A BOSTON GLOBE EDITORIAL

DRUG DELUSIONS ABOUT MEXICO

During the Vietnam War, Senator William Fulbright of Arkansas lamented an
''arrogance of power'' that he regarded as the true source of that war. The
stakes today are different, but when a foreign leader such as Mexico's
President Ernesto Zedillo complains about the annual humiliation of having
to be certified by the United States as a properly zealous partner in the
war on drugs, Fulbright's lament can be heard between the lines. If Clinton
does not certify Mexico, then by law US aid to Mexico must be suspended.

Washington is certainly entitled to ask its neighbors and major trading
partners to cooperate in combatting the scourge of narcotics. Moreover, the
inevitable corruption that accompanies the drug trade does more harm to
Mexico, the transit country, than it does to the United States. But the
insulting sham of certification serves only to engender resentment against
the United States as a nation of sanctimonious hypocrites who blame
foreigners for their own frailties.

As a practical matter, certification accomplishes little. The laws of
supply and demand that govern the narcotics trade are hardly affected by
the exercise. When President Clinton is obliged to certify Mexico, as he
did last year, despite flagrant narco-corruption at the highest levels of
Mexican law enforcement, Mexicans and Americans alike may conclude that the
entire certification process can be inverted for reasons of state. In the
words of Zedillo: ''The balance of this process in terms of its
contribution to the fight against drug trafficking after so many years is
not only negligible but probably negative.''

Because of geography and the enhanced US-Mexican trade induced by NAFTA,
Washington has a considerable interest in Mexico's struggles to establish a
multiparty democracy, achieve social justice for marginalized groups such
as the Indians of Chiapas, reduce crime, and cauterize the corruption that
infects Mexico's political system. The certification process, with its
arrogant assumption of US superiority, can only cast doubt on the
possibility of Yanqui solidarity with Mexico's struggles.