MEXICO PLANS DRUG CRACKDOWN

Critics Call It An Effort To Avoid U.S. Sanction

MEXICO CITY - A senior Mexican official said Tuesday that the
government plans a crackdown on drug traffickers in the coming months
in what some critics see as an attempt to avoid being blacklisted by
U.S. authorities next year.

Mexican Interior Minister Francisco Labastida told a group of foreign
journalists that the government has been developing a new anti-drug
plan for the past several months. He declined to provide any details,
but said President Ernesto Zedillo is determined to intensify the
fight against powerful drug cartels.

Mr. Labastida, seen by some as a potential ruling party presidential
candidate in 2000, also expressed concern about mounting drug
corruption. He stopped short of saying that traffickers had
infiltrated the government's highest levels, turning the country into
a "narco nation."

"I wouldn't say it's correct, that of the 'narco nation,' " he
said.

At least half the illegal drugs flowing into the United States passes
through Mexico, American agents say.

The U.S. government each year decides whether Mexico and other
countries are fully cooperating in the anti-drug fight.

Congress began requiring the president in 1986 to certify other
countries' anti-drug efforts after the torture and murder of DEA
Special Agent Enrique Camarena in Mexico in 1985. A decision to
decertify a country can trigger the loss of some trade and foreign-aid
benefits.

No U.S. president has ever decertified Mexico. Congressional efforts
to overturn the president's certification decision were strongest in
1997 when both houses passed resolutions disapproving of
certification. That year, American lawmakers were outraged by the
arrest of Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, Mexico's top drug enforcement
official, on corruption charges.

Mexican officials criticize the certification process and say they'll
continue trying to fight traffickers no matter what the U.S. position
is.

Phil Jordan, former director of the El Paso Intelligence Center,
jointly run by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and other
agencies, contends that Mexico puts on a kind of anti-narcotics "show"
every year in the months before the March certification decision.

"If I had the power to do it, I'd decertify Mexico," he said. "Mexico
does not cooperate with us. It's always a one-way street. If Mexico
had a motto to describe how it cooperates, the motto would be, 'Words
speak louder than action.' "

Mexican officials say they resent such statements, especially when
they come from the United States, the world's biggest consumer of
illegal drugs. And they say certification amounts to U.S. meddling.

Tensions between the countries over drug cooperation have risen in
recent months. Mexican authorities are angry over a U.S. Customs
Service undercover operation called "Casablanca," which linked some
Mexican banks to money-laundering. U.S. officials say they are
disappointed that Mexico has done little to stop the country's drug
cartels.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry