," Berger said.