MEXICO CRITICIZES U.S. FOR SECRETLY PROBING BANKS IN ``WAR AGAINST DRUGS

UNITED NATIONS--Jun. 9--Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo used a special
U.N. meeting, called to encourage international cooperation, to criticize
U.S. actions in the fight against drug trafficking.

He referred to a recent drug investigation by U.S. agents that many Mexicans
say illegally violated their border, straining bilateral relations.

``We must all respect the sovereignty of each nation,'' Mr. Zedillo told a
special session of the U.N. General Assembly, ``so that no one ... feels
entitled to violate other countries' laws for the sake of enforcing its own.''

U.S. officials didn't inform their Mexican counterparts about ``Operation
Casablanca,'' a money laundering investigation that led to the arrest last
month of more than a dozen Mexican bankers.

The dispute also became a major topic for a private meeting between Mr.
Zedillo and President Clinton later in the day.

Mr. Zedillo has criticized the operation before. But that the resulting
bilateral tension spilled over here reflected the difficulty faced by the
United Nations in coordinating a proposed, worldwide effort against drug
trafficking.

More than two dozen heads of state came to New York for the opening of a
three-day U.N. special session, called to approve a 10-year plan to sharply
reduce illicit narcotics.

Mr. Clinton opened the session with a pledge to discourage U.S. drug use. He
said he would ask Congress to extend a media program aimed at reducing youth
drug consumption.

Congress approved $195 million for the program this year, money the
government is combining with private funds to buy ads aimed at teenagers. If
Congress agrees to extend the program, it would amount to a five-year
commitment of $2 billion in public and private money, Mr. Clinton said.

He said the administration also would share more information overseas
through a satellite-transmitted ``virtual university,'' on the Internet and
through a new drug fellowship program.

``Let us leave here determined to act together in a spirit of trust and
respect,'' he said.

The United States, however, has stopped short of saying that it will help
fund the ambitious U.N. anti-drug program. U.N. officials say it might
eliminate heroin and cocaine in 10 years by investing in new jobs for the
farmers who raise crops needed for their production.

Those alternative development programs remain controversial in Congress.
Critics say similar efforts in South America have failed to significantly
stem drug production there.

Some leaders, however, said that they need international aid in their drug
fights. Bolivia has undertaken an aggressive program to reduce coca
production when it also needs to be fighting poverty, Bolivian President
Hugo Banzer said.

``Each dollar we contribute to fight against trafficking comes at a steep
social cost,'' he said.

In his speech, Mr. Clinton called on U.N. members to quit blaming each other
for the drug problem. Drug-producing and drug-consuming countries long have
said that the other bears more responsibility.

``Pointing fingers is distracting,'' Mr. Clinton said. ``It does not
dismantle a single cartel, help a single addict, prevent a single child from
trying and perhaps dying from heroin.''

Many leaders said lines are blurring between producing and consuming
countries. More people are consuming drugs in countries that produce them
and synthetic drugs, such as methamphetamines, are made in Western countries
that traditionally imported illegal narcotics.

``Synthetic drugs ... make Western countries as responsible as the rest,''
said Portuguese President Jorge Fernando Branco de Sampaio.

Mr. Zedillo, too, called for a new cooperative approach to fighting drugs.

``It demands a global response,'' he said. ``A response assumed by all and
shared by all.''

But Mr. Zedillo still drew a distinction between consuming and producing
countries. He said countries worldwide don't do enough to reduce demand. And
he said nations like his own, seen as a production and trafficking center,
suffer the most from demand in other countries.

``It is our men and women who first die combating drug trafficking,'' he
said. ``Our communities are the first to suffer from violence, and our
institutions are the first undermined by corruption.''

Mr. Zedillo also criticized countries that unilaterally judge the
counter-drug efforts of others, another shot at the United States.

After delivering his remarks, Mr. Clinton stayed in the U.N.'s assembly hall
long enough to hear the speech of Mr. Zedillo, who was next on the agenda.

The two met later for more than an hour at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, where
Mr. Zedillo again said Mexico was investigating if U.S. agents violated
Mexican law in Operation Casablanca.

The Mexican president made it clear ``they had come to no conclusion,'' said
James Dobbins, a White House adviser on Latin American affairs.

He said the meeting between the two presidents was positive and focused on
preventing similar disputes in the future.

U.S. officials say they didn't tell Mexican counterparts of the undercover
sting because they wanted to protect undercover agents.

``It is not a matter of disrespect,'' Attorney General Janet Reno told
reporters Monday. ``It is a matter of trying to ... focus on those who
launder the money and launder the misery, while at the same time, protecting
the lives of the agents involved.''

Cabinet members from the United States and Mexico will meet in Washington
later this week for an annual gathering. Among other issues, they'll discuss
how to better share information on ongoing investigations, officials said.

``We'll just have to find a way to do this better in the future,'' said U.S.
drug-control policy director Barry McCaffrey.

(c) 1998, The Dallas Morning News

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett