MEXICAN JUDGE REJECTS EXTRADITION BID

Alleged drug figure shielded; cooperation claims questioned

The road to U.S.-Mexico cooperation against drug trafficking, never totally
smooth to begin with, may be getting a bit rockier over the issue of
extradition.

A Mexican judge has rejected a request by the United States to send an
alleged major figure in the Arellano Filix drug cartel to this country for
prosecution.

Judge Jorge Luis Silva denied the U.S. petition to extradite Arturo "Quite"
Paez Martmnez on the ground that he is a Mexican citizen. The ruling itself
was made a week ago, but made public only Friday.

Paez is considered a high-ranking young lieutenant within the Tijuana-based
cartel, one of the most powerful and violent in Mexico.

He allegedly was so highly thought of within the organization that the
Arellanos trusted him to collect and distribute millions of dollars in drug
profits and payments, and even allowed him to run his own drug distribution
network on the side, according to U.S. and Mexican law enforcement sources.

His capture in November in Tijuana was considered a major triumph for
Mexico's new Organized Crime Unit, and federal prosecutors in San Diego made
no secret of their eagerness to bring him to the United States for trial,
where conviction could put him behind bars for life.

Silva's decision stands in sharp contrast to the continued stream of
optimistic comments from U.S. officials, from drug czar Barry McCaffrey to
San Diego's U.S. attorney, Alan Bersin, trumpeting a new era of cooperation
between the United States and Mexico against drug trafficking.

In a telephone interview Saturday, Bersin expressed continued confidence
that Paez eventually would be extradited, despite the judge's ruling.

"It was not unexpected," he said of Silva's decision.

"The way the system works there, it's the Foreign Ministry that makes the
decision. The court says if he's a Mexican citizen, that's a ground to
refuse the extradition, but under the (U.S.-Mexico extradition) treaty, it's
a matter for the Foreign Ministry to decide."

Silva's ruling did not occur in isolation. As it happens, it comes:

(Picture) About three months after a U.S. magistrate in San Diego agreed to
extradite a pair of Mexican citizens, both suspected of organizing hit men
for the Arellano Filix cartel, back to Mexico for trial.

(Picture) Scarcely two months after the Clinton administration certified
Mexico as an ally in the war on drugs, in the face of stern opposition in
Congress.

The certification process itself, mandated by Congress and reluctantly
adhered to by the White House, is a source of deep resentment in Mexico.

(Picture) Less than a month after Mexican Attorney General Jorge Madrazo
ripped the United States over its efforts in the drug war.

Madrazo's remarks were all the more stinging because he made them in the
presence of McCaffrey, the Clinton administration's point man on drug
control policy and perhaps Mexico's most ardent supporter in Washington.

On the other hand, one Clinton administration official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, said Madrazo's blast was intended mainly "for
domestic consumption," to appease Mexican nationalists who oppose almost any
kind of close ties between Washington and Mexico City.

"This is just a blip on the radar, nothing more than that," the official
said.

Mexico has its own reasons for hanging onto Paez. Aside from his alleged
importance to the Arellano Filix organization, his arrest in November set in
motion a pair of bloody retaliation attempts by the Arellanos.

The first, on Nov. 14, left two Federal Judicial Police agents dead in front
of the Tijuana federal courthouse.

The second, on Thanksgiving Day, nearly killed Jeszs Blancornelas, publisher
of the Tijuana news weekly Zeta, as he was being driven to work. His
driver/bodyguard was slain, as was one of the ambushers, in the killers'
fusillade.

However, Paez is being held strictly on the U.S. request to extradite him.
The Mexican government has yet to file a case against him.

And the judge's order did not result in Paez being freed, Bersin pointed
out.

For years, extradition between Mexico and the United States has been a sore
subject for both nations.

Mexico has long had a constitutional ban on sending its citizens out of the
country to face trial. It has been especially loath to extradite one of its
citizens in a case involving capital punishment, particularly to the United
States. The Mexican government is strongly opposed to the death penalty,
which does not exist in Mexico.

Many of the drug suspects sought for extradition in the United States also
face drug and other charges in Mexico, and the Mexican government claimed a
96 percent conviction rate in drug-related trials last year.

Mexican prosecutors have voiced frustrations, gaining convictions against
major traffickers such as Hictor Luis "Guero" Palma only to see judges
overturn the convictions or significantly reduce the sentences.

However, Mexican prosecutors have had some success in overturning acquittals
or sentence reductions for drug suspects.

Meanwhile, Washington has been pushing Mexico City to extradite drug
suspects, and there had been signs in recent years that Mexico was becoming
more flexible toward extradition.

Last year, for example, the Mexican government approved the extraditions of
23 fugitives from U.S. justice, 10 of whom were Mexican nationals. Five of
the 10 were sought on drug charges.

However, of the 13 fugitives actually handed over from Mexico via
extradition, none were Mexican citizens. The 10 Mexicans whose extraditions
were approved, including the five wanted on drug charges, have appealed
those orders.

Some of those fighting extradition are alleged major drug trafficking
figures, such as Oscar Malherbe de Leon, said to be leader of the so-called
Gulf cartel, who was captured in February 1997.

So far, not a single major Mexican drug trafficker who is a Mexican national
has been extradited to the United States.

Juan Garcma Abrego, the man Malherbe allegedly replaced as head of the Gulf
cartel after Garcma's arrest in 1996, eventually was sent to the United
States, but only after the Mexican government concluded that he was in fact
a U.S. citizen.