MEXICO, PENTAGON CRITICIZED IN REPORT

WASHINGTON -- Only a week before the Senate is expected to vote on Sen.
Dianne Feinstein's resolution to decertify Mexico as a partner in the war
on drugs, the General Accounting Office released a scathing report
attacking Mexico and the Pentagon for doing little to stem the flow of
illegal narcotics.

"No country poses a more immediate narcotics threat to the United States
than Mexico," Benjamin Nelson of the GAO told Wednesday's joint
House-Senate hearing on U.S.-Mexico drug cooperation.

The GAO is the investigative arm of Congress.

Nelson outlined a GAO report that said drug-related corruption of Mexican
officials remains "pervasive and entrenched within the criminal justice
system."

Nelson said U.S. law enforcement agents operating in Mexico have told him
they trust only one judge in the entire country to keep wiretapping orders
secret.

While praising Mexico for passing legislation last year to combat drug
traffickers, Nelson said the "new laws are not fully implemented, and
building competent judicial and law enforcement institutions continues to
be a major problem."

He also said Mexico has failed to fully cooperate with the United States on
extradition. Although the United States and Mexico have had a mutual
extradition treaty since 1980, no Mexican national has ever been turned in
to the U.S. government on drug charges, he added.

Nelson also criticized the Pentagon, which has provided Mexico with $76
million in drug-fighting equipment, for sending planes and helicopters that
are ineffective.

The report said the Mexican military has used the equipment to fight drugs
but that "inadequate planning and coordination within the Department of
Defense" has limited the hardware's effectiveness.

Nelson said some helicopters sit idle because the U.S. military has failed
to provide Mexico with spare parts and that two Navy ships have never been
used because they were not properly outfitted when they were delivered.

The helicopters are of little use above 5,000 feet, where most opium poppy
is cultivated, and four C-26 spy planes cannot carry out their missions
without $3 million in modifications on each plane, he said.

"You'd think we'd at least provide equipment which is fully operational,"
said Feinstein, D-Calif. "I'm surprised, disappointed and somewhat shocked
that the Defense Department didn't take this a little more seriously."

Nelson also said the agencies overseeing the anti-drug efforts -- the White
House drug office, the State Department and the Pentagon -- need to work
together better: "In some cases there isn't the appropriate amount of
coordination."

The White House in late February decided to certify Mexico for another year
for cooperating in fighting drugs. The administration cited Mexican efforts
to combat corruption and arrest drug dealers, new legal procedures to stop
trafficking and money laundering and a bilateral extradition agreement.

Feinstein, who has introduced a Senate resolution to decertify Mexico,
pointed to reports that Mexico is the primary transit country for cocaine
entering the United States from South America, as well as a major source
for heroin, marijuana and methamphetamines.

"Ignoring the failures of Mexico's anti-drug effort will not make them go
away," she said.

Feinstein said the Senate would vote as early as next week to overturn
Mexico's certification.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said anti-drug efforts with Mexico "have been a
failure in every respect."

He added, "We've been having these same hearings every year, and it's not
getting better. It's getting worse. And it's going to get worse next year."

Efforts last year to decertify Mexico failed. Instead, Congress passed a
watered-down resolution that voiced displeasure with Mexico's anti-drug
efforts. In addition, the Senate required Clinton to report later on
whether Mexico had made significant progress in its fight against drug
traffickers. Last fall he assured Congress that it had.

This year the Senate also will consider a bill by Sens. Kay Bailey
Hutchison, R-Texas, and Pete Domenici, R-N.M., to give only "qualified
certification" to countries that cooperate with the United States but fail
to make sufficient progress in stopping drug production or trafficking.

Under the legislation, a country receiving a qualified certification would
have a year to meet anti-drug goals set by top law enforcement officials
from the United States and that country.

Each year, under U.S. law, the president is required to assess by March 1
whether countries that produce or traffic in illicit drugs are cooperating
with the United States or taking "adequate" steps on their own to combat
narcotics.

Countries that are not certified as partners in the drug war can lose U.S.
aid. But the president can waive penalties, as he did this year with
Colombia.

Since the annual certification began in 1986, Mexico has always been deemed
a cooperating partner.

Thirty countries were assessed this year. Four were decertified but given
so-called "national-interest" waivers to avoid economic penalties. Besides
Colombia, they were Cambodia, Pakistan and Paraguay.

Four other nations -- Afghanistan, Burma, Iran and Nigeria -- did not
receive either certification or a waiver. The Associated Press contributed
to this report.

)1998 San Francisco Examiner