NEW U.S. RULES IN MEASURING MEXICO'S ANTI-DRUG EFFORTS

Mexico City (AP) -- Moving to ease a sore point in U.S.-Mexican ties,
President Clinton's top drug adviser Tuesday announced a new way to
evaluate Mexico's anti-drug efforts.

After a meeting with top Mexican officials, Barry McCaffery said the change
would apply "concrete measurements" to the anti-drug efforts of both the
United States and Mexico in areas such as drug seizures and arrests.

The new evaluation system would apparantly help equalize the roles of
Mexico and the United States in the fight against drugs because both will
be obliged to report on progress.

It is hoped the procedure will reduce the political battles that have
occured in the U.S. Congress during the certification process, which has
been roundly criticized by Mexico and several other Latin American nations.

"We do believe, many of us, that the evidence (of the measurement program)
. . . over time will make irrelevant the U.S. process of certification,"
said McCaffery, who was in Mexico to coordinate anti-drug strategy.

The U.S. government currently certifies every six months whether key
nations are cooperating in the fight against drugs. Those not certified
face economic and other sanctions.

The process infuriates officials in Mexico and other countries, who charge
that the United States creates most of the drug problem with its vast
market for illegal narcotics.

While U.S. politiicians have long called on Mexican authorities to do more
to catch drug traffickers, the tables turned Tuesday when Mexico's attorney
general said U.S. police could be doing more to capture the Arellano Felix
brothers, who head a Tijuana-based cocaine cartel presumed to be Mexico's
largest.

Attorney General Jorge Madrazo said at a press conference at the end of the
two-day meeting that the brothers are probably hiding in San Diego.

"We are perhaps not very satisfied with the United States' efforts, or they
are not very satisfied with our efforts, because at this time we do not
physically have the three Arellano Felix brothers in prison," Madrazo said.