RENO HAILS MEXICO ANTI-DRUG EFFORTS

WASHINGTON -- The often strained relationship between the United States and
Mexico in the war on drugs is improving, Attorney General Janet Reno said
Tuesday.

Reno praised Mexican law enforcement officials for sending more fugitives
back to the United States for prosecution.

``I never dreamed three years ago I would be seeing extradition at the rate
that we're seeing it,'' Reno told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee
hearing on the Justice Department's $20.9 billion budget request for the
1999 fiscal year.

``There is now a good working relationship between the two nations.''

Reno's remarks were significant since the Clinton administration faces a
March 1 deadline to certify whether Mexico has cooperated in anti-drug
efforts.

Decertifying Mexico as an ally in the war on drugs could lead to U.S.
efforts to punish Mexico by restricting international access to credit.

Mexican drug czar Mariano Herran Salvatti told The Associated Press in an
interview earlier this month, ``The Mexican government is not interested in
certification. With or without certification, we will continue making the
same -- the best -- efforts'' against illegal drugs.

Reno said she made a certification recommendation to the State Department,
but she didn't reveal it. However, she described an improving relationship
with Mexico.

``We have built on efforts to identify Mexican drug organizations, (and)
the government of Mexico has substantially increased extradition over these
past two years,'' Reno said. ``In 1997 alone, Mexico extradited 30
fugitives to the United States and deported 10 more in lieu of
extradition.''

Reno said she met recently with Mexico's attorney general and they agreed
to continue cooperating.

Some members of Congress have accused Mexico of doing too little to fight
drugs and urged decertification. Mexican officials have claimed
certification infringes on their sovereignty.

Herran Salvatti in Mexico said last July's death of Amado Carrillo Fuentes,
Mexico's No. 1 cocaine trafficker, made the drug fight both easier and
harder.

The targets are more diffuse, as drug gangs scrambled to take over
Carrillo's Juarez turf, but the infighting has aided law enforcement.

``Many operations we have carried out were put together because we received
tips from rival drug traffickers who want things to go badly for the
competition,'' he said.

The improved cooperation can be traced to President Clinton's visit to
Mexico last May. In addition to Clinton and Mexican President Ernesto
Zedillo promising to work more closely on drug enforcement, Clinton
publicly admitted that as a drug-consuming nation the United States was
partly responsible for the drug problem. That resonated with Mexicans
bitter about being blamed by the Americans as the problem's sole source.

In other matters, Reno said the federal government continues to combat
domestic terrorism, and she generally described measures taken because of
the Iraqi crisis.

``I can assure you that (FBI) Director Freeh has been very sensitive to
this issue in the weeks that have led up to this situation in Iraq. And
(he) has taken, I think, appropriate precautions and has briefed me,'' Reno
said. She did not elaborate.

Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company